CHAPTER XIII

Battle of Sailor's Creek, April 6th--Capitulation of General Robert

E. Lee's Army at Appomattox Court-House, April 9, 1865--Surrender

of Other Confederate Armies, and End of the War of the Rebellion

Richmond and Petersburg having been evacuated, the Army of the

Potomac, at early dawn, April 3, 1865, under orders, marched

westward. Its sole objective now was the Confederate Army. Grant

directed some corps of his army to pursue on the line of Lee's

retreat, and others to march westward on roads farther to the south

to strike other roads necessary for Lee to pursue in gaining North

Carolina where he might form a junction with General Joe Johnston

who was then trying to stem the advance of Sherman.

It was soon known that Jefferson Davis and his Cabinet had reached

Danville, Virginia, and had proclaimed it the seat of the Confederate

Government.

To reach Danville Lee bent all his energy.

The sagacious and energetic movements of the several corps of the

Union army from the morning of April 3d to the surrender of Lee

will stand as a lasting testimonial to Grant's military genius,

ranking him with the great strategists of the world. Lee's officers

were familiar with the roads; the inhabitants were their friends;

his retreat was upon the shorter line, and he had a night's start.

Generals Meade, Sheridan, Ord, and the corps commanders also, won

just fame for the successful handling of their several commands.

Meade kept his forces in hand and pushed them precipitously on the

desired points. Sheridan was indomitable and remorseless in his

pursuit with the cavalry. Grant accompanied the army, sometimes

with one part of it and then with another, always knowing what was

going on and the position of all the troops. His orders were

implicitly obeyed. Rest or sleep was impossible for any length of

time. Recent and continuing rains rendered the roads almost

impassable for artillery trains. Teams were doubled and one half

the artillery and wagons were left behind. Lee undertook to order

supplies sent to Burkeville, where he expected to meet them.

Sheridan's cavalry captured, April 4th, a messenger with dispatches

in his boots which he was conveying to Burkeville to be wired to

Danville and Lynchburg, directing 300,000 rations to be forwarded

to Burkeville. Sheridan, by scouts disguised as rebels, had the

dispatches taken to Burkeville and sent, with the expectation he

would capture the rations on their arrival. They did not reach

Burkeville, but several train loads were sent forward from Lynchburg.

Sheridan's cavalry met them at Appomattox Station on the 8th, and

received them in bulk, locomotives, trains, and all.( 1)

Late on the 5th, Lee leisurely moved his army from Amelia Court-

House towards Burkeville. Sheridan's cavalry, with some infantry,

had possession of Jetersville on a road Lee attempted to pursue.

Sheridan assailed Lee's advance furiously and drove it back, forcing

him to form his army for battle. This occupied so much time that

when it was ready to attack, night was approaching, and the Fifth

and Sixth Corps were arrived or were arriving. Lee's escape to

Danville by the way of Burkeville was no longer possible. The day

was too far spent to fight a battle. Grant was still pushing his

corps upon different roads to intercept Lee's retreat. Lee's prime

mistake was in not concentrating his army, on the 4th, at Burkeville,

the junction of the two railroads, instead of at Amelia Court-House.

It was supposed that a decisive battle would be fought at Jetersville,

but Lee withdrew during the night.

General Lee claimed he lost one day at Amelia Court-House gathering

subsistence, because his orders to collect them there in advance

of his retreat had been disregarded.( 2)

Jefferson Davis reached Danville, Virginia, with members of his

Cabinet, on the 3d of April, and, on the 5th, he issued a proclamation

which he subsequently characterized thus:

"Viewed in the light of subsequent events, it may be fairly said

it was over-sanguine." In it he used such expressions as:

"Let us but will it and we are free. I announce to you, fellow

countrymen, that it is my purpose to maintain your cause with my

whole heart and soul; that I will never consent to abandon to the

enemy one foot of the soil of any of the States of the Confederacy;

that Virginia--noble State, whose ancient renown has been eclipsed

by her still more glorious recent history; whose bosom has been

bared to receive the main shock of the war; whose sons and daughters

have exhibited heroism so sublime as to render her illustrious

through all time to come--that Virginia with the help of the people,

and by the blessings of Providence, shall be held and defended,

and no peace ever made with the infamous invaders of her territory.

"If by the stress of numbers, we should be compelled to a temporary

withdrawal from her limits or those of any other border State, we

will return until the baffled and exhausted enemy shall abandon in

despair his endless and impossible task of making slaves of a free

people."( 3)

In consequence of Hill's death, Lee divided his army into two wings,

Ewell commanding one and Longstreet the other, his cavalry being

under Fitzhugh Lee and his artillery under Pendleton.

The Confederate Army, on the night of April 5th, abandoned Amelia

Court-House, and by circuitous country roads endeavored to pass

around the Union left through Deatonville and Painesville to Prince

Edward's Court-House, hoping still to be able to escape to Danville.

At daylight of the 6th the Union forces at Jetersville advanced in

battle array on Amelia Court-House, and some precious hours were

lost in ascertaining the direction of Lee's retreat. Our army was,

however, soon counter-marched to Jetersville, and thence, by

different roads and regardless of them, by forced marches, it sought

to intercept Lee. It must be remembered Lee's troops had one day

or more rest since leaving Petersburg and Richmond, and Grant's

army had none, and the latter had been moved by night as well as

by day, and irregularly fed. The most appealing orders were issued

by General Meade to his army to make the required sacrifices and

efforts to overtake and overthrow Lee's army. I quote from Meade's

order of the night of April 4th:

"The Major-General commanding feels he has but to recall to the

Army of the Potomac the success of the oft repeated gallant contests

with the Army of Northern Virginia, and when he assures the army

that, in the opinion of so distinguished an officer as General

Sheridan, it only requires these sacrifices to bring this long and

desperate conflict to a triumphant issue, the men of this army will

show that they are as willing to die of fatigue and starvation as

they have ever shown themselves ready to fall by the bullets of

the enemy."( 4)

This order, when read to the regiments, was loudly cheered. There

was perfect harmony of action among Grant's generals; all putting

forth their best efforts. On the 4th, Sheridan dispatched Grant,

"If we press on we will no doubt get the whole army." And again

on the 6th, "_If the thing is pressed I think Lee will surrender_."

( 5) On these dispatches being forwarded to President Lincoln, still

at City Point, he is reported to have wired Grant, "Let the thing

be pressed."( 6)

Grant, personally, gave more attention to the movements of his

forces to important places than to fighting battles. He was

especially anxious for Ord's command to be hastened forward on a

line south of Lee. Grant was always in touch with Meade and

Sheridan, but on the 5th and 6th he was with Ord. At night of the

5th he dispatched from Nottoway Court-House to Meade:

"Your movements are right. Lee's army is the objective point, and

to capture that is all we want. Ord has marched fifteen miles to-

day to reach here, and is going on. He will probably reach Burkeville

to-night. My headquarters will be with the advance."( 7)

Sheridan, in command of the cavalry, was often, temporarily, also

given command of a corps of infantry.

In the pursuit on the 6th from Jetersville, Wright's corps followed

Merritt's cavalry, and about 3 P.M., after a forced march of eighteen

miles, partly without roads and over a hilly country and under a

hot sun, came up with a portion of it heavily engaged trying to

seize a road at a point about two miles from Sailor's Creek on the

left and about the same distance from Deatonville on the right, on

which Ewell's wing of Lee's army was retreating. Ewell was heading

towards Rice's Station to form a junction with Longstreet, both

intending to move _via_ Prince Edward's Court-House south. Ord,

with the Army of the James, late on this day confronted Longstreet

at Rice's Station. The Third Division of the Sixth was in advance,

and my brigade went into line of battle and rapidly into action,

with scarcely a halt for formation, and, together with the cavalry,

charged and drove the enemy across the road, capturing many prisoners,

wagons, and some pieces of artillery, including General Heth's

headquarters wagons.

An incident occurred soon after we gained this road. Another road

from the west intersected at this point the one we had just seized,

and on which the enemy had a battery which opened on us furiously.

I hastened to the intersecting road to direct some of my regiments

to charge and capture the battery or drive it away. Generals

Sheridan and Wright, with their staffs, soon galloped up. Sheridan

was accompanied by a large mounted brass band that commenced playing

_Hail to the Chief_, or some other then unwelcome music. This drew

the fire from the battery with increased fury on the whole party.

Both Sheridan and Wright were too proud spirited to retire in the

presence of the troops or each other, though not needed at that

place. The dry limbs of pine trees rattling down around us and

the bursting of shells rendered the situation embarrassing in the

extreme, and the lives of others were being sacrificed or imperilled

by the presence of the distinguished party. Being in immediate

charge of the forces there, I invited the Generals to get out of

the way, but as they did not retire I ordered a charge upon the

"_noisy band_," and thus caused the whole party to retire to a

place of greater safety. Some of them were quite willing to go.

I gave Colonel Binkley such an imperative order to silence the

battery, that he pursued it with a detachment to such a distance

that he did not rejoin the brigade in time to participate in the

principal battle of the day yet to be fought.

Ewell's wing of the Confederate Army had mainly passed on towards

its destination. Pursuit was promptly ordered by Sheridan and

conducted by Wright. Ewell's rear-guard fought stubbornly and fell

back slowly through the timber until it reached Sailor's Creek.

Wheaton's division arrived and joined the Third on the left in the

attack and pursuit. Merritt's cavalry passed rapidly around Ewell's

right to intercept the retreat. Merritt crossed Sailor's Creek

with Custer and Devin's divisions south of the road on which the

enemy retreated.

General R. S. Ewell crossed Sailor's Creek, and about 5 P.M. took

up a strong position on heights on its west bank. These heights,

save on their face, were covered with forest. There was a level,

cultivated bottom about one half mile in width, wholly on the east

bank of the stream. Sailor's Creek, then greatly swollen, washed

the foot of the heights on which Ewell had posted his army. He

hoped to be able to hold his position until night, when, under

cover of darkness, he might escape towards Danville.

Our troops were temporarily halted on the hills at the eastern edge

of the valley, in easy range of the enemy's guns, and the lines

were hastily adjusted.( 8) Artillery went into position and at

once opened a heavy fire. An effort was made to bring up Getty's

division of the Sixth and the detachment of my brigade under Binkley,

but the day was too far spent to await their arrival. It was

plainly evident that Ewell outnumbered our forces in line, and our

men had been on foot for twelve hours. Wright hesitated under the

circumstances, but Sheridan, coming to the front, advised an

assault.( 9) Wright then promptly ordered the infantry on the

field to make one, under cover of the artillery. Colonel Stagg's

cavalry brigade was ordered to attack the enemy's right flank, and

Merritt and Crook's cavalry were to attack still farther around

his right and on his rear.

Ewell covered his front with a strong line of infantry, and massed

a large body in column, in rear of his centre, to be used as the

exigencies of the battle might require. Ewell's cavalry covered

his right and rear. General R. H. Anderson and J. B. Gordon, with

their corps, had preceded Ewell in crossing Sailor's Creek, and

Sheridan, who had now personally passed from the front around to

Merritt, encountered them some distance to the rear of Ewell's

position. The Confederate trains were on the road to Rice's Station,

where Longstreet was confronting Ord, neither, however, willing to

attack the other.

