FIRST SOLDIER KILLED IN DIXIE.
James G. Holmes, of Charleston, S. C., furnishes the Veteran with some remarkable facts about the service of members of the Holmes family in the war:
In the Verrran for June, page 16, will be found the claim, made by the Southern Christian Herald, of Henansville, N. C., that Henry Wyatt was the first man killed on the Confederate side in the Confederate war. This may be true; but the first man killed in the effort to secure Southern independence was before there was any Southern Confederacy to fight for.
Robert Little Holmes, of Charleston, S. C., a private in the Carolina Light Infantry, First Rifle Regiment, Col. J. Johnson Pettigrew (afterwards Brig. Gen.) commanding, was killed about ten o'clock on the night of January 7, 1861, at Castle Pinckney, Charleston Harbor. This was two days before the cadets of the South Carolina Military Academy (now being advertised in the VeTERAN) fired upon the "Star of the West" from the twenty-four-pound gun battery on Vinegar Hill, Morris Island, commanded by Maj. P. F. Stevens, Superintendent of the Academy. Maj. Stevens was afterwards the conspicuously gallant colonel of the Holeombe Legion who greatly distinguished himself in Virginia, especially at second Manassas. This gallant soldier and brilliant teacher of mathematics is now Bishop of the Reformed Episcopal Church; and, alas for the white youth of South Carolina! is a professor of Claflin College (for colored youths), Orangeburg, 8. C. He should be, like Gen. Shoup, at the head of a grand college for white youths, where his profound learning, his high mental and moral traits would produce the best effects. But my admiration for Bishop Stevens, my old commandant at the South Carolina Military Academy in 1861, who, to my ae regret, has through his modesty hid his brilliant ight under a bushel, has caused me to digress. However, Maj., Col., and Bishop Stevens, serving as he did, under the cross that won no crown, and now the soldier of the cross that will surely win him a crown, deserves a whole page of the Verrran, for he was a. typical Confoderate soldier.
Private Holmes was accidentally shot by a sentinel as he was on his way to the guard room to report for his hour of guard. He had left his own quarters because he disapproved of gambling, and some of his messmates and friends were about to start a game of poker. The
sentinel, in challenging, came to the "charge bayonets," as then required by Hardee's Tactics, and his gun was accidentally discharged. A ball and three buckshot entered Holmes's body, and in twenty minutes this gallant soldier and Christian gentleman of the old school was dead. Unfortunately the sentinel belonged to another company than Holmes's, and hot-headed partisans accused him of shooting intentionally, and in consequence the companies had to be assigned to different posts in the harbor. The sentinel was exonerated by the coroner and by military officers who investigated the case.
This tragedy, before a hostile gun had been fired by either the South or the North, led to the wise change of tactics, with sentinels. After that came "arms aport," "port arms" as to-day, when challenging; not only to avoid accidents, but to give the sentinel a better chance for defense if an enemy was allowed to get too near and endeavored to spring upon the sentinel. Holmes had two brothers killed in the army: Thomas G. Holmes, of the Charleston Light Dragoons, Fourth South Carolina Volunteer Cavalry, at Hawes's Shop, near Richmond, Va., in May, 1864; and Phillip Gadsden Holmes, of the Carolina Light Infantry, Gregg's Brigade, at Seven Pines. And yet another brother, William E. Holmes (the only survivor of six brothers), of the Washington Light Infantry, Twenty-fifth South Carolina Infantry, Hagood's Brigade, was wounded at Swift Creek, and captured at Fort Fisher, N.C. By a strange fatality in this family of Holmes, only two of the six brothers survived the war; while nine first cousins of the same name, who went into active service, came out alive; and only two of them were seriously wounded: Capt. Charles Rutledge Holmes, the cool and intrepid assistant adjutant general of the knightly Kershaw (both adjutant and general now dead), and his only brother, William P. Holmes. The first was shot through the thigh while inspecting pickets in front of Petersburg, in 1864; and the latter through the arm at Bentonville, N. C.
Capt. C. R. Holmes was "a man among men," one to be loved and trusted by both men and women; and the reputation he made for himself as a soldier, sans peur et sans reproche, from the first bombardment of Sumter to Bentonville, is an inheritance treasured by his widow and five children. Capt. C. R. Holmes's wound was doubtless the ultimate cause of his sad death, in 1891.
An artesian well bas been bored at Marlin, Tex., to the remarkable depth of 3,330 feet, which supplies 180,000 gallons of water per day with a temperature of 144 degrees Fahrenheit. Comrades in that section are proud of it, and frequently send notice.
Very CompLimentary.—The Spectator (W. H. Peck) in Sunday Times: " Everybody in Nashville is, or ought to be, interested in the success of S. A. Cunningham's CoNFEDERATE Veteran. This success has really been phenomenal, and it is a fair illustration of the importance Nashville is to the South as a newspaper center. Starting but little over a year ago without money and without even a complete plan of operation, it has, in this short time, reached a circulation that was 9,130 by actual count two weeks ago. Mr. Cunningham owes his success partly to the unparalleled extent of his acquaintance, not even excepting Pat Donan, of Washington; and in part to the fortunate coalition of the enterprise itself with the desire of the Confederate veteran and his descendants for a truthful and accessible organ.