to request that Gen. Field would conduct him through his lines, on his way to make his personal respects to Gen. Lee, who was a mile in front. As Gen. Meade at the head of a large and brilliant staff passed through Field's Division, the men gathered along the route in numerous squads, attracted by the spectacle. The two Generals were side by side conversing, when Gen. Meade turned to Gen. Field, with the remark, "your troops are very complimentary to me." "How so?" asked the latter. "Why, those fellows there,"-pointing to a group of soiled and grim Confederates—“ say I look like a Rebel." "Do you take that for a compliment?" said Gen. Field. "To be sure I do," replied Gen. Meade; "any people who have shown the courage and spirit you have, must have their admirers everywhere."

MAJ.-GEN. ROBERT E. RODES.

CHAPTER XLVII.

Graduates at the Virginia Military Institute.-A civil engineer in Alabama.—Elected to a Professor's chair in the Virginia Military Institute.-Commands a Brigade at Seven Pines.-Gallantry at Chancellorsville.-Complimented on the field by Stonewall Jackson.-Killed at Winchester.-A touching tribute to his memory.

ROBERT E. RODES was born in Virginia, but was a citizen of Alabama when that State seceded from the Union. He was the second son of the late Gen. David Rodes of the city of Lynchburg. He entered the Virginia Military Institute as a cadet in July, 1845, and graduated with great distinction, July 4, 1848. His eminent qualifications as a scholar and a soldier led to his immediate appointment as assistant professor in the Institute, and he discharged the duties of this position with the highest credit until July, 1851, when he resigned, to enter the profession of civil engineering.

In this new field he soon rose to distinction and, having removed to Alabama, he was appointed the chief-engineer of the Great Northeastern and Southwestern railroad, connecting New Orleans with Tuscaloosa.

When the State of Louisiana was about to organize the Military Academy at Alexandria, the name of Rodes was presented to the Board of Visitors, without his knowledge, for the position of Superintendent of that Institution. The uncertainty of his acceptance of the appointment, and other considerations, led to the selection of the now notorious Maj.-Gen. Wm. T. Sherman.

In 1859, the Board of Visitors of the Virginia Military Institute, in the organization of the school of Applied Science, divided the Chair of Natural Philosophy, then occupied by "Stonewall"

Jackson and formed a Chair of Applied Mechanics. To this chair Rodes was unanimously elected, and, although the interruption of the war forced him to take the field, he was always regarded as professor elect in the honourable institution of learning where his own genius had been nurtured, and around which his affections clung to the last moment of his life.

He promptly joined the standard of his adopted State, Alabama, and raised a company of infantry of which he was elected captain. This company was incorporated in the 5th Alabama Regiment, and, on the organization of the regiment, Rodes was chosen its Colonel. He came to Virginia in command of his regiment, in May, 1861; and his career soon gave evidence of the heroism and gallantry, which afterwards immortalized the name of his brigade and division in the Army of Northern Virginia. Promoted to the rank of Brigadier-General at Manassas, his command shared in all the hardships and glory of the first campaign of Virginia. At the battle of Seven Pines he led the charge upon the intrenched position of the enemy, and carried it with fearful loss to his brigade, he himself receiving a severe wound. His command on this field was composed of the 3d, 5th, 6th, 12th and 26th Alabama regiments and Carter's battery, making an aggregate of about 1,500 men.

In the estimation of his friends, he won, on this bloody field, promotion to a higher grade; but this honour was delayed to make his merits more conspicuous. At the battle of Chancellorsville, as senior Brigadier, he commanded D. H. Hill's division, and it was his gallant charge, with his clarion shout, "Forward men-over friend or foe!" that broke the enemy's line. It was the most glorious incident of his military life. With one division he drove before him the whole right wing of Hooker for three hours. He had fought under the eye of Jackson and won the last and characteristic applause of the great commander on the field of battle. "Gen. Rodes," he said, "your commission as MajorGeneral shall date from the 2d May." The promise of Gen. Jackson was studiously fulfilled by the government immediately after his death, and Gen. Rodes was promoted and placed in permanent command of the division he had so bravely led at Chancellorsville. He continued to lead it with consummate gallantry and skill until the disastrous batte of Winchester, in the autumn of

1864, when he fell at its head in the execution of an attack against the enemy which promised to decide the day. He was struck in the head by a ball, and died in half an hour after reaching the hospital.

Young, earnest, vigilant, intrepid, sagacious, Gen. Rodes was one of the most brilliant and valuable division commanders in the Army of Northern Virginia. His loss was keenly felt; a bright career of usefulness and distinction was before him; yet he had already accomplished a name to be remembered, and he sleeps with honour in the soldier's grave, reposing in the bosom of his own Virginia. Truly, proudly and tenderly has Gen. Francis H. Smith, the revered scholar and honoured superintendent of the Virginia Military Institute, written over the graves of the two men whom this school claims as her ornaments: "Jackson and Rodes, associate professors in the same institution, associate officers in the same army, each finds a resting place on the banks of our noble James, and Lexington and Lynchburg will henceforth be the Meccas of the patriot soldier in his pilgrimage of honour to the sleeping heroes of our Revolution!"

MAJ.-GEN. ARNOLD ELZEY.

CHAPTER XLVIII.

A captain in the United States Army.-His surrender of the Augusta Arsenal to the State of Georgia.-"The Blucher of Manassas."--Services in the Shenandoah Valley.-Wounded at Gaines' Mills.-His successful command of the Department of Richmond.

ARNOLD ELZEY was born in 1816, in Somerset county, Maryland. He graduated at West Point, in 1837, at the early age of twenty, and was assigned to the Second Regiment of Artillery. He served in this regiment and in the line (never being on staff duty) until he resigned from the United States army, in 1861, to offer his services to the Southern Confederacy.

In the first Florida war he bore a gallant and conspicuous part, as also in the campaigns of Mexico. He was at the siege of Fort Brown (the initiation of hostilities), and himself fired the first gun discharged in the Mexican War. He served with distinction through the entire struggle, and was brevetted captain for gallant and meritorious conduct in the battles of Contreras and Cherubusco.

At the commencement of hostilities between the North and South, Capt. Elzey was in command of the Augusta (Georgia) arsenal, which was garrisoned by one company. He surrendered to the State of Georgia, and by this act incurred the displeasure of the Washington authorities, and was banished to Fortress Monroe. While at the Fortress, he tendered his resignation to the Government, and asked for leave of absence, which was refused. He then made his escape to Baltimore, immedi ately after the secession of Virginia, and offered his services to his native State. Procrastination in the action of Maryland through her Governor, made it necessary for him to leave the State. He went directly to Montgomery, was commissioned by President Davis, and sent to Virginia, where he was assigned to