William W. Bennett, A narrative of the great revival which prevailed in the Southern armies during the late Civil War

[138]

Some things pained us. I shall never forget the parting glance at our regimental graveyard. Some were leaving brothers on that lonely hill; some, near and dear relations; all, gallant comrades.

Our second day's march was on the Sabbath. About noon I ascertained that by getting permission to leave ranks I could attend Methodist Circuit preaching in the afternoon. A walk of three miles brought me up, about 3 o'clock, to a little schoolhouse, where I was affectingly reminded of my dear old Circuits in Georgia.

We had a good meeting. It was Bro. McSparran's first appointment at that place, and when he announced his next appointment for them, an old brother spoke up somewhat amusingly and not very encouragingly to the preacher: “ The Yankees will have us all before then.”

Feeling very much fatigued, I spent that night with the young itinerant in the rear of our regiment, and had he called upon me to select for him a text to correspond with what I conceived his feelings to be, I would have fixed upon “A prudent man foreseeth the evil and hideth himself.” We have had some happy times on this side of the Rappahannock since. i Let me tell you something about that Methodist woman whose hospitalities we so abundantly shared that Sabbath evening. Her husband was a poor man, but a brave Virginian. He spoke of enlisting for the defence of the soil with which mingled the dust of a noble ancestry.

“Go,” said that Christian woman; and looking around upon a large group of little bright-eyed boys, she added, “You can defend us best in the ranks. I will remain and defend our home and these children. Oh, for an army of such heroines! I felt like giving three cheers for her patriotism, and did not object in the least to that sort of Methodism.”

The desolation that follows war is well depicted by another writer: