With the Rev. Mr. Mitchell, I went that night to a meeting of the citizens of Montgomery, called to consider the condition of affairs then existing. The theater in which the meeting was held, was crowded to excess. When we arrived, Governor Watts was addressing the assembled multitude. We could scarcely get standing room. The Governor spoke for more than an hour, made many good points, defended President Davis, and altogether his speech was an able one, practical and thoroughly patriotic. He referred to the different spirit displayed by the people at home from that of the soldiers in the field. He was followed by other speakers and a series of patriotic resolutions was adopted by the people present.
I spent Sunday in Montgomery, preached morning and evening and baptized the son of Lieutenant-General Albert J. Smith. Leaving Montgomery the next morning, I arrived at Columbus, Georgia, at five o'clock in the evening, after an absence of more than three months. I was glad to find my family well.
I took up my work of assisting the Rev. Mr. Hawks as before my departure for Tennessee. The 1st of March was Ash Wednesday and it rained incessantly. I said Morning Prayer and preached for the rector of the parish, who though able to attend the service, was looking very badly. His active labors were evidently at an end. Three weeks later, my former classmate, Dr. Frank Stanford, put him under the influence of chloroform, and operated upon him with a knife, removing a cancer. He bore the operation well, and was present to give his blessing, when on the 5th of April, at the rectory, I united in the bonds of matrimony, Captain John S. Smith, aide-de-camp to General Hood, and Sallie C. Hawks, the reverend gentleman's daughter. And his health continued reasonably good so long as I remained in Columbus.
During the season of Lent I officiated every Sunday for Mr. Hawks and delivered a course of lectures on "Confirmation." On the 10th of March, Friday and the day appointed by President Davis as a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer, I preached to a crowded congregation from Isaiah iv, 12. I attended to funerals, baptisms and other parochial duties for Mr. Hawks. Among the baptisms, was that of General Warner, chief engineer of the Naval Works at Columbus. Another was that of Captain Rodolph Morerod, of the Thirty-third Tennessee, Strahl's brigade. He was of Swiss parentage, a native of Indiana and a practicing physician before the war.
Major-General John C. Brown spent an evening with me just before he left to join his command, having recovered sufficiently from the wound received at the Battle of Franklin. He made a full statement to me of his movements at Spring Hill, which satisfied me that his skirts were clear of even a shadow of blame for the neglect of a great opportunity, as is sometimes said. I had always believed it, for he was at once one of the noblest of men and most accomplished of soldiers. I had united him in the bonds of matrimony with Miss Bettie Childress, a little more than a year previously, at Griffin, Georgia, under somewhat romantic circumstances. Invitations had been issued for the wedding to take place at nine o'clock, in the evening of the 23rd of February, (1864). The groom, accompanied by nine officers of his staff, arrived in Griffin on the 22nd. But the following morning he received a telegram from General Joseph E. Johnston, ordering him to report at once at Rome, Georgia. The officers who were with him were likewise recalled.
General Brown at once sought Miss Childress and laid the case before her.
"You will have to return to your command," she said.
"But not before you are my wife," he replied.
I was in attendance at the hospitals in Griffin at the time and was sent for and married them at one o'clock in the afternoon in the presence of a few friends. The groom said "good by" to his bride and went to the seat of war. Two weeks later he had a leave of absence and with his bride took a wedding journey.
I baptized the children of this marriage, confirmed all but one, performed the ceremony at the marriage of the eldest daughter and officiated at her funeral a year later. I was with the heart-broken father at the death-bed of a second daughter and stood with him at her grave.