“The ‘Silver-tongued orator of the Chattahoochee,’ Gen. Alpheus Baker, of Eufaula, Ala., possibly the most wonderful orator that ever lived within the borders of our state. “General Finnegan, the hero of Olustee, Fla. I suppose you have him on your list already. “General O’Neal, ‘Old Tige,’ as the boys called him, after the war, governor of Alabama; a great old soldier and statesman. “Every company of the Third Alabama had in its ranks a generous infusion of Irish blood, and one company, the Emerald Guards, was composed entirely of Irishmen. This company lost three captains during the war: Captain Loughry, killed at Seven Pines; Captain Branigan, killed at Gettysburg; and Captain McGrath, desperately wounded at Williamsburg, Second Manassas, the Wilderness and Spottsylvania, was brought home to die—perfectly shattered by the enemy’s bullets; no hazardous or extra duty performed by the gallant Third, but what her Irish members had their full share. “The Sixth Alabama had an Irish company, the ‘Montgomery Grays.’ This company carried to Virginia 103 men. It is declared that but eleven of this number returned after the war, and not one of these eleven returned unscathed. I am not familiar with the history of the Mississippi troops and never met many of the men from that state. “Of Louisiana, I recall that Wheat’s Tigers, the First Regiment of Louisiana Regulars (Gen. Gladden’s regiment); the First Regiment of Louisiana Volunteers and the Fourteenth Regiment Louisiana Volunteers were almost entirely composed of Irishmen and the sons of Irishmen. Nearly every regiment from that state had a fair sprinkling of the same blood. Even the famous Louisiana Zouaves and St. Paul’s Chasseurs, generally supposed to be entirely French, were more than one-third Irish. It always astonished me to see how accurately these Celts could obey an order given in French, especially when that order was ‘_En avant_’—i. e., ‘Forward.’ And did these gallant battalions furnish heroic soldiers? My dear sir, I could write a column on the subject. “Shall I pick out one and tell you of him? Then, without effort, I select ‘Mike Nolan’—Gen. Mike Nolan. When I was a little boy around New Orleans, I used to collect bills for sugar at a small grocery, right opposite the Charity hospital in that city. The owner of the store was a young, blue-eyed, light-haired Irishman, named Mike Nolan. Mild and polite and friendly in his manners; and I am sure it is no shame to my foresight that at that time I did not recognize in him the to be best, bravest and grandest soldier I ever met.