The Story of a
Confederate Boy
in the Civil
War
By
David E. Johnston
of the 7th Virginia
Infantry Regiment
Author of
"Middle New River
Settlements"
With Introduction by
Rev. C. E. Cline, D.D.
A Methodist Minister and
Chaplain of the Military Order of the
Loyal Legion, U.S.A.
Copyright, 1914
BY
DAVID E. JOHNSTON
PUBLISHED BY
GLASS & PRUDHOMME COMPANY
PORTLAND, OREGON
Preface
Some twenty-eight years ago I wrote and published a small bookrecounting my personal experiences in the Civil War, but this book islong out of print, and the publication exhausted. At the urgent requestof some of my old comrades who still survive, and of friends and my ownfamily, I have undertaken the task of rewriting and publishing thisstory.
As stated in the preface to the former volume, the principal object ofthis work is to record, largely from memory, and after the lapse ofmany years (now nearly half a century) since the termination of thewar between the states of the Federal Union, the history, conduct,character and deeds of the men who composed Company D, Seventh regimentof Virginia infantry, and the part they bore in that memorableconflict.
The chief motive which inspires this undertaking is to give some meageridea of the Confederate soldier in the ranks, and of his individualdeeds of heroism, particularly of that patriotic, self-sacrificing,brave company of men with whose fortunes and destiny my own were linkedfor four long years of blood and carnage, and to whom during thatperiod I was bound by ties stronger than hooks of steel; whoseconfidence and friendship I fully shared, and as fully reciprocated.
To the surviving members of that company, to the widows and children,broken-hearted mothers, and to gray-haired, disconsolate fathers (ifsuch still live) of those who fell amidst the battle and beneath itsthunders, or perished from wounds or disease, this work is dedicated.The character of the men who composed that company, and their deeds ofvalor and heroism, will ever live, and in the hearts of our people willbe enshrined the names of the gallant dead as well as of the living, asthe champions of constitutional liberty. They will be held in gratefulremembrance by their own countrymen, appreciated and recognized by allpeople of all lands, who admire brave deeds, true courage, and devotionof American soldiers to cause and country.
For some of the dates and material I am indebted to comrades. I alsofound considerable information from letters written by myself duringthe war to a friend, not in the army, and not subject to military duty,on account of sex; who, as I write, sits by me, having now (February,1914), for a period of more than forty-six years been the sharer of myjoys, burdens and sorrows; whose only brother, George Daniel Pearis, aboy of seventeen years, and a member of Brya