snippet from "The Herald & News" dated Jan 24, 1911

*GOT HIS CROSS OF HONOR IN TIME*
Old Veteran Was Fearful Lest Final Summons Should Come Before He Received it, And Col. Dickert, His Old Commander, and Mrs. President Norwood, Unwound Red Tape - Pathetic Incident of Memorial Day in Newberry -- Veteran Guise May Now Take His Cross With Him to Camp Eternal. At the presentation of the crosses of honor last Thursday one old veteran from away down behind the mountains somewhere, A.A. Guise, was too old and feeble to attend and receive this trophy in person. So he authorized his old commander, Capt. Dickert, to act as his sponsor, and by all means to send it on at once.
It seems that this old pard of Lee's had been on the decline for quite awhile, and he became very solicitous about this matter, and wrote his old captain last summer that he "was beginning to feel mighty curious" and he wanted the cross before the last roll call. But he was informed he could not get it before Lee's birthday.
In sending up his application a short while ago, some hitch in the red tape department caused it to be sent back for correction, duplicate, triplicate, or something, and this would necessarily delay the presentation till Memorial day, next summer. This was duly communicated to the old veteran, but he wrote to his old commander, "this would never do," that he was "even now only hanging with one hand on the limb of life," and he was "fearful his grip would slip at any moment," and he wanted the cross, so that he could take it with him when he went to join the last great camp.
The situation was explained to Mrs. Norwood, the president, and she got busy at once, and began to make things happen. She wrote to headquarters, by special delivery, stating the circumstances, that an old soldier was likely be found on his post asleep, without the cross, unless something out of the usual was done. She urged the suspension of rules as this ws an extreme case, and urgent, and asked the red tape department to send the honor cross forthwith. This was done only the day before the meeting.
In receiving the cross for his old comrade Col. Dickert said: "Mrs. Norwood: In behalf of the old soldier,I wish to thank you, especially for your diligence and dispatch in getting this cross of honor for the old guard of Lee's. The old veteran has for some time been in declining health, and was fearful lest he would die before receiving it, that he was only now hanging to the limb of life with one hand, and was liable to slip his cable at any moment, that he wanted the cross before that interesting event. I wrote him the other day to be of good cheer, and take a tighter grip for a few more days, that his cross was coming as fast as the wheels of the "limited" could bring it, that just the moment it was in my hand a man on a fleet horse would be started carrying the cross with the injunction: "Ride for your life, and find Guise!"
"Now, it seems that this particular old soldier sets great store by his cross, and as he has neither kith nor kin to whom he cares to leave it, when he shakes himself lose from his mortal coils, he wishes to take it with him on that last long march.
"Not as he writes me in his letter, that he expects St. Peter to accept the cross as a passport at the gates of the great beyond, but it will give him consolation and confidence, to know he has it. Should this much prized memento act as a watchword, and pass the old guard through the pearly gates unchallenged, it is to be hoped that he will remember you for giving him in the time of need,a great lift in the closing scene in the drama of life.
"Again I thank you."