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Speech made to the first meeting of the Salyer-Lee Chapter of the
UDC:
Record of service of Colonel L. H. N. Salyer
July 10,
1912
Mustered in as Captain of a company of 101 men of Wise County, Virginia,
on the 3rd day of June 1861. This company and others was organized
into a regiment, at Wytheville, Virginia. My Company being known as Company “H” and the Regiment
being known as the 50th Virginia Regiment, Infantry. This Regiment
was then placed under the command of Gen. John B. Floyd, with A. B. Reynolds as
the first Colonel. Our regiment was sent from Wytheville to the region of the
Kanawha, West
Virginia and
spent the summer and fall campaigning. Gen. Floyd with his command was then
ordered to Bowling Green, Kentucky, and then to
Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River. In this battle I was severely wounded by being shot
through the body, while leading my men in the fight. I was sent away during the
battle by steamboat to Nashville, Tennessee. The boat was crowded with the wounded. A Soldier in
the struggle of death fell across my body and died there. He lay on me for a
long time for there was no one to remove him and I was too weak from the loss of
blood to do it. The regiment did not surrender, but fought their way out and
marched in the direction of Murfreesboro, Tennessee and thence made their way back to
Virginia. I finally recovered sufficiently to rejoin my Regiment
and in reorganizing our regiment in June 1862 Col. Pough of
Newburn, Virginia, became the Colonel and I was elected Major. The
Regiment was then placed under command of Gn. Lourning and sent back to
West
Virginia. In
the fall we were placed under Gen. Roger A. Pryor. On the 30th day of
January 1863 Col. Pough was killed. Then Lt. Col. Vanderventer and myself were
promoted, he to Colonel and I to Lt. Col. We were then transferred to Northern
Virginia on the Rappahannock and there became known as the 2nd
division of Gen. Stonewall Jackson. Soon after this Col. Vanderventer was
retired from the Regiment, and I was left in command of the regiment as Colonel
and I continued in command, serving Gen. Jackson until he was killed and with
Gen. Robert E. Lee until the regiment was destroyed at the Battle of
Spottsylvania Courthouse and continued with Lee until we surrendered. I also
received a bad wound across the head by a sword in a bayonett charge at
Chancellorsville. I was completely surrounded by the Federals in a hand
to hand fight and would have been killed had not one of my men thrown himself
between us and struck the man as the blow fell. I fell unconscious and the
Federals threw me in the ditch face down to be covered up. The Sisters of
Charity who were picking up the wounded noticed that I was a Confederate Officer
and turned me over and found I was breathing. The Federals were occupying the
Chancellors house and I was sent to Gen. Hookers headquarters. This was late
Saturday evening and I spent the remainder of the night on top of the piano in
the parlor without any medical attention. I was there on Sunday morning when
Gen. Hooker was thought to have been killed by a shot form our cannon striking a
column of the portico against which he was leaning in the second story of the
house. I was also in the house when soon after this a shell from the outside set
the house on fire. I escaped from the house into the woods back of the house
intending to make my way back to my regiment but that same evening was
recaptured by the Federals and was sent on finally to Cliffburn Barracks near
Washington and soon after to the old Capitol prison in the City. Was then
exchanged and returned to my regiment just in time to take up the line of march
to Gettysburg. Many of the wounded were burned in the Chancellor
house and at the time I was supposed to have perished in the house and the
Richmond papers of the day published a very flattering article
concerning me and my supposed tragic end. I fought and took a very active part
in the following battles: Bull Run, Cotton Mountain, Big Sewell Mountain, Fort
Donaldson, Fayettesville, West Virginia, Frazier’s Farm, Battle of Winchester,
Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court House, Manasses,
Siege of Petersburg, Fall of Richmond, Boonesboro, Malvern Hill, Gains Mill, and
many others of lesser note. I served from the beginning of the war until I
surrendered with Gen. Lee at Appomattox, I am now my78th year, but hope to
attend a Confederate Reunion at Richmond, Virginia before I am called home to my reward. My heart beats
with gratitude for the honor you ladies of the Salyer-Lee Chapter of the
U. D. C. have conferred upon me naming the Chapter after me
and the great Lee.”
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