NAME OF FISH TORPEDO INVENTOR DESIRED.
J. M. Lay, Cresson, Tex., writes:
"I notice in the November, 1902, Veteran the account of the 'Fish torpedo.' The inventor was a close friend of mine, and is now dead. From him I had a full account of the boat; where the model was made and tested, and his going afterwards to Mobile, where Lieut. Dixon became interested in his work, and they together built the first boat, which was lost in Mobile Bay in the attempt to join the blockading fleet.
"The inventor and Dixon were in the boat at the time, but neither they nor any ot the crew were lost. After the destrucfion of this boat, wealthy men of Mobile gave the inventor and Lieut. Dixon funds to build another craft of the same character, and the Confederate government took charge of this when completed and sent it to Charleston, Lieut. Dixon going with it.
"I write this in the hope that some one may know the name of the inventor. I withhold his name, hoping that my memory of it is the same as that in the knowledge of other men."
"Fading away, like the star of the morning, Losing its light in the glorious sun—
So let me steal away, gently and lovingly, Only remembered by what I have done."
Capt. James G. Adams died of heart failure on January 2, at his home in Cabot, Ark. He commanded Company I, Twenty-Fifth Regiment, Arkansas Infantry, and was a gallant soldier, much beloved by his men. He also served in the Mexican war; was about seventy-six years old. Camp James Adams, No. 1036, of Austin, Ark., was named in his honor, and has sustained a great loss in his death.
S. B. RaGLanp.
Mr. Samuel Beaufort Ragland, Sr., a former well-known resident of Richmond, died February 1, 1903, at the residence of his son, Mr. William Lauman Ragland, Barton Heights. He was born at the ancestral seat of the family, "Ripping Hall," in the historic 'Slashes" section of Hanover County, Va., January 14, 1827. He was of worthy lineage. His greatgrandparents, John and Anne Beaufort Ragland, from Glemorganshire, Wales, settled in what was then New Kent County, Va., about 1720. John Ragland patented more than 10,000 acres of land, which descended to his ten surviving children. Their descendants have intermarried with many of the most prominent families of Virginia and the Southern and Western States. Mr. Ragland was a brave Confederate soldier. The last year of the war he was a clerical assistant in the office of the provost marshal of the Army of Northern Virginia, and was paroled with Maj. D. B. Bridgeford at Appomattox C. H.
Davin Howe...
At his home in Charlestown, W. Va., January 31, 1902, Mr. David Howell fell asleep at the age of sixty-four years and five months. He was a member of the Episcopal Church, faithful in his service as vestryman, lay reader, Sunday school superintendent, and teacher. Somewhat reserved in manner, Mr. Howell was accessible, affable, agreeable, and practical. As a soldier he was a member of the "Botts Grays'—Company G, Second Virginia Infantry, "Stonewall Brigade"—was up to the high standard of excellence that characterized "Jackson's Valley Men," and for service on the skirmish line possessed the essential qualifications: alertness, intelligence, keen perception, courage, fidelity, and endurance. He was the surviving commissioned officer of his company, a body of soldiers worthy of the name of its first captain, and was wounded in battle.
Comrade Howell is survived by his wife, who was a daughter of the late Gen. Botts, of Fredericksburg, Va., and sister of that superb soldier, Col. Lawson Botts, who died of wounds sustained at Second Manassas whilst in command of the Second Regiment. Two deughters (Misses Hannah J. aul Thomas), two brothers (Messrs. Samuel and John M. Howell, of Charlestown), and a sister (Mrs. Cocke, of Virginia) also survive.
The large congregation at the funeral attested the love and esteem in which the deceased was held. John W. Rowan Camp, 'Confederate Veterans, was present in a body.
Maney
Comrade T. W. Crenshaw, of Woodland Mills, Tenn., died suddenly on January 15, aged seventy-one years. He served in Company D, of the Thirty-Third Tennessee Regiment of Infantry. A widow, son, and daughter survive him. His regiment may have been Thirty-Second Tennessee.—Ep.
Camp Evans, No. 355, of Booneville, Ark., lost three members during 1902, as reported by C. B. Florence, Adjutant: J. F. Eads, Fortieth Georgia; J. W. Houston, Company C, Fourth Alabama Cavalry; M. J. Sanderson, Company C, Twenty-Second Arkansas.
Hon. Aspram FuULKERSON.
Col. Abram Fulkerson, a lawyer, statesman, warrior, and distinguished citizen of Bristol, died in December from the effects of a stroke of paralysis, drom which he only partially rallied.
Col. Fulkerson was in his sixty-eighth year. Barring wounds sustained while rendering distinguished service to the Confederacy, he was a strong, vigorous man, bodily and mentally. The passing of Col. Fulkerson removes one of the most noted figures in his section. By birth he was a patriot, and possessed a degree of chivalry and courage which gave him prominence in the great war. After the war he soon gai*ed prominence in the legal profession, after which he was 1 2warded with positions of trust and honor in the State and nati \n.
