A week or ten days ago the Raleigh News and Observer published a story about how Mr. Kerr had gone on a visit to LaFayette Murray, who lives like a lord on a fine plantation three miles from the thriving hamlet of Yanceyville, in Caswell County, North Carolina: how he found a little graveyard on this plantation and in this graveyard an old monument or headstone which marked the last resting place of Starling Gunn, a soldier of the Revolution, who fired the first cannon at Yorktown when Lord Cornwallis surrendered to General Washington. In view of the well known historical gifts of the News and Observer, we assumed that there was really no foundation for the story, and immediately discredited it, suggesting that if the alleged grave should be opened the original copy of the Mecklenburg Declaration would be found in the left-hand pocket of the jim swinger which he (the said Starling Gunn) is almost certain to have worn on his farewell appearance.

That was a trifling way in which to speak of so serious a mater if, in the circumstances, it could have been regarded seriously, and we wish now to make the most ample apology for this apparently irreverent observation, since we are assured that there was really a Revolutionary soldier by the name engraved on the monument in Caswell County, that his memory is cherished by is descendants to this day because of his high character and his loyal service to his country in the great struggle for American independence.

The Rev. E. Steirling Gunn writes as follows from Trinity Rectory, Natchez, Mississippi: I have just read a clipping from your issue of September 10 with the caption "Another Find in North Carolina," which was sent me by my mother. There is the grave of my grandfather, Starling Gunn, in Caswell county, North Carolina, some three miles from Yanceyville, with a tombstone bearing this inscription: 'Sacred to the memory of Starling Gunn, a soldier in the War of Independence who fired the first cannon at York and was an eyewitness to the surrender of Cornwallis. He was for more than forty years a prominent member of the M. E. Church, who died August 13th, 1852, age 88 years, 3 months and 4 days.'

The monument or tombstone was erected by my grandfather's family, I think by my father, and the inscription was placed there because my grandfather told my father that these were the facts in regard to his war experience. I never saw my grandfather, for whom I am named, but I have heard my father recite these facts many times.

This statement from the Rev. Mr. Gunn establishes beyond any further question that there is a monument in the old graveyard on Mr. Murray's plantation three miles from Yanceyville, in Caswell County, North Carolina, and that it marks the spot where Starling Gunn, Patriot and Soldier, rests. "But," says the Rev. Mr. Gunn, and this is the most interesting feature of the new North Carolina find:

"But my grandfather was not a soldier from North Carolina. He settled in the virgin forests of the Old North State after the war. From the Department of the Interior, Washington, D. C., I have received the following record: 'Starling Gunn, a soldier in the Revolutionary War, born in Brunswick County, Virginia, May 9th, 1764. Residence at enlistment Amelia County, Virginia. Dates of enlistment September, 1776, February 1781, March 1781, June 1781. Length of service, 3 months, 15 days, 3 months, 3 1/2 months. Rank, private. Captains under whom service was rendered, Edward Mumford, John Knight, Anderson and Cobb, Price. Colonels, Elliott, Meriwether, Richardson, Lamb. State, Virginia Continental Artillery, Battles engaged in, siege of Yorktown. He served as a substitute for his father, Thomas Gunn.'"

"But my grandfather was not a soldier from North Carolina." All honor to Starling Gunn, the Virginian who fought with Washington at Yorktown!