From the Richmond Daily Dispatch August 18, 1862:
“Sketch of Dabney Carr Harrison.”
This is the title of one of the most touching and beautiful portraitures ever drawn of the life and death of a Christian hero. The author is the Rev. Dr. Hoge, of this city.
William Hoge was the author. His brother Moses was a well-known Richmond preacher and Confederate chaplain. Dabney Carr Harrison, a Presbyterian minister, served as a captain in the 56th Virginia Infantry until he was mortally wounded at Fort Donelson.
William J. Hoge preached at New York City’s Brick Church from 1859 until July 1862. A thoughtful and well-referenced post at The Treasure of Lars Porsena discusses William Hoge’s predicament as a Southern sympathizer working in a Northern church when the broke out:
According to Vander Velde, Hoge upset the congregation by praying for Confederate leaders as well as those of the United States under the Biblical injunction to pray for those in authority, and soon left the church.
His last sermon in New York occurred on July 21, 1861, the day of the First Battle of Bull Run.
William Hoge then worked as a minister and chaplain in Virginia until he died in 1864.
the battle where Captain Harrison fell
