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THE

Falling Flag.

EVACUATIOIf OF RICHMOND,
RETREAT AND SURRENDER
AT
APPOMATTOX.
By EDWARD M. BOYKIN,
LT. COL. 1th BECTT B. C. OAVALBT.

Vtivtr) (g&ttion.

IWW TOEK :
E. J. HALE & SON, PTJBLISHEES,
KUmBAT BTSXBT.
1874

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by
E. J. HALE & SON,
in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.

DEDICATION.

TO THE OFFICERS AND MEX OP THE

7ih Sttuth )0aralma ©atralry;^

SHORT ACCOUNT OF AN INTBRBSTINa PERIOD IN THEIR
MILITARY HISTORT,

AND THAT OF

THE CAUSE THET LOVED SO WELL, AND FOK WHICH THEY
FOUGHT SO FAITHFULLY,
BT ONE WHO CONSIDEES HAVING BEEN THEIR COMRADE THE
PROUDEST RECOLLECTION OP HIS LIPE.

PREFACE

THE writer only attempts to give some account of
what occurred within his own observation ; he
would have esteemed it a privilege to enter into all
the detail that lights up the last desperate struggle,
made by that glorious remnant of the Army of
]S'orthern Virginia, with its skeleton battalions from
every Southern State; illustrating their own fame
and that of their noble leader, mile by mile, on that
weary march from Eichmond to Appomattox.
But he has confined himself to his own experi
ences, and in a great measure to what happened to
his own Brigade, because it was written out, imme
diately after the war, from that standpoint. And if
there be any merit in it, it is simply as a journal —
what one man saw, and the impression produced
thereby. This, even within a limited range, if truly
put, represents at least a phase of the last act in the
bloody drama that had been enacting for four years.
More than this he could not hope to do, but leaves
to abler hands the greater task that swells the cur
rent of events into the full tide of history.
Camden, South Carolina, )
June 15th, 1874. )

EYACUATION OF RICHMOND, 1865.

On Saturday, the 1st day of April, 1865, orders
reached us at camp headquarters of the Seventh
South Carolina Cavalry, Gary's Brigade, to send for
ward all the dismounted men of the regiment to re
port to Lt. Col. Barham, Twenty-fourth Eegiment
Virginia Cavalry, in command of dismounted men of
the brigade, for duty on the lines. Began to think
that a move was intended of some sort, but on the
brink, as all knew and felt for some time, of great
events, it was difficult to say what was expected. On
Sunday, the 2d, about mid-day, orders came for the
wagon train of the brigade, spare horses, baggage of
all sorts, that was to go at all — the greater part was to
be left — to move into Hichmond at once, and fall into
the general train of the army of the north bank of
the James Eiver. Eichmond then was to be evac
uated, so all felt, though no public statement of the
fact had been made ; heavy fighting had been going
on during the day, in the neighborhood of Petersburg,
but there had been one unceasing roar of battle
around us for months, and no particular account was
taken of that
The brigade was ordered to move after nightfall
from its position (our winter quarters) between the

8 THE FALLING FLAG.
Williamsburg and the " Nine Mile " road, about four
miles from Eichmond, and immediately behind the
outer line of works on the edge of the battle field of
the " Seven Pines."
We moved after dark — the Seventh South Carohiia,
Col. Haskell ; the Hampton Legion, South Carolina,
Lieut. Col. Arnold ; the Twenty-fourth Virginia, Col.
Eobbins, and a small party of the Seventh Georgia,
part of a company only — Gen. Gary commanding the
brigade. The Seventh Georgia were, with the exception
spoken of, dismounted, though belonging to our
brigade. We halted on the Charles City road, found
all the infantry gone ; Gen. Longstreet, who com
manded on the north bank, had been withdrawn with
Gen. Field's Division across the river, to reinforce
Gen. Lee around Petersburg, some two or three days
before, leaving only the Division of Gen. Kershaw
in our immediate neighborhood, and Gen. Custis Lee
in command of the Marine Brigade and City Eeserves,
next the river, near Fort Gilmer, all under the com
mand of Lt. Gen. Ewell ; also Hankin's Battery, Vir
ginia, attached to our brigade.
We were to wait until two o'clock, and as soon as
our dismounted men, who were filling the place of
infantry pickets withdrawn, should come in, we were
to move on to the city, acting as " rear guard," and
bum Mayo's Bridge. It was all out now ; there had
been a heavy fight in the morning, near Petersburg,
Gen. Lee all but overwhelmed, Gen. A. P. Hill killed

THE FALL-INC F.LAG. 9
and the army in full retreat on Burkville, to efEect, if
possible, a junction with Gen. Johnston, in North
Carolina- We built big fires of brush wood, to give light and
warmth, and deceive the enemy. It was cold, though
in April ; the men, as usual, light-hearted and cheerful
round the fires, though an empire was passing away
around them ; some, with an innate consciousness of
the work before them, when they heard that the halt
was to be for two or three hours, wrapped in their
overcoats, with the capes drawn over their heads,
were soon sound asleep, forgetting the defeat of ar
mies, the work of yesterday, the toil and danger of
to-morrow, in some quiet dream of a home perhaps
never seen again.
Two o'clock came and passed; our men had not
come in. The General waited until four o'cloclc
I think we were at this point six miles from Eich
mond. We should have been there at daylight, and
we were to burn the bridge in time to prevent the
enemy's crossing, as our whole train, with infantry
and artillery, had crossed during the night. Our
brigade of cavalry, and one company of artillery at
tached to it, were all that were on this side — the north
bank of the river. We could wait no longer, and
moved off slowly. Iff a short time after we started a
tremendous explosion took place toward the river,
lighting up everything like day, and waking every
echo, and every Yankee for thirty miles around. It
was evidently a gunboat on the river at " Drury's

10 THE FALLING FLAG.
Bluff." Two others followed, but they did not equal
the first. She was iron-clad — ^the " Virginia," as we
afterwards heard — just completed. She burst like a
bomb-shell,, and told, in anything but a whisper, the
desperate condition of things. There was no time to
Be lost; the Yankees had heard it as well as our
selves, and we moved on at once.
We overtook, just at daylight, and passed a small
squad; of our dismounted men from the Seventh, who
had got in from the picket line. When we reached
the intermediate line of works, where the " Charles
City " and " New Kent " roads come together, not far
from the "turnpike gate," which all who travelled
that road — and who of the army of Northern Virginia
did not? — will remember, the sun was just rising, and
an ugly red glare showed itself in the direction of
Eichmond that dimmed the early sunshine.
At this point the General determined (though ex
pecting the enemy's cavalry every moment) to occupy
the works, and wait for the dismounted men. The
guns of the battery that accompanied us were placed
iw position, and our men dismounted and occupied
tlie lines on the right and left of the road In about
a half hour's time, and to our great satisfaction — for it
seemed a hard case to leave the poor tired fellows to
be gobbled up — a straggling line of tired men and
poor walkers, as dismounted cavalry always must be in
their big boots and spurs, showed themselves over the
hill, dragged themselves along, and passed on before
us into the city. We followed on, went down the

THE FALLING FLAG. 11,
Steep hill by the house where General Johnstons
headquarters were about the time of the retreat from
Yorktown, and got into the river road, and so had
the enemy behind us. It was here he might have
cut us off from the city and secured the bridge.
We passed into the " Eoekets," the southern suburb
of Eichmond, at an easy marching gait, and there
learned that the bridge had taken fire from some of
the buildings, which by this time we could see were
¦on fire in the city. Fearing our retreat would be cut
off at that point, which would throw tis from our
position as rear-guard, we pushed on rapidly, the
column moving at a trot through the "Eoekets."
The peculiar population of that suburb were gath
ered on the sidewalk ; bold, dirty looking women, who
had evidently not been improved by four years' mili
tary association, dirtier (if possible) looking children,
and here and there skulking, scoundrelly looking meni
who in the general ruin were sneaking from the holes
they had been hiding in — not, though, ih the numbers
that might have been expected, for the great crowd,
as we soon saw, were hard at it, pillaging the burn
ing city. One strapping virago stood on the edge of
the pavement with her arms akimbo, looking at us
with intense scorn as we swept along ; I could have
touched her with the toe of my boot as I rode by her,
closing the rear of the column ; she caught my eye —
" Yes," said she, with all of Tipperary in her brogue,
"afther fighting them for four years ye're running
like dawgs !" The woman was either drunk or very

12 THE FALLING FLAG.
much in earnest, for I give her credit for feeling all
she said, and her son or husband had to do his own
fighting, I will answer for it, wherever he was, or get
no kiss or comfort from her. But I could not stop to
explain that General Longstreet's particular orders
were not to make a fight in the city, if it could be
avoided, so I left her to the enjoyment of her own
notions, unfavorable as they evidently were to us.
On we went across the creek, leaving a picket at
that point to keep a lookout for the enemy, that we
knew must now be near upon our heels. It was after
seven o'clock, the sun having been up for some time.
After getting into Main street and passing the two to
bacco warehouses opposite one another, occupied as
prisons in the early years of the war, we met the
motley crowd thronging the pavement, loaded with
every species of plunder.
Bare-headed women, their arms filled with every
description of goods, plundered from warehouses and
shops, their hair hanging about their ears, were rush
ing one way to deposit their plunder and return for
more, while a current of the empty-handed surged in
a contrary direction towards the scene.
The roaring and crackling of the buming houses,
the trampling and snorting of our horses over the
paved streets as we swept along, wild sounds of every
description, while the rising sun came dimly through
the cloud of smoke that hung like a pall around him,
made up a scene that beggars description, and which
I hope never to see again — the saddest of many of

