"You are Matthew West, the only son of Judge Robert Peel West, of Atlanta, Georgia.

Your mother, who was of the well-known Bullock family, died when you were about fifteen, and her widowed sister has since been the house-keeper.

You are a graduate of the university of Virginia, being fourth in your class in Scholarship.

Your engineering course was completed in Massachusetts, and you later became connected with the Wyant Contracting Company, of Chicago.

You were here, however, only a very brief time, making but few acquaintances, when the War broke out.