Capt. Wm. P. Tolley writes of Lieut. F. M. Kelso:

The achievement of Serg. Bell, of the Seventh Georgia Regiment, in the capture of the Nineteenth Wisconsin Regiment, has a fit companion in a similar deed by Lieut. F. M. Kelso, of the Forty-Fourth Tennessee, in the capture of three stands of colors and six or seven hundred Federals. It was on June 16, 1864, in the campaign between, Beauregard and "Beast" Butler, near Petersburg, Va. The flags were the subject of a spirited correspondence among high officials, in which Col. John S. Fulton, commanding the brigade, and Gen. Bushrod Johnson, commanding the division, demanded that they should be deposited in the Confederate archives to the credit of the Tennesseeans who captured them. In this they were sustained by Gen. Beauregard, and the order was accordingly made by the Secretary of War.

The narrative is sustained by the official reports of Col. Fulton, who commanded the famous Bushrod Johnson brigade, and by Gen. Johnson himself. The Forty - Fourth Tennessee was reduced to only a good-sized company by its heavy losses at Chickamauga and the fearful assault on Fort Sanders in Longstreet's siege of Knoxville and the awful winter campaign in East Tennessee of 1863-64. In order to even partially man the stretch of our lines assigned to its defense it was deployed as a mere skirmish line, and yet it held the rifle pits against repeated assaults of the enemy in force throughout the day. In addition to the causes of depletion mentioned above, details had to be made to cook rations and to bring water to the men in the ditches, so that the company commanded by Lieut. Kelso had but seventeen men, and no other commissioned officer.

Late in the afternoon Col. Fulton, while reconnoitering the ground in front of the angle discovered a long column of the enemy approaching up the narrow valley between the two ridges. Attenuated as were his lines, his only recourse was to detach a small force to hold the space between the batteries to prevent them breaking through our lines by this new assailing column. Knowing well his man, lie ordered Lieut. Kelso to take his company and hold the line between the batteries as long as he had a man.

Kelso commanded: "Attention! Company right face, double-quick, march!" and as they marched out bullets were flying thick from the assaulting column, just then charging upon the line of the Forty-Fourth. They got into their new position without casualty, just in time to intercept the advancing enemy, moving as if on dress parade. They opened fire at once on Kelso and his Spartan braves. Telling his men to hold the ditches as long as there was a man left, Kelso assured them they could hold back two lines of battle if they would take close aim and make every shot count. They must have been splendid marksmen, as the sequel shows. On the enemy rushed impetuously. There were three flags afloat above their line. One was a large bright banner heavily fringed. Kelso's men shot down the flag bearers as fast as the vacant places could be filled. At every fall of a standard bearer there was considerable confusion. But still they advanced, until it looked as if they would swallow up the little hand of heroes bodily.

The sixth bearer of the large bright flag was shot down. The confusion that followed produced a panic, and they fell back some fifty yards to a depression in the narrow valley they occupied and lay down, in which position they were protected in a measure from the unerring aim of Kelso's men. Hearing the chatter and noise of the enemy, lie ordered his men to cease firing, ,and mounted the works to reconnoiter. He discovered that they had upon their guns hats, caps, and some white handkerchiefs, but could not understand what they were saying. He demanded that they lay down their arms and come in, or he would fire on them again. They continued to wave their hats and handkerchiefs, but did not conic. Dismounting from the works, he ordered his men to stand tip in the pits and aim low and fire. There was again great confusion among them at the effect of these telling shots. Mounting the works, he again demanded their surrender, beckoning to them with his hand to conic in.

Just then he beheld another column about three-quarters of a mile off, making straight for his positiontion. The sun was setting, and lie knew, lie could not cope with both these lines; yet he was intent on securing for a prize the men in the ravine as prisoners, and knew that it must be quick work. If they were not rescued by the ipproaching column, there were so many of them they could easily escape in the approaching darkness.

Now comes the supreme crisis. The undertaking was too reckless for him to order them to go with him, so calling for volunteers he started out to se- cure his prize. Serg. Goodall had been killed, and Corporal Bush wounded, leaving him only fifteen men. But every one of them volunteered for this desperate undertaking. Leading the way, his men in single file following, nerve and presnce of mind were very essential. By a fine piece of strategy lie directed his men to keep to the left of the enemy arid on the high ground, all the time threatening his adversaries if a single man raised tip with his gun in hand lie would be shot down instantly. He commanded them to move for-ward and leave their guns on the ground, adding that the artillery and a double line of infantry would open fire on them immediately if they did not. A few of their leaders moved out, and the others followed. As soon as they were a little way from their guns Kelso moved his men quickly into the intervening space and then ordered the enemy at a double-quick to our rear. By the time they got there he had run to the head of their line, leaving his men in charge of a corporal, following after, and filed them to the left down our trenches, which in this reversed order soon brought them to where Wise's men were on the right of the angle. Here he turned them over to an officer of that brigade, with the request that he take them to the rear. He had no time to count his prisoners. He is sure, however, there were between six and seven hundred.

