VIII
RAPHAEL SEMMES
It is not likely that the romance of the one hundred and thirty volumes of Civil War Records will ever be written; yet the diligent searcher of those records finds many picturesque points to relieve his tedious hours. For instance, there is the matter of proper names. The novelist who invented " Philip St. George Cocke " as a military hero would be laughed at for excess of fancy. Yet the Confederates rejoiced in such a general, who was killed early and is said to have been a good fighter. At any rate, he wrote up to his name in almost unbelievable fashion. He is not to be confused with his feebler Union duplicate—I mean feebler as regards nomenclature—Philip St. George Cooke.
Then there is Captain Coward, a brave and able soldier, who has served his state efficiently both during the war and since. Still with that name would you not have chosen to be a preacher, or a plumber, or to follow any respectable profession of peace, rather than to inflict such a military lucus e non lucendo on a mocking world? And the parents of this unfortunate, when they had the whole alphabet to choose from, preferred to smite their offspring with the initial "A.," perhaps hoping, affectionately but
