Gen. Worth to Hon. A. P. Butler, U. S. Senator.

"Tacubaya, Mexico, August 26th, 1847. "SIR,-I trust a cordial intimacy and friendship of twenty-five years with your late brother, the gallant Col. Butler, will excuse the trespass of a stranger. Your brother fell most gloriously in the great battle of the 20th before the gates of Mexico. In that bloody conflict no man gave higher evidence of valor and patriotism, or exhibited a brighter examplo. Ilo fell, when it was God's will, precisely as he would have desired to die. His body rests here; his memory in the hearts of his countrymen; his spirit, bright and pure as his blade, with his God.

"The inclosed letter, written the day before the battle, I did not receive until the day after, through the hands of Dickinson; and it is not because of the kind things said by a friend's partiality, but because it is perhaps the last letter he penned, that I send it to you, begging that at some future day it may be returned to me, to be preserved and cherished.

"The gallant Palmettos, who showed themselves worthy of their stato and country, lost nearly one half. This victory will carry joy and sorrow into half tho families in South Carolina. Col. Dickinson is getting on well, and will, it is hoped, savo his leg. An armistico is concluded, and commissioners meet to-morrow to treat of peace. "Very truly, your obedient servant, "Hon. A. P. Butler."

W. J. WORTH.

The following passages from a speech delivered by the Hon. L. M. Keitt at Lynchburg, Va., September 11th, 1856, are full of interest: "In 1846 you carried your flag into a neighboring republic. We uphold it. The South sent forty thousand men to the scene of battle; the North sent twenty thousand. Go ask the graves upon those battle-fields, and they will tell you who occupies them. Massachusetts and South Carolina have been sometimes arrayed against each other. I will run the parallel between them. Col. Butler, the brother of the Hon. Mr. Butler, the senator from South Carolina, who was so basely slandered by a foul-mouthed abolitionist, was the leader of the Palmetto regiment in the Mexican war. General Quitman told me, when an order came to him for a regiment to engage in the battle of Chapultepec, Colonel Butler, who was sick, went to him and said, 'I demand a right to be in that battle.' Quitman replied, 'You can not go, sir—you are sick.' 'I am sufficiently well to go,' said Butler. Quitman remarked, 'I shall see,' and thereupon a physician was sent for. He declared him unfit for active service, and General Quitman insisted that he should not go. 'I ask it, then, as a favor,' said Butler, and I demand it as a right.' 'Go, then,' said Quitman. He led this Palmetto regiment on to the fight. In that battle-field two free-state regiments ran, while, exposed to the fire of the Mexican lines, stood this regiment from my own state, swept by grape and canister. That regiment stood, while each man was writhing in the blood of his companions. Exposed in this fire that regiment stood, firing not a gun, leveling not a bayonet. While men were falling by scores they stood there. (Loud cheers.) Free-state regiments had broken up and retreated. Most of the regular army was cut up, and there was nothing but disaster in the perspective. What regiment will folVOL. II.-O

low me?' said Shields. Colonel Butler replied, "The Palmetto regiment will follow you.' (Cheers.) That regiment did follow. Ere the leader advanced twenty steps he fell dead. Scarce had the regiment moved ere its banner was struck down; before it was fallen its lientenant colonel took it up, and ere he advanced two steps he too was struck down. Another took it, and scarce had he raised it when he fell; and while he was falling a gallant Irishman took it, folded it round his body, and bore it on to victory. (Enthusiastic cheers.) There, too, was a young man—a college companion of mine, and brother of my colleague, Col. Brooks-a lieutenant in his company. When Shields said, 'What regiment will follow me?' and Col. Butler said, 'The Palmetto regiment will follow you,' Brooks said, 'Ay, they will follow you to death. With his sword flashing, leading on his men, this young man fell mortally wounded. When he and his brother-my colleague -left home, their father took an old family servant and said to them, "Take him along; he may be of use to you hereafter.' My colleague, struck down with sickness, was sent home. He left this old servant to attend his brother. For three days and nights this old negro laid by the bedside of his dying young master. Without cessation, in camp and amid the rage of battle, he watched by his side. The ball had pierced him through. From the perforation of the ball came large splinters of bones. These he gathered together. His young master died, and the regiment, in consideration of his attention and fidelity, bought him a house and lot. The old negro purchased a wagon för his master, put him into it, and from the city of Mexico he carried him to Vera Cruz, where he put him on board a vessel bound for the United States. From the port of arrival he took him to his master, the father of the young man. He said to the old man, gray-headed and weeping, Here, sir, are the bones which passed from the wound of your dead son. Here,' said he to the mother, is the corpse of your son.' (Loud cheers.) And this is the institution which is slandered by Northern fanatics."

