Note H — 1864

Long years intervening, General Peirson recalls the existence of a certain church edifice, out Slaughter Mountain way, which in a former campaign had afforded cover for a rebel battery and that the same, issuing from its concealment, had done no little harm to the Second Massachusetts Infantry, even wounding several of his good friends. Lest it might be used thus again, and with a certain feeling of resentment as though the building had been particeps criminis, he suggested to the builders of the winter quarters that the siding of the house and its foundations might help out their own building schemes. "A word to the wise" was sufficient, and ere long the structure disappeared, to reappear as flooring and chimneys for Yankee comfort. The story does not end here, since many years later the officer was introduced, at the home of a Boston friend, to a Virginian lady whose mission North was the soliciting of funds for the rebuilding of the very edifice whose destruction he had suggested. The General's memory seemed defective when asked whether he responded liberally or not.