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Sorrowfully I pay a tribute of affection to my dear friend and comrade, Dr. Joseph D. Read, who passed from mortal sight May 3, 1919, in Jackson, Miss. He had just reached his seventy-fifth year.

Joe enlisted in the Confederate army in 1861 at the age of seventeen and served as a member of Company K, 3d Mississippi Battalion, afterwards the 45th Mississippi Regiment, attached during the greater part of the war to Lowrey's Brigade of Gen. Pat Cleburne's division, Hardee's Corps. Among all the gallant sons of the South who hurried to her defense in those perilous days there was no truer, braver soldier than Joe Read; tender, kindly, a typical gentleman. In the battle of Murfreesboro, then a corporal, he performed an act of unusual courage at a critical moment. This happened to come under the personal notice of General Cleburne, who inquired of the regimental commander who that gallant corporal was and directed that at the first opportunite moment Corporal Read should be made a lieutenant. He was duly promoted, and during all the trying scenes that followed-in the bloody engagements, the ardous marches-Lieut. Joe Read bore himself most gallantly. At Spring Hill., the day before the battle of Franklin, he was unfortunately, wounded in the leg, was captured, and some weeks later, while in a Federal hospital, his leg was amputated above the knee.

After the war he studied medicine and graduated from the Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, in 1874. He went to Texas, where he practiced his profession a number of years, and there was married, his wife dying some years later. Suffering sore physical affliction, he returned to Mississippi, where he lived until the end came, useful and honored. His brother was the heroic naval officer, Capt. C. W. Read, who wrought so much damage to the Federal navy. The doctor left only one near relative, Prof. W. T. Read, who is now, I learn, a professor of chemistry in Yale College.

Being closely connected with Joe throughout the war, I sorrowfully, reverently offer this tribute to one of the bravest and best men I ever knew. Peace to his ashes!

[P. W. Shearer, Vicksburg, Miss.]