tion, the culprit swore vengeance, and
had fulfilled his oath in a most complete though cowardly manner. Just
after dark, as the doctor was sitting at supper with his wife, a voice
at the gate called his name. He answered the summons at once, followed
closely by Mrs. Thornton, who, standing upon the doorsteps, saw and
heard the murderous blow which laid him dead at her feet, stabbed to
the heart. For many hours horror and grief dethroned the reason of the
wife. After I had persuaded her to go to her room, she continually
insisted upon washing her hands, which she shudderingly declared were
red with _his blood_. Subsequently she struggled successfully for
composure, pitifully saying, "He liked me to be brave; I _will try_,"
and with remarkable fortitude she bore up through the trying ordeal
which followed. In my ministration to Mrs. Thornton I was assisted by
a lady whose name is well known and well beloved by the soldiers of
the Army of Tennessee,--Mrs. Frank Newsome. Of remarkable beauty,
sweet and gentle manners, deeply religious, and carrying the true
spirit of religion into her work, hers was indeed an angelic ministry.
We had never met before, but in the days of my early girlhood I had
known her husband, Frank Newsome, of Arkansas, who, with Randal
Gibson, of Louisiana, Tom Brahan, of Alabama, and my own husband (then
my lover), studied together under a tutor in preparation for the
junior class of Yale College; they were room-mates at a house in the
same village where my mother resided, and I had known them very well.
Dr. Newsome had died some time before, but his having once been my
friend proved a bond of sympathy between his widow and myself.
Although our pleasant intercourse was never again renewed, I continued
through the years of the war to hear accounts of Mrs. Newsome's
devotion to the Confederate soldiers. Duty requiring my presence at
the hospital, I was compelled to leave Mrs. Thornton, who soon after
returned to Kentucky. I never met her again, but remember her with
unchanged affection.

Dr. Gamble, of Tallahassee, Florida, succeeded Dr. Thornton as surgeon
of the post at Ringgold. He was one of the most thorough gentlemen I
ever knew, as courteous to the humblest soldier as to General Bragg,
who was then and during the summer a frequent visitor. His wife lay
for some months very ill at some point near Ringgold. Mrs. Gamble,
who, with her lovely children, was domiciled at Cherokee Springs,
three miles