The plan was for Anderson and Gordon to attack and clear the rear,

while Ewell stopped the infantry at the Creek.(10) The latter had

three infantry divisions, with parts of others, under the command

of Generals Kershaw, G. W. Custis Lee, Pickett, Barton, DuBose,

Corse, Hunton, and others of the most distinguished officers of

the Confederate Army. Commodore John Randolph Tucker, formerly of

the United States navy, commanding the Marine Brigade, was posted

on the face of the heights on Ewell's front. Colonel Crutchfield,

who had been recently in charge of the artillery at Richmond,

commanded a large brigade of artillerymen serving as infantry.

About 5 P.M. the two divisions of the Sixth descended from the hills,

in a single line, and moved steadily across the valley in the face

of a destructive fire, with muskets and ammunition boxes over the

shoulder, the men waded the swollen stream. Though the water was

from two to four feet deep, the creek was crossed without a halt.

Many fell on the plain and in the water, and those who reached the

west bank were in some disorder. The command, was, however, given

by the officers accompanying the troops to storm the heights, and

it was obeyed. Not until within a few yards of the enemy, while

ascending the heights, did our men commence firing. The enemy's

advance line gave way, and an easy victory seemed about to be

achieved, but before the crest was reached, Ewell with his massed

troops made an impetuous charge upon and through our line. Our

centre was completely broken and a disastrous defeat for us seemed

imminent. The large column of Confederate infantry now, however,

became exposed to the renewed fire from Wright's massed artillery

on the hills east of the valley.

The right and left of the charging line met with better success,

driving back all in their front, and, wholly disregarding the defeat

of the centre, persisted in advancing, each wheeling as on a pivot

in the centre, until the enemy's troops were completely enveloped

and subjected to a deadly fire on both flanks, as well as from the

artillery in front. The flooded stream forbade an advance on our

unguarded batteries. The cavalry, in a simultaneous attack, about

this time overthrew all before them on the Confederate right and

rear. Ewell's officers gallantly exerted themselves to avert

disaster, and bravely tried to form lines to the right and left to

repel the now furious flank attacks. This, however, proved

impossible. Our men were pushed up firing to within a few feet of

the massed Confederates, rendering any reformation or change of

front by them out of the question, and speedily bringing hopeless

disorder. A few were bayoneted on each side. The enemy fell

rapidly, while doing little execution. Flight became impossible,

and nothing remained to put an end to the bloody slaughter but for

the Confederates to throw down their arms and become captives. As

the gloom of approaching night settled over the field, now covered

with dead and dying, the fire of artillery and musketry ceased,

and General Ewell, together with eleven general officers and about

all the survivors of his gallant army, were prisoners. Ewell,

Kershaw, G. W. Custis Lee (son of General R. E. Lee), and others

surrendered to the Sixth Corps. Barton, Corse, Hunton, DuBose,

and others were taken by the cavalry. Crutchfield of the Artillery

Brigade was killed near me, and his command captured or dispersed.

Generals Anderson and Gordon got away with part of B. R. Johnson's

division, and Pickett escaped with about six hundred men.(11)

Tucker's Marine Brigade, numbering about two thousand, surrendered

to me in a body a little later.(12) It had been passed by in the

onset of the charge. About thirty-five of the officers of this

brigade had served in the United States Navy before the war. The

brigade was made up of naval troops who had recently served on

gunboats and river batteries on the James below Richmond. As

infantrymen they cut a sorry figure, but they were brave, and stood

to their assigned position after all others of their army had been

overthrown. They knew nothing about flight, and were taken as a

body. By reason of their first position they suffered heavily.

When disarmed there was found to be a wagon load or more of pistols

of all patterns which had been collected from all the countries of

the civilized world. Certain incidents relating to the surrender

of this brigade may be of interest.(13)

Tucker's command was not at once engulfed in the general disaster.

Tucker had, after making a gallant charge, withdrawn it from its

exposed position into the dense timber in a depression in the

bluffs. Near the close of the battle, just at dusk, it was reported

to me that a force of Confederates was in this timber. I made two

vain attempts to get into communication with it and to notify its

commanding officer that he was in our power. At last, having some

doubts of its presence where reported, and my staff and orderlies

being engaged reforming troops and caring for prisoners, I rode

alone to investigate. After proceeding in the woods a short

distance, to my surprise I came upon Tucker's brigade in line of

battle, partly concealed by underbrush. To avoid capture I resorted

to a ruse. In a loud voice I gave the command, "_Forward_," and

it was repeated by the Confederate officers all along the line.

I turned to ride towards my own troops. The dense thicket prevented

speed and the marines therefore kept at my horse's heels. As an

open space was approached the nearest Confederate discovered that

I was a Union officer, and cried "Shoot him." As I turned to

surrender, some confusion arose and a few shots were fired, but

Tucker and Captain John D. Semmes, being near me, knocked up the

ends of the nearest rifles with their swords and saved my life.

From this situation, lying close on my horse's neck, I escaped to

my own command. With a detachment I at once returned to the timber,

where I met Tucker and explained to him the situation of which he

was ignorant, and forthwith received his surrender with his brigade.

Later, when Tucker and Semmes were prisoners at Johnson's Island,

near Sandusky, the appealed to me to intercede for their release,

which I most gladly and successfully did. They had each been, at

the beginning of the war, in the United States Navy, which caused

them to be exceptionally detained as prisoners under President

Johnson's order.(14)

The infantry, under Wright, engaged in the battle at Sailor's Creek

at no time exceeded ten thousand men. The number participating in

the charge across the plain and in storming the heights did not

exceed seven thousand, being fewer in number than the enemy captured

on the field. It has been claimed that Humphreys' Second Corps

participated in the battle, and some Confederate officers assert

that the attack was made with thirty thousand men under Wright.

Humphreys did have a lively skirmish the evening of the 6th, and

captured a considerable train, far off to the right of the battle-

field, and in this the detachment under Colonel Binkley from my

brigade participated.(15)

Getty's division of the Sixth did not reach the field in time to

become engaged.(16) The results, being so great, naturally led

interested parties to exaggerate the number of the attacking

forces.(17)

Sheridan, in his report, May 16, 1865, speaking of the infantry

attack, says: "It was splendid, but no more than I had reason to

expect from the gallant Sixth Corps." And he speaks of the fighting

of the cavalry and the captures thus:

"The cavalry in the rear of the enemy attacked simultaneously, and

the enemy, after a gallant resistance, were completely surrounded,

and nearly all threw down their arms and surrendered. General

Ewell, commanding the enemy's forces, a number of other general

officers, and about 10,000 other prisoners were taken by us. Most

of them fell into the hands of the cavalry, but they are no more

entitled to claim them than the Sixth Corps, to which equal credit

is due for the result of this engagement."

Our loss in killed and wounded was comparatively small; that of

the enemy was great, but not in proportion to his loss in prisoners.

One week after the battle I visited the field, and could then have

walked on Confederate dead for many successive rods along the face

of the heights held by the enemy when the battle opened.

The capture of Ewell and his generals, with the larger part of the

forces under them, and the dispersion of the remainder of Ewell's

wing of Lee's army were irreparable disasters to the Confederacy.

Lee could no longer hope to cope with the pursuing army. The Sixth

Corps had the distinguished honor of striking the decisive blows

at Petersburg on the 2d, and at Sailor's Creek on the 6th of April,

1865.

Sailor's Creek may fairly be called the last field battle of the

war. A distinguished Confederate General, Wade Hampton, in a

_Century Magazine_ article, pronounced the battle of Bentonville,

North Carolina, the "last important one of the war, . . . the last

general battle of the Civil War." There may be room for controversy

as to where and when the last "general battle" of the war was

fought. Certain it is that it was not at Bentonville that the

conflict ended on a large scale and blood ceased to flow in the

great Rebellion. Bentonville was mainly fought March 19, 1865,

and while it may properly be called a field engagement and of no

insignificant proportions, it was not the last one. This is not

the place to enter into any controversy about last battles, their

character and significance, yet it may not be out of place to call

attention to the most prominent battles, etc., fought after March

19, 1865.

Fort Stedman, in front of Petersburg, Virginia, was assaulted and

temporarily taken by the Confederate General Gordon, March 25,

1865, and while the fighting which ensued in retaking the fort and

in driving out the attacking forces may not be denominated a general

battle, yet it was a bloody one. Other severe fighting took place

in front of Petersburg the same day.

Five Forks, Virginia, fought by General Sheridan's cavalry and the

Fifth Corps, Army of the Potomac, April 1, 1865, was fought outside

of fortifications by cavalry, infantry, and artillery combined,

and there were charges and counter-charges, lasting several hours,

the losses being heavy in killed and wounded. Many prisoners were

there taken by Sheridan's command. Five Forks was a general field

engagement.

The assaults and conflicts on, over, and around the ramparts of

the forts and fortifications (incomparably bloody) in front of

Petersburg, Virginia, April 2, 1865, which tore open the strong

lines of defence held by General Lee's army, forced it to flight,

and lost Petersburg and Richmond to the Confederacy, may not be

entitled to be classed as general field battles.

Sailor's Creek came next in order, fought April 6, 1865.

The assault and capture of Fort Blakely, near Mobile, Alabama, took

place April 9, 1865. If Blakely can be called a general battle it

was the last one of the war. It was, however, mainly an assault

by the Union forces under General E. R. S. Canby on fortifications,

though rich in results. The killed and wounded at Blakely in both

armies aggregated about 2000 men. Canby's forces captured 3423

men, 40 pieces of artillery, 16 battle flags, etc. The prize fought

for and won was Mobile, its surrounding forts and the Confederate

Navy in the harbor of Mobile.

At Palmetto Ranche, Texas, on May 13, 1865, near the battle-field

of General Zachary Taylor at Palo Alto (May 8, 1846), the first of

the Mexican War, and about two thousand miles from Big Bethel, the

scene, June 10, 1861, of the first considerable battle of the

Rebellion, a lively engagement took place, hardly, however, rising

above the dignity of a skirmish or an _affair_, though it was by

no means bloodless. (The magnitude of the battles of the Rebellion

dwarfed to _affairs_ or skirmishes what were formerly in this and

other countries called battles.)

Colonel Theodore H. Barrett commanded the Union forces at Palmetto

Ranche, and General J. E. Slaughter the Confederates.

The 62d United States Colored Infantry, in this fight, probably

fired the last angry volley of the war, and Sergeant Crocket of

that regiment (three days after Jefferson Davis' capture) received

the last wound from a rebel hostile bullet, and hence shed the last

fresh blood in the war resulting in the freedom of his race in the

United States. The observation irresistibly comes, that on the

scene of the first battle of the Mexican War--a war inaugurated

for the acquisition of slave territory--and of the _first_ battle

participated in by Lieutenant-General (then Second Lieutenant) U.

