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[Illustration: A CAVALRY CHARGE.]
THE
FALLING FLAG.
EVACUATION OF RICHMOND,
RETREAT AND SURRENDER
AT
APPOMATTOX.
BY EDWARD M. BOYKIN,
_LT. COL. 7th REG'T S.C. CAVALRY._
Third Edition.
NEW YORK:
E.J. HALE & SON, PUBLISHERS,
MURRAY STREET.
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 MEN OF THE
7th South Carolina Cavalry,
THIS
SHORT ACCOUNT OF AN INTERESTING PERIOD IN THEIR
MILITARY HISTORY,
AND THAT OF
THE CAUSE THEY LOVED SO WELL, AND FOR WHICH THEY
FOUGHT SO FAITHFULLY,
Is Dedicated,
BY ONE WHO CONSIDERS HAVING BEEN THEIR COMRADE THE
PROUDEST RECOLLECTION OF HIS LIFE.
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 Northern 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 Richmond to Appomattox.
But he has confined himself to his own experiences, and in a great
measure to what happened to his own Brigade, because it was written
out, immediately 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 current of events into the full tide of history.
CAMDEN, SOUTH CAROLINA, }
_June 15th, 1874_. }
EVACUATION 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 forward all the dismounted men of the regiment to report to Lt.
Col. Barham, Twenty-fourth Regiment 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
Richmond at once, and fall into the general train of the army of the
north bank of the James River. Richmond then was to be evacuated, 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 Williamsburg and the "Nine Mile" road,
about four miles from Richmond, 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 Carolina, Col. Haskell; the
Hampton Legion, South Carolina, Lieut. Col. Arnold; the Twenty-fourth
Virginia, Col. Robbins, 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 commanded 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 Reserves, next the river, near Fort Gilmer, all under the command
of Lt. Gen. Ewell; also Hankin's Battery, Virginia, 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 burn
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, and the army in full retreat on Burkville, to effect, 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 armies,
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'clock. I think we were at this point six miles
from Richmond. 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 attached to it, were
all that were on this side--the north bank of the river. We could wait
no longer, and moved off slowly. In 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 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 ourselves, 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 Richmond that
dimmed the early sunshine.
At this point the General determined (though expecting 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 in
position, and our men dismounted and occupied the 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
steep hill by the house where General Johnston's 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 "Rockets," the southern suburb of Richmond, 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 us from our position as rear-guard, we pushed on
rapidly, the column moving at a trot through the "Rockets."
The peculiar population of that suburb were gathered on the sidewalk;
bold, dirty looking women, who had evidently not been improved by four
years' military association, dirtier (if possible) looking children,
and here and there skulking, scoundrelly looking men, who in the
general ruin were sneaking from the holes they had been hiding
in--not, though, in the numbers that might have been expected, for the
great crowd, as we soon saw, were hard at it, pillaging the burning
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
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 tobacco 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 rushing 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 burning 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 sad sights of war--a city undergoing pillage
at the hands of its own mob, while the standards of an empire were
being taken from its capitol, and the tramp of a victorious enemy
could be heard at its gates.
Richmond 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 military 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 residences; 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 Rio 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 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 burning 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 approach 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 burning. 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 them. Just as the canal bridge on
which we had crossed took fire, about forty of Kautz' cavalry
galloped 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 afterwards understood, acted with promptness and
kindness, put down the mob, and put out the fire, and protected the
people of Richmond from the mob and his own soldiers, in their persons
and property.
As we sat upon our horses on the high hill on which Manchester is
built, we looked down upon the City of Richmond. By this time the fire
appeared to be general. Some magazine or depot for the manufacture of
ordnance stores was on fire about the centre of the city; it was
marked by the peculiar blackness of smoke; from the middle of it would
come the roar of bursting shells and boxes of fixed ammunition, 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
burning in the river, from which the cannon were thundering as the
fire reached them. The old war-scarred city seemed to prefer
annihilation to conquest--a useless sacrifice, as it afterwards
proved, however much it may have added to the grandeur of the closing
scene; but such is war.
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 Petersburg and Richmond, were going with the rear of our army.
Civilians, in some cases ladies of gentle nurture, without means of
conveyance, were sitting on their trunks by the roadside--refugees
from Petersburg to Richmond a few days before, now refugees from
Richmond into the highway; indeed the most were from Petersburg,
driven out literally by the artillery fire. The residents of Richmond,
as a general thing, remained.
Two ladies here got into our regimental 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 sitting on their bags
some hardy, weather-beaten looking 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 had 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 the cavalry
rear-guard," as he does in his book. Some one of the "young cavalry
rascals" would have been 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, giving time for all
stragglers, wagons and worn out artillery 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 miles from Richmond, on the "Burkville road." Burkville is the
point at which the railroad branches west to Lynchburg 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 River 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 morning, as at our
slowest marching gait we out-travelled 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-five miles from Richmond, 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 command, 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 sensation 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 Richmond, and
the two columns respectively met--the two streams flowed into
one--forming what was left of Lee's great army of Northern
Virginia--the men exchanging in the fresh morning air kindly greetings
with one another, from Texas to Maryland, from the Potomac to the Rio
Grande. They marched along, leaving 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 Robbins, of the Twenty-fourth
Virginia, and myself were seated upon the steps of an old house,
breakfasting with Colonel Robbins, who had been fortunate enough to
meet a friend who had filled his haversack, and shared his good luck
with us, watching the men and horses who were eating what 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 some three or four
miles from where we were. So there was mounting 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 a 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 untouched.
We did not suppose the troops actually engaged in the firing exceeded
three or four hundred well mounted men, but had a large body of
cavalry moving parallel 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 absolute destruction they caused.
