Hillsborough Recorder
Sept. 18, 1861
Page 3
For
the Hillsborough Recorder
Chapel Hill, N. C., Sept. 13th, 1861
Prof. Martin and
his Company left this place for the camp at High Point, on last Tuesday. It is the seventh Company there, and among
the seven will not be found any eighty-five truer or more worthy men. They have gone out for a year to fight for
their country, because they see that it must be fought for, and because they
believed that the fighting would be short and decisive, in proportion to its
being quick and lively. The Company has
Mr. Johnston, a grandson of the late Mr. Burgwyn, of Hillsborough, and lately
one of the Tutors of Greek in our University, for its First Lieutenant; Mr. Morrow, a son of the late Mr. George
Morrow, well known as a teacher, and himself lately a member of the Scientific
corps ____ as our Nautical Almanac, and also a Tutor of Mathematics in the
University, is its Second Lieutenant; while its Third is Mr. Oldham, favorably
known as the Principal of the Classical Academy near Rock Spring, in this
county. This is the second Company that
has left the neighborhood of Chapel Hill
during the war, and when the need arises, as it is most likely to arise, others
will follow their example. The privates
live in the neighborhood of Bethel, Antioch, Cane Creek and Bethlehem
Churches, and in Chapel
Hill. Their Captain and
First Lieutenant were strangers to most of them, but their own apparent merits,
and the active cooperation of such whole souled patriots as the Rev. G. W.
Purefoy, Mr. P. McDade, Mr. W. Bingham and Mr. M. Durham, rendered Prof.
Martin’s great energy successful. Should
he be regarded as worthy of a Field Officer’s place in the Regiment, his own
Company might lose, but the general service would gain, in that it had the head
and heart of a most excellent man, whose worth, moral, intellectual and social,
will be valued the more, the more the opportunity for their display.
There was a very
large Union Prayer meeting at the Baptist
Church in Chapel
Hill, the night before the Company started for the camp, to
commend it and the cause which it would defend to our God. In these services the Pastor of the Church,
the Rev. Mr. Wilson, was assisted by the Rev. Mr. Cunningham of the Methodist
Church, the Rev. Mr. Hilliard, of the Episcopal Church, the Rev. M. Shearer, of
the Presbyterian Church, and the Rev. Dr. Phillips of the University. The communities from which the Company has
been gathered have shown commendable zeal in providing for it a proper outfit
in food and clothing. Blankets were
contributed, and Bibles and Testaments enough for a present supply. So the Company left us cheerfully, well
assured that their service, while well appreciated by their neighbors, was one
of conscience towards God and love toward their country and their own homes.
But, while
noticing the patriotic deeds of the men in and near Chapel Hill, I must not
forget to record that the ladies of Chapel Hill have been ever among the
foremost to do and to give whatever and whenever they could, for the welfare of
the soldier wherever he might be. Their
soldiers’ Aid Society was organized on the 8th of last June, by the
selection of Mrs. M. Hargrave as its President, and Mrs. E. Grant as its
Treasurer. The services of its members
have been freely given whenever called for, to furnish garments for the sound
and sick, or to collect funds to obtain comforts for the Hospitals at Yorktown
and in Richmond. In these labors our ladies have been abundant
heretofore, and they are ready to be as abundant hereafter, so long as they are
needed. Sometimes, Mr. Editor, I had
rather be born of a woman than an angel.
Yours,
Q
[Transcribed by Sharon Strout]
