James Francis Crocker

“ The charge of Pickett's division, made up entirely of Virginian's, is recognized the world over as unsurpassed in all the annals of history for steadiness of march, unwavering courage, and for the patriotic, calm determination to do all that "was possible to be done to win victory at any sacrifice of life. All know the awful fatality among the officers and men of the division. Of its generals, Garnett was killed, Armistead fatally wounded, and Kemper desperately wounded. ”

“ Her officers at their posts her men at their loaded guns and upwards of 400 marines and soldiers at quarters all standing ready, on the least provocation, to give and to receive the order to fire. She moved with a firm steadiness and the silent majesty of authority. She seemed a living thing with a heart beating to stirred emotions and sharing the hostile feelings and defiance of those whom she bore. ”

“ Hodges, under the order of Gen. Taliaferro, entered the navy yard to take charge, to restore order and to protect what was left and to turn the yard over to the civil and naval officers of the State. This was done, and leaving one of his companies in the yard as a guard he took the other companies of his regiment to the naval hospital grounds and there threw up breastworks for protection against any United States vessel that should attempt to re-enter the harbor. It was a Sunday morning. We all remember the work of throwing up the breastworks. ”

“ Men pressed in silence each others hands and spoke in tones subdued by the solemnity and intensity of the.r inexpressable feelings. All knew that when the long roll once sounded, it would thrill the land, and that it would not cease to be heard, day or night, until silenced in victory or defeat. ”

“ It was at Seven Pines, but only slightly engaged on the second day of the battle. The brigade was at Malvern Hill and engaged in that memorable charge. Col. Hodges thus speaks of it:
"The battle of Tuesday, July i, was the most terrific that can be conceived of. My imagination never pictured anything to equal it. I lost in killed and wounded on that day about one-fourth of my regiment. They all acted nobly. Men never fought better. The battle flag of the regiment which we carried into the fight has forty-seven shot holes in it; and every man in my color guard wounded. ”

“ My men are in excellent condition, and I know will perform their whole duty should they be required to meet the enemy. So you may expect to hear a grand account of the regiment and I am proud to say that it has always done well, and in some instances far excelled those they were thrown with." Pickett's division pushed hurriedly on to catch up with Lee's advancing army. The division was at Chambersburg on the 1st day of July engaged in ordinary camp drill, while Lee's advancing forces were engaged in severe battle at Gettysburg. ”

“ I have now some eighty men without shoes, notwithstanding that I have within the past ten days issued to my regiment one hundred pairs." I
Burnside had superseded Gen. McClellan in the command of the Union army, and was now moving towards Fredericksburg. When this intention manifested itself, our forces concentrated in the neighborhood of Culpeper Courthouse. Our brigade was ordered thitherward. I remember the first day's long, severe march. The first day's march is always trying to soldiers who have been in camp for weeks. ”

“ Hodges, married Mary Wynns, the daughter of Col. Benjamin Wynns, of the Revolution, and Margaret Pugh, the daughter of Francis Pugh and Pherebee Savage.
James Gregory Hodges was educated at the once famous Literary, Scientific and Military Academy of Portsmouth, of which Capt. Alden Partridge, A M., of New England, was superintendent. His associate professors were: William L. Lee, A. B., professor of mathematics, natural philosophy and civil engineering; William H. H. Davis, A. B., professor of mathematics, topographical drawing, military instructor and teacher of fencing ”

“ Hodges, in command of Armistead's brigade, reported to me, and I placed it in line in the position occupied by my brigade and placed the latter in line on the edge of the plateau which has been mentioned and parallel to the Hagerstown road under cover." This battle was the most destructive battle of the war for the time engaged.
In his letter last mentioned Col. Hodges says: "We have had a very hard time since we left Richmond. I have not slept in a tent since leaving there and have only been in three houses. We eat whatever we can get. ”

“ In the spring it was ordered to Suffolk, from there it was ordered to join Lee's army, then ready to commence its march into Pennsylvania.
Col. Hodges, writing on the 9th of June, 1863, from Spotsylvania county, says: "We left Hanover Junction yesterday morning and have proceeded forty miles on our way to join Gen. Lee, either in Culpeper county or beyond if he has crossed the upper Rappahannock. We have now been marching every day for a week, averaging a full day's march of seventeen or eighteen miles every day. ”

“ God, in some way, would bless the prayer to their good. That gallant officer was Col. James Gregory Hodges, of the Fourteenth Virginia regiment, the brother of the speaker's wife. He stated that early and careful but unavailing efforts had been made to find the place of his burial and he now desired to find and have identified the sAdjutant J. F. Crocker, of the Ninth Virginia, in the course of his remarks, in receiving from Col. Andrew Cowan, of Cowan's Battery, the sword of the unknown Confederate officer who fell within a few feet of the guns of the battery, while giving the order: "Men! ”