S. Grant, almost exactly nineteen years later, the last conflict

took place in the war for the preservation of the Union, and in

which slavery was totally overthrown in our Republic.

But to return from the digression and to conclude the story of

Sailor's Creek, or the "Forgotten Battle." It may truthfully be

said that it was not only the last general field battle of the war,

but the one wherein more officers and men were captured in the

struggle of actual conflict than in any battle of modern times.

There was some fighting between the cavalry of the two armies and

many minor affairs between the advance- and rear-guards, but the

four years' heavy fighting between the Army of Northern Virginia

and the Army of the Potomac ended at Sailor's Creek.

During the battle Lee was with Longstreet at Rice's Station, two

miles distant, impatiently awaiting news from Lieutenant-Generals

Ewell and Anderson. General Mahone states what transpired when

Colonel Venable of Lee's staff reported to his chief something of

the disaster at Sailor's Creek:

"General Lee exclaimed, 'Where is Anderson? Where is Ewell? It

is strange I can't hear from them." Then turning to me, he said,

'General Mahone, I have no other troops, will you take your division

to Sailor's Creek?' and I promptly gave the order by the left flank,

and off we were for Sailor's Creek, where the disaster had occurred.

General Lee rode with me, Colonel Venable a little in the rear.

On reaching the south crest of the high ground at the crossing of

the river road overlooking Sailor's Creek, the disaster which had

overtaken our army was in full view, and the scene beggars description,

--hurrying teamsters with their teams and dangling traces (no

wagons), retreating infantry without guns, many without hats, a

harmless mob, with the massive columns of the enemy moving orderly

on. At this spectacle General Lee straightened himself in his

saddle, and, looking more the soldier than ever, exclaimed, as if

talking to himself, 'My God! has the army dissolved?' As quickly

as I could control my own voice I replied, 'No, General, here are

troops ready to do their duty'; when, in a mellowed voice, he

replied: 'Yes, General, there are some true men left. Will you

please keep those people back?' As I was placing my division in

position to 'keep those people back,' the retiring herd just referred

to had crowded around General Lee while he sat on his horse with

a Confederate battle-flag in his hand. I rode up and requested

him to give me the flag, which he did.

"It was near dusk, and he wanted to know of me how to get away.

I replied: 'Let General Longstreet move by the river road to

Farmville, and cross the river there, and I will go through the

woods to the High Bridge (railroad bridge) and cross there.' To

this he assented."

Longstreet retired at nightfall to Farmville and there crossed the

Appomattox the morning of the 7th, and Mahone and broken detachments,

with such trains and artillery as Lee still possessed, crossed at

the High Bridge. All bridges were wholly or partially destroyed

by the enemy on being passed.

The result of the operations of April 6th forced Lee off of all

roads leading to Danville, and Lynchburg became his objective.

Grant's plans did not justify a halt on the field of Sailor's Creek

long enough to bury the dead, or even long enough to care for our

wounded, and, though night had come, the battle-stained soldiers,

hungry and exhausted, were marched on. The Sixth Corps encamped

at 10 P.M. near Rice's Station, about three miles from the battle-

field. Other corps on different lines were kept to their work,

and their operations also contributed towards baffling Lee's plans

for escape.

A single serious disaster occurred on the 6th to a detachment of

our army. Ord, whose orders were to obstruct all lines of retreat,

detached Colonel Francis Washburn with the 123d Ohio and portions

of the 54th Pennsylvania and 4th Massachusetts Cavalry, about eight

hundred in all, to destroy High Bridge over the Appomattox below

Farmville. Later in the day, Colonel Thomas Reed of Ord's staff

with eighty cavalrymen was sent to recall Washburn. The detachments

met, and having penetrated to within about two miles of the bridge,

encountered Lee's advance cavalry and infantry. Washburn and Read

put up one of the most gallant fights of the war, but were soon

surrounded. They led repeated charges until both fell, mortally

wounded. Not until most of the command had fallen did it surrender.

The Confederate loss was severe, especially in officers. This

affair caused Lee to lose precious time, he being led to believe

from the obstinacy of the fight that a large Union force was in

his front.

The Sixth Corps, after Sailor's Creek, was ordered to pursue Lee's

army directly. Its flanking work was done; its mission was to

assail Lee's rear, delay him, and if possible bring him to battle.

Sheridan, with Merritt's cavalry division, followed by Ord and the

Fifth Corps, continued westward, with orders not to stop for bad

roads, nor wait for subsistence or for daylight. They were not to

halt until planted across Lee's front.

Humphreys, who also had orders to press Lee's rear, succeeded with

his corps and a cavalry division under Crook in crossing the

Appomattox close on Mahone's rear. Wright, the morning of the 7th,

followed Longstreet to Farmville, where the latter had passed to

the north of the river.

Grant and his staff, with a small escort, rode by us about noon.

The roads were muddy from recent rains and much cut up by the

Confederate Army. Grant was dressed, to all appearance, in a

tarpaulin suit, and he was, even to his whiskers, so bespattered

with mud, fresh and dried, as to almost prevent recognition. He

then, as always, was quiet, modest, and undemonstrative. A close

look showed an expression of deep anxiety on his countenance.

Farmville is in a narrow, short valley on the south bank of the

Appomattox, surrounded on the south by high bluffs. As the Sixth

arrived on the heights above the town I was riding with General

Wright. All were anxious to ascertain the exact whereabouts of

the enemy, when, to our amazement, apparently the whole Confederate

Army came into view on the high plain north of the river. It was

drawn up in battle array and seemingly about to envelop and destroy

Crook's cavalry, that was furiously assailing it to delay it. From

the heights it seemed to us Crook's command would speedily be

annihilated. Wright was an unimpassioned man, little given to

excitement, but this scene threw him into a vehement state. His

corps was too far off the render assistance; the Appomattox, deep

through narrow, lay between, and pontoons were not up. He ordered

his corps hastened forward, and plunged down the bluffs into

Farmville, looking for a crossing. He soon came in front of a

Virginia tavern with the usual "stoops" or low porches in front,

above, and below. Grant was seated on the upper "stoop," resting

his chin on his folded arms, which were on the rail of a baluster.

He was smoking a cigar, and doubtless casting his eyes on the

situation across the river. He then looked happy, contented, and

unconcerned. He did not change when Wright exhibited, by word and

act, great solicitude for the fate of the cavalry. When Wright

had finished, Grant withdrew his cigar from his lips, raised his

head only a little, and pleasantly said: "The cavalry are doing

well, and I hope General Lee will continue to fight them, as the

delay will lessen his chances of escape." Grant also, pointing in

the direction of the river, added: "General Wright, you will find

the débris of a railroad bridge down there, on which you can

construct a passage for your infantry and get them over the river

during the night." Grant resumed smoking and we went about our

business.

A crossing was soon made on the iron and timbers of a broken-down

bridge, over which foot soldiers could pass in single file. As

the structure was liable to get out of order, each officer, from

division to company commander, was required to stand at its end

and see that the soldiers of his command marched on it at proper

intervals and with steady step. It was 3 A.M. of the 8th before

the last of the corps had crossed and bivouacked. Mounted officers

and escorts swam the stream at a swollen ford near-by.

Crook lost heavily in his unequal combat, one of his brigades

especially, its commanding officer, General J. Irwin Gregg, being

captured, but the purpose of the attack was accomplished. Crook

withdrew his recently imperilled cavalry to the south of the river

about 9 P.M. of the 7th, and reached Prospect Station the same

night, under orders to rejoin Sheridan.

Lee, late on the evening of the 7th, seems to have been personally

seized with a panic on hearing some threatening reports of being

cut off or flanked, and he caused his trains to retreat in a wild

rush and the infantry under Longstreet to march at double-quick to

Cumberland Church, where he formed for battle.(18)

General Ewell, at supper with Wright the night after his capture

on the 6th, made some remarks about the hopeless condition of the

Confederate Army, and suggested that Lee might be willing to

surrender. This and other like talk of Ewell, being communicated

by a Dr. Smith to Grant, suggested the idea to him of demanding

the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia.(19) A note to this

effect was accordingly sent to Lee, under a flag of truce, at 5

P.M. of the 7th. Lee immediately answered, saying he did not

entertain the opinion that further resistance was hopeless on the

part of his army, yet asked Grant to name the terms he would offer

on condition of surrender. Grant, on the 8th, replied that there

was but one condition he would insist on, viz.:

"That the men and officers surrendered shall be disqualified for

taking up arms against the government of the United States until

properly exchanged."

Lee, the same day, responded, saying that in his note of the day

before, he "did not intend to propose the surrender of the Army of

Northern Virginia," but only to ask the terms of Grant's proposition,

adding that he could not meet Grant with the view of surrendering

that army, but as far as Grant's proposal might affect the Confederate

States forces under his command and tend to the restoration of

peace, he would be pleased to meet Grant the next day at 10 A.M.

Very early on the 9th Grant sent Lee a note saying: "I have no

authority to treat on the subject of peace; the meeting proposed

for 10 A.M. to-day could lead to no good."

At the earliest dawn of the 8th, the Sixth Corps pushed after Lee,

compelling him to abandon some of his heaviest artillery and a

further part of his trains. Longstreet covered Lee's rear, and

his troops had not been seriously engaged on the retreat. Ord and

the Fifth Corps struggled westward, cutting off all chance of Lee

turning southward and of thus extricating himself. The 8th was

not a day of battles but of the utmost activity in both armies.

I note an incident. While halted, about noon on the 8th, in some

low pines to drink a cup of coffee and eat a cracker, Colonel Horace

Kellogg, of the 123d Ohio, who had been captured with Washburn's

command on the 6th, near High Bridge, came to us through the bushes

from a hiding-place to which he escaped soon after his capture.

He looked cadaverous, was wild-eyed, and in a crazed condition,

caused by starvation and want of water for two days. We had to

restrain him, and give him water, coffee, and food in small quantities

at first, to prevent his killing himself from over-indulgence.

Sheridan, who had concentrated his cavalry at Prospect Station

under Crook, Merritt, and Custer, at daybreak of the 8th hastened

westward, south of Lee, to Appomattox Station. Sergeant White, of

the scouts, in advance, in disguise, west of the Station, met four

trains from Lynchburg with supplies sent in obedience to the

Burkeville dispatch already mentioned. The trains were feeling

their way eastward, in ignorance of Lee's whereabouts. The Sergeant

had the original dispatch with him, and exhibited it, and, by

dwelling on the starving condition of Lee's army, easily persuaded

the officers in charge to run the trains east of Appomattox Station,

he having, meantime, sent word to Sheridan where they could be

found. Custer hastened forward, sending two regiments by a détour,

in a gallop, to seize and break the railroad behind the trains.

The trains were captured. One was burned, and the other three sent

eastward towards Farmville. This capture took place just as the

head of Lee's column came in sight.(20) Custer attacked Lee's

advance, and was soon joined by Devin's division and a brigade from

Crook. Together they drove it back, capturing twenty-five pieces

of artillery, a hospital train, and a large park of wagons which

were being sent ahead of Lee's main army. Sheridan's headquarters,

at night, were at a farm-house, just south of Appomattox Station,

and about three miles southwest of the Court-House of that name.

