Garnett, Richard Brooke

It is said that another unsuccessful suitor for the hand of this beautiful Southern woman was gallant Dick Garnett, a young West Pointer, in charge of the arsenal at Augusta, then the girlhood home of Miss Stovall. To the handsome youth's proposal of marriage, the fair object of his affection was by no means indifferent. But the young girl's father did not favor this match. The lovers were forbidden to meet and the obstinate lass was finally sent to visit relatives in South Carolina. There was probably no objection to the young man himself. The best Virginia blood rippled his veins; but his profession was hazardous and his income small. Mr. Stovall wished to see his daughter wedded to a lord of many acres. In this whim he was gratified. While visiting the Palmetto State, Miss Cecilia smiled on the suit of a gentleman to whom her father interposed no objection and whose means enabled him to build for his bride the beautiful old home on the Etowah. But the young officer whose suit she was forced to decline always remained true to his first love. He never married; and when he fell on the battle-field of Gettysburg, in 1863, the image of sweet Cecilia Stovall still ruled the heart of General Richard B. Garnett, one of the bravest soldiers in the Army of Northern Virginia.