LINK WITH A GREAT PAST.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 837, 8 June 1910, Page 4

LINK WITH A GREAT PAST.

$ LIVING IN THE SOUTH. A contributor writes Accounts of thd old Maori other veterans appearing in the .press from to time are always interesting, but some veterans with experiences as terrific and t rather more unusual than even the Crimea, yet remain "unhonoured and I suppose it is not generally known that possibly the only veteran in New Zealand who saw the exhausting' struggle- in Virginia and Maryland between the Confederates and Federals 'in is Mr. A. Wilson, now resident, I believe, in Dunedin. Mr. Wilson, who carried the musket in Lee' 3 Army as "a ragged rebel 1 ' has a lively recollection of stirring daya when the Confederate brass bands led the army on some daring advance with some lively air, and then led- the inevitable retreat with the equally inevitable tune: ''Carry me Back to Ole Virginny." In the early days of the American Civil' War Mr. Wilson was "mu&. tered in" in a Texas regiment and, a3 such, formed part of Hood's division of Longstreefs corps of Lee's Army. Ho took part in. the seven days' fighting round Richmond in ISG2, and, in the same year was severely wounded in the second battle of Bull '.Run, the mark of the wound being still very visible on his face. It is somewhat curious that names now famous had not attracted much attention then. Mr. Wilson marched and fought and camped in ..the same army as "Stonewall" Jackson for over a .year and (he states) never once saw him to his knowledge or even had sufficient curiosity to keep a look-out for the purpose of catching a glimpse of the great general. ' *