Neither he nor his command slept that night. Sheridan was now

across Lee's front, and if he could hold on, Lee must surrender.

Ord, with the Fifth Corps following, was hastening to Sheridan.

The supreme hour was at hand. Ord was no laggard, and it was known

that he would put forth all human effort, yet Sheridan dispatched

through the night officer after staff officer to apprise Ord of

the immediate danger the cavalry was in, if unsupported, and to

assure him that his presence with his column would end the Rebellion.

Before day-dawn the cavalry was in the saddle, in battle array,

bearing down on the Confederate advance, then at the Court-House.

Ord arrived in person before sun-up of the 9th, and hastily consulted

Sheridan where to put in his troops on their arrival. Ord then

returned to hurry on his weary, hungry, foot-sore men, who had

marched all the night, having little sleep for many days. Sheridan

turned from the consultation with Ord to take charge of the battle

already raging near the Court-House.

Let us look within the lines of the Confederate Army and see what

was transpiring there. That army had, since Sailor's Creek and

Farmville, been directed, of necessity, along the north of the

river on Appomattox Court-House and Lynchburg. It had been assailed,

night and day, flank and rear, from the time it left Petersburg.

Provisions were scarce, and many of its best officers had, in the

last week, fallen or been captured. It, however, had held out

bravely and with more spirit than would be expected. It was an

old and once splendidly organized and equipped army, and its

discipline had been good. Pendleton and others of Lee's generals

(not including Longstreet) secretly, on the 7th, held a council,

and with a view of lightening Lee's responsibilities, decided to

inform him that they thought the time had come to surrender his

army. The next day Longstreet was requested to bear the report of

this council to Lee. He declined, and Pendleton made to report to

Lee himself. The latter, if correctly reported, said: "I trust

it has not come to that," adding, among other things, "If I were

to say a word to the Federal commander, he would regard it as such

a confession of weakness as to make it the condition of demanding

an _unconditional surrender_."(21)

Gordon, with Fitz Lee at the head of the cavalry, commanded the

advance, and Longstreet the rear. The night of the 8th found Lee's

advance at Appomattox Court-House forced well back, and Longstreet's

rear pressed close on his main body. General Lee called in council,

at a late hour that night, Lieutenant-General James Longstreet,

Major-Generals John B. Gordon, Fitzhugh Lee, and Wm. N. Pendleton.(22)

This was the last council of war of the Army of Northern Virginia,

if it could be called one. The meeting was in a secluded spot, in

a gloomy pine woods, without shelter. The night was damp and

chilly, and there was a small, smoky, green-pine fire, affording

little light. The whole surrounding was calculated to dispirit

the five officers, to say nothing of the occasion. Little was said

or done. Lee made some inquiry as to the position of the troops.

At the end of an hour the council broke up, Lee directing Gordon

to mass his command, including all the cavalry under Fitz Lee and

General Long's batteries of thirty guns, and move through Appomattox

Court-House, where the advance rested, and to commence the movement

at 1 A.M. The trains were to follow closely, covered by Longstreet's

corps, which was still Lee's rear-guard. Sheridan's cavalry was

to be overwhelmed, and, with this done, the retreat was to continue

on to Lynchburg. At 3 in the morning General Lee rode slowly

forward apparently to join his van-guard in the effort to break

through our lines. Not, however, until 5 A.M. of the 9th did Gordon

and Fitz Lee get in motion against Sheridan's cavalry, which they

then found spread over a wide front near Appomattox Court-House.

The battle commenced, the Union cavalry sullenly falling back.

This inspired new hope in the Confederate Army. General Mumford,

with a portion of his Confederate cavalry division, found a break

in Sheridan's line, and charging through, escaped. This gave rise

to a report that the road had been opened.(23)

Gordon pushed on with renewed confidence, infantry, cavalry, and

artillery, first striking Crook and McKenzie on the Union left,

then Merritt in the centre, the latter two yielding as though

defeated. Crook, however, held firmly on the extreme left, while

Merritt drew from the centre to the right, there to unite Custer

and Devin's cavalry divisions, leaving the centre apparently

abandoned. Gordon hastily dispatched word of his success, and,

inspired with a hope of complete victory, hurled his hosts into

the great gap thus made, capturing two pieces of artillery, and

moved forward to the crest of a ridge. But, alas! From this crest

Gordon and his officers saw a new scene. They beheld through the

mists and the morning gray, on the plain before them, Ord's column,

formed and forming, in full array, ready for strong battle. Hope

vanished from the minds of the Confederate generals. The Fifth

Corps, under General Charles Griffin, was also then arriving on

Ord's extreme right in support of the cavalry already there. The

cavalry in the centre had been but a curtain. Gordon halted and

sent word of the situation to his chief, notifying him that further

effort was hopeless, and would cause a useless sacrifice; that he

had "fought his troops to a frazzle."(24)

Ord was Sheridan's superior in rank, but both decided to end matters

at once, so, with battle flags and guidons bent to the front, the

combined forces advanced to their work. Some artillery shots passed

through their lines, but did not arrest them. The Confederates

retired to another ridge immediately fronting the Court-House.

Gordon there displayed a white flag, indicating a willingness to

negotiate. Custer first saw it. He notified Sheridan, who notified

Ord, and the attack was suspended. Sheridan galloped to the front,

though fired on by soldiers of a South Carolina brigade,(25) and

soon joined Gordon. A truce looking to a surrender was made.

Colonel J. W. Forsyth of Sheridan's staff passed through the

Confederate Army to Meade, and notified him of the truce, and thus

stopped the Second and Sixth Corps then attacking Longstreet.

Colonel Newhall, Sheridan's Adjutant-General, rode to meet Grant

and advise him that Lee desired a meeting with a view to surrendering

his army.

Little has been said of the great soldier, Meade, in this campaign.

Much credit is due him. He aided in organizing a victory at Five

Forks (26) and in planning the assault on Petersburg. Though ill

at Jetersville, and much of the time thereafter to the end of the

campaign, he was always up with one or the other of his corps,

doing all it was possible for him to do to accomplish the great

result finally attained.

Let us again return to Grant--the silent soldier. On the 5th of

April Grant and his staff with a small escort became separated from

his headquarters camp equipage and wagons. He was even without

his sword. He and his staff thereafter slept on porches of farm-

houses or bivouacked in the woods or fields without cover. They

picked up scant fare at any camp they could find it, and often went

hungry, as did many other officers. As a result of exposure to

frequent rains, poor food, fatigue, loss of sleep, and, doubtless,

extreme prolonged anxiety, Grant, on the afternoon of the 8th, had

a violent attack of sick-headache. At a farm-house that night he

was induced to bathe his feet in hot water and mustard and to have

mustard plasters applied to his wrists and the back of his neck,

but all this brought him no relief. He lay down to sleep in vain.

He, however, during the night, received and sent dispatches relating

to the next day's operations. At 4 o'clock his staff found him in

a yard in front of the house, pacing up and down with both hands

to his head and suffering great pain. He wrote a note in the early

morning answering Lee's note of the previous day. He rode early

to Meade's camp (then in the immediate rear of the two pursuing

corps), and there drank some coffee, with little relief. His staff

tried to induce him to ride that day in an ambulance, but, sick as

he was, he mounted his favorite horse--Cincinnati--and in consequence

of dispatches from Sheridan giving an account of the situation at

the front, started by a circuitous route to join him. Some five

miles from the Court-House a dispatch from Meade was handed Grant,

advising him of a two-hours' truce and of the place General Lee

would meet him; also this note from Lee:

"April 9, 1865.

"General,--I received your note of this morning on the picket line,

whither I had come to meet you, and ascertain definitely what terms

were embraced in your proposal of yesterday with reference to the

surrender of this army. I now ask an interview, in accordance with

the offer contained in your letter of yesterday, for that purpose.

"R. E. Lee, General.

"Lieutenant-General U. S. Grant."

Grant wrote to Lee (11.50 A.M.), saying he would meet him as

requested. General Porter asked Grant, as they rode on, about the

pain in his head. Grant answered: "The pain in my head seemed to

leave me as soon as I got Lee's letter."(27) He reached the Court-

House about 1 P.M., where he was met by Ord and Sheridan. Lee had

already arrived, and was awaiting Grant at the McLean house. The

two Generals met face to face. Lee wore a new Confederate uniform

and a handsome sword. He was tall, straight, and soldierly in

appearance. He wore a full gray beard. Grant, much below Lee in

stature, wore only a soldier's blouse and soiled suit, and was

without a sword, having only some dingy shoulder-straps denoting

the rank of Lieutenant-General.

Lee, on his arrival, dismounted, and was seated for a short time

at the roadside, beneath an apple tree. This circumstance alone

gave rise to the widely circulated report that the surrender took

place under an apple tree.(28)

Some civilities passed between the Generals at the McLean house.

There was substantially no negotiation as to the terms of surrender.

Lee asked Grant to write them. Grant said: "Very well, I will

write them out." He took a manifold order-book, and without

consultation with anybody, in the presence of Lee and others, wrote:

"General,--In accordance with the substance of my letter to you of

the 8th inst. I propose to receive the surrender of the Army of

Northern Virginia on the following terms, to wit: Rolls of all

the officers and men to be made in duplicate. One copy to be given

to an officer designated by me, the other to be retained by such

officer or officers you may designate. The officers to give their

individual paroles not to take up arms against the government of

the United States until properly [exchanged], and each company or

regimental commander sign a like parole for the men of their

commands. The arms, artillery and public property to be parked

and stacked, and turned over to the officer appointed by me to

receive them. This will not embrace the side-arms of the officers,

nor their private horses or baggage. This done, each officer and

man will be allowed to return to their homes, not to be disturbed

by United States authority so long as they observe their paroles

and the laws in force where they may reside.

"Very respectfully,

"U. S. Grant, Lt.-Gen."

This was immediately handed to General Lee, who, after reading it,

observed the word "_exchanged_" had been inadvertently omitted

after the words "until properly." The word was inserted. Lee

inquired of Grant whether the terms proposed permitted cavalrymen

and artillerists who, in his army, owned their horses, to retain

them. Grant answered that the terms, as written, would not, but

added, that as many of the men were small farmers and might need

their animals to raise a crop in the coming season, he would instruct

his paroling officers to let every man who claimed to own a horse

or mule keep it. Lee remarked that this would have a good effect.

Grant's draft was handed to be copied to an _Indian_, Colonel Ely

S. Parker (Chief of the Six Nations) of Grant's staff, he being

the best scribe of Grant's officers present. Lee mistook Parker

for a negro, and seemed to be struck with astonishment to find one

on Grant's staff.

Lee then wrote this note:

"Headquarters Army of Northern Virginia, April 9, 1865.

"General,--I received your letter of this date containing the terms

of surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia as proposed by you.

As they are substantially the same as those expressed in your letter

of the 8th inst. they are accepted. I will proceed to designate

the proper officers to carry the stipulations into effect.

"R. E. Lee, General.

"Lieut.-General U. S. Grant."