THE FALLING FLAG. 13
the sad sights of war — a city undergoing pillage at the
hands of its ovra mob, while th'e standards of an em
pire were being taken from its capitol, and the tramp
ol a victorious enemy could be heard at its gates.
Eichmond had collected within its walls the refuse
of the war — ^thieves and deserters, male and female,
the vilest of the vile were there, but strict mihtary
discipline had kept it down. Now, in one moment,
it was all removed — all restraint was taken off — and
you may imagine the consequences. There were said
to be 5,000 deserters in the city, and you could see
the grey jackets here and there sprinkled in the mob
that was roaring down the street When we reached
somewhere between Twentieth and Twenty-fifth
streets — I will not be certain — the flames swept
across Main street so we could not pass. The column
turned to the right, and so got into the street above
it On this (Franklin street) are many private resi
dences ; at the windows we could see the sad and
tearful faces of the kind Virginia women, who had
never failed the soldier in four long years of war
and trouble, ready to the last to give him devoted
attendance in his wounds and sickness, and to share
with his necessities the last morsel.
These are strong but not exaggerated expressions.
Thousands, yes, tens of thousands, from the Eio.
Grande to the Potomac, can bear witness to the truth
of everything I say. And it was a sad thought to
every man that was there that day, that we seemed,
as a compensation for all that they had done for us, to

14 THE FALLING FLAG.
be leaving them to the mercy of the enemy ; but their
own General Lee was gone before, and we were but
as the last wave of the receding tide.
After getting round the burmng square we turned
back towards the river. The portion of Mayo's, or
rather the lesser bridge that crossed the canal,
had taken fire from the large flouring mill near
it, and was burning, but not the main bridge; so
we followed the cross street below the main ap
proach to the bridge, at the foot of which was a
bridge across the canal, forcing our horses through
the crowd of pillagers gathered at this point, greater
than at any other — they had broken into some
government stores. A low white man — ^he seemed a
foreigner — was about to strike a woman over a barrel
of flour under my horse's nose, when a stout negro
took her part and threatened to throw him into the
canal. We were the rear regiment at this time. All
this occurred at one of those momentary halts to
which the rear of a marching column is subjected ; in
another moment we moved on, the crowd closed in,
and we saw no more. After crossing the canal we
were obliged to go over a stone conduit single file.
At last we were on the main bridge, along which
were scattered faggots to facilitate the buming. Lieut
Cantey, Sergt Lee and twenty men from the Seventh
were left, under the supervision of Colonel Haskell,
to burn the bridge, while the rest went slowly up the
hill on which Manchester is built, and waited for
thera. Just as the canal bridge on which we had

THE FALLING FLAG. 15
crossed took fire, about forty of Kautz' cavaliy gal
loped easily up Main street, fired a long shot with
their carbines on the party at the bridge, but went on
up the street instead of coming down to the river.
They were too late to secure the bridge, if that had
been their object, which they seemed to be aware of,
as they made no attempt to do so. Their coming
was of service to the city. General Ord, as we after
wards understood, acted with promptness and kind
ness, put down the mob, and put out the fire, .and
protected the people of Eichmond from the mob and
his own soldiers, in their persons and property.
As we sat upon our horses on the high hill fOn
which Manchester is built, we looked down upon the
City of Eichmond. By this time the fire appeared to
be general Some magazine or depot for the manu
facture of ordnance stores was on fire about the cen
tre of the city ; it was marked by the peculiar black
ness of smoke ; from the middle of it would come
the roar of bursting shells and boxes of fixed ammu
nition, with flashes that gave it the appearance of a
thunder cloud of huge proportions with lightning
playing through it On our right was the navy yard,
at which were several steamers and gunboats on fire,
and buming in the river, from which the cannon
were thundering as the fire reached them. The old
war-scarred city seemed to prefer annihilation to con
quest — a usele^ss sacrifice, as it afterwards proved,
however much it may have added to the grandeur of
the closing scene ; but such is war.

16 THE FALLING FLAG.
Moving slowly out of Manchester, we soon got
among the host of stragglers, who, from a natural
' fear of the occupation of the towns both of Peters
burg and Eichmond, were going with the rear of our
army. Civilians, in some cases ladies of gentle nur
ture, without means of conveyance, were sitting on
their trunks by the roadside — refugees from Peters
burg to Eichmond a few days before, now refugees
from Eichmond into the highway ; indeed the most
were from Petersburg, driven out literally by the
artillery fire. The residents of Eichmond, as a gen
eral thing, remained.
Two ladies here got into our regunental ambulance,
rode for a few miles, and then took refuge in some
farm house, I suppose, as they disappeared before the
day was over.
By the roadside, or rather the sidewalk, were sit
ting on their bags some hardy, weather-beaten look
ing men. They were what was left of the crew of
the " famous Alabama," and had just landed from the
gunboats that had been blown up on the river, which
h^d first started us on our march. Admiral Semmes
was with them ; I remember some of our young men
jesting with the bronzed veterans, but we did not then
know the renowned Captain "of the great Confederate
war ship was there in person, or he certainly should
not have had to complain of being left standing in
the road and dusted by the "young rascals of tha
cavalry rear-guard," as he does in his book. Some
one of the "young cavalry rascals" would have been

THE FALLING FLAGl 17
dismounted, and his horse given to the man who had
carried our flag so far and fought it so well.
Acting as rear-guard, we moved very slowly, giv-
¦ ing time for all stragglers, wagons and wom out artil
lery horses to close up. Already we began to come
upon a piece of artillery mired down, the horses dead
beat, the gun left, and the horses double-teamed into
the remaining pieces. So we went into camp that
night, after marching all day, only eleven mUes from
Eichmond, on the "Burkville road." Burkville is the
point at which the railroad branches west to Lynch
burg and south to Danville, and was our objective
point The brigade went into camp, or bivouac rather, by
squadrons, in a piece of woods, the men picketing
their horses immediately behind their camp fires.
The fires burned brightly, the horses ate the corn the
men had brought in their bags and what forage they
could get hold of during the day. Our surgeon, Dr.
McLaurin, had gotten up his ambulance, and helped
out our bread and bacon with a cup of coffee and
some not very salt James Eiver herring, that he had
among his stores — and so ended the first day's march.
We did not move until nearly nine o'clock next
moming, as at our slowest marching gait we out-trav
elled the march we were covering. The day was
spent in following after the movements of the army.
Occasional pieces of artillery left upon the roadside
showed that the horses were giving out After dark
we crossed the Appomattox, some twenty or twenty-

18 THE FALLING FLAG.
five miles from Eichmond, at the railroad bridge,
which was planked over so our horses could cross.
After crossing the river we went into camp about a
mile beyond, surrounded by most of the infantry of
the north bank, General Longstreet's immediate com
mand, the men leading their horses over. One of the
young men attached to our mess, a good looking
young fellow, had his pockets filled with ham and
biscuits near the crossing by some good Samaritan he
had met, and so our herring, grilled by one of the
couriers on the half of a canteen, was helped out by
this addition.
We were suddenly roused in the night by a fire in
the dry grass on which we were sleeping. It caught
from our camp fire and was among our blankets before
we knew it There was a general jumping up and
stamping it out One of the men created quite a sen
sation by shaking his India rubber, which was on fire ;
it flew to .pieces in a shower of flame. The effect of
the night attack is still shown in the blistered and
scorched condition of my field-glasses. We were at
this point but a few miles from Amelia Court House,
between which and our camp of that night the road
from Petersburg joins the road from Eichmond, and
the two columns respectively met — ^the two streams
flowed into one — forming what was left of Lee's great
army of Northem Virginia — the men exchanging in
the fresh moming air kindly greetings with one an
other, from Texas to Maryland, fiom the Potomac
to the Eio Grande. They marched along, leaving

THE FALLING FLAG. 19
their fate in the hands of the great leader they knew
so well and had trusted so long.
About a mile or two from Amelia Court House
our brigade was ordered to graze their horses in a
clover field, still keeping the regiments together as
near as could be in squadrons, for we could make no
calculations; as will be seen, upon the movements of
the enemy's cavalry. Colonel Haskell, Colonel Eob
bins, of the Twenty -fourth Virginia, and myself were
seated upon the steps of an old house, breakfastiDg
with Colonel Eobbins, who had been fortunate
enough to meet a friend who had filled his haver
sack, and shared his good luck with us, watching the
men and horses who were eating wh~at they could
get, when here it came at last : " Mount the brigade
and move up at once !" The enemy had gotten in
force between us and Burkville, and his cavalry had
struck our wagon and ordnance train seme three or
four miles from where we were. So there was mount
ing in hot haste, and off we went at a gallop.
We soon reached the point they had first -attacked
and set fire to the wagons — the canvas covers taking
fire very easily. Their plan of operation seemed to
be to strike the train, which was several miles long
at 1 given point, fire as many wagons as their number
admitted of doing at once, then making a circuit and
striking it again, leaving an intermediate point un
touched. We did not suppose the troops actually engaged in
the firing exceeded three or four hundred well mount-

20 THE FALLING FLAG.
ed men, but had a large body of cavalry moving par
allel with them in easy supporting distance. This was
a very effectual mode of throwing the march of the
wagon train into confusion, independent of the abso
lute destruction they caused.
The burning caissons, as we rode by, were anything
But pleasant neighbors, and were explodiilg right and
left, but I do not recollect of any of our men being
hit by them.
We could hear the enemy ahead of us, as we
pressed our tired horses through the buming wagons
and the scattered plunder which filled the road, giv
ing our own wagon-rats and skulkers a fine harvest-
of plunder. Many of the wagons were untouched,
but standing in the road without horses,: the teamsters
at the.first alarm taking them out and making for the
¦woods, coming back and taking their wagons again
after the stampede was over, sometimes to find them
plundered by our own cowardly skulkers, that I sup
pose belong to all armiea I have no doubt Csesar
had them in his tenth- legion, and -Xenophon in his
famous ten thousand.
So far the enemy^ m carrying out his plan of at
tack, had kept in motion; but after passing a large
creek that crosses the road and runs on by "Amelia
Springs," they halted at an old field on the side of
the road and made a front As the head of our col-
uinn crossed the creek a lady was standing in the
mud by the road side with a soldier in a "grey
jacket" She had been with the ordnance train — ^the

