“halt,” once more, but still the steady tread keeps approaching.  When the third “halt” was given it was accompanied by the crack of their rifles.  A deafening report and frightful squeal, as an old female porker went charging through the underbrush like mad.  The crack of the rifles alarmed the sleeping companions in reserve, who rushed to arms and awaited the attack.  But after much good humored badgering of the two frightened sentinels, “peace reigned once more at Warsaw” till the break of day.  The company returned next morning to camp, but the two sentinels who had fired on the old innocent porker were glad enough to seek the quietude of their quarters to escape the jests of their comrades.

A simple system of breastworks was thrown up just beyond our camp at Fairfax on a little eminence to the right of the road.  This we thought sufficient to defeat quite an army, or at least keep them at bay.  General Bonham had his headquarters at Fairfax Court House, but rode out daily to examine the work done on the entrenchments, or inspect the picket and outposts.  General Bonham was one of the finest looking officers in the entire army.  His tall, graceful figure, his commanding appearance, his noble bearing, and soldierly mien were all qualities to excite the confidence and admiration of his troops.  He wore a broad-brimmed hat, with a waving plume floating out behind, and sat his horse as knightly as Charles the Bold, or Henry of Navarre.  His soldiers were proud of him, and loved to do him homage.  He endeared himself to his officers, and while he was a good disciplinarian as far as the volunteer service required, he did not treat his officers with that air of superiority, nor exact that rigid military courtesy that is required in the regular army.  I will here give a short sketch of his life for the benefit of his old comrades in arms.

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MILLEDGE LUKE BONHAM

Was born near Red Bank in that part of Edgefield District now included in Saluda County, South Carolina, on the 25th day of December, 1813.  His father, Captain James Bonham, who had come from Virginia to South Carolina about the close of the last century, was the son of Major Absalom Bonham, who was a native of Maryland, but who enlisted for the war of the Revolution in a New Jersey regiment, and became a Major of the line on the establishment of that State.  After the Revolution he moved to Virginia.  Captain James Bonham was himself at the siege of Yorktown as a lad of fifteen, in a company whose captain was only twenty years old.  He first settled in this State in the District of Colleton, and there married.  After the death of his wife, he moved to Edgefield District, and there married Sophie Smith, who was the mother of the subject of this sketch.  She was the daughter of Jacob Smith and his wife, Sallie Butler, who was a sister of that Captain James Butler who was the forefather of the illustrious family of that name in this State, and who with his young son, also named James, was cruelly massacred along with others at Cloud’s Creek, in Edgefield District, by “Bloody Bill” Cunningham.