James P. Dickinson, lieutenant colonel of the Palmetto regiment, was an only child, born in Camden, S. C., in 1814. His father, a native of the British West Indies, married the only child of Dr. Ephraim Brevard, of Mecklenburg, N. Č. The wife of Dr. Brevard was a Miss. Polk, sister of Col. William Polk of Revolutionary fame, aunt of the present Bishop Polk of the diocese of Louisiana. The ancestors of Dickinson-his grandfather Brevard, and Col. Polk, the father of Mrs. Brevard-were both signers of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, May 20th, 1775, from which Mr. Jefferson derived some of his finest thoughts and expressions.

The Mecklenburg Declaration was written by Dr. Ephraim Brevard, a man of great ability, and of a bold and lofty spirit. He was a graduate of Princeton, and having qualified himself as a physician, he commenced the practice in Charlotte, N. C. His talents, patriotism, and education, united with prudence and practical sense, made him a leader in the committees that preceded the Mecklenburg Convention, and designated him as secretary and draughtsman of that remarkable Declaration. It was of his mother, the widow Brevard, of Centre Congregation, that a British officer remarked, as a plea for plundering and burning her dwelling, "She has seven sons in the rebel service." When

hostilities commenced, Dr. Brevard entered the army as a surgeon, his brothers being officers in the line. He was taken prisoner at the fall of Charleston in 1780. Returning to North Carolina, he soon died from the effects of disease contracted in the service. He lies buried in the church-yard of Hopewell Congregation, twelve miles from Charlotte, but there is no stone to designate the spot. He thought clearly, felt deeply, wrote well, resisted bravely, and died a martyr to that liberty none loved better and few understood so well.*

From the same patriotic lineage on the maternal side came the Hon. Isaac W. Hayne, the present learned and cloquent attorney general of South Carolina, son of Col. Isaac Hayne, who was hung by the British at Charleston in 1781. His brother, Abram Hayne (grandfather of the late Robert Y. Hayne and of the Hon. Arthur P. Hayne, inspector general on the staff of General Jackson in the war of 1812, and distinguished for his gallantry), perished in the British prison-ships about the same time.

After the sharp engagement at Vera Cruz, referred to in Chapter X., in which Dickinson was wounded, the impression prevailed that the general-in-chief intended to carry the city by assault. Though still suffering, the ardent Carolinian made the following application, never before in print:

"Camp opposite Vera Cruz, March 23d, 1847.

"General John A. Quitman:

"MY DEAR SIR,-I am informed a breaching battery near the railroad will be opened to-morrow, and that it is possible an assault may be ordered if the resistance of the city proves obstinate. Gen. Patterson is of opinion that the forlorn hope which usually leads the assault will be composed of details from the different brigades; and the object of this note is to solicit the honor of leading the detail from your brigade. I am sufficiently strong for such a duty, and the only risk to me from my wound would be the after consequences, and those not serious. But as I am deliberately determined, even if it risks my commission, to accompany any such command, this is not to be considered, and ought to be left to myself. I will go as a volunteer if I can not as an officer. I sincerely hope, sir, that you may favor my request, and that it would prove agreeable to those I seek to command. I can assure you that the honor of your brigade shall not suffer in my hands."

Disappointed in this hope of distinction by the surrender of the city, the wounded soldier addressed another note to Gen. Quitman. The allusion to his young and beautiful wife, to whom he had been married not quite two years, will touch every manly heart:

"DEAR GENERAL,-Colonel Butler has informed me that you made favorable mention of my name in your report of the affair of the 11th ult. I would be much gratified, indeed, if you would favor me with a copy of it as a record of my first battle. I would desire it more especially for my wife, who is in ill health, and suffering far more on account of my absence than I could have anticipated. I have an opportunity to send by a friend a package to my wife, and would be glad if you would let me have the copy to-day.”

• Review of Foote's Early History of North Carolina.

At the battle of Churubusco, immediately after the fall of Butler, while leading his regiment to the charge, Dickinson was shot through the leg. The wound was not considered dangerous, but, debilitated by his previous suffering and chafing at confinement, he finally succumbed, and his impatient spirit took its flight amid the roar and crash of the assault upon Chapultepec. As Butler died, his eye fixed on the Palmetto banner borne onward where the "blows fell thickest and heaviest," so Dickinson expired at the moment that the same flag waved in triumph on the brow of Chapultepec. An appropriate close for the eventful drama of a soldier's life.

Dickinson, like Butler, was six feet four inches in height, straight as an Indian, and of commanding presence, Butler had a clear blue eye, features chiseled as though by the hand of Phidias, and altogether a singularly handsome face. Dickinson's figure was cast between that of Hercules and Apollo. He was by profession a lawyer, and had won considerable reputation at the bar and in the Legislature. He inherited the warm, impulsive temperament of his father, and the deeper enthusiasm of his maternal ancestry. In his general character he was more impetuous than painstaking and persevering.