THE FALLING FLAG. 21
ambulance in which she had been riding was taken,
the horses carried off, and as we closed up she was
left as we found her. She was from Mississippi, and
had left Eichmond with her friends in the " ArtUlery,"
and was much more mad than scared, and she stood
there in the mud (she was young and pretty) and
gesticulated as she told her story, making up a pic
ture striking and peculiar. There was no time to
listen, but promising to do our best to punish the ag
gressors, who had taken her up and dropped her so
unceremoniously in the mud, which was the amount
of the damage, and advising her to take shelter in a
large white house on the hill, we moved on to meet
the party ahead, who, near enough their reserve now
for support, had halted to give us a taste of their
quality. At first they called out to corae on and get their
"greenbacks," seeing the small party in advance
with the General, but as the regiments rode into the
field; which was large enough to make a display of
the entire line, they stood but to exchange a scatter
ing fire, and then moved in retreat along a road run
ning parallel to the main road and leading to "Amelia
Springs." The Seventh, from position, was the lead
ing regiment, and moved at a gallop in pursuit The
road swept round a point of wood on the left and an
old field on the right grpwn up with pine. In ad
vance rode five well mounted men of the regiment,
as a lookout, led by the adjutant — General Gary im
mediately behind them — and the head of our column,

22 THE FALLING FLAG.
the Seventh cavalry, next As the advance guard
rounded the bend in the road it was swept by the
flre of the enemy, who had halted for that purpose,
wheeling instantly in retreat as soon as they delivered
their fire. Four men out of the five, all except the
adjutant, were hit, one of them in the spine, "Mills,"
an approved scout, and one of the best and bravest
men in the army. Throwing his arms over his head
mth a yell of agony, wrung from him by intense
pain, he pitched backwards off his horse, which was
going at full speed. The horse, a thoroughbred mare,
kept on with us in the rush. (I will here say that I
never saw the young man again — he was just in front
of mewhen he fell — until three or four years after, in
a pulpjt, as a Presbyterian preacher. He had gotten
over his wound without its doing him permanent in
jury). On we went, picking up some of the rear of
the party who had not moved quick enough. The
main body had gotten where there were thick woods
on both sides of the road, where they halted to
make a stand. But we were upon them before they
made their wheel to face to the rear, or rather while
they were in the act of making it, and so had them at
advantage ; we were among them with the sabre. The
work was short and sharp, and we drove them along
the road clear of the wood into the open field, where
there was a strong dismounted reserve. Here we
caught a fire that dropped two of our leading horses
— Captain Caldwell's and Lieutenant Hinson's. Cald
well's horse was killed dead. Hinson's fell with a

THE FALLING FLAG. 23
broken leg, catching his rider under him and holding
him until relieved. A heavy fire swept the woods
and road, so we dismounted the brigade as fast as the
men came up, extending the dismounted line along
the front of the enemy's fire, and moving to the left as
he fell back to a stronger position. As we moved in
advance they gave up the position by the house they
had first taken, fell back across the field and ravine
to the top of the opposite hill, where they halted in
force and threw up temporary breastworks, made
from a rail fence, and from that position repeated
the invitation to " Come and get greenbacks." We
moved up, occupied tue ravine immediately in their
front, which was deep enough to shelter the raounted
officers, the line officers and the raen being dis
mounted. Here General Gary deterrained to hold
his position, until General Fitz Lee, who commanded
our cavalry, carae up, not deeraing it advisable to at
tack the enemy in his present position and numbers.
In half an hour's time General Fitz Lee came up
with his division, dismounted his men, formed line,
flanked the position, charged it in front, two or three
heavy volleys, a shout and a rush. The enemy find
ing his position untenable moved off to the main
body, not raore than two or three miles from them —
moving rapidly, as we found several of their wounded
on the roadside, left in the hurry of their retreat
We moved on slowly after them — the sun being
nearly down — to "Amelia Springs," some two miles
off, crossed the creek, and, though we had commenced

24 THE FALLING FLAG.
the fight in the moming, were politely requested
(everybody knows what a railitary request is) by
General Lee to move down the road until we could
see the Yankee pickets, put the brigade into camp,
post pickets, and make the best of it — all of which
we did.
We did not have far to go to find the pickets —
about a mile ; posted our own two or three hundred
yards from the brigade ; sent to the mill on the creek
at "Amelia Springs " and drew rations of flour and
bacon. I had here one of those unexpected surprises that
sometimes gleam upon us under the most unpropi
tious circumstances. As we rode up to the big white
house on the hill General Fitz Lee stood, giving
orders for the disposition of the troops. Our men
were in numbers filling their canteens with water at
the well in the yard, when a lieutenant from the
Hampton Legion came from the well with his can
teen in his hand. " B.," I said, " I am very thirsty;
will you give me a drink from your canteen?"
" Certainly, sir," said he, and handed it to me. I
took a large swallow and discovered it was excellent
old ap2:ile brandy. I had eaten nothing since a very
light breakfast; had been working hard in the saddle
all day ; had the breath knocked out of my body by
a spent ball on the chest at the close of the charge in
the woods ; the excitement of the fight was over,
and I was lying over the pommel, rather than sitting
on my saddle, but as that electric fluid went down

THE FALLING FLAG. 25
my throat I straightened up like a soldier at the word
of command ; I felt a new life pouring through my
veins, and the worry and care of the situation was all
gone, and I was ready for what was to come next —
such is the power of contrast B., who was watching
me, raised a warning finger not to betray his secret,
for what was a canteen of apple brandy to that crowd,
that would not be denied? so I concealed my satis
faction and his secret, but have never forgotten my
obligation to Lieutenant B. of the Hampton Legion.
All around us thi;ough the stillness floated the
music of the Yankee bands, mocking with their
beautiful music our desperate condition ; yet our men
around their fires were enjoying it as much, and,
seemingly, with as light hearts as the owners of it
Occasionally, as a bugle call would ring out, which
always sounds to a trooper as a challenge to arms, a
different expression would show itself, and a harder
look take the place of the softer one induced by
"Home, Sweet Home,-' or "Annie Lawrie."
So we raade our bivouac in sight of the eneray's
pickets, eating our horaely rations with the keen rel
ish and appetite health and hard work give. While
our neighbors, whose interest in us could not be
questioned, gave us the benefit of raany a soft air,
that told of other and very different scenes, we,
in the language of romance, addressed ourselves to
slumber, expecting an attack at or before daylight
This was our first night in sight of their outposts,
and we .had yet to learn their plan of attack. The

26 THE FALLING FLAG.
game was m the toils and they meant to play a sure
hand, with no more waste of material than was ab
solutely necessary. There was no night attack that
I recollect in the course of the retreat General
Grant's large force seemed to be kept perfectly in
hand, massed with great care to strike with effect at
any given point on our line of march, gain the result
of an overwhelming attack in force, and draw off in
time to prevent disorder among their own troops — a
wise arrangement under the circumstances.
Another pleasing incident occurred at this camp,
as everything is relative and is great or little, accord
ing to circumstances. One of the non-commissioned
officers of my old company came to me and asked if
I would like to have my canteen filled with some
very fine old apple brandy. One of General Lee's
couriers had found a barrel of it covered up with
leaves in an adjoining piece of woods, and let a few
of his friends into the secret Would I? Of course I
would, and if we ever came out ahead I would recom
mend him for promotion. The canteen came full, and
proved to be of the same tap as the " long swallow "
was of which I had partaken so unexpectedly. That
canteen of apple brandy, like Boniface's ale, was meat
and drink for the rest of the time I was a soldier of
the Southern Confederacy.
We got off about eight o'clock in the moming, not
having been disturbed, as we expected, moved back
across the creek that runs through the meadows at
the foot of the hill below the hotel at "Amelia

THE FALLING FLAG. 27
Springs," halted and forraed line, facing to the rear
along the creek, from the ford at the road down the
creek to the mill, destroyed the bridge, and held the
position as rear-guard, until General Lee, whose camp
was above us on the hill, around the hotel, forraed
his column and moved, we following slowly in the
rear. We marched that day, until the afternoon, among
the infantry, artillery and wagons, going towards
Farmville, on the Appomattox river and the Lynch
burg railroad. There was a bridge across the river,
at which, as was afterwards shown, it was General
Lee's purpose to cross his infantry wagons and artil
lery. We had been having a very tiresome march on our
worn-out horses, through the fields on the side of the
road, giving up the road proper to the wagon trains
and troops, sometimes dismounting and leading our
horses, to relieve them as much as possible.
About two or three o'clock we saw the infantry in
front of us breaking from the line of march by bri
gades into a large field on the left of the road, and
rapidly forming into compact masses in proper posi
tion and relation with one another, to be used as
might be required. We halted and did the sarae,
being the only cavalry at that point We soon heard
heavy firing on another road over to the right, two or
three miles from us, artillery and small arms, and
nearer to us — not a mile — was a lesser fight go
ing on, to which we moved at once. The last.

28 THE FALLING FLAG.
which was over before we got to it, was between
General Lee's division of cavalry and a body of the
enemy's infantry.. They were, as we were told, a
fresh set of troops who had just come on, and were
Hterally gobbled up by Lee. We raet the prisoners
— some eight or nine hundred — going to the rear.
Their coats were so new and blue, and buttons so
bright, and shirts so clean, that it was a wonder to
look upon them by our rusty lot.
They were pushing on to cooperate with the larger
movement that was going on to the right, and fell in
with General Lee's cavalry, and after a very respect
able fight had their military experience brought to an
abrupt conclusion. Lee's men had possessed them
selves of a complete set of new brass instruments
that formed their band.
The fight on the right was the heaviest and most
damaging to us that occurred on the retreat, and is
known as the Battle of " Sailor's Creek," or " High
Bridge," where the divisions of General Kershaw and
General Custis Lee, under the comraand of Lieuten
ant General Ewell, were knocked to pieces — and
General Eichard Anderson's command, composed of
Pickett's Division and Bushrod Johnson's, with Hu-
ger's artillery. Pickett's and Huger's commands were,
I think, destroyed, but Johnson managed to get
througL Generals Kershaw, Swell and Lee were, I
know, taken prisoners. All this we knew nothing of
at the time, only that there was heavy fighting, and
that being a matter of course, excited no surprise.