Generals Gibbon, Griffin, and Merritt were designated by Grant,

and Generals Longstreet, Gordon, and Pendleton by Lee, to carry

into effect the terms of surrender.

Before separating, Lee stated to Grant that his army was badly in

want of food and forage; that his men had lived for some days on

parched corn, and that he would have to ask for subsistence. Grant

promised it at once, and asked how many men there were to supply.

Lee replied, "About twenty-five thousand." Grant authorized him

to send to Appomattox Station and get a supply out of the recently

captured trains. At that time our army had few rations, and only

such forage as the poor country afforded.

Some detachments and small bands of Lee's army escaped, but there

were paroled 2781 officers and 25,450 men, aggregate 28,231.(29)

Lee's army was not required to march out, stack arms, and surrender

according to the general custom of war, but the men, quietly, under

their officers, stacked their guns and remained in camp until

paroled. They soon dispersed, never to reassemble. The Army of

Northern Virginia then ceased to exist.

The Union Army, on learning of the surrender, commenced firing a

salute of one hundred guns. Grant ordered the firing stopped, not

desiring to exult over his captured countrymen. General Meade and

others protested in vain that it was due to the Army of the Potomac

for its sacrifices and gallantry in the years of war that it should

have the honor of a formal surrender and a day of military

demonstrations.

The wildest scenes of rejoicing, however, took place in the Union

Army on learning of the surrender. It did not take on the form of

boasting over the captured. It was a genuine exultation over the

prospect of the end of the war, the overthrow of the Confederacy,

the restoration of the Union, and the destruction of slavery in

the Republic. Officers, however high of rank, were not safe from

the frenzied rush of the excited soldiers. Some eloquent, joyous

speeches were made.

The little wild-cherry tree under which myself and staff were

seated, drinking a cup of coffee and chewing "hard tack" when word

of the surrender came, was torn down for mementoes. Meade and

Wright did not escape, being almost dragged from their horses in

the mad rejoicing.

The enlisted men of the two armies met on the guard lines, where

many of the Union soldiers gave their last cracker to hungry

Confederates. The gentlest and kindest feeling was exhibited on

both sides. Not an ungenerous word was heard.

Grant at 4.30 P.M. telegraphed the Secretary of War: "_General

Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia this afternoon on

terms proposed by myself_."

President Lincoln had the news of Lee's surrender to cheer his

great soul for five days before the assassin's bullet laid him low.

Grant retired to an improvised camp, and immediately announced his

intention to leave the army in the field and start for Washington

the next day. He rode within the Confederate lines at 9 A.M. on

the 10th, and held a half hour's talk with Lee about the possibility

of other Confederate armies surrendering and the speedy ending of

the war, but Lee, though expressing himself satisfied further effort

was vain, would take no responsibility, even to advising other

armies to surrender, without consulting Jefferson Davis.(30) Grant

left for Washington at noon.

General Lee retired to his home at Richmond.

The Union Army counter-marched to Burkeville. While there the

death of Abraham Lincoln was announced to it. The army loved him,

and his assassination excited the bitterest feeling. A memorial

meeting was held at my headquarters at Burkeville, and like meetings

were held in some other commands, at which speeches were made by

officers.

The casualties in the Union Army in all the operations from March

29 to April 9, 1865 (Dinwiddie Court-House to Appomattox inclusive)

were, in killed and wounded:(31)

Army of the Potomac . . . . . . 6,609

Army of the James . . . . . . . 1,289

Cavalry (Sheridan) . . . . . . 1,168

-----

Grand total . . . . . . . . . 9,066

The killed and wounded in the Sixth Corps were 1500, and in my

brigade 379 (above one fourth in the corps), and in the campaign,

including March 25th at Petersburg, 480.

The brigade in the campaign, besides taking sixteen pieces of

artillery and many prisoners in battle, captured six battle-flags,

including General Heth's division headquarters flag.(32)

Sheridan with the cavalry and Wright with the Sixth Corps were

ordered from Burkeville to North Carolina, to co-operate with

Sherman against J. E. Johnston's army. The Sixth left Burkeville

the 23d of April, 1865, and arrived, _via_ Halifax Court-House, at

Danville, a hundred miles or more distant, on the 27th, where, on

learning that Johnston had capitulated, it was halted.

I obtained leave to continue south without my command (with two

staff officers and a few orderlies), to visit old friends in

Sherman's army with whom I had served in the West in 1861 and 1862.

I travelled through bodies of paroled Confederates for fifty miles,

to Greensboro, North Carolina, and there came into the lines of

the Twenty-Third Corps, commanded by my old and distinguished

friend, General J. D. Cox. After a few days' sojourn as his guest,

and having seen the surrendered army of Joe Johnston, I returned

to Danville and my proper command, feeling the war was about over.

The Army of the Potomac marched to Washington, and there (Sixth

Corps excepted), uniting with Sherman's army, held the Grand Review

of May 23, 1865. The Sixth Corps, with many detachments, numbering

about 30,000 in all, arrived later, and was reviewed by President

Johnson and his Cabinet and Generals Grant, Sherman, and Meade,

June 8, 1865. The Army of the Potomac was disbanded June 28, 1865.

All the armies of the Union were soon broken up and the volunteers

composing them mustered out and sent to their homes to take up the

pursuits of peace.(33) The prisons of the South had given up their

starving victims.

On the recommendations of Wright, Meade, and Grant I was appointed

a Brevet Major-General of Volunteers, the commission of the President

reciting that it was "for gallant and distinguished services during

the campaign ending in the surrender of the insurgent army under

General R. E. Lee."

I was mustered out at Washington June 27, 1865, having served

continuously as an officer precisely four years and two months,

and fought in about the first (Rich Mountain) and the last (Sailor's

Creek) battles of the war, and campaigned in six of the eleven

seceding States, and in West Virginia, Kentucky, and Maryland.(34)

The regiments of my brigade (110th, 122d and 126th Ohio, 67th and

138th Pennsylvania, 6th Maryland, and 9th New York Heavy Artillery)

lost, killed on the field, 54 officers and 812 enlisted men, wounded

101 officers and 2410 enlisted men, aggregate 3377, only _six_ less

than the killed and wounded under Scott and Taylor in their conquest

of Mexico, 1846-1848,(35) and more than the like casualties under

the direct command of Washington in the Revolutionary War--Lexington

to Yorktown.

The terms of capitulation accorded to Lee's army were granted to

other armies.

With Lee's surrender came the capture of Fort Blakely, Alabama,

April 9th, followed by the surrender of Mobile, April 12th; Joe

Johnston's army in North Carolina, April 26th; Dick Taylor's in

Mississippi; May 4th; and Kirby Smith's in Texas, May 26th.

Jefferson Davis, with members of his Cabinet, was captured at

Irwinville, Georgia, May 10, 1865.

As the curtain fell before the awful drama of war, 174,233 Confederates

surrendered, who, with 98,802 others held as prisoners of war (in

all 273,035), were paroled and sent to their homes, and 1686 cannon

and over 200,000 small arms were the spoils of victory.

The war was over; it was not in vain.

State-rights and secession--twin heresies, as promulgated by Calhoun

and his followers and maintained by Jefferson Davis and the civil

and military powers of the would-be Confederacy, and human slavery,

a growth of the ages, fostered by avarice, and a blot on our

civilization for two hundred and fifty years--were likewise overthrown

or destroyed; and the integrity of the Union of the States and the

majesty of the Constitution as a charter of organized liberty were

vindicated, and the American Republic, full-orbed, was perpetuated,

under one flag, and with one destiny.

The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, declaring that:

"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment

for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall

exist within the United States or any place subject to its

jurisdiction"; submitted, February 1, 1865, by Congress to the

States for ratification, and proclaimed ratified December 18, 1865,

is but the inevitable decree of war, in the form of organic law,

resulting from the triumph of the Union arms, accomplished through

the bloody sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of devoted men,

together with the concurrent sufferings of yet other hundreds of

thousands of wounded and sick and the sorrows of disconsolate and

desolate millions more, superadded by billions in value of property

laid waste and other billions of treasure expended. Such, indeed,

was the penalty paid to eradicate the crime of the centuries--

_SLAVERY_.

Freedom was triumphant, and civilization moved higher.

( 1) _Memoirs of Sheridan_, vol. ii., pp. 175, 189.

( 2) This statement is taken from Lee's official report, though

Jefferson Davis, in his work, takes pains to viciously deny its

truth. _War Records_, vol. xlvi., Part I., p. 1265; _Battles and

Leaders_, etc., vol. iv., p. 724; _Rise and Fall of the Confederacy_,

vol. ii., pp. 668-76.

( 3) _Rise and Fall of the Confederacy_, Davis, vol. ii., p. 677.

I picked up at Danville a copy of this document at the press where

it had recently been printed.

( 4) _War Records_, vol. xlvi., Part III., p. 549.

( 5) _Ibid_., pp. 556, 610.

( 6) _Memoirs of Sheridan_, vol. ii., p. 187.

( 7) _War Records_., vol. xlvi., Part III., p. 576.

( 8) While riding along the face of the hills with Colonel Andrew

J. Smith of the division staff, to get a good view of the enemy's

position, I dispatched the Colonel to bring up and put a battery

in a designated position. He met and sent Major O. V. Tracey of

the same staff on his errand, and soon rejoined me. Some movements

displayed large numbers of the enemy, whereupon Smith characteristically

exclaimed: "Get as many boys as ever you can; get as many shingles

as ever you can; get around the corner as fast as ever you can,--

a whole hogshead of molasses all over the walk!" Before this

outburst ceased a bullet whistled past by bridle reins and struck

Smith in the right leg. While yet repeating his lingo, he threw

his arms around his horse's neck and swung to the ground.

( 9) Grant wrote Sheridan informing him the Sixth Corps was

following him, saying: "The Sixth Corps will go in with a vim any

place you may dicate."--_Memoirs of Sheridan_, vol. ii., p. 182.

(10) _War Records_, vol. xlvi., Part I., pp. 1284, 1298.

(11) Longstreet, _Manassas to Appomattox_, p. 614.

(12) _War Records_, vol. xlvi., Part I., p. 980.

(13) Captains John F. Hazleton and T. J. Hoskinson, serving

respectively as my Quartermaster and Commissary of Subsistence,

reported to me at a critical juncture in the battle of Sailor's

Creek and volunteered for field duty, and for their exceptional

gallantry each was, on my recommendation, brevetted a Major by the

President.

(14) Tucker after the war expatriated himself from the country

for a time, and became an Admiral in the Peruvian navy, but as our

naval officers refused to salute his flag on the sea, Peru was

forced to dismiss him.

(15) _War Records_, vol. xlvi., Part I., pp. 683, 980.

(16) _Ibid_., p. 906.

(17) As to numbers engaged, see correspondence, Appendix C.

(18) Longstreet, _Manassas to Appomattox_, p. 616.

(19) _Memoirs of Grant_, vol. ii., pp. 477-8.

(20) _Memoirs of Sheridan_, vol. ii., pp. 191, 199.

