The Louisiana Democrat

A Reminiscence.
A STORY OF THE WAR WITH A SEQUEL.
On the 4th of July, 1861, as the two armies in Virginia were gathering for the first fierce struggle of the war on the plains of Manassas, a skirmish took place between outposts on the peninsula, in which that gallant young officer of the Confederate service, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Didier Dreux, of New Orleans, was instantly killed, being shot through the body and dying on the field. He was the first officer of note to fall in action. His remains were at once sent back to Louisiana. They were laid in state in the City Hall, and given a public funeral—such a funeral as no other man in that State has ever been honored with, or few, if any, had ever been held higher in the affections of the people, by all classes of whom he was worshipped, as he was not only a trained soldier but a brilliant orator.
A year before he had married a charming and accomplished young lady, just from a convent school, young, beautiful, devoted and of good family. There was one child born to this happy couple, whose honeymoon had scarcely ended before the young bride was called upon to buckle the sword upon her gallant husband and devote him to his country.
By his death the widow and his babe were deprived of their support, but the grateful State adopted the child, and cared for the mother until the services of the husband were forgotten. Years passed; the "child of the State" died, and the soldier's widow married again, but was unhappy in her second choice, and, after years of trial, separated from her husband for sufficient reasons.
Mrs. D., finding herself in the city of San Francisco in destitute circumstances, the soldier's widow sought the advice of the actor, Mr. E. A. Sothern, who had known Col. Dreux in New Orleans, accepted a position in his theatrical company and became an actress, having no other training. This, in brief, is the story of the modest and unassuming lady, who, under the stage name of Dora Stewart, has been playing for the past week in the Wilkins company at our theatre. Mrs. Dreaux is still young, and very beautiful, has succeeded in mastering the difficulties of the profession, and is doing what so many Southern widows delight in being able to do if they could only find the way, earning her own living.
And in her laudable efforts to support herself in an honorable calling by independent exertion, she should have the sympathy and best wishes of all good men and women.—[Richmond State.