THE FALLING FLAG. 29:
The sun was nearly down and ;we moved towards
Farmville, to go into camp for the night. It was
after dark when we got there, went through the town
to the grove on the other side, and made the best of
it We lived upon what we could. pick up, as we had
no wagons with us, and our servants and spare horses
were with the wagon train.
The most fruitful source of supply was when we
passed a broken down commissary wagon. The men
would fill their haversacks with whatever they could
find; and whatever they got, either in this way or at.
the country houses, was liberally shared with their
friends and officers.
By a.big fire we lay down, and slept the sleep of
the tired. The nights were cold, so near the moun
tains, and, with light coverings on the cold ground,
the buming down of the fire was a general awaken
ing and building up of the same. At one of these
movements we were surprised to find, between Colo
nel H. and myself; two men, who, attracted by
the fire,, cold and tired, had crept to its friendly
warmth, making a needless apology for their pres
ence. We found one to be a colonel of Pickett's
division, th© other a lieutenant, and realized ' fully
how complete the destruction of that famous flghting:
division must have been as an organization, that we
should find a regimental commander who did not
know where to look for its standard. There seemed
to be no particular hurry in getting off in the mom
ing. We were waiting for orders by our fire, and

30 THE FALLING FLAG.
filled Up the time pressing horses in the town, from a
kind consideration of the feelings of the owners, that
they should not fall into the hands of the Yankees,
much to the disgust of the said owners, who seeraed
much to prefer (good raen and true as they were) the
possible chance of the Yankee to the certainty of the
Confederate abstraction.
One or two amusing incidents occurred in that con
nection. One of our young lieutenants had heard of
a very fine bay stallion, belonging to a gentleraan in
town, and as the rumor had spread that pressing
horse flesh was going on, he went off promptly with
a man or two, reached the house, and was met at the
door by a young and pretty woman, who, with all the
elegant kindness of a Virginia lady, asked him to
come in. He felt doubtful, but could not resist ; or
dering his men to hold on a minute or two, while he
talked horse with the lady, wishing, in the innocent
kindness of his heart, to break it to her gently. After
a few minutes' general conversation he touched on
the horse question. " Oh ! yes, sir," she said, getting
up and looking thi-ough a window that overlooked the
back yard. " Yes, sir ; I am sorry to disappoint you,
but as you came in at the front door ray husband was
saddling the bay, and while you were talking to me I
saw him riding out of the back gate. I am so sorry ;
indeed I am." With a hasty good moming our lieu
tenant rode back to camp upon a horse some degrees
below the standard of a "Eed Eye" or any other
race horse. The laugh was with ths lady.

THK FALLING FLAG. 81
Another case was against a class who met with but
little sympathy from a soldier in the field — a local
or collecting quartermaster, 1011671 ¦of a particular class —
some able bodied young man, every way fit for the sol
dier, except in spirit, getting the position to screen him
self from field duty and make money out of a suffer
ing people. The order had been given through the
brigade to take the horses wherever they could be
found. A wagon with two good horses drove between
our fire and that of the squadron lying next. A captain
stepped out, stopped the wagon, and the horses were
taken out and appropriated — the boy driving them
ran off — and soon there came riding up a dashing
young quartermaster on a fine grey horse, groomed to
perfection, and horse and rider redolent of the sybar
itism of the department, claimed the horses as belong
ing to his department, with a most insolent air, looking
daggers and court martials, and swelling as only over
fed subsistence agents on home duty could do. While
he was talking I saw Captain D. walking round him
looking at the gallant grey, and then at our colonel
inquiringly. A nod from the colonel and Captain D's
hand was on the grey's bridle, and a quiet but firm
request, that sounded very much like an order, for
him to get down, as his horse was wanted for cavalry
service. The man of the subsistence and transpoi-ta-
tion department was so dumbfounded that he would
have let pass the best operation possible of making
money out of the necessities of the people for which
his tribe was famous ; but just then a bugle rang out

32 THE FALLING FLAG,
the call for " boot and saddle ;" the bugles of the
other regiments took it up ; the momentary diversion
of the horse pressing and the quartermaster was for
gotten ; Work was at hand ; the rumbling of the artil
lery and wagons crossing the bridge, with columns of
infantry between, could be heard down in thetown at
the foot of the hill, and the cavahy were wanted on
the other side of the -town, by the Eandolph House,
to hold the enetny in check' and cover the crossing of
the river.
The brigade was soon in the Saddle, and moving at
a swinging trot down the long street that constitutes
mainly the town of Farmville. As the regiment
passed- a large building on the right, whieh was shown
to be a boarding schdol for young ladies, from the
number gathered on the piazza in front, we w^ere
greeted by their waving handkerchiefs and moist eyes,
while cheer after cheer rose from our men in response
to their kindness and sympathy. They did not knowi
as we did,' that their friends and defenders were to
pass by, leaving them so soon in the hands most
dreaded by them. They saw us going to the front;
our men were excited by the circumstances and the
prospect of a fight, and the light of that wild glory
that belongs to war shone over it all The rough,
grey soldier, the tramping column, and the groups of
tender girls, mixed with it like flowers on a battle
field, incongruous in detail, but blending with the pic
ture, like discords in music, making it complete.
So on through the town, across the little stream,

THE FALLING FLAG. 33
and up the hUl, on the top of which on the right
stood a large white building, called, as I recollect, the
Eandolph House ; in the field around were gathered
and gathering large bodies of our cavalry, under the
coramand of General F. H. Lee, General Eosser and
other distinguished cavalry officers. We took our
position among them. As before stated, our column,
artillery and wagon train, were pouring in a steady
stream across the bridge, and the enemy were press
ing up their artillery, and already throwing long shots
at it from batteries not near enough to do much if
any harm, and too much under cover to adinit of an
effectual attack from us.
General Lee disraounted the most of his command
and formed a line of battle along the road looking to
ward the point from which the eneray were advancing.
We (our brigade) were kept in the saddle at the
point we first occupied on the right of the road.
There was a house sorae three hundred yards from
the road on the left, directly in front of General Lee's
line, in a grove of oak, with a lane or avenue leading
to it from the main road. Behind the house a battery
seemed gradually advancing and already throwing its
shells at or about the bridge. So far they were com
pletely masked by the house, and we could only
judge of their movements from their fire, which
seemed closer every moment
In pursuance of some order we changed our posi
tion, and rode to General Lee's dismounted line of
battle. As we rode up — our regiment, the Seventh,

34 THE FALLING FLAG.
leading — ^we were the right flank regiment in the bri
gade formation, and in column with the right in front
were necessarily in advance The battery seemed by
this time to have gotten imraediately behind the
house, and was pitching shells about the bridge and
into the town (the bridge was at the foot of the street)
with precision and rapidity. Expecting to see it un
mask itself in front of the house every moment. Gen
eral Lee said to our colonel, "Haskell, as soon as
that battery shows itself take it with your regiment ;
you can do it"
We moved at once down the avenue toward the
house up to the edge of the oak wood, with which the
- lawn in front was surrounded, formed the regiment in
column of fours in the road. The colonel rode along
the side of the column, the adjutant detafling three of
the best mounted men from each company — the horses
were the animals specially selected — the men at that
stage of the game were all known to be good — making
thirty men, and the senior captain, Doby, in immedi
ate command of the party.
The colonel rode in front of the halted column
some forty or fifty yards, with his thirty men, after
directing the officer next in command to ride down
the flank .of the regiment, form, and speak to each
" set of fours" separately. Each set of fours waited
for the word of command to be given to themselves
specially, and as the order was given " to close up and
dress," they did so steadily and firmly, and I looked
into the eyes of each man in the regiment, and they

THE FALLING TLAG. 85
looked into mine. There was little left for words to
say. There we sat, waiting to charge the battery that
was momentarily expected to unmask in front of the
house — something over two hundred men of the
thousand on our muster roll, and all the cavalry of
the army of Northern Virginia, looking on to see
how we did it
The shells from the battery whistled four or five feet
above our heads, for they had discovered our line on
the hill and tumed their fire on it. The shells went
over our heads, but struck a few feet in front of
General Lee's disraounted line, raaking gaps in it as
they did so.
Just then information was received that our march
ing column had crossed the bridge — our charge was
not to be — there was nothing to wait for. General
Lee mounted his men, formed, and moved off
promptly to cross the river at a ford .some two
mUes farther up, leaving General Gary with his bri
gade to cover his retreat We drew off from the posi
tion we had taken to attack the battery, the regiment
resuming its position at the head of the brigade, with
the exception of Colonel Haskell, Captain Doby, and
the thu-ty men before chosen — this party remained in
the rear of the brigade, all moving off slowly, the last
of General Lee's division having by this tirae gone
out of sight over the top of the hill.
We had not yet been able to perceive that the
bridge was on fire. General Gary said that General
3