(21) _Manassas to Appomattox_, pp. 618, 620; _Memoirs of Lee_

(Long), p. 416.

(22) Letter of General Gordon to the writer, of October 1, 1894.

(23) Longstreet relates that information came to him from Gordon

that a break had been found through which the Confederate Army

"could force passage," and that he dispatched a Colonel Haskell

"on a blooded mare" after Lee, who had gone to the rear expecting

to meet Grant, as requested by Lee by note previously sent, Longstreet

telling the Colonel "to kill his mare, but bring Lee back."--

_Manassas to Appomattox_, pp. 623, 626.

(24) _Memoirs of Lee_ (Long), p. 421.

(25) _Memoirs of Sheridan_, vol. ii., pp. 194-8.

(26) _Memoirs of Sheridan_, vol. ii., p. 154.

(27) _Battles and Leaders_, etc., vol. iv., p. 740; _Memoirs of

Grant_, vol. ii., p. 483.

(28) _Memoirs of Grant_., vol. ii., p. 488.

(29) _War Records_, vol. xlvi., Part I., p. 1279.

(30) _Memoirs of Grant_, vol. ii., p. 497.

(31) _War Records_, vol. xlvi., Part I., p. 597.

(32) The individual captors of flags were F. M. McMillen, Co. C,

and Isaac James, Co. A, 110th Ohio; Milton Blickensderfer, Co. E,

126th Ohio; George Loyd, Co. A, 122d Ohio (Heth's battle flag);

John Keough, Co. E, 67th Pennsylvania; and Trustrim Connell, Co.

I, 138th Pennsylvania. Each was awarded a Medal of Honor.--_War

Records_, vol. xlvi., Part I., pp. 909, 981.

(33) An incident will illustrate how Secretary Stanton sometimes

did business. The first order to muster out volunteers excepted

those whose term of enlistment expired after October 1, 1865. This

would have left in service some men of each company of my Ohio

regiments and caused dissatisfaction. Through a written application

I obtained authority to muster out all the men of these regiments.

Later, complaints came from regiments of other States similarly

affected, and an application was made by me for like authority as

to them, which was refused. This was invidious. In company with

General Meade I called on the Secretary of War to ask a reconsideration.

On the bare mention of our mission Mr. Stanton flew into a rage

and denounced Meade for making the request, saying no such order

had been or would be issued. Meade was deeply hurt and started to

withdraw, and the wrath of the Secretary was turned on me. I

interrupted him and, displaying the order relating to the Ohio

regiments, told him his statement was not true. Stanton thereupon

became still more violent and abusive and declared the order I had

was issued by mistake or through fraud and would be revoked. I

replied that it had been executed; that the men were discharged,

paid off, and on their way home. He then became calm, relented,

apologized for his intemperate language, and kindly issued the

desired order.

(34) I was, in 1866, on the joint request of Generals Grant and

Meade, appointed Lieutenant-Colonel in the 26th Infantry, U. S. A.

I declined the commission.

(35) There were 26,690 regulars and 56,926 volunteers--83,616,

employed in the invasion of Mexico, not mentioning the navy.--

_History of Mexican War_ (Wilcox), p. 561. For the author's farewell

order to the brigade, and table of casualties in it by regiments,

see Appendix C.

APPENDICES

APPENDIX A

GENERAL KEIFER IN CIVIL LIFE

I

ANCESTRY AND LIFE BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR

I was born, January 30, 1836, on a farm on Mad River, north side,

six miles west of Springfield, Bethel Township, Clark County, Ohio,

a short distance west of Tecumseh Hill, the site of the original

Piqua, Shawnee Indian village, destroyed by General George Rogers

Clark August 8, 1780.

My ancestors, though not especially distinguished for great deeds,

either in peace or war, were of the sturdy kind, mentally, physically,

and morally.

My grandfather, George Keifer, was born (1728) in one of the German

States, from whence he emigrated to America and settled in the

Province of Maryland about the year 1750. Nothing is certainly

known of his life or family in Germany. He was a Protestant, and

was probably led to quit German-Europe to escape the religious

intolerance, if not persecutions, there at the time so common.

He availed himself of the Act of Parliament made in the thirteenth

year of the reign of King George the Second, which provided for

the naturalization of "Foreign Protestants," settled or who should

settle in his Majesty's colonies in America, and was naturalized

and became a subject of King George the Third of England, an

allegiance he did not long faithfully maintain, as he became a

Revolutionary patriot in 1776.( 1) He participated in the Revolution,

though there is no known record of his being a regular soldier in

the war. He gave some attention to farming, but was by trade a

shoemaker. He resided in Sharpsburg, Washington County, Maryland,

on Antietam Creek, and there died, April 11, 1809. His wife,

Margaret (Schisler) was likewise German, probably born in Germany

(1745), but married in Maryland. Her family history is unknown,

but she was a woman of a high order of intelligence, and possessed

of much spirit and energy. After her husband's death she removed

(1812) with her two sons to Ohio (walking, from choice, the entire

distance), and died there, February 9, 1827, in my father's family,

at eighty-two years of age. George and Margaret Keifer had two

sons, George (born October 27, 1769, and died August 31, 1845),

and Joseph (my father), born February 28, 1784, at Sharpsburg,

Maryland. They followed, when young, the occupation and trade of

their father. The facilities and opportunities for acquiring an

education for persons in limited circumstances were then small,

yet Joseph Keifer early determined to secure an education, and by

his own persevering efforts, with little, if any, instruction, he

became especially proficient in geography and mathematics, and

acquired a thorough practical knowledge of navigation and civil

engineering. He could speak and read German. He was a general

reader, and throughout his life was a constant student of both

sacred and profane history, and devoted much attention to a study

of the Bible. In September, 1811, he left Sharpsburg, on horseback,

on a prospecting tour over the mountains to the West, destination

Ohio. He kept a journal (now before me) of his travels, showing

each day's journey, the places visited, the topography of the

country, the kinds of timber growing, the lay of the land and kinds

of soil, the water supply and its quality, etc., and something of

the settlers. This journey occupied seven weeks, during which he

rode 1140 miles, much of it over trails and bridle paths, his total

cash "travelling expenses being $36.30." He travelled through

Jefferson, Tuscarawas, Stark, Muskingum, Fairfield, Pickaway, Ross,

Fayette, Champaign (including what is now Clark), Montgomery,

Warren, Butler, Hamilton, Guernsey, and Belmont Counties, Ohio.

In April, 1812, he started on another like journey over much the

same country, returning May 15th.

On his first journey he visited Springfield, Ohio, and vicinity,

and bargained for and made an advance payment of $500 in silver

for about seven hundred acres of land, located near (west of) New

Boston, from John Enoch, for himself and his brother George Keifer,

agreeing to take possession and make further payment in one year.

He removed with his brother George (who then had a wife and family

of several children), his mother accompanying, by wagon and on

horseback to this land, in the fall of 1812, where both brothers

made their homes during life, each following the general occupation

of farming. The land was chosen with reference to its superior

quality, excellent growth of popular, oak, walnut, hickory, and

other valuable timber for building purposes, and likewise with

reference to its fine, healthful, perennial springs of pure limestone

water. The tract fronted on Mad River, extending northward into

the higher lands so as to include bottom-lands and uplands in

combination.

Joseph Keifer, before leaving Maryland, procured to be made at

Frederick, Maryland, a surveyor's compass and chain (still in my

possession), and when in Ohio, in addition to clearing lands and

farming, he surveyed many extensive tracts of land for the early

settlers. Later in life he gave up surveying, save for his neighbors

when called on. He had some inclination to music. He served for

a short time in the War of 1812, joining an expedition for the

relief of General Harrison and Fort Meigs on the Maumee when besieged

by the British and Indians in 1813. He, however, lived in his Ohio

home a quiet, sober, peaceful, contented, studious, moral life,

much esteemed for his straightforward, honest, plain character by

all who knew him, but always taking a deep interest in public

affairs, state and national, his sympathies being with the poor,

oppressed, and unfortunate. His detestation of slavery led him to

emigrate from a slave State to one where slavery not only did not

and could not exist, but where free labor was well requited and

was regarded as highly honorable. Though among the early settlers

of the then wild West, he did not care much, if at all, for hunting

and fishing, then common among his neighbors and associates. He

preferred to devote his leisure hours to reading and intellectual

pursuits and to the society of those of kindred tastes, especially

interesting himself in the education of his large family of children.

He was, in theory and practice, a moral and religious man, a church

attendant, though never a member of any church, yet one year before

his death (1849), at his own request, he was baptized in Mad River,

by Rev. John Gano Reeder, of the Christian Church.

He was one of the founders and first directors of the Clark County

Bible Society, organized September 2, 1822.

Throughout his life he took a deep interest in politics, but he

never sought or held any important office. He was an Adams-Clay

Whig.

He died on his farm, April 13, 1850, and his remains, likewise his

mother's and his brother's, are now buried in Ferncliff Cemetery,

Springfield, Ohio.

He was married, November 9, 1815, to Mary Smith, daughter of Rev.

Peter Smith, a Baptist minister (then resident on a farm near what

is now Donnelsville, Clark County, Ohio), who had some celebrity

also as a physician in the "Miami Country." He was a son of Dr.

Hezekiah Smith of the "Jerseys," and was born in Wales, February

6, 1753, from whence this branch of the _Smith_ family came. He

was some relation to Hezekiah Smith, D.D., of Haverhill, Massachusetts,

but in what way connected is not known. Peter Smith was educated

at Princeton, and married in New Jersey to Catherine Stout (December

23, 1776), and he seems to have early, under his father, given some

attention to medicine, and became familiar with the works of Dr.

Rush, Dr. Brown, and other writers of his day on "physic." He

also, during his life, acquired much from physicians whom he met

in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North and South Carolina,

Georgia, Kentucky, and Ohio. He called himself an "Indian Doctor"

(because he sometimes used in his practice herbs, roots, etc., and

other remedies known to the Indians), though he was in no proper

sense such a doctor. He was an early advocate, much against public

prejudice, of inoculations for smallpox; this before Dr. Jenner

had completed his investigations and had introduced vaccination as

a preventive for smallpox.( 2)

Dr. Peter Smith, in his little volume (printed by Brown & Looker,

Cincinnati, 1813), speaks of inoculating 130 persons, in New Jersey,

for smallpox in 1777, using, to prevent dangerous results, with

some of them, calomel, and dispensing with it with others, but

reaching the conclusion that calomel was not necessary for the

patient's safety.

