He was a most entertaining talker and full of reminiscences of the war, particularly of his prison life. Col. Urquhart was well known throughout the entire section, appearing at various times and places in his active life to relate in thrilling language war recollections and experiences. His confinement in Libby and other southern prisons furnished material which was intensely interesting to his audiences, his recital of the terrible experiences undergone being well worth listening to. 

How near Col. Urquhart came to being shot instead of sent to Libby is found in an extract from one of his speeches. Captured on an expedition to Harpers’s Ferry for supplies, and being an officer, he was told that he was to be shot in retaliation for something the Union officers had done. In a frame of mind suited to such news he traveled on for several days. A messenger came and went. Finally one of his captors, pitying him, conveyed to him the intelligence that his life was to be spared and the reason as told by Colonel Urquhart was that Captain Buchanan had been captured two hours before him, at 2 o’clock and that he had been captured at 4 o’clock. The messenger that came had told his captors to spare his life because they had already shot Captain Buchanan. - Wilkes-Barre Record, 24 June, 1909