Major Gladden, who succeeded to the command of the Palmettos on the fall of his colonel and lieutenant colonel, is now a citizen of New Orleans. He participated in all the battles with his regiment, and conducted it to the heights of Chapultepec. When ordered on its summit to form his regiment, he laconically replied, “It is already formed." It had plunged through a morass, exposed to a terrific fire, and ascended to the fortress, without firing a shot or breaking its ranks. He led the regiment in the terrible assault on the Belen, carrying its consecrated banner, which seemed fatal to all who touched it, until he fell severely wounded.

On the 6th of October, 1847, a public meeting was called in Charleston to pay a fitting homage to the memory of the Palmettos that had fallen in battle. Many of the names that figured at the meeting are historical, closely associated with the trials of the war of independence: Johnson, Hayne, Hutchinson, Pringle, De Saussure, Peronneau, Huger, Rutledge, Gadsden, Furman, Pinckney, Heyward, Gaillard, Ravencl, Grayson, Aiken, Holmes, Carew, Petigru, Schnierle, Ashe, Bryan, Strobel, King, Magrath, Rhett, Brisbane, Elmore, Moise, Rose, Connor, Porter, Edmunston, Cogdell, and others.

In reporting a series of strong resolutions (particularly one pledging Carolina to provide for the families of her glorious dead, if destitute, which, it is hoped, has been carried out), Hon. Isaac W.IIayne, attorney general, after a graphic recital of the achievements of the regiment and a touching encomium on Butler and Dickinson, thus referred to some of the younger officers:

"I leave the filling up of the picture to those more fitted for the task. I will merely add that the blood of the 'Game Cock'* has proved game in the third generation; that the name of De Saussure again becomes historic; that Blanding, Dunovant, and Moffatt, familiar already in our ears, are henceforth household words; that the Cantey courage again becomes proverbial. I must be permitted," continued Mr. Hayne, "to pay a passing tribute of private friendship to • The Revolutionary title of General Sumpter.

one not unworthy of public regard. Lieutenant Shubrick, U. S. N., two hundred miles from the sea, is found fighting the battles of his country, a private in the regiment of his native state. Late of the squadron of the Gulf, tired of inactivity, he returned to Charleston and applied to government for permission to try his fortune in the army. He was allowed to report himself to Commodore Perry, and, if his services were not required, he had permission to serve where ho pleased. On his way to Mexico he heard of the surrender of Vern Cruz and the death of Midshipman Shubrick, who fell by his gun in the siege. Commodore Perry retained him on duty until after his capture of Tuspan. We then find him under the walls of Mexico in the staff of Gen. Shields, where his horse was killed under him; aftcrward fighting as a private in the ranks of the Palmettos. His conduct was worthy of his lineage. It was in the spirit of his grandfather in the war of the Revolution; of his father in the war of 1812; the same spirit which gave five gallant uncles of the same name to tho service of their country.

"Mr. Chairman," said the cloquent speaker, "I feel peculiarly gratified that South Carolina has sustained herself. I was for ten years an exile from her soil; and I learned that, beyond her borders, there were those who affected to consider her courage as rather in words than deeds. A few years ago, in the phrensy of party excitement, there was a huge device originated somewhere in Ohio-a mighty ball in the shape of a balloon; it took its course down the great rivers; was received in processions at all the principal towns; thence from New Orleans by Mobile to Montgomery, and on to Georgia. It passed through some ten states of this Union, and was paraded as a party pageant in the great contest of 1840. On it wero inscribed the names of the different states of this confederacy, with culogistic mottoes deemed appropriate to each. And among these was, 'SOUTH CAROLINA — Hemp for traitors.' Through ten states this passed-rolled was the expression-hailed with loud huzzas. Sir, the treason' of South Carolina is to be read in the report of the battle of Churubusco.

"Mr. Chairman, on that same party symbol there was inscribed, in juxtaposition to South Carolina, another name and another motto, "MASSACHUSETTS-Ever Faithful." Was her faith evinced, only a few weeks since, when her Major General Howe proclaimed the war sinful, and refused to pay military honors to the remains of the gallant Lincoln, who fell at Buena Vista?"

At a very large political meeting in Mississippi in 1840, shortly after the passage down the river of this "mighty ball," the American flag was displayed, with all the stars brightly burning on it but the star of South Carolina, which was so dim as to appear that it was about to be blotted out. Underneath that dim star was the coat of arms of South Carolina-a coil of rope substituted for her proud palmetto, and the words, "Hemp for traitors."

"I was standing near QUITMAN," writes a friend, who was then acting with the Whig party, "when this banner passed. His countenance grew terrible. He made a movement as though he was about to spring upon the flag and tear it to pieces. I made a hasty step toward him to recall him to himself. Dr. Otts approached him