36 THE FALLING FLAG.
Lee had left it to his discretion to cross at the bridge
if he could, as he expected we would be pressed very
closely at the last ; so, instead of following General
Lee's line of retreat, we tumed down towards the
town again and halted in the street while the General
hiraself galloped down to the bridge to see if it was
practicable. The shells were bursting over the town,
and in the street occasionally, while the good people
of Farmville, in a state of great though natural
alarm, were leaving with their goods forthwith. We
told them we were going at once ; were not to make
a fight in the town; to keep quiet in their houses,
and it was not probable they would be interfered
with. The bridge, bursting into smoke and flame, tdld
the story before the General got back. On we went
up the street, through the grove where we camped
the night before, on toward the railroad, following the
track taken by General Lee.
Just beyond the wood, on the outskirts of the
town, a large creek runs under the railroad through
an arched way or viaduct, wide enough for the road
to pass along its bank. After crossing this creek, on
a bridge on the town side of the railroad embankment,
we passed along the road under the culvert, and
formed on the edge of the woods some three or
four hundred yards beyond. Colonel Haskell, with
Captain Doby and his thirty men, halted at the
bridge to destroy it, as by this time bodies of the
enemy's cavalry could be seen moving at a gallop on

THE FALLING FLAG. 37
the hiU above. The creek was too deep for a ford ;
so it was all important, in connection with our cross
ing the river, to check their advance by buming the
bridge. Colonel Haskell, dismounting, placed all of
his party, except his axemen, behind the railroad
bank which overlooked the bridge and served as a
capital breastwork, went to Wbrk with a will. By
this time the enemy was upon them and commenced
a heavy fire, which was returned handsomely by the
party under cover and with good effect Colonel
Haskell succeeded in the coraplete destruction of
the bridge, with the loss of only one of his axeraen
killed. The cover of the bank, and the small number ac
tually exposed when at work, enabled hirri. to per
form a gallant and dangerous piece of service with
slight loss.
General Gary, who had occupied a position be
tween the wood where the brigade was formed and
near where the bridge party was at work, so as to be
in complete command of whatever might take place,
moved on at once toward the ford where General
Lee had already crossed his division We moved by
regiments in intervals after hira.
By some mistake of our guide we were carried to
a point in the river which was not practicable, at the
then stage of the river, as a ford — which we duly
discovered after nearly drowning two or three men
and horses of the ambulance train, whom we found at
the head of the column when we reached the river,

38 THE FALLING FLAG.
their usual place being in the rear. The adjutant,
finding them in front, asked them, " What the deuce
are you doing here — your place is in the rear?"
" No, sir," said a long-backed individual of the party, in
a copper colored raiment, who seemed to have been
making a study of the rules and regulations as apply
ing to his own departnient " Not so. In the rear, I
grant you, in the advance ; in the front, if you please,
in a retreat" " So be it," said I. "In with you ;'' and
in they went, nothing loth. The river was swim
ming and the horses swam badly, making plunges to
reach the opposite bank, which, when they gained,
was steep and treacherous, and it was only after re
peated efforts, and their riders getting off into the
river, that they made a landing. It was apparent
that this could not be the point that General Lee had
crossed his division. Some one turned up who led
us right About a mile farther up we found the
ford that he had crossed at, and got over without
difficulty or molestation; it was scarcely swimming
to the smallest horse, and directly opposite Jay all of
the Virginia cavalry to cover our crossing, if pressed,
while it was going on. We were the fii'st regiment
that crossed; found some stacks of oats; halted,
formed in squadrons, fed our horses, ate what we
had to eat, rested, and, as usual, made the best of it
After a rest of about an hour General Lee moved
off, we following in his rear, the Virginians ahead of
us with General Lee destroying the equanimity of
the good people on their line of march by pressing

THE FALLING FLAG. 39
every horse found in their way. Ic seemed hard to
come down so on our own people, after all the sacri
fices already made by them, but if the horse was lost
by our taking him, which was apt to be the result,
the proceeding mounted at least one of our own
troopers ; on the other hand it gave a fresh horse to
the enemy, and was equally lost to the owner — and
this was the view the Virginians usually took of it
General Lee, being ahead of us, made a clean sweep
as he went along, leaving scarce a gleaning of horse
flesh for us. After a while we came upon the wagons
and infantry again. It was not long before the ring
ing of a volley and the roar of a piece of artillery let
us know that an attack had been made on our train
again. We moved up to the firing at a gallop, and as
we passed along there came sweeping through the
woods, from the road running parallel with the one
we were on, a body of infantry in line, moving at a
double quick upon the sarae point, which was but a
short distance ahead of us. They were what was left
of the famous " Texas brigade," well remembered by
some of us in 1861 on the Occoquon at Dumfries —
first commanded by Wigfall, then a short time by
Archer, then by Hood, then Gregg, who was killed
October 26th, 1864, at the fight on the Darbytown
road. At this time the brigade counted about one
hundred and thirty muskets, commanded by Colonel
Duke. We had been fighting with them all summer,
from Deep Bottora to New Market heights, to the
lines arouud Eichmond, and they recognized the bri-

40 THE FALLING FLAG.
gade as we rode along their front, and with a yell as
fierce and keen as when their three regiments ave
raged a thousand strong, and nothing but victory had
been arouhd their flag, they shouted to us, " Forward,
boys, forward, and tell them Texas is coming !"
When we got into the open field we found that
General Lee's division of cavalry had engaged the
eneray, driven hira from his attack on our train, and
taken the Federal General Gregg prisoner.
The enemy were occupying in force, apparently, the
woods on the right of the field with infantry and artil
lery. We were holding the open field which had
been the scene of the skirmish before we came up,
and threw out skirmishers, and retumed the fire of
their sharpshooters — ^both sides using a piece or two
of artillery at long range.
After this had gone on for a while, "ours," the
Seventh, was ordered to charge in line on horseback,
through a piece of old field, grown up in scattering
pines, upon the battery that was working on us from
the edge of the oak woods. The line was formed and
we went at it very handsoraely, our men keeping up
their line and fire astonishingly, considering we were
armed with " muzzle loaders " (the greatest possible
of all drawbacks to the efficiency of cavalry).
We drew on ourselves at once a heavy fire of artil
lery and small arms, which told smartly on our Hne,
knocking over men and horses, until the left flank of
the regiment came upon a ravine, or deep wash, cov
ering nearly half of its front The horses could not

THE FALLING FLAG. 41
cross. We moved by the right flank to clear the
obstruction, and then found that the object of our
demonstration had been answered. It had been made
to cover the withdrawal of a body of our infantry
that had been advanced on our right It was sun-'
down. We left a strong line of pickets, or rather a
skirmish line, under command of Lieutenant Muner-
lyn, upon the ground we had occupied, and drew off
into the open field, waiting for dark before going into
camp, or rather lying on our arms. It had been a
tiresome day, and, though neither then nor now an
admirer of strong drink, I fell back upon and' fully
appreciated the contents of my canteen — the famous
apple brandy of Amelia Springs.
This, although we did not know it then, was destined
to be (save the last of all) the hardest night upon us.
We moved into a piece of woods as soon as it was dark,
and forraed the regiraent in squadrons, with orders to
water horses, a squadron at a tirae — the rest holding
position, the men in the saddle, until the return of
the preceding squadron — and then picket their horses
and make fires as near as possible on the same
ground. But when the first squadron returned from
the water, and the field officers had just unbuckled
their sabres and stretched themselves on the ground
to take the rest so much needed, and watch that most
interesting process to a hungry man, the building up
the little fire that was to do his modest cooking,
when an orderly comes from General Gary to change
camp — to buckle up and mount, and foUow the or-

42 THE FALLING FLAG.
derly a half mile to the rear. We were, it seemed,
too near the enemy's line, looking to the contem
plated movement.
At the new location — a comfortable piece of piny
woods old field — we finished what we had begun at
the other point At our mess, sleep seemed to be the
great object in view. I went to sleep immediately,
my head on my saddle ; woke in about a half hour's
time to eat what there was, and instantly to sleep
again ; but that was not to be. At about ten o'clock
a quiet order mounted us, almost before, as the httle
boys say, M-e got the " sleep out of our eyes." We
were in column on the road, and non-commissioned
officers under the direction of the adjutant riding
down it, each with a handkerchief full of cartridges,
supplying the men with that very necessary " article
of war.'' And then commenced that most weary
night march, that will always be remembered by the
tired raen who rode it, that ended only (without a
halt, except a marching one,) at Appomattox Court
house. The line of retreat had been changed, and by a
forced night march on another road a push was being
made for the mountains at Lynchburg. Had we got
ten there (and Appomattox Court-house was within
twenty miles of Lynchburg) with the men and ma
terial General Lee still had with him, Lee's last strug
gle among the raountains of his native State would
have made a picture to swell the soldier's heart with
pride to look upon. The end we know would have

THE FALLING FLAG. 43
been the same ; a few more noble hearts would have
bled in vain, and song and story would but have
found new themes to tell the old, old tale — ^how will
ing brave men are to die for what they believe to be
right Through long lines of toiling wagons, artillery
trains and tired men, we pushed on as rapidly as we
could ; at a bad piece of road, at a creek or a muddy
hill, the column sometimes got cut in two by a por
tion getting through the wagons, the train then closing,
waiting upon a wagon mired down ahead.
At one of these halts for the brigade to close up
and for the regiments to report position. General Gary
had halted at a large fire made from the rails of some
good farmer's fence by troops ahead of us, and round
it we all gathered, for the night was cold. The
subject of conversation with the brigade staff when
we joined was, that Captain M., the inspector, not
being well, had, early in the night, halted at a farm
house and gone to bed, just to see how it would feel,
putting his horse in the farmer's stable ; and when
he roused himself to the necessities of his position,
and sought to ride with the rest, he found his horse
was gone. Sorae pressing party had gone that way.
I remembered, when I listened to the drowsy talk
about the captain's loSs, that a couple of enterprising
young fellows had reported some horses at a farm
house and gotten permission to go after them. They
had not long returned with their prizes; they, the
horses, stood just on the edge of light thrown by the
fire against the darkness that rose like a wall behind