There was much of romance in the life of Col. Fulk. rson. His accomplishments were actuated by a courage and m.nly spirit that deserve the consideration of the generation comuig on. He met every problem in life calmly and courageously, and was never known to falter in the discharge of a duty. Even after he had been stricken down with paralysis he retained the same calm and manly spirit, and faced death in the same manner that had characterized him on the field of battle.
In 1862 he was granted a furlough that he might go to Clarksville and claim the estimable young woman who had promised to become his bride. He was married just in time to escape the Federals, who were pouring in on Clark<ville. Bringing his bride home, he returned immediately to his post of duty, where he remained until taken prisoner, in spite of the serious wounds which he sustained while facing the enemy in the white heat of battle. This same spirit of determination manifested itself throughout the splendid career of this man of big heart and brain, whom Bristol was always proud to claim as a citizen.
Col. Fulkerson was born May 13, 1834, of Scotch-Jrish parents, near Bristol, Va., and named for his father, who \ 1s a captain in the war of 1812, and his mother was Margaret Vance, a relative of the late Senator Z. B. Vance, of North Carolina. His brother, Samuel B. Fulkerson, was colonel of the Thirty-Seventh Virginia Regiment of Infantry, and his brother Isaac served through the war as a captain in the Eighth Texas Cavalry. When Col. Fulkerson was yet a babe, his father moved to Grainger County, Tenn. When he was thirteen years of age his three older brothers, Samuel, Isaac, and Frank, volunteered for service in the Mexican war, and left him in charge of his father's farm, a mere lad.
He graduated from the Virginia Military Institute in 1857, and while there was a student under Prof. T. J. (Stonewall) Jackson. He then taught school at Palmyra, Va. and at Rogersville, Tenn. He was at the latter place when the civil war began. Before hostilities commenced he raised a company in Hawkins County, and took it to Knoxville and joined the Nineteenth Tennessee, C. S. A.., of which he was elected major. His was the first volunteer company organized in East Tennessee. With the Nineteenth he engaged in the bat-
tles of Wild Cat and Shiloh. In the last-named battle his
horse was shot under him, and he was severely wounded in
the thigh. After recovering from his wound, he assisted in organizing the Sixty-Third Tennessee Regiment, and was made its first lieutenant colonel.
_ On February 12, 1864, President Jefferson Davis appointed him colonel of this regiment. He led it in the terrific fight at Chickamauga, where he was again severely wounded in the left arm. After this his regiment wasi attached to iongstreet's Corps, which made the campaign of East Tennessee, and was then transferred to Virginia. There he took part in the battles of Drewry's Bluff, the affairs at Walthall's Junction, Swift Creek, Bermuda Hundred, and Petersburg. During the fight at Petersburg he was wounded and captured, June 17, 1864. He was imprisoned at Fort Delaware; was one of the famous "six hundred" officers sent to Morris Island and kept under the fire of the Confederate guns at Charleston for six weeks. He was then sent to Fort Pulaski and put on "starvation rations" in retaliation for alleged mistreatment of the Federal prisoners at Andersonville. He was returned to Fort Delaware in March, 1865, and discharged from prison July 25, 1865, more than three months after the surrender.
In 1866 he began the practice of law as a member of the firm of York & Fulkerson, and, by his ability, courage, and strict integrity, he rose to the front rank. He practiced his
profession continuously and most successfully until he was
HON.SABRAM\FULKERSON.
paralyzed, while sitting in his office, March 6, 1900. He was the senior member of the firm of Fulkerson, Page & Hurt at the time of his death.
Col. Fulkerson served ten years in the Virginia Legislature, three terms in the House and one in the Senate, and he was a member of the forty-seventh Congress of the United States, having been elected in November, 1880, to represent the Ninth District of Virginia. He was one of the five members of the Legislature who organized the Readjuster party, which swept over the State like a tidal wave in 1878 and created a political revolution.
His wife was Selina Johnson, of Clarksville, Tenn. S. VFulkerson, son and law partner, served as a Captain in the Fourth Tennessee Regiment during the Spanish-American war, was in Cuba four months as a part of the Army of occupation. He is now a member of the staff of Goy. Montague, of Virginia, with the rank of Colonel, and a member of the U. S.C. V. Col. Fulkerson was the youngest of nine children, of whom only two are now living, Mrs. B. F. Hurt, of Abingdon, Va., and Mrs. Harriet Armstrong, of Rogersville, Tenn.
Col. Fulkerson assisted in organizing the S. V. Fulkerson Camp of Confederate Veterans in Bristol, named for his brother. Col. Fulkerson was the first Commander of the Camp.
At the funeral the honorary pallbearers, chosen "from the Camp of Confederate Veterans, were Maj. H. C. Wood, Mayor W. L. Rice, Col. Charles R. Vance, Messrs. N. D. Bachman, John W. Emmiert, and John B. Keller.