MR. WHITE,--I embrace the opportunity afforded, by the transmission of
my subscription for the "_Messenger_," to furnish you with a small
contribution to the pages of that excellent periodical. Neither
leisure nor ability, at present, allows me to present any original
composition; but I feel confident that nothing I have to offer, could
be more interesting and acceptable to your readers, than the following
extract from the "_Manuscript Diary of a Revolutionary Officer_" which
has recently been placed in my hands. It is expected that the whole
will be transcribed in a _fac simile_ as to style, and so on, and
presented to the Historical Society at an early period.
The writer was, I believe, a lieutenant in the Southern army. He was a
native and resident of Powhatan county, Virginia, where his
descendants still reside. He was a captain at the taking of
Charleston, South Carolina, and composed the Diary referred to, while
confined by the British as a prisoner of war. The Diary commences with
a statement of the events which led to the surrender of the American
army, and exhibits at length the official correspondence of General
Lincoln and Sir Henry Clinton on the occasion.
We may admire the devotion and bravery of our forefathers, recount in
terms of poetical exaggeration their heroic achievements, and dwell
with fond recollection on their memories, but we can never form an
accurate idea of their feelings, any correct conception of their
sufferings, or properly estimate our debt of gratitude, until we can
enter more fully into the _minutiæ_ of those events which general
history relates. So long therefore, as it is praiseworthy (and long
may it be so,) to set before our eyes the examples and characters of
revolutionary patriots, will it be interesting to examine such records
as the following.
Yours, truly.
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_Union Seminary, Pr. Ed. Va. 1835_.