44 THE FALLING FLAG.
it, the hind-quarters of one, a large, leggy bay, with
stockings on his hind legs, could be seen frora where
we sat ; one of the orderlies, looking with sleepy eyes
frora the log on which he was sitting at the horses, ex
pressed himself to the effect that he thought that
" long-legged bay " looked about the hind-quarters a
good deal like the captain's missing charger. And so
it proved. While the captain " dallied at Capua," press
ing the luxurious blanket of the Virginia farmer, his
horse, in camp parlance, was " lifted " by our enter
prising youth ; and, much to their disgust, the cap
tain reentered into possession of his leggy war horse.
They expressed themselves to the effect that they
would as soon have stolen his horse as any body
else's. Again in the saddle, tramping through mud holes,
splashing in ruts, we worked our way amid the long
line of wagons, troops and artillery, until daylight
came to our relief. About . eight o'clock we came
upon our own wagon train — the first, and, by the way,
the only time we encountered it on our route — comfort
ably camped in a fine grove, good fires, and a glori
ous smell of cooking permeating the early morning
air. The headquarter wagons of our regiment were
parked near a fine fire, and our servants (never ex
pecting to see us again, I suppose,) were cooking on a
large scale from our private stores for a half dozen
notorious wagon-rats of the genteeler sort
Of course, as we rode up our boys declared they
expected us and were getting breakfast ready, which

THE FALLING FLAG. 45
statement was sustained by " messieurs," the wagon-
rats ; but the longing look they cast at a big pot of rice
steaming by the fire as they drew off, indicated a
deeper interest than I think it possible for them to
have gotten up on any one's account but their own.
We had a most comfortable breakfast and a rest of an
hour only, the time being taken up in dozing and
eating. Bad as the night had been the day was a beautiful
one. The sun was shining bright ; our breakfast and
rest had so refreshed us, short as that rest was, that
we resumed our march and the work before us, cheer
ful and ready to meet it, whatever it might be, and
what that " might be " was no man troubled himself
to know.
Not long after resuming our march we posted
pickets at some cross roads, under the immediate
direction of General E. E. Lee himself We moved
steadily on to-day without molestation of any kind,
the wagons moving in double lines, the road being
wide enough to admit it About twelve o'clock or a
little later we had halted to water our horses at a
stream that crossed the road. It takes a good deal of
time for a large body of cavalry to water their horses,
particularly if the stream is small, and the men have
to be watched closely to prevent their fouHng the
water. I had dismounted and was leaning across my horse,
when I saw, as I thought. Captain Allen, of the
Twenty-fourth Virgima, of our brigade, having wat-

46 THE FALLING FLAG.
ered his horse where the stream crossed the road.
The captain was a fine specimen of a Virginia soldier
and gentleman, some sixty years of age, of fine pres
ence, who was always said to resemble General Lee,
wearing his grey beard trimmed after the fashion of
that of our great leader, and in the saddle having
about the same height, though dismounted, the cap
tain, I should say, was the taller. However, I watched
the old captain, as I thought, riding up the hill toward
me, on a very fine grey horse, and was thinking what
a type of the veteran soldier he looked, as indeed I
had often thought before, until he got within a few
feet of me, when I changed my intended rather famil
iar, but still most respectful salute, meant for the
captain, for the reverence with which the soldier
salutes the standard of his legion — which represents to
him all that he has left to love and honor — as I dis
covered that it was General E E. Lee himself, riding
alone — not even an orderly in attendance. He re
tumed our salute, his eye taking it all in, with a calm
sraile, that assured us our confidence was not mis
placed. He bore the pressure of the responsibility
that was upon him as only a great and good inan
could — as one who felt that, happen what may, self
ishness — consideration of what might happen to him
self — ^had nothing to do with it.
So I felt satisfied that there was a likeness between
Captain Allen, of the Twenty-fourth Virginia, and
General E. E. Lee of the Southern Confederacy.
A little after this we got orders to move on, as

THE FALLING FLAG. 47
quickly as we could, in advance to Appomattox
Court-house. " Appomattox Court-house " is a small
county town about a mile from the Lynchburg rail
road. At the foot of the hill on which the court
house and the three or four houses that constitute the
village stand, run the headwaters of the Appomattox
river, a small stream, not knee deep to a horse.
As soon as we cleared the wagon train we got over
ground much faster, and rode into and through the
town just as the sun was setting. We stopped at a
piece of woods on the outskirts of the village, and
halted in the road while the quartermasters were
selecting the ground, and the regiments were closing
up. Our foragers, that had been detailed before we
got into town, were riding in with the hay they had
collected on the pommels of their saddles, and all
was as quiet as a scene in " Arcady," when the still
ness was broken by the scream of a shell, the report
of a gun, and then the burst- up of the missile as it
finished its mission and reported progress — and then
another, and another, until as pretty battery practice
was developed down yonder by the depot — Clover
Hill I think it is called — as you would wish to hear.
Without knowing positively anything about it,
those whom I had conversed with relative to our
pushing on to the Court house were under the ira
pression that a large body of our infantry were ahead
of us — General Dick Anderson's corps. He was
there, as it turned out, but his corps had been ex
pended a day or two before ; it had been completely

48 THE FALLING FLAG.
fought out, for we had no better officer than Lt General
Eichard Anderson, an old West Pointer — cavalry at
that — and a South Carolinian to boot.
It was, however, " hammer and tongs " down there
at all events — shell, grape and canister at short range.
Custar's division of Sheridan's cavalry had taken the
chord of the arc, and reached the depot just about
the time we got to the village. A knowledge of his
movements had caused our being sent forward, his
object being to strike the artillery train, which was in
advance of us — sixty pieces, under General Walker.
Three batteries were left at the depot to hold it, while
the rest retreated along the Lynchburg pike. The
three batteries were six guns under command of Major
James C. Coit — consisting of two guns Pegram's bat
tery, Va., Lieut Scott; two guns Wright's battery,"
Va., Lieut Atkisson ; two guns Martin's battery, Va.,
Capt. Martin ; with sixteen men, Kelly's battery, S. C,
Lieut Eace, who assisted in working Wright's guns.
While we were closing up our scattered ranks, and
getting the brigade ready for action as rapidly as
coolness, skill and courage could do it, a department
officer (I think he was) came galloping up to us from
the scene of action, apparently under orders from
himseK to get out of the way ; but the natural inso
lence of his class broke out in spite of the scare that
was on him, and he commenced giving orders at
once. I happened to be the person addressed — " Get
on at once ; the enemy are down yonder Why don't
you go at once ? Are all you men going to stand
here and let the enemy " — and so on. The colonel

THE FALLING FLAG. 49
had ridden down the column to see that all was
straight, while the " Legion " and the Twenty-fourth
Virginia were closing up, so that when we did move
it would be as a compact body — when the order
came ringing along — "Forward, forward, men! gal
lop 1" — and our indignant friend was lost in the rush
of the column while yet haranguing us for being so
slow. The roar of the batteries was incessant They
were evidently holding the dismounted cavalry in
check. As rapidly as we could get over ground we
moved towards them, and formed the brigade in the
field to the left of the position held by the batteries,
in what might be called a column of regiments. As
we formed the regiment from a column of fours into
line, they came down from a gallop to a trot at the
order, " Front into line," as steadily as if on parade ;
then followed, "Eight dress, front" — and all were
ready for the next move.
Our batteries from the right were shelling the
woods opposite to us. In front, under cover, some
of the cavalry skirmishers were using their Spencers
upon us at long range, and a squadron of ours, the
Fifth, was detailed to move up and take a position
opposite and retum their fire.
By this time the grey of twihght was lighted up
by the rising moon, and there seemed to be a lull in
the attack. General Gary and Colonel Haskell had
ridden over our front and communicated with the
commanding officer of the batteries ; the consequence

50 THE FALLING FLAG.
of which was, the brigade was dismounted and
double-quicked through a small piece of wood to the
batteries. Before our men could get to the guns
the enemy charged and got among them, but were
driven back by the fire and our rush, but taking
with them aome of our meh as prisoners — among
them Captain Haukins, of the Virginia battery,- who
got away and came running up to me as I rode to
my place. Our men fell in between the guns, and
then began one of the closest artillery fights, for the
numbers engaged and the time it lasted, that occurred
during the war. The guns were fought literally up
to the muzzles. It was dark by this time, and at
every discharge the cannon was ablaze from touch-
hole to mouth, and there must have been six or
eight pieces at work, and the small arms of sorae
three or four hundred raen packed in among the
guns in a very confined space. It seemed hke the
very jaws of the lower regions. They made three
distinct charges, preluding always with the bugle, on
the right, left and centre, confusing the point of at
tack ; then, with a cheer and up they carae. It was
too dark to see anything under the shadow of the
trees but the long dark line. They would get within
thirty or forty yards of the guns and then roll back,
under the deadly fire that was poured upon them
from the artillery and small arms. Amid the flash
ing, and the roaring, and the shouting, rose the wild
yell of a railroad whistle, as a train rushed up almost
among us (the enemy had possession of the road), as

THE FALLING FLAG. 51
we were fighting around the depot, sounding on the
night air as if the devil himself had just come up
and was about to join in what was going on.
Then came a lull ; our friends in front seemed to
have had the wire edge taken off
Our horses had been sent back to the turnpike
road ; General Gary taking advantage of the present
quiet sent Colonel Haskell to get thera together —
rather a difficult task, as it afterwards proved.
General Gary's gi-eat object was to draw off the
guns, if possible, now night had set in, from the
depot, and get them back with the rest of the train
in the line of retreat So the order was ^ven to
limber thera up, which was done, and the guns
moved off at once, it being but a few hundred yards
to the main road.
Our brigade in line faced to the rear, the guns be
hind them, and covered the movement The silence
of the guns soon told our friends over yonder what
was going on, and they were not long in folloMang
after; our men, facing to the rear, delivered their
fire steadily, moving in retreat, facing and firing
every few steps, effectually keeping off a rush ; they
pressed us, but cautiously — -the darkness concealed
our nurabers.
We were going through an open old field, and came
now to a road through a narrow piece of woods.
where we broke from line into column, and double-
quicked through the woods so as to get to the road
beyond. Before we got to the turnpike we heard the

52 THE FALLING FLAG.
bugles of the enemy down it, and as the head of our
column carae into the road their cavalry charged the
train some t'wo or three hundred yards below us.
Sixty pieces of cannon, at the point where we came
into the road, the drivers were attempting to tum
back toward the Court House, had got entangled
with one another and presented a scene of utter con
fusion. As our regiment got into the road some thirty or
forty men were thrown out from the last squadron
and faced to the rear on the right and left, opening a
fire directly upon those of the dismounted men who
were pressing us from that quarter. I had but little
fear of the enemy's cavalry riding into iis on the road,
so blocked up as it was with the routed artillery train,
and there were woods on both sides just here.
In passing from the old field, where the guns had
Been at work, into the M^oods that separated it from
the turnpike, two men were walking just in front of
me, following their gan, which was on before. I
heard one' say, " Tout perdu." I asked at once,
"What batteiy do you belong to?" "Donaldson-
ville." It was the Creole company ; and they might
-well have added the other words of the great Francis,
after the battle of Pavia, " Tout perdu fors Vhonneur,"
all lost but honor ; for well had they done their work
from ' sixty -one, when they came to Virginia, until
now, when all was lost, " Tout perdu " — it was the
motto of the occasion.
The stag was in the toils, but the end was not yet.

