In the course of his story he spoke of the National Democratic
Convention which was held in Charleston. I remembered the building of
which he spoke--the South Carolina Institute Hall--and interrupted him
to tell him so."
"Maybe your home is in Charleston."
"I don't think so, Doctor; I remember being in Charleston, but I don't
remember my home."
He brought out a map and told me the dates of all the important actions
and the names of the officers who had commanded or fought in them in
'61 and '62, both in Virginia and the West.
* * * * *
"So we have come down to date, Doctor?" I said.
"Yes; but I think that now I ought to go back and tell you something
about your own command."
"Well, sir."
"There was more fighting while these Richmond movements were in
progress. Where is Fredericksburg? Here," looking at the map.
"Well."
"A Yankee army was there under McDowell, the man who commanded at the
battle of Manassas. We had a small army facing McDowell. You were in
that army; it was under General Anderson--Tredegar Anderson we call him,
to distinguish him from other Andersons; he is president of the Tredegar
Iron Works, here in Richmond. Well, you were facing McDowell. Now, look
here at the map. McClellan stretched his right wing as far as
Mechanicsville--here, almost north of Richmond; and you were between
McClellan and McDowell. So Anderson had to get out. Don't you remember
the hot march?"
"Not at all; I don't think I was there."
"I thought I'd catch you napping. I think that when you recover your
memory it will be from some little thing that strikes you in an
unguarded moment. Your mind, when consciously active, fortifies itself
against your forgotten past, and it may be in a moment of weakness that
things will return to you; I shouldn't wonder if a dream proves to be
the beginning. However, some men have such great strength of will that
they can do almost anything. If ever you get the smallest clew, you
ought then and there to determine that you will never let it go. Your
friends may find you any day, but it is strange they have not yet done
it They surely must be classing you among the killed."
[Illustration: A Lesson In History] [Map of Chesapeake Bay and
Environs]
"Do you think that my friends could help me by telling me the past?
Would my memory return if I should find them?"
"No; they could give you no help whatever until you should first find
one thing as a starting-point. Find but one little thing, and then they
can show you how everything else is to be associated with that. Without
their help you would have a hard time in collecting things--putting them
together; they would be separate and distinct in your mind; if you
remember but one isolated circumstance, it would be next to impossible
to reconstruct. Well, let's go on and finish; we are nearly at the end,
or at the beginning, for you. Where was I?
"Anderson retreated from Fredericksburg. When was that?"
"The twenty-fourth of May or twenty-fifth--say the night of the
twenty-fourth."
"Well, sir."
"We had a brigade here, at Hanover Court-House--Branch's brigade. While
you were retreating, and when you were very near Hanover, McClellan
threw a column on Branch, and used him very severely. You were not in
the fight exactly, but were in hearing of it, and saw some of Branch's
men after the fight. That is how we know what brigade you belong to,
although it will not claim you. You know that you are from South
Carolina, and your buttons prove it; and your diary shows that you were
near Branch's brigade while it was in the fight; and the only South
Carolina brigade in the whole of Lee's army that had any connection with
Branch, is Gregg's. Do you see?"
"I see," said I, "what is the date of that battle?"
"May 27th; your diary tells you that."
"Yes, sir."
"You continued to retreat to Richmond. So did Branch. The division you
are in is A.P. Hill's. It is called the Light division. Branch's brigade
is in it."
"Yes, sir; now let me see if I can call the organization of the army
down to the company."
"Go ahead."
"Lee's army--"
"Yes; Army of Northern Virginia."
"What is General Lee's full name?"
"Robert E.--Robert Edward Lee, of Virginia; son of Light-Horse Harry Lee
of Revolution times."
"Thank you, sir; Lee's army--A.P. Hill's division--Gregg's brigade--what
is General Gregg's name?"
"Maxcy."
"Gregg's brigade--First South Carolina, Colonel Hamilton--"
"How did you know that?"
"Bellot told me; what is Colonel Hamilton's name?"
"D.H.--Daniel, I believe."
"Company H, Captain Haskell--"
"William Thompson Haskell."
"Thank you, sir; any use to write the lieutenants?"
"No."
"Well, Doctor, that brings us to date."
"Now read what you have written," he said.
I read my notes aloud, expanding the abbreviations I had made. My
interest and absorption had been so intense that I could easily have
called over in chronological order the principal events he had
just narrated.
"Now," asked Dr. Frost, "do you believe that you can fill in the details
from what you can remember of what I said?"
"Yes, sir," said I; "try me."
He asked some questions, and I replied to them.
My memory astonished him. "I must say, Jones, that you have a
phenomenally good and a miraculously bad memory. You'll do," he said.
His account of the fight of the ironclads had interested me.
"What has become of the _Merrimac?_" I asked him.
"We had to destroy her. When Yorktown was evacuated, Norfolk had to
follow suit. The Federal fleet is now in James River, some halfway down
below Richmond. A blockade has been declared by Lincoln against all the
ports of the South. We are exceedingly weak on the water."