The whole of this brilliant and perilous affair was the work of Kelso and his seventeen men. Not a gun was fired at this line but by his men. The two ridges protected them from the fire of other troops on our side. The regiment and brigade from which his company was detached were engaged in their immediate front. What a pity it is that all the names of the seventeen cannot be reproduced in this article! I wrote Lieut. Kelso a request for them, and he replied that he and Thomas W. Smith and G. W. Porter, both good citizens of his county (Lincoln), had tried to make out a list of them, but could not recall the names.

From the time Bushrod Johnson's brigade of Tennesseeans arrived in Virginia-about May I-they were fighting day and night around Drewry's Bluff and Petersburg. Men were constantly being wounded and killed, and there was no time for roll call-the Lieutenant believes there was no roll call for three months covering that period. Kelso was yet scarcely out of his teens. He had volunteered as a mere boy, and showed such adaptability to the military that he was made a lieutenant at the reorganization of his regiment at an unusually early age. He was already the hero of many daring exploits, and naturally enough he was chosen by Col. Fulton to defend the gap in the angle between the batteries.

In reference to the capture of these prisoners I find that Col. Fulton, on page 772 of Part I., Vol. 40, of "War Records," states, among other things: "Had not Lieut. Kelso acted in the manner he did, I am satisfied the prisoners would not have been captured." Gen. Johnson, in forwarding Kelso's report as received from Col. Fulton, endorses on it: "Lieut. Kelso is the same officer who is mentioned for gallant conduct in my official report of the battle of Drewry's Bluff, on May 16, 1864." On page 243 of Part 2, Vol. 36, "War Records," he also states: "From the Forty-Fourth Tennessee Regiment, Johnson's Brigade, twenty-two men and three sergeants, under Lieut. Kelso, were detached to man the heavy artillery in Fort Clifton. At 9 A. M. on May 9 a small boat appeared in the Appomattox, below Fort Clifton, which was fired on and driven off. At about II A. M. five gunboats advanced and engaged the battery at Fort Clifton. The firing was continued from the fort until after 2 P. M., when four gunboats retired and the fifth one was found to be crippled. A party was organized to board the boat, but the enemy set fire to and abandoned it. For their services and gallant conduct at Fort Clifton the officers and men have received the commendation of the general commanding that department"-Beauregard.

Another event illustrates still more forcibly, perhaps, the heroic stuff of which Kelso and his compatriot, Tom Smith, were made. It finds a counterpart alone in the immortal Pelham's daring feats with Jeb Stuart's horse artillery. Kelso and his company had drilled in artillery and were ready for just such episodes as the above and the one now about to be related. It was at the breaking tip of Lee's lines around Petersburg, on April 2, 1865. They had been broken on the left of the Tennessee brigade, and in overwhelming numbers the Federals were charging down on their left flank, while they were being assailed in front by a force estimated at "ten columns deep." Near by was a battery manned by some youths from Richmond. The battle soon got too hot for them, and they abandoned it. Seeing that the guns were silent, Kelso, without orders, but with decision suited to the occasion, took his company and commenced firing the cannons full into the faces of the approaching enemy. Their overwhelming numbers, however, pressed on, and our lines on each flank of Kelso were rapidly falling back, so he was forced to abandon the battery. Realizing the situation, he ordered his men to take their two wounded comrades who lay under the guns and make their escape with them up the ditches, while he assisted Tom Smith in giving the enemy a parting shot with a double charge of canister. By this time the enemy were jobbing their bayonets at them across the works, and ordering: "Surrender, you d____ rebels, or we will blow your heads off." Smith threw in another charge, and Kelso rammed it home, and they let it fly right in their faces, and then took to their heels for their lives, and escaped. They overtook the company in a ravine going in the direction their main line bad fallen back. But they were intercepted by the enemy's line, which had broken through on their left; and, being pursued by those who had charged them in front, they were forced to surrender. Their captors were enraged at that last shot, which had been fired at them when they thought the two men at the guns were in the act of surrendering. Of course they couldn't find those who would own tip to firing the shot. They said it mowed down a lane ten men wide through all their approaching columns. It must have been fearfully destructive.

Kelso was sent to Johnson's Island a prisoner, and was not released till June, 1865. Like all good soldiers of the Confederate army, he has made a good citizen. The people of his county honored him with a seat in the Legislature two years ago. Though I have known him ever since the war I never heard him speak, of his achievements but once, and then at my earnest insistance.