THE FALLING FLAG. 53
We could hear the rush, the shouts and pistol shots,
where the enemy mounted and in force had attacked
the train ; the artillerymen having no arms could
make no fight, as they could not use their pieces.
We could do nothing (being closely pressed by a
superior force of their dismounted men) but fall
back upon the town toward our main body, making
the best front we could, leaving the road and march
ing under cover of the timber on the side, being on
foot giving us a better position to resist any attack
that might be made upon u.s by the cavalry.
The fifth squadron of the Seventh, that had been
thrown out as skirmishers when we first came on the
ground, had kept their position covering our left
flank when the fight at the batteries M^as going on.
And when we commenced falling back after the guns,
the adjutant, Lieutenant Capers, was sent to bring
them to the road, so as to join the regiraent. They
had also been dismounted, and their horses sent with
the rest He found them, led them to the road, and,
on getting on it at a point nearer to the town than
where we struck it, hearing the bugles and the rush
of the cavalry on the train, he at once posted the com
panies, with their captains, Doby and Dubose, in the
woods immediately on the road-side, and with the
parting salutation, " Take care of yourselves, boys,"
(ho had been a private in one of the companies, and
both were from his native district), dashed back to his
place in the regiment and disappeared round a turn in
the road. They had scarcely lost sight of him when

54 THE FALLING FLAG.
a heavy volley rang out, and his horse came round
the bend at full speed without his rider, jumping over
in his fright a broken caisson that lay across the road
— the horse, a very fine roan, the one he was riding
when, at " Amelia Spring," he. Capers, was the only
one of the five in advance who escaped, to meet his
fate that night, pierced by a dozen balls ; the whole
fire of the column was concentrated upon him, for we
found his body next day. Some kind hand had given
him a soldier's grave ; some one, most likely of those
who fought us, who could not but respect and admire
the gallant young fellow lying in his blood, and with
the feeling developed by a soldier's life, " So be it to
me and mine in my sorrow as I may be to thee this
day." All the respect was shown that circumstances
admitted of.
One of our captains, who was wounded at the
" guns " severely, fell into the enemy's hands when
we moved thera — as everybody was too busy to look
after the wounded, and ambulance men and stretchers
were this time neither in the front or rear. He was
taken up by his new friends quite tenderly, as he
thought, and put into an ambulance; but in tha
course of the evening's entertainment the Yankee
wounded came dropping in, and our friend, Captain
Walker, was disposed of rather unceremoniously on
the roadside, for others they valued at a higher rate
than even a Confederate captain.
Immediately after the adjutant's horse came Cus
tar's cavalry. Seeing all clear before them, they

THE FALLING FLAG. 55
came on without a check until, when nearly opposite
where our men of the Fifth squadron were lying in
the woods, they caught the fire of the entire squad
ron, which emptied a good many saddles, and was
the last shot probably fired that night
The Federal cavalry kept on toward the town, and
the squadron, under cover, drew deeper into the
woods, and raoved round the town and went into
camp, but did not join the main body until next
morning. The enemy kept on until they got into, or
nearly into the town, but again fell back, establishing
their line somewhere between the town and the depot
Our outside picket was in the town.
We went into camp about one o'clock in the mom
ing, on the Eichmond side of the town, in the woods —
General Gary riding to General Gordon's headquarters
to report before lying down
April 9th. — The sun rose clear on this the last day,
practically, of the Southern Confederacy. It was cool
and fresh in the early morning so near the mountains,
though the spring must have been a forward one, as
the oak trees were covered with their long yellow
tassels. We gathered the brigade on the green on the Eich
mond side of the village, most of the men on foot,
the horses not having come in. About eight o'clock
a large portion of our regiment had their horses —
they having been completely cut off the night before'
by the charge of Custar's cavalry on the turnpike, and
were carried, to save them, into a country cross-road.

56 THE FALLING FLAG.
Then the " Harapton Legion " got theirs. My im
pression is that the Twenty-fourth Virginia lost the
most or a good many of their horses. The men built
fires, and all seemed to have something to eat, and to
be amusing themselves eating it. 'J he woods on the
southem and eastern side swarmed with the enemy
and their cavalry — a portion of it M'as between us and
the " James Eiver," which was about twelve mUes
distant General Fitz Lee's division of cavalry lay
over in that direction somewhere ; General Loncjstreet
with General Gordon was in and on the outer edge of
the town, on the Lynchburg side, and so we waited
for the perf ormanco to commence.
Looking at and listening to the men you would
not have thought there was anything special in the
situation. They turned all the responsibility over to
the officers, who in turn did the same to those above
them — the- captain to the colonel, the colonel to the
brigadier, and so on.
Colonel Haskell had not yet retumed — ^having sent
in all the horses he had gotten, and was still after the
balance. About nine or ten o'clock, artillery firing
began in front of General Longstreet, and the blue
jackets showed in heavy masses on the edge of the
M'oods. General Gary riding up, put everything that
had a horse in the saddle, and moved us down the
hill, j-ust on the edge of the little creek that is here
the " Appomattox," to wait under cover until M'auted.
Two of our young men, who had some flour and a
piece of bacon in their haversacks, had iraprovised a

THE FALLING FLAG. 57
cooking utensil out of a bursted canteen, and fried
some cakes. They offered me a share in their meal,
of which I partook with great relish. I then lay
down, with my head, like the luxurious Highlander,
upon a smooth stone, and, holding my horse's bridle
in my hand, was soon in the deep sleep of a tired
man. But not for long, for down came the general
in his most emphatic manner — and those who know
Gary know a man whose emphasis can be wonder
fully strong when so minded. " Mount, men, mount !"
I jumped up at the sharp, ringing summons with the
sleep still in my eyes, and found myself manoeu
vring my horse with his rear in front We soon
had everything in its right place, and rode out from
the bottom into the open field, about two hundred
and fifty strong, to see the last of it
Firing was going on, artillery and small arms, be
yond the town, and there was General E. E. Lee
himself, with Longstreet, Gordon, and the rest of his
paladins. When we rode into the open field we could see the
enemy crowding along the edge of the woods — cavalry
apparently extending their line around us. We kept
on advancing towards them to get a nearer view of
things, and were midway on the Eichmond side be
tween the town and' a large white house with a hand
some grove around it In the yard could be seen a
body of cavalry, in number about our own ; we saw
no other troops near. Two or three hundred yards
to the right of the house an officer, apparently of

58 THE FALLING FLAG.
rank, with a few men — his staff, probably — riding
well forward, halted, looking; toward the town with
his glass. Just as he rode out General Gary had
given the order to charge the party in the yard.
Some one remarked that it looked like a flag of
truce. " Charge !" swore Gary in his roughest tones,
and on we went The party in the yard were taken
by surprise ; they had not expected us to charge
them, as they were aware that a parley was going on
(of which, of course, we knew nothing), and that there
was a suspension of hostilities.
We drove them through the yard, taking one or
two prisoners — one little fellow, M'ho took it very
good-humoredly ; he had his head tied up, having
got it broken somewhere on the road, and was riding
a mule. We followed up their retreat through the
yard, down a road, through the open woods beyond,
and were having it, as we thought, all our own M'ay —
when, stretched along behind the brown oaks, and
moving with a close and steady tramp, was a long
line of cavalry, some thousands strong — Custar's
division — our friends of last night This altered the
complexion of things entirely ; the order was instantly
given to move by the left flank — which, without
throwing our back to them, changed the forward into
a retrograde movement
The enemy kept his line unbroken, pressing slowly
forward, firing no volley, but dropping shots from a
line of scattered skirmishers in front was all we got
They, of course, knew the condition of things, and

THE FALLING FLAG. 59
seemed to think we did not We fell back toward
a battery of ours that was behind us, supported, I
think, by a brigade of North Carolina infantry. We
moved slowly, and the enemy's skirmishers got close
enough for a dash to be made by our acting regi
mental adjutant — in place of Lieutenant Capers,
killed the night before — Lieutenant Haile, who took a
prisoner, but just as it was done one of our couriers
• — Tribble, Seventh regiment — mounted on a fine
black horse, bareheaded, dashed between the two
lines with a handkerchief tied upon a switch, sent by
General Gordon, announcing the " suspension of hos
tilities." By this time the enterprising adjutant had in turn
been made prisoner. As soon as the orders were
imderstood everything came to a stand-still, and for a
while I thought we were going to have,' then and
there, a little inside fight on purely personal grounds.
An officer — a captain— I presume the captain in
command of the party in the yard that we had at
tacked and driven back upon the main body — had,
I rather expect, been laughed at by his own people
for his prompt and sudden return from the expedition
he had set out on.
He rode up at once to General Gary, and with a
good deal of heat (he had his drawn sabre in his
hand) wanted to know what he, Gary, meant by
keeping up the fight after there had been a surren
der. " Surrender 1" said Gary, " I have heard of no
surrendei'. We are South Carolinians, and don't sur-

