General Ben McCulloch in his "Buena Vista" engagement in which he reports the experience of a fourteen-year-old boy while in battle being shot and willingly and humorously referring to his experience in conversation with the general. This same experience did often happen in connection with Red River County boys who joined the Southern Army and entered the war in defense of their country.

My father, Captain James Clark, was in the Confederate army almost continuously through the war. He relates that the youthful soldiers almost invariably proved the most courageous. One incident of special interest was an experience had by a Red River County troop, which was related to me by a brother of my stepmother, Mr. C. J. Gathney. He told of being placed on picket duty with a comrade down in the swamps of Louisiana. One comrade, Oscar Gray, then quite a young man, hearing the call of a wounded soldier begging for water, marched out into the open with a canteen in hand and walked 75 or 100 yards to the edge of the river, and though constantly fired upon from the enemy's line, dished up the water and brought it back to his thirsty comrade.

This war between the North and South perhaps will never be clearly understood, especially by the people of the North. Abraham J. Ryan, a great Southern poet, with all his great poetic ability, failed to express the sentiments of love that bound the great patriots one to another.