I would like to share the following letter published in Confederate Reminiscences and Letters 1861-1865, Georgia Division, United Daughters of the Confederacy, Vol. VI, pp. 182-183. Atlanta.

From George W. Hillyer to Sampson Marion Still, 1895. (Still was a private in Company C, 9th Alabama, while Hillyer was his Captain.)

Mr. S.M. Still, Conyers, Georgia

Dear Sir:

This is a labor of love and I would not have a cent for it. I would rather get up at midnight or walk 25 miles to do you a kindness than to charge you anything for this service.

A few years ago I was on the Gettysburg battlefield, and passed by the very spot where you fell and where I laid you down by the rock wall. The trees and fences and main features of the landscape have been preserved and the locality is easily recognized. I picked up an old piece of leather, evidently part of a cartridge box, within a few yards and possibly at the spot where you were struck. I do not remember that any other of our men were hit exactly there; as we immediately went forward in the charge,-that is except Jack Giles, and he, you know, was a courier for Gen. Anderson and had no cartridge box. I have surmised that, as you were far too badly hurt to take care of yours, and as the little corps that carried you away would naturally leave such a thing for the Ordnance department to pick up, it may have been overlooked, and possibly this piece of leather is the very one you had round you at the time. It had lain there on the ground for 25 years when I picked it up. Sometime when you are here, or when I get the opportunity, I will give it to you, if you wish, for you to preserve as a memento of the occasion. If it was not yours, it was that of some comrade with blood as red as yours or mine, and coming from the spot it did, I think likely you will prize it.

The many wounds you bear on your body are an honorable record of which you and yours may well be proud. There are those of later days who are inclined to scoff at or speak lightly of the old soldiers, but they are few, and I trust growing less. The honorable record you made you may safely hand down as a rich heritage to your children and your children's children. Yours truly, George Hillyer

Submitted by Alfred Holt Colquitt Chapter No. 2018, UDC, Atlanta, Georgia