ncensed our president. He tried, for some time, but
in vain, to have the flag torn down. When my class went at the usual
hour to his room to recite, and before we had taken our seats, he
inquired if the flag was still flying. On being told that it was, he
said, "The class is dismissed; I will never hear a recitation under a
traitor's flag!" And away we went.

Lincoln's proclamation calling for 75,000 men from Virginia, to whip in
the seceded States, was immediately followed by the ordinance of
secession, and the idea of union was abandoned by all. Recitation-bells
no longer sounded; our books were left to gather dust, and forgotten,
save only to recall those scenes that filled our minds with the mighty
deeds and prowess of such characters as the "Ruling Agamemnon" and his
warlike cohorts, and we could almost hear "the terrible clang of
striking spears against shields, as it resounded throughout the army."

There was much that seems ludicrous as we recall it now. The youths of
the community, imbued with the idea that "cold steel" would play an
important part in the conflict, provided themselves with huge
bowie-knives, fashioned by our home blacksmith, and with these fierce
weapons swinging from their belts were much in evidence. There were
already several organized military companies in the county. The
Rockbridge Rifles, and a company of cavalry left Lexington April 17,
under orders from Governor John Letcher, our townsman, who had just been
inaugurated Governor of Virginia, to report at Harper's Ferry. The
cavalry company endeavored to make the journey without a halt, and did
march the first sixty-four miles in twenty-four hours.

The students formed a company with J. J. White, professor of Greek, as
their captain. Drilling was the occupation of the day; the students
having excellent instructors in the cadets and their professors. Our
outraged president had set out alone in his private carriage for his
former home in the North.

Many of the cadets were called away as drillmasters at camps established
in different parts of the South, and later became distinguished officers
in the Confederate Army, as did also a large number of the older alumni
of the Institute.

The Rockbridge Artillery Company was organized about this time, and,
after a fortnight's drilling with the cadets' battery, was ordered to
the front, under command of Rev. W. N. Pendleton, rector of the
Episcopal Church, and a graduate of West Point, as capt