In this book, entitled _The Indian Doctor's Dispensatory_, etc.,

( 3) on the title-page he says: "_Men seldom have wit enough to

prize and take care of their health until they lose it--And doctors

often know not how to get their bread deservedly, until they have

no teeth to chew it_." He seems to have been an original character

and investigator, availing himself of all the opportunities for

acquiring knowledge within his reach, especially acquainting himself

with domestic, German, and tried Indian remedies, roots, herbs,

etc. In the Introduction to his book he says: "The elements by

Brown seem to me plain, reasonable, and practicable. But I have

to say of his prescriptions, as David did of Saul's _armour_, when

it was put upon him, '_I cannot go with this, for I have not proved

it_.' He thus chose his sling, his staff, shepherd's bag and

stones, because he was used to them, and could recollect what he

had heretofore done with them." The modern germ or bacilli theory

of disease, now generally accepted by learned physicians, was not

unknown or even new in his time. He speaks of it as an "_insect_"

theory, based on the belief that diseases were produced by an

invisible _insect_, floating in the air, taken in with the breath,

where it either poisons or propagates its kind, so as to produce

disease.( 4)

Besides much in general, Peter Smith's book contains about ninety

prescriptions for the cure of as many diseases or forms of disease,

to be compounded generally from now well-known medicine, roots,

herbs, etc., some of them heroic, others quaint, etc. He did not

recommend dispensing wholly with the then universal practice of

bleeding patients, but he generally condemned it.

About the year 1780, from New Jersey, he commenced his wandering,

emigrating life, with his wife and _some_ small children. He

lingered a little in Virginia, in the Carolinas, and settled for

a time in Georgia, and all along he sought out people from whom he

could gather knowledge, especially of the theory and practice of

medicine. And he preached, possibly in an irregular way, the

Gospel, as a devout Baptist of the Old School, a denomination to

which he was early attached. Not satisfied with his Georgia home,

"with its many scorpions and slaves," he took his family on horseback,

some little children (twin babies among them) carried in baskets

suitable for the purpose, hung to the horns of the saddle ridden

by his wife, and thus they crossed mountains, rivers, and creeks,

without roads, and not free from danger from Indians, traversing

the woods from Georgia through Tennessee to Kentucky, intending

there to abide. But finding Kentucky had also become a slave State,

he and his family, bidding good-by to Kentucky "headticks and

slavery," in like manner emigrated to Ohio, settling on Duck Creek,

near Columbia (Old Baptist Church), now within the limits of

Cincinnati, reaching there about 1794. He became, with his family,

a member of this church, and frequently preached there and at other

frontier places, but still pursuing the occupation of farming, and,

though perhaps not for much remuneration, the practice of medicine.

In 1804 he again took to the wilderness with his entire family,

then grown to the number of twelve children, born in the "Jerseys"

or on the line of his march through the coast or wilderness States

or territories. He settled on a small and poor farm on Donnels

Creek, in the midst of rich ones, where he died, December 31, 1816.

It seems from his book (page 14) (published while he resided at

his last home), that he did not personally cease his wanderings

and search for medical knowledge, as he says he was in Philadelphia,

July 4, 1811, where he made some observations as to the effect of

hot and cool air upon the human system, through the respiration.

But it is certain he taught to the end, in the pulpit, and ministered

as a physician to his neighbors and friends, often going long

distances from home for the purpose. He concluded, near the end

of his long and varied experiences, that: "Men have contrived to

break all God's _appointments_. But this: '_It is appointed for

all men once to die_' has never been abrogated or defeated by any

man. And as to medicine we are about to take: _If the Lord will_,

we shall do this or that with success; _if the Lord will_, I shall

get well by this means or some other." He concluded his "Introduction"

by commending the "iron doctrine" for consumptives, and assenting

to Dr. Brown's opinion that "_an old man ought never to marry a

young woman_."

He is buried in a neglected graveyard near Donnelsville, Clark

County, Ohio.

Men of the type and character described impressed for good Western

life and character while they lived, and through their example and

posterity also the indefinite future.

Peter Smith had four sons, Samuel, Ira, Hezekiah, and Abram, who

each lived beyond eighty years, dying the order of their birth,

each leaving a large family of sons and daughters, whose children,

grandchildren, etc., are found now in nearly, if not all, the States

of the Union, many of them also becoming pioneers to the frontiers,

long ago reaching the Rocky Mountains, the Pacific slope and coast.( 5)

His sons Ira and Hezekiah, much after the fashion of their father,

preached the Gospel (Baptist) in Ohio and Indiana, but not

neglecting, as did their father, to amass each a considerable

fortune. Ira resided and died at Lafayette, Indiana, and Rev.

Hezekiah Smith at Smithland, Indiana. Samuel, the eldest (Clark

County, Ohio), was always a plain, creditable farmer, but his sons

and grandchildren became noted as educators, physicians, surgeons,

and divines.

Samuel's son, Peter Smith, besides acquiring a good general education,

studied surveying, my father assisting him, and he taught school

in Clark and other counties in Ohio, and became celebrated for his

success. He was the first in Ohio to advocate higher-graded, or

union schools, and through his efforts a first law was passed in

Ohio to establish them. He adopted a merit-ticket system for

scholars in schools which, for a time, was highly successful and

became popular. He removed, about 1830, to Illinois, then became

a surveyor and locator of public lands, farmer, etc., and was killed

by a railroad train at Sumner, Illinois, when about eighty years

of age, leaving a large number of grown children.

Rev. Milton J. Miller (now of Geneseo, Illinois), grandson of Samuel

Smith, though a farmer boy, early resolved to acquire an education

and enter the ministry. His resolution was carried out. He

graduated at Antioch College; attended a theological school at

Cambridge, Mass., became a minister of the Christian Church, later

of the Unitarian, and was for about one year a chaplain in the

volunteer army (110th Ohio), and distinguished himself in all

relations of life.

Dr. Hezekiah Smith, also son of Samuel, became somewhat eminent as

a physician, and died at Smithland, Shelby County, Indiana, in 1897.

Abram, though once in prosperous circumstances, through irregular

habits and the inherited disposition to rove over the world, became

poor, and sometimes, when remote from his family and friends, in

real want, yet he, the youngest of the four, lived past the

traditional family fourscore years, dying poor (near Lawrenceville,

Illinois), but leaving children and grandchildren in many States

of the West, who had become, at his death, or since became,

distinguished as soldiers and eminent citizens. He was a man of

most cheerful disposition, and whatever his circumstances or lot

were he seemed content and happy.

Five of Dr. Peter Smith's daughters (besides my mother) lived to

be married. Sarah married Henry Jennings; Elizabeth, Hezekiah

Ferris; Nancy, John Johns; Margaret, Hugh Wallace, and Rhoda, Dr.

Wm. Lindsay, but each died comparatively young. They also each

left children; and their grandchildren, etc., are now numerous and

many of them highly esteemed citizens, also scattered widely over

the country.

Two others of Dr. Smith's children (Catherine and Jacob Stout)

lived only to the ages of fifteen and seventeen years respectively.

But Peter Smith was not the sole head of this remarkable and long

wandering family, nor the repository or source of all its brains

or good qualities of head and heart.

He was married, as stated, to Catherine Stout, in New Jersey, whose

family was theretofore, then, and since both numerous and widely

dispersed, and many of them more than usually prominent or celebrated

in public or private life.

Her ancestry may be traced briefly. Richard Stout, who seems to

have been first of his name in America, was the son of John Stout,

of Nottinghamshire, England. When a young man he came to New

Amsterdam (New York City), where he met Penelope Van Princess, a

young woman from Holland. She, with her first husband, had been

on a ship from Amsterdam, Holland, bound for New Amsterdam. The

ship was wrecked in the lower bay and driven on the New Jersey

coast below Staten Island. The passengers and crew escaped to the

shore, but were there attacked by Indians, and all left for dead;

Penelope alone was alive, but severely wounded. She had strength

enough to get to a hollow tree, where she is said to have lived

unaided for seven days, during which time she was obliged to keep

her bowels in place with her hand, on account of a cut across her

abdomen. At the end of this time a merciful but avaricious Indian

discovered and took pity on her. He took her to his wigwam, cared

for her, and thence took her to New Amsterdam by canoe and _sold_

her to the Dutch. This woman Richard Stout married about the year

1650. The couple settled in New Jersey, and raised a family of

seven sons and three daughters. The third son, Jonathon, married

a Bullen, settled at Hopewell, New Jersey, and had six sons and

three daughters. The fifth son, Samuel, married Catherine Simpson,

by whom he had one son, Samuel, born in 1732. This Samuel served

in the New Jersey Legislature, and was a Justice of the Peace. He

married Anne Van Dyke, and had seven sons and three daughters.

His daughter Catherine, great-great-granddaughter of Richard and

Penelope (born November 25, 1758), married, December 25, 1776,

Peter Smith, whose history we have traced. She was the companion

of all his journeyings, caring for and directing affairs and the

family in his frequent absence and itinerarys from home "preaching

the Gospel and disbursing _physic_ for the salvation of souls and

the healing of the body." She, too, was a devout Christian (Baptist),

and ministered to the exposed and often needy pioneers in the

wilderness. She survived him fifteen years, dying March 3, 1831.

She is buried beside her husband.

Mary (my mother), a daughter of Peter and Catherine Smith, born

January 31, 1799, on Duck Creek near Columbia Church, within the

present limits of Cincinnati, married (as stated) Joseph Keifer,

when not yet seventeen years of age, and became the mother of

fourteen children, eight of whom lived to mature years--two sons

and six daughters. She died at Yellow Springs, Ohio, March 23,

1879, passing her eightieth birthday, like her brothers named,

having survived all her brothers and sisters. She was next to the

youngest of them. She inherited, cultivated, and practised the

essential virtues necessary in a successful, useful, pure, happy,

and contented life. She had a most cheerful disposition, and was

a confident and buoyant spirit, in sorrow and adversity. She was

devoted to all her children, and all owe her much for their

fundamental preparation, education, etc., together with the habits

of industry and perseverance, essential to whatever of success they

have attained in life. And, above all, she early became a member

of church (Baptist and Christian), and maintained her church

relations for above sixty years, to her death, never doubting in

her Christian belief, yet never bigoted or intolerant of the

religious views of others.

She was a devoted companion to her husband, and with him ever took

a deep interest in their family and neighbors, never neglecting a

duty to them. She, born in the Ohio territory, lived within its

borders above eighty years, witnessed its transformation from

savagery to the highest civilization, and its growth in wealth,

power, and population from little to the third of the great States

of the Union. She witnessed the coming, through science and

inventions, of railroads, telegraphs, steam, and electric power,

telephones, etc. She saw the soldiers of the War of 1812, the

Mexican war, and the War of the Rebellion, and something of the

Indian wars in Ohio. In her childhood she lived in proximity to

savages. With her husband she had ministered to escaped slaves,

and saw slavery (always detested by both) abolished. She witnessed

with becoming pride a degree of success in the efforts of her

children and grandchildren, and she held on her knees her great-

grandchildren. She is buried beside her husband in Ferncliff

Cemetery, Springfield, Ohio.

