VIII

RAPHAEL SEMMES

It is not likely that the romance of the one hundred and thirty volumes of Civil War Records will ever be writ- ten ; yet the diligent searcher of those records finds many picturesque points to relieve his tedious hours. For instance, there is the matter of proper names. The novelist who invented *' Philip St. George Cocke " as a military hero would be laughed at for excess of fancy. Yet the Confederates rejoiced in such a general, who was killed early and is said to have been a good fighter. At any rate, he wrote up to his name in almost unbelievable fashion. He is not to be confused with his feebler Union duplicate — I mean feebler as regards nomenclature — Philip St. George Cooke.

Then there is Captain Coward, a brave and able sol- dier, who has served his state efficiently both during the war and since. Still with that name would you not have chosen to be a preacher, or a plumber, or to follow any respectable profession of peace, rather than to inflict such a military hictis e non hicendo on a mocking world ? And the parents of this unfortunate, when they had the whole alphabet to choose from, preferred to smite their ofTspring with the initial A.," perhaps hoping, affectionately but

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