1911 Letter about Service under General Robert E. Lee by W. M. Cole of Union Parish Louisiana 

Submitted to the Union Parish Louisiana USGenWeb Archives by Pauline Mobley & Beth Mathews, April 2008

************************************************
Submitted to the LAGenWeb Archives by 
http:/www.usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm
************************************************
Copyright. All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
************************************************



=================================================================================
1911 Letter about Service under General Robert E. Lee by W. M. Cole of Union Parish Louisiana 

Farmerville "Gazette", issue of 1 Feb 1911
==================================================================================


Mr. Editor–By your consent I will write a short history of my four years as a soldier in the Army 
of Virginia under Gen. R. E. Lee.  I belong to the Company G 11th., Ala . Reg., and was mustered 
into service at Lynchburg, Va.  I was in all of the hard fought battles from Richmond to Gettysburg; 
and from Harper’s to Winchester and was wounded five times during my four years of service.  I was 
a native of Tuscaloosa County Ala., and came to Louisiana in March, 1869.

I left home when I was only 16 years old and served all through the four years of he war and have 
honor of saying that I was never on extra duty but once.  There was 151 men in Co. C and when we 
attack army on the 9th of April, 1865 there were only 32 of us left.  As you can imagine that was a 
sad day to the men of the Army of Virginia.  The last time that I ever saw “Old Dad” was when he 
was on his big grey horse lifting his hat to his men and saying good-by as they filed by; and there 
was many that day who shed tears when they bid a last farewell to their beloved general.  The men 
of the Virginia Army loved “Old Dad”and seemed to fear no danger if Gen. Lee was near by.

I belonged to Gen. C.M. Wilcox’s Alabama brigade which was 8th., 9th.,10th.,11th.,and 14th. Ala. 
Companies.  On our retreat from Richmond to Appomattox Court House, where we stacked our guns there 
were four days and nights of that time that we had nothing to eat only as we could forage along the 
road and get some raw corn or wheat and eat that as we marched along.  And we thought it good too, 
yes very good to a hungry man.  

In conclusion I will say that I am now 65 years of age; and have never been before the Court in my 
life and in trying to a life no man could be ashamed of. 

W M Cole



##########################################################################################