#winfield scott hancock
A never-to-be-forgotten evening was the one spent at our home by the officers who were to start upon their overland trip to the South at 12 o’clock that night. General and Mrs. Johnston were of the party. Before leaving, the General said to his wife, “Come, sing me one or two of the old songs you used to sing, ’ Mary of Argyle,’ and ’ Kathleen Mavourneen.’ ” She complied reluctantly in the presence of such an audience, saying, with deep emotion, that she felt as though her music days were over. Those songs will ever be remembered by the survivors of that mournful gathering. All were endeavoring to conceal, under smiling exteriors, hearts that were filled with sadness over the sundering of life-long ties, and doubts as to the result of their sacrifice.
The most crushed of the party was Major Armistead, who, with tears, which were contagious, streaming down his face, and hands upon Mr. Hancock’s shoulders, while looking him steadily in the eye, said, “Hancock, good-by ; you can never know what this has cost me, and I hope God will strike me dead if I am ever induced to leave my native soil, should worse come to worst.”
Turning to me, he placed a small satchel in my hand, requesting that it should not be opened except in the event of his death, in which case the souvenirs it contained, with the exception of a little prayer-book, intended for me, and which I still possess, should be sent to his family. On the fly-leaf of this book is the following: “Lewis A. Armistead. Trust in God and fear nothing.”
Armistead died in the way that he prayed for.
Reminiscences of Winfield Scott Hancock, by Almira Russell Hancock
Pages 69-70