60 THE FALLING FLAG.
render. [Ah ! General, but we did, though.] Be
sides, sir, I take commands from no officers but my
own, and I do not recognize you or any of your cloth
as such."
The rejoinder was about to be a harsh one, sabres
were out and trouble was very near, when an officer
of General Custar's staff — I should like to have gotten
his name — his inanner was in striking contrast to that
of the bellicose captain, who seemed rather to belong
to the snorting persuasion — he, with the language and
manner of a thorough gentleman, said, " I assure you,
General, and I appreciate your feelings in the matter,
that there has been a suspension of hostilities, pending
negotiations, and General Lee and General Grant are
in conference on the matter at this time."
His manner had its effect on General Gary, who at
once sheathed his sabre, saying, " Do not suppose, sir,
I have any doubt of the truth of your statement, but
you must allow that, under such circumstances, I can
only receive orders from my own officers ; but I am
perfectly willing to accept your statement and wait
for those orders." (Situated as we were, certainly a
wise conclusion.) Almost on the instant Colonel
Blackford, of the engineers, rode up, sent by General
Gordon, with a Federal officer, carrying orders to that
effect. We drew back to the artillery and infantry that
were just behind us, and formed our battered frag
ments into reariments.
Desperate as we knew our condition to be since last

THE FALLING FLAG. 61
night's affair, still the idea of a complete surrender,
which we began now to see was inevitable, came as
an awful shock. Men came to their officers with
tears streaming from their eyes, and asked what it
all meant, and would, at that moment, I know, have
rather died the nisrht before than see the sun rise on
such a day as this.
And so the day wore on, and the sun went down,
and with it the hopes of a people who, M'ith prayers,
•and tears, and blood, had striven to uphold that fall
ing flag.
It was all too true, and our worst fears were fully
justified by the result. The suspension of hostilities
was but a prelude to surrender, which was, when it
came to a show of hands, inevitable.
General Lee's army had been literally pounded to
pieces after the battle of " Five Forks," around Peters
burg, which made the evacuation of Eichmond and
the retreat a necessity. When General Longstreet's
corps from the north bank joined it, the " army of
Northern Virginia," wasted and reduced to skeleton
battalions, was still an army of veteran material, pow
erful yet for attack or defence, all the more danger
ous frora its desperate condition. And General Grant
so -recognized and dealt Mrith it, attacking it, as before
stated, in detail ; letting it wear itself out by strag
gling and the disorganizing effect of a retreat, break
ing down of men and material. The infantry were
alraost starved.
It was not untU the fourth day from Eichmond, at

62 THE FALLING FLAG.
the high bridge on the " Appomattox," the battle of
SaUor's Creek was fought, in which, with overwhelm
ing masses of cavalry, artillery and infantry, our
starved and tired men were ridden down, and General
Grant destroyed, in military parlance, the divisions of
Kershaw, Ewell, Anderson and Custis Lee.
The fighting next day was of the same desultory
character as before, and the day after there was no
blow struck until we encountered Math the artillery
Custar's cavalry, at the depot of Appomattox Court
house, as has been described — all their energies being
directed toward establishing their " cordon " around
that point
The terms of the surrender, and all about it, are too
well known to go over in detail here — prisoners of
war on parole, officers to retain side arms, and all pri
vate property to be respected , that was favorable to
our cavalry, as in the Confederate service the men all
owned their horses, though different in the United
States army, the horses belonging to Government
General Gary, true to the doctrine he had laid down
in his discussion with the irate captain, that " South
Carolinians did not surrender," turned his horse's head,
and, with Captain Doby and one or two others, man
aged to get that night through the " cordon " drawn
around us, and succeeded in reaching Charlotte,
North Carolina, which became, for a time, the head
quarters of the " Southern Confederacy "—the Presi
dent and his Cajpinet having estabhshed themselves
there.

THE FALLING FLAG. 63
Colonel Haskell, who had been separated from us
the night before, while gathering up the horses of the
brigade, by the charge of cavalry on the turnpike, and
had joined and been acting with General Walker and
his artillery, came in about two o'clock. All the Con
federate cavalry at Appomattox, some two thousand
or twenty-five hundred, were under his command as
ranking officer.
The brigade crossed the road and bivouacked in the
open field near the creek, within a few hundred yards
of the town. Our infantry, and what was left of the
artillery, was scattered along the road for two or three
miles toward Eichmond — the enemy swarming in
every direction around us, and occupying the town as
headquarters. The articles of capitulation were signed next morn
ing under the famous " apple tree," I suppose ; what
we saw of it was this : General Lee was seen, dressed
in full Confederate uniform, with his sword on, riding
his fine grey charger, and accompanied by General
Gordon, coming from the village, and riding immedi
ately in front of where we were lying. He had not
been particularly noticed as he had gone toward the
town, for, though with the regiment, I have no recol
lection of his doing so. As soon as he was seen it
acted like an electric flash upon our raen ; they
sprang to their feet, and, running to the roadside, com
menced a wild cheering that roused our troops. As
far as we could see they came running down the hill
sides, and joining in, along the ground, and through

64 THE FALLING FLAG.
the woods, and up into the sky, there went a tribute
that has seldom been paid to mortal man " Faithful,
though all was lost !"
The Federal army officers and men bore them
selves toward us as brave men should. I do not
recoUecc, within my personal observation, a single
act that could be called discourteous — nor did I hear
of one. On the other hand, much kindness and con
sideration were exhibited when circumstances made it
warrantable — -such as previous acquaintance, as was
comraon among the officers of the old army, or a
return of kindness when parties had been prisoners
in our hands, as was the case with a portion of the
Seventh regiment when it was the cavalry battalion
of the Holcomb Legion, under Colonel Shingler, and
the Fifth Pennsylvania cavalry.
Ees"ular rations were issued to men and horses.
An apology was offered, on one occasion, by the
Federal Quartermaster, for not serving out horse
feed, as General F. Lee's division of cavalry, who
were, as I mentioned before, outside, up in the James
Eiver direction, had cut off a wagon train that held
their provender, so we had to send out a forage detail
in the neighborhood, with a pass from General Sheri
dan, to get through the Federal troops that filled the
woods for miles around, for their name was legion.
We stacked eight thousand stands of arms, all told ;
artillery, cavalry, infantiy stragglers, wagon-rats, and
all the rest, from twelve to fifteen thousand men.
The United States troops, by their own estimate.

THB FALLING FLAG. 65
were 150,000 men, with a railroad connecting their
rear with Washington, New York, Germany, France,
Belgium, Africa, " all the world and the rest of man
kind," as General Taylor comprehensi-s-el}' remarked,
for their recruiting stations were all over the M'orld,
and the crusade against the South, and its ])eculiar
manners and civilization, under the pressure of the
" almighty American dollar," was as ab.solute and
varied in its nationality as M'as that of " Peter the
Hermit," under the pressure of religious zeal, upon
Jerusalem. Success had made them good natured. Those we
came in contact with were soldiers — fighting men — ¦
and, as is always the case, such appreciate their posi
tion and are too proud to bear themselves in any other
way. They, in the good nature of success, were
more willing to give than our men, in the soreness of
defeat, to receive.
The effect of such conduct upon our men was of
the best kind; the unexpected consideration shown
by the officers and men of the United States army
towards us; the heartiness with which a Yankee sol
dier would come up to a Confederate officer and say,
" We have been fighting one another for four years ;
• give me a Confederate . five dollar bill to remember
you bv," had nothing in it offensive. ' -
They were proud of their success, and we were not
ashamed of our defeat ; and not a man of that grand
army of one hundred and fifty thousand men but
could, and I believe would, testify, that, n purely

bb THE FALLING FLAG.
personal grounds, the few worn-out half -starved men
that gathered around General Lee and his falling flag
held the prouder position of the two. Had the poli
ticians left things alone, such feelings would have re
sulted in a very difi'erent condition of things.
Those of us who took serious consideration of. the
state of affairs, felt that with our defeat we had as
absolutely lost our country — the one we held under
the Constitution — as though we had been conquered
and made a colony of by France or Eussia. The
right of the strongest — the law of the sword — was as
absolute at "Appomattox" that day as when Brennus,
the Gaul, threw it in the scale at the ransom of Eome.
So far, it was all according to the order of things,
and we stood on the bare hills men without a country.
General Grant offered us, it was said, rations and
transportation — each man to his native State, now
a conquered province, or to Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Many M'ould not have hesitated to accept the offer
for Halifax and rations; but, in distant Southem
homes were old men, helpless women and children,
whose cry for help it was not hard to hear. So, in
good faith, accepting our fate, we took allegiance
to this, our new country, which is now called the
"United States," as we would have done to France
or Eussia.
With all that was around us — the destruction of
the " Army of Northern Virginia," and certain defeat
of the Confederacy as the result — no one dreamed of
what has followed. The fanaticism that has influ-

THE FALLING FLAG. 67
enced the policy of the Government, to treat subject
States, whose citizens had been peimitted to take an
oath of allegiance, accepted them as such, and prom
ised to give them the benefit of laws protecting per
son, property and religion, as the dominant party in
the United States has done — exceeds belief
To place the government of the States absolutely
in the hands of its former slaves, and call their "acts"
" laws ;" to denounce the slightest effort to assert the
- white vote, even under the laws, treason ; and, finally,
force the unwilling United States soldier to use his
bayonet to sustain the grossest outrages of law and
decency against men of his own color and race ! This
has gone on untU, lost in wonder as to what is to come
next, the southern white man watches events, as a
tide that is gradually rising and spreading, and from
which he sees no avenue of escape, and must, unless
an intervention almost miraculous takes place, soon
sweep him away.