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In the death of M. A. Ryan at his home, in Rose Hill, Jasper County, Miss., on the 9th of August, 1916, there passed from the life of the community an old and valued citizen, whose steadfastness as a friend, loyalty as a citizen, and gallantry and faithfulness as a soldier made him so. He had just returned from a visit to a son in Texas when attacked with acute indesgestion, and within a short time the pilgrimage of a long honorable, and useful life was ended.

Comrade Ryan was a member of Company B, 14th Mississippi Infantry and was wounded and captured (with the writer) in the battle of Nashville in November, 1864, and confined at Camp Chase, Ohio, until the close of the war. As a soldier he was brave and loyal; as a citizen he stood among the foremost of his country; as a neighbor he was kind and obliging; but it was within the sanctuary of his home that his splendid qualities as a husband and father ever shone brightest and sweetest. Long will his splendid virtues be cherished by those who knew him.

Another of the strong links which cheered us in the noontide of life, calling to memory the stirring scense of the battle's wreck, has been broken; another column has fallen to earth to rise no more until that grand reunion where farewells are never spoken.

W. G. Edwards.