The burning caissons, as we rode by, were anything but pleasant
neighbors, and were exploding 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 burning wagons and the scattered plunder which filled the
road, giving 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 suppose belong to all armies. I have no
doubt Caesar had them in his tenth legion, and Xenophon in his famous
ten thousand.
So far the enemy, in carrying out his plan of attack, 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 column 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 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 Richmond with her friends in the "Artillery," 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
picture striking and peculiar. There was no time to listen, but
promising to do our best to punish the aggressors, 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 come 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 scattering fire, and then moved in
retreat along a road running parallel to the main road and leading to
"Amelia Springs." The Seventh, from position, was the leading
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 grown up with
pine. In advance rode five well mounted men of the regiment, as a
lookout, led by the adjutant--General Gary immediately behind
them--and the head of our column, the Seventh cavalry, next. As the
advance guard rounded the bend in the road it was swept by the fire 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 with 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 me when he fell--until three or four years after,
in a pulpit, as a Presbyterian preacher. He had gotten over his wound
without its doing him permanent injury). 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.
Caldwell's horse was killed dead. Hinson's fell with a 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 the ravine immediately in their front, which was deep enough
to shelter the mounted officers, the line officers and the men being
dismounted. Here General Gary determined to hold his position, until
General Fitz Lee, who commanded our cavalry, came up, not deeming it
advisable to attack 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
finding his position untenable moved off to the main body, not more
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 the fight in the morning, were politely requested
(everybody knows what a military 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 unpropitious 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 canteen 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 apple 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 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 satisfaction and his secret, but have never forgotten my
obligation to Lieutenant B. of the Hampton Legion.
All around us through 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 made our bivouac in sight of the enemy's pickets, eating our
homely rations with the keen relish and appetite health and hard work
give. While our neighbors, whose interest in us could not be
questioned, gave us the benefit of many 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 game was in the toils and they meant
to play a sure hand, with no more waste of material than was
absolutely 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, according 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 recommend 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 morning, 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 Springs," halted and formed 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,
formed 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 Lynchburg 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 artillery.
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 brigades into a large field on the left of
the road, and rapidly forming into compact masses in proper position
and relation with one another, to be used as might be required. We
halted and did the same, 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 going on, to which we moved at once. The
last, 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
literally gobbled up by Lee. We met 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 respectable fight had their military experience brought
to an abrupt conclusion. Lee's men had possessed themselves 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 command of Lieutenant General Ewell,
were knocked to pieces--and General Richard Anderson's command,
composed of Pickett's Division and Bushrod Johnson's, with Huger's
artillery. Pickett's and Huger's commands were, I think, destroyed,
but Johnson managed to get through. Generals Kershaw, Ewell 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 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 mountains, and, with light coverings on
the cold ground, the burning down of the fire was a general awakening
and building up of the same. At one of these movements we were
surprised to find, between Colonel 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 presence. We found one to
be a colonel of Pickett's division, the other a lieutenant, and
realized fully how complete the destruction of that famous fighting
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 morning.
We were waiting for orders by our fire, and 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 seemed much to
prefer (good men 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 connection. One of our
young lieutenants had heard of a very fine bay stallion, belonging to
a gentleman 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; ordering 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 through a window that
overlooked the back yard. "Yes, sir; I am sorry to disappoint you, but
as you came in at the front door my 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 morning our lieutenant
rode back to camp upon a horse some degrees below the standard of a
"Red Eye" or any other race horse. The laugh was with the lady.
Another case was against a class who met with but little sympathy from
a soldier in the field--a local or collecting quartermaster, _when of
a particular class_--some able bodied young man, every way fit for the
soldier, except in spirit, getting the position to screen himself from
field duty and make money out of a suffering 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 sybaritism of the department, claimed the horses as
belonging to _his department_, with a most insolent air, looking
daggers and court martials, and swelling as only overfed 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 transportation
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
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 forgotten; work was at hand; the rumbling of the
artillery and wagons crossing the bridge, with columns of infantry
between, could be heard down in the town at the foot of the hill, and
the cavalry were wanted on the other side of the town, by the Randolph
House, to hold the enemy 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, which was shown to be a
boarding school for young ladies, from the number gathered on the
piazza in front, we were 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 know, 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 picture, like discords in music, making
it complete.
So on through the town, across the little stream, and up the hill, on
the top of which on the right stood a large white building, called, as
I recollect, the Randolph House; in the field around were gathered and
gathering large bodies of our cavalry, under the command of General
F.H. Lee, General Rosser 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 pressing 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 admit of an effectual attack from
us.
General Lee dismounted the most of his command and formed a line of
battle along the road looking toward the point from which the enemy
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 some 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 completely 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 position, and rode to
General Lee's dismounted line of battle. As we rode up--our regiment,
the Seventh, leading--we were the right flank regiment in the brigade
formation, and in column with the right in front were necessarily in
advance. The battery seemed by this time to have gotten immediately
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 unmask itself in front of the house
every moment, General 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 detailing 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 immediate
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 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 turned their
fire on it. The shells went over our heads, but struck a few feet in
front of General Lee's dismounted line, making gaps in it as they did
so.
Just then information was received that our marching 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 miles farther up, leaving
General Gary with his brigade to cover his retreat. We drew off from
the position 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 thirty 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 time 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 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 turned down towards the town again and halted in the
street while the General himself 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, told 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 hill above. The creek was too deep for a ford; so it was all
important, in connection with our crossing the river, to check their
advance by burning 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 work
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 complete
destruction of the bridge, with the loss of only one of his axemen
killed.
The cover of the bank, and the small number actually exposed when at
work, enabled him to perform a gallant and dangerous piece of service
with slight loss.
General Gary, who had occupied a position between 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 him.