J.H. Argabright, Esq.
Dear Sir:
Our P/M handed me your letter you wrote him on the 26th. I am living next door to the office. I showed the letter to brother John and Luther. They are both living in town. Brother John has a list of the company that he has been getting up for last year or more and, I send you a copy of it, and you will, no doubt, remember quite a number of them. I will get John to write you a long letter and he will give you all the news he can.
I remember the time you were wounded and, I think, fell in the Yankee lines. If I mistake not, you had large bone taken out of upper part of arm.
Would be glad to have a long letter from you. Give us all the news, how you are getting alone, etc.
Yours Respectfully,
L.P. Henkel
Waynesboro, Virginia April 1st, 1909
This is to certify that John H. Argabright, now of Oglesby, Texas was a member of my company, Co. H. 10th Virginia Cavalry, Confederate States Army. That he was a faithful and brave soldier, that he was badly wounded near Petersburg, Virginia, in a battle with the Yankee Army, that he was left on the battle field and was captured by the Yankees and kept in prison for some months after Lee's surrender at Appomattox. That if he asks help he does honestly deserve it. J.C. Henkel A member of Co. H. 10th Va. Cavalry Beal's Brigade W.H.H. Lee's division.
Mr. John H. Argabright Oglesby, Texas
Dear Sir, and Comrade,
Yours of March 21st to hand and noted. Was glad to hear from you once more. Was sorry to hear that you are not well. I certainly think if any old Confederate Veteran deserves help you do, as you were a brave and faithful soldier in my company, and were very unfortuante in losing the use of one your arms. There are not so many of our old company alive now that were with us the last year of the war. I think there were about 150 names on our roll from the beginning of the war to the close, and as near as I can tell, there are about 40 still living, but many of these in only a part of the time. Some got substitutes, some were exempted, and some deserted. I will give you the names and address of some of the boys that I know are living now.
L.M. Henkel Newmarket, Virginia Mike Summers Lacy Springs, Virginia Jake Simmers * Lacy Springs, Virginia Wilson Bozzle Lacy Springs, Virginia David Holsinger Tenth Legion, Virginia William Frank Timberville, Virginia Mike Neff Timberville, Virginia John P. Foltz Tenth Legion, Virginia Mark Thomas Bristo, Virginia Many of the old Valley Rangers as our company was called have left the state since the war, and some I have not heard from since the war and do not know if they are dead or alive now. Ten years from now there will be very few of us left in this world of sin and sorrow, but I hope and pray that we will all be in a better world than this when we leave here.
If we never meet again in this world, hope we may meet in Heaven,
Yours respectfully,
J.C. Henkel
* might have been a misspelling, could be Summers, also
Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! (Confederate Lyrics) In my prison cell I sit, thinking, Mother, dear, of you, and my happy Southern home so far away; and my eyes they fill with tears 'spite of all that I can do, though I try to cheer my comrades and be gay. Chorus Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! The boys are marching; cheer up, comrades, they will come. And beneath the stars and bars we shall breathe the air again of freemen in our own beloved home.. In the battle front we stood when their fiercest charge they made, and our soldiers by the thousands sank to die; but before they reached our lines, they were driven back dismayed, and the "Rebel yell" went upward to the sky. Now our great commande Lee crosses broad potomac's stream, and his legions marching Northward take their way. On pennsylvania's roads will their trusty muskets gleam, and her iron hills shall echo to the fray. In the cruel stockade-pen dying slowly day by day, for weary months we've waited all in vain; but if God will speed the way of our gallant boys in gray, I shall see your face, dear Mother, yet again. When I close my eyes in sleep, all the dear ones 'round me come, at night my little sister to me calls; and mocking visions bring all the warm delights of home, while we freeze and starve in Northern prison walls. So the weary days go by, and we wonder as we sigh, if with sight of home we'll never more be blessed. Our hearts within us sink, and we murmur, though we try to leave it all with him who knowest best.
