I refuse to make any acknowledgments for what I have done. My blood will be as seed sown in good ground, which will produce a hundred fold.
James Pugh
(Before execution under Gov. Tryon, North Carolina, 1771)
Battle of Alamance Creek, 1771
May Seventeenth
He came into military and political life like some blazing meteor, with exceeding brilliance and splendor speeding across the horizon of history. His activities in politics and war covered only a brief span of seventeen years, 1848 to 1865, and in so short a period but few men ever received more, maintained their parts better, were the recipients of greater honors, or bore themselves with nobler dignity, greater skill or more superb courage either in victory or defeat.
Bennett H. Young
John C. Breckinridge dies, 1875
May Eighteenth
Hushed is the roll of the rebel drum,
The sabres are sheathed and the cannon are dumb;
And Fate, with pitiless hand, has furled
The flag that once challenged the gaze of the world.
John R. Thompson
(From “Lee to the Rear”)