Additional photos and biography available here:

http://members.cox.net/cw-sawyers/sawyers%28H%29.html

Absolutely Awesome! A great story that I enjoyed very much, and yes I will read it again. I salute the memory of your friend, Dr. Clark Donlin, who so faithfuly interperted Capt. Sawyer, keeping his memory and story alive.

I have heard of the story of Sawyer before, but It was not told in the context that you so eloquently framed it. Bringing in W.H.F. Lee into the picture made the threat of hanging Capt. Sawyer and Finn go away, but there’s another story with W.H.F. Lee at this time. His wife Charlotte fell ill from fear and anxiety, with Lee being spirited away from the Wickham homestead and being imprisoned. Her conditioned worsened as the months went by, and even a trip with Mrs. R.E. Lee to Hot Springs, Va failed to provide a recovery for her. Lee wrote to Charlotte trying to comfort her, and right before Christmas of 1863, Lee’s wife wrote to the General that Charlotte has passed. R.E. Lee wrote back to his wife, Mary this letter mentioning Charlotte in the most tender ways in a sorrowful Christmas Letter of 1863.
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To HIS WIFE

Richmond, Virginia

Orange

Xmas Night, 1863

I am filled with sadness dear Mary at the intelligence conveyed in your letter of last evening. I have been oppressed with sorrowful forebodings since parting with Charlotte. She seemed to me stricken with a prostration I could not understand. Dear child she promised to be better the next morning & I wrote to her in a cheerful & hopeful mood which I could not feel. That you may know my sorrow in all its breadth & depth, as far as I know my own heart, I feel for her all the love I bear Fitzhugh. That is very great. I pray she may be spared to us. Yet God’s will be done. The blow so grievous to us is intended I believe in mercy to her. She was so devoted to Fitzhugh. Seemed so bound up in him, that apparently she thought of & cared for nothing else. They seemed so united, that I loved them as one person. I would go down tomorrow, but from your letter have no hope of finding her alive, or of being ab le to do anything for her. I feel that all will de done for her that human power can, & oh I pray that our Merciful Father will yet spare her, or gently take her to Himself! Telegraph me if I can yet reach there in time.
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March of 1864, I believe the exchange of prisoners was made, and Rooney Lee would return to a Division of Cavalry, and from May of 1864 – lead until the end of the war, a Virginia Brigade of Gen Chambliss of the 9th, 10th, & 13th Virginia, and Gen Barringer’s Brigade of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th North Carolina – Until Appomattox.
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The Threat of Rooney being hung – most surely attributed to the anxiety, sickness, despair, and depression of his wife Charlotte, and at the end of the day, an Innocent Victim would pay the price.

I didn’t know about your editing of Fred Newhall’s book. I know Fred also played cricket in Philadelphia, as did a few of the other Newhalls at that time. The only records I could find of Fred’s efforts were of two matches, for Young America, against Germantown. I’m guessing that Walter had a little more talent!

Best wishes,

Mark

Glad you enjoyed it.

Eric