AN INCIDENT Or THE CIVIL WAR
shall take pleasure in sending you the Bible and other articles,
and, if not, I shall be greatly gratified if you can put me upon the
track of finding the proper person.
In reply to this letter, Colonel Nisbet stated that he was the
owner of the above-mentioned articles, but that neither he, then a
captain, nor his regiment, the Third Georgia volunteers, were
ever at Newberne. The history of the trunk is as follows: In the
fall of 1861, Colonel Nisbet was at home on a short furlough,
and was hurrying back to Virginia to rejoin his command. On his
way there, he says, that his trunk, containing articles of wearing
apparel, a pistol and a Bible, was lost somewhere between Wil
mington and Weldon, N. C., and afterwards carried to Newberne,
where it remained unclaimed until it fell into the hands of the
Union forces upon their entrance into that town. • Colonel Nisbet
says he has often wondered what became of this trunk, and ex
pressed himself as deeply gratified to President Atherton in pre
serving these few remaining articles and in his efforts to find the
rightful owner. Around the loss of this trunk of a Confederate
captain, thirty-seven years ago, and its strange and unexpected
recovery, centers many thoughts. The war, its moving history,
the ways of reconstruction, the earnest and successful efforts of
the. returning veterans in effecting the restoration of their beloved
states, the memories of hard-fought battles, painful wounds, the
days of imprisonment, loved ones at home, and now the era of
good feeling.
The young officer of the Union army of '6.2 is now a distin
guished and learned president of a great institution. The young
confederate captain, after attaining the rank of colonel in Lee's
immortal army, after wounds and imprisonment, and restoration
to health throngh the brotherly care of his whilom enemies, is
now a gray-haired veteran, quietly pursuing the duties of his pro
fession, and as devoted to his native state in peace, as he was
ready to shed his blood for her in war.
And she, the wife of his youth, whose tender hand penned her
husband's name in that long-lost Bible, now lies buried in the
village cemetery. But her memory lives as fresh in the hearts of
her friends as on the day the earth closed over her open grave.
Yours very truly,
GUORGV W. ATHP,RTON.