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Seldom have I ever felt so called upon to pay a tribute to a loved and honored comrade as has come to me by the death of Lieut. E. Lee Bell, who died at his home, in Lynchburg, Va., on August 1, 1920, at the age of seventy-seven years.

He was a native of Page County, Va., and a member of Company K, 10th Virginia Infantry; and when the tocsin of war in 1861 resounded over the hills and through the valleys of his State, he, then but eighteen of age, was among the first to volunteer in defense of his country and entered the ranks as a private, rising by promotion to a first lieutenancy.

In the battle of Cedar Mountain, August 9, 1862, when every officer of the company, down to corporal, was killed or wounded, he then, as corporal, became the commandant and discharged the duties incumbent upon him with heroic courage and marked ability until the return of his captain in Febrauary, 1863.

On May 12, 1864, he was captured in the battle of Spottsylvania Courthouse, together with the entire division of Gen. Edward Johnson, he was one of the six hundred Confederate officers at Fort Delaware who were selected under a fictitious charge of retaliation sent to Morris Island, S. C., and placed in a stockade directly in range of the Confederate guns in Charleston Harbor firing upon the batteries of Gregg and Wagner of the enemy. For forty-three days, together with his comrades, he endured this crucial ordeal of impending danger, spurning the proffered offer of the oath of allegiance to the United States to regain his freedom, thus adding luster to the character and spirit that animated the Confederate soldier's loyalty and devotion to his righteous cause.

While a prisoner at Fort Delaware Lieutenant Bell enlisted in the service of the Lord Jesus Christ, and loyally and faithfully he exemplified his profession by his walk and conversation to the end.

He has left a noble heritage to his family as a soldier, citizen, and Christian, and to his comrades and unblemished character to emulate. Peace to his ashes!

[D. C. Grayson, Washington, D. C.]