Now, here were all the Maury county boys got
together at New Hope church. I ate dinner with Captain Joe Love, and
Frank Frierson filled my haversack with hardtack and bacon.
BATTLE OF ZION CHURCH, JULY 4TH, 1864
The 4th day of July, twelve months before, Pemberton had surrendered
twenty-five thousand soldiers, two hundred pieces of artillery, and other
munitions of war in proportion, at Vicksburg. The Yankees wanted to
celebrate the day. They thought it was their lucky day; but old Joe
thought he had as much right to celebrate the Sabbath day of American
Independence as the Yankees had, and we celebrated it. About dawn,
continued boom of cannon reverberated over the hills as if firing a
Fourth of July salute. I was standing on top of our works, leveling them
off with a spade. A sharpshooter fired at me, but the ball missed me
and shot William A. Graham through the heart. He was as noble and brave
a soldier as ever drew the breath of life, and lacked but a few votes
of being elected captain of Company H, at the reorganization. He was
smoking his pipe when he was shot. We started to carry him to the rear,
but he remarked, "Boys, it is useless; please lay me down and let me die."
I have never in my life seen any one meet death more philosophically.
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