I had pretty well made up my mind to leave the _Dispatch_ if I
should receive an offer of employment elsewhere. There was no
prospect of advancement in the _Dispatch_ office, and I was very
much disgusted by the intention of the proprietors to stop my pay
during my absence on account of my illness, contracted in their
service. When I returned to Richmond I was sent for by Colonel
Briscoe G. Baldwin, who had been Chief Ordnance officer of General
Lee’s army, and had been appointed Superintendent of the National
Express Company. He told me he wanted me to take a position under
him in the National Express Company. This company was organized
after the war as a rival of the Southern Express Company, and had
been something of a hospital for Confederate officers of high rank.
It was at this time in a tottering condition; but Colonel Baldwin
said he thought it was not too late to save it, if he could get
such men as he wanted to do the active work of the Company. He
did not pretend to hide the condition of the Company from me, but
told me that he desired to have me there and thought that it would
be a good place for me, as, if the Company did pull through its
difficulties, I would be on the sure road to promotion. I resigned
from the _Dispatch_, and on September 17th, 1866, I was appointed
Route Agent in the National Express and Transportation Company,
“with all the rights, privileges, authority, and duties attaching
to the position.” My salary was one hundred dollars a month, and
the Company paid my travelling expenses. The territory which I
was to supervise covered the lines of railroad from Richmond
to Alexandria in one direction, and from Richmond to Bristol,
Tennessee, in the other. I went out on the road at once, visiting
the agents at every depot, and examining into the condition of the
business. There was great confusion everywhere, and the railroads
were threatening to discontinue taking freight for us, as the
Company did not pay the charges promptly. One of the places that I
visited was Lexington, where I had the great happiness of seeing
General R. E. Lee and his daughters again. I saw General Lee only
once after this, and that was when he visited Charleston not long
before he died. Engaged as he was with visitors, he gave me, in
kindly remembrance of my services with his nephew, General Fitzhugh
Lee, a private interview, in order that my wife, Virginia, might
be presented to him. General Lee’s youngest son, Robert E. Lee,
married Miss Lottie Haxall. I heard after I left Richmond that they
would probably become engaged, but I lost sight of Miss Lottie
until 1872, when I heard that Mr. and Mrs. R. E. Lee, who were
newly married, were staying at Aiken. Assuming that Mrs. Lee must
be my old friend Miss Lottie, I wrote to her and begged her to come
to Charleston. A night or two afterwards I was at the theatre in
Charleston, and as I looked at the audience I saw her sparkling
face turned towards me and smiling recognition. The next day Mr.
and Mrs. Lee spent with me and my wife, and we went down to Fort
Sumter together. It was the last time that my wife went out; and
only two or three months afterwards Lottie Lee died of consumption.
Almost the last words that my wife, Virginia, who died in 1872,
said to me before her death were: “When I die, I shall see Lottie
again.”
I also had the opportunity of visiting Warrenton, where I spent a
day with General W. H. Payne, whom I had not seen since we bade
each other good-bye when he was wounded at Five Forks. General
Lomax was living near Warrenton, and we had a glorious day reviving
the memories of our service in the cavalry. The National Express
Company, however, was on its last legs, and when I reached Richmond
in October I found that it had been determined to wind up the
concern. So ended my career as an expressman. While on one of my
tours of inspection, and waiting at a wayside station for the
train, I wrote the following verses:
“ONLY A PRIVATE.”