Hillsborough Recorder

Sept. 18, 1861

Page 3

For the Hillsborough Recorder

Chapel Hill, N. C., Sept. 13^th, 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 8^th 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,

[Transcribed by Sharon Strout]