The children who grew to maturity were: Margaret, born September

22, 1816, who married Joseph Gaines, and died March 10, 1896,

leaving two sons and a daughter; Sarah (still living) born September

29, 1819, who married Lewis James, and, after his decease, Richard

T. Youngman, having one son, J. Warren James (Captain 45th Ohio,

War of the Rebellion), and _five_ children by her last husband;

Benjamin Franklin (still living), born April 22, 1821, who married

Amelia Henkle, and has three sons and three daughters living;

Elizabeth Mary, born February 20, 1823, unmarried, still living;

Lucretia, born January 20, 1828, died August 5, 1892, surviving

her husband, Eli M. Henkle, and her only son, John E. Henkle;

Joseph Warren Keifer, born January 20, 1836, who married, March

22, 1860, Eliza Stout, of Springfield, Ohio. [They have three sons

living, Joseph Warren, born May 13, 1861; William White, born May

24, 1866, and Horace Charles, born November 14, 1867. Their only

other child, a daughter, Margaret Eliza, was born June 2, 1873,

and died August 16, 1890.] Minerva, born July 15, 1839 (died July

22, 1899), married to Charles B. Palmer, and they have two sons

and a daughter; and Cordelia Ellen, born July 17, 1842, not married.

From the ancestry described and from the widely diversified strains

of blood--German, English, Welsh, Dutch, and others not traced or

traceable--meeting, to make, in _composite_, a full-blooded American

--came the author of this sketch. He also sprang from a farmer,

shoemaker, civil engineer, clergyman, physician, etc., ancestry,

no lawyer or soldier of mark appearing in the long line, so far as

known.

Born with a vigorous constitution, of strong ( 6) and remarkably

healthy parents, I, early as strength permitted, became useful, in

the varied ways a boy can be, on a farm where the soil is not only

tilled, but trees first have to be felled, rails split, hauled,

and fences built. Timber had to be cut and hauled to saw-mills,

to make lumber for buildings, etc. In the 40's clearing was still

done by deadening, felling, and by burning, the greater part of

the timber not being necessary or suitable for sawed lumber or

rails. In all this work, as I grew in years and strength, I

participated. At or before the age of seven years, and long

thereafter, I performed hard farm work, hauling, ploughing, sowing,

planting, cultivating corn and vegetables, harvesting, etc., and

was never idle. I mowed grass with a scythe, and reaped grains

with a sickle (the rough marks of the teeth of the latter are seen

still on the fingers of my left hand as I write this.) Later, the

cradle to cut small grain was introduced, though at first it was

not popular, because it reduced the usual number of harvest hands

required to "sickle the crop." Raking and binding wheat, rye, and

oats were part of the hard work of the harvest field. Husking corn

was a fall and sometimes winter occupation. Stock had to be cared

for and fed. Flax for home-made garments was raised, pulled up by

hand, spread, rotted, broken, skutched, hackled, etc. All this

work of the farm I pursued with regularity and assiduity. My father

dying when I was fourteen years of age, and my only living brother

(Benjamin F.) being married and on his own farm, much more of the

duties and management of a farm of above two hundred acres devolved

on me for the more than six succeeding years while my mother

continued to reside on the homestead.

My education was commenced at home and at the log district schoolhouse,

located on my father's farm. The beginning of a child's schooling,

by law and custom, was then at four years of age. Thus early I

went to school, but not regularly. It was then rare that a summer

school was kept up, and the winter _term_ was usually only three

or four months, at the outside. The farmer boy was needed to work

almost the year round, and even while attending school, he arose

early to attend to the feeding of stock, chopping fire-wood, doing

chores, etc., and when school closed in the evening he was often,

until after darkness set in, similarly engaged. The school hours

were from 8 A.M. to 12 M. and from 1 to 5 P.M. Saturdays were days

of hard work. The school months were busy ones to the farmer boys

and girls. Spelling matches at night were common.

The schools were, however, good, though the teachers were not always

efficient or capable of instructing in the higher branches of

learning now commonly taught in public schools in Ohio. But in

reading, spelling, writing, English grammar, geography within

certain limits, and arithmetic, the instruction was quite thorough,

and scholars inclined to acquire an education early became proficient

in the branches taught.

At school I made progress, though attending usually only about

three--sometimes four--months in the year. But I had the exceptional

advantage of aid at home from my father and mother; also older

sisters, who had all of them become fitted for teachers. My natural

inclination was to mathematics and physical geography rather than

to English grammar or other branches taught. While engaged in the

study of geography my father arranged to make a globe to illustrate

the zones, etc., and grand divisions of the world. Though then

but twelve years of age I aided him in chopping down a native linden

tree, from which a block was cut and taken to a man (Crain) who

made spinning-wheels, which was by him turned, globe-shaped, about

a foot in diameter, and hung in a frame. My father marked on it

the lines of latitude and longitude and laid off the grand divisions,

islands, oceans, seas, etc., and with appropriate shadings to

indicate lines or boundaries, it was varnished and became a veritable

globe, fit for an early student of geography, and far from crude.

It now stands before me as perfect as when made fifty years since.

In mathematics I soon, out of school, passed to the study of algebra,

geometry, natural philosophy, etc. My common school and home

advantages were excellent, and while my father lived, even when at

work in the field, problems were being stated and solved, and

interesting matters were discussed and considered. The country

boy has an inestimable advantage over the town or city boy in the

fact that he is more alone and on his own resources, which gives

him an opportunity for independent thought, and forces him to become

a _thinker_, without which no amount of scholastic advantages will

make him, in any proper sense, learned.

I had the misfortune, before ten years of age, of injuring, by

accident, my left foot, and in consequence went on crutches about

two years of my boyhood life. This apprehension of again becoming

lame early turned my thought to an occupation other than farming.

When sixteen years of age I decided to try to become a lawyer, and

in this decision my mother seconded me heartily. Though continuing

to labor on the farm without intermission, I pursued, as I had long

before, a regular study of history, and procured and read some

elementary law books, including a copy of Blackstone's _Commentaries_,

which I systematically and constantly read and re-read, and availed

myself, without an instructor, of all possible means of acquiring

legal knowledge. In my eighteenth year I was regularly entered as

a student at law with Anthony & Goode, attorneys, at Springfield,

Ohio, though my reading was still continued on the farm, noons,

nights, and between intervals of hard work.( 7)

Lyceums or debating societies which met at the villages or schoolhouses

were then common. They were usually well conducted, and they were

excellent incentives to study, affording good opportunity for

acquiring habits of debate and public speaking. They are,

unfortunately, no longer common. These lyceums I frequented, and

participated in the discussions. I taught public school "_a

quarter_," the winter of 1852-53, at the Black-Horse tavern

schoolhouse, on Donnels Creek, for sixty dollars pay.

I attended Antioch College (1854-55) in Horace Mann's time, for

less than a year, reciting in classes in geometry, higher algebra,

English grammar, rhetoric, etc., pursuing no regular course, and

part of the time taking special lessons, and while there actively

participated in a small debating club, to which some men still

living and of high eminence belonged. One member only of the club

has, so far, died upon the gallows. This was Edwin Coppoc, who

was hanged with John Brown in December, 1859.

In the exciting Presidential campaign of 1856 (though not old enough

to vote) I made, in Clark and Greene Counties, Ohio, above fifty

campaign speeches for Fremont, the excitement being so high that

mobbing or egging was not uncommon. The pro-slavery people called

Fremont's supporters _abolitionists_--the most opprobrious name

they conceived they could use. Colonel Wm. S. Furay (now of

Columbus, Ohio), of about my age, also made many speeches in the

same campaign, and we were joint recipients of at least one _egging_,

at Clifton, Ohio.

In the midst of my farm work and duties, by employing room hours,

evenings, rainy days, etc., I could make much progress in studies,

and besides this I did a little fishing in the season, and some

hunting with a rifle, in the use of which I was skillful in killing

game. Hunting became almost a passion, hence had to be wholly

given up.

At the close of the 1856 Presidential campaign, my mother having,

in consequence of my purpose to practise law, removed from the farm

to Yellow Springs, Ohio, I became a resident of Springfield, and

there pursued, regularly, in Anthony & Goode's office, the study

of law.

Before this I had ventured to try a few law cases before justices

of the peace, both in the country, in villages, and in the city,

and I had some professional triumphs, occasionally over a regular

attorney, but more commonly meeting the "pettifogger," who was of

a class once common, and not to be despised as "rough and tumble,"

_ad captandum_, advocates in justices' courts. They often knew

some crude law, and they never knew enough to concede a point or

that they were wrong.

My studies went on in much the usual way until I was admitted to

the bar, January 12, 1858, by the Supreme Court of Ohio, at Columbus.

I recognize now more than I did then that my preparation for the

profession of the law, which demands knowledge of almost all things,

ancient, modern, scientific, literary, historical, etc., was wholly

defective. All knowledge is called into requisition by a general

and successful legal practitioner. My early deficiency in learning,

and the many interruptions in the course of about forty years, have

imposed the necessity of close and constant application. On being

admitted to the bar, I determined to visit other parts and places

before locating. I visited Toledo; it was then muddy, ragged,

unhealthful, and unpromising. Chicago was then next looked over.

It was likewise apparently without promise. The streets were almost

impassable with mire. The sidewalks were seldom continuously level

for a square. The first floors of some buildings were six to ten

feet above those of others beside them. So walking on the sidewalks

was an almost constant going up and down steps. There was then no

promise of its almost magic future. At Springfield, Illinois, I

saw and heard, in February, 1858, before the Supreme Court, an

ungainly appearing man, called _Abe_ Lincoln. He was arguing the

application of a statute of limitations to a defective tax title

to land. He talked very much in a conversational way to the judges,

and they gave attention, and in a Socratic way the discussion went

on. I did not see anything to specially attract attention to Mr.

Lincoln, save that he was awkward, ungainly in build, more than

plain in features and dress, his clothes not fitting him, his

trousers being several inches too short, exposing a long, large,

unshapely foot, roughly clad. But he was even then, by those who

knew him best, regarded as intellectually and professionally a

great man. When I next saw him (March 25, 1865, twenty days before

his martyrdom) he looked much the same, except better dressed,

though he was then President of the United States and Commander-in-

Chief of its Army and Navy. He appeared on both occasions a sad

man, thoughtful and serious. The last time I saw him he was watching

the result of an assault on the enemy's outer line of works from

Fort Fisher in front of Petersburg, the day Fort Stedman was carried

and held for a time by the Confederates.

I also visited St. Louis, and took a look at its narrow (in old

part) French streets; thence I went to Cairo, the worst, in fact

and appearance, of all. In going alone on foot along the track of

the Illinois Central Railroad from Cairo to Burkeville Junction,

in crossing the Cash bottoms, or slashes, I was assailed by two of

a numerous band of highwaymen who then inhabited those parts, and

was in danger of losing my life. In a struggle on the embankment

one of the two fell from the railroad bed to the swamp at its side,

and on being disengaged from the other I proceeded without being

further molested to my destination.

By March 1, 1858, I was again at home, resolved to practise law in

my native county, at Springfield, where I opened an office for that

purpose. To locate to practise a profession among early neighbors

and friends has its disadvantages. The jealous and envious will

not desire or aid you to succeed; others, friendly enough, still

will want you to establish a reputation before they employ you.

All will readily, however, espouse your friendship, and proudly

claim you as their school-mate, neighbor, and dearest friend when

you have demonstrated you do not need their patronage.

I did succeed, in a way, from the beginning, and was not without

a good clientage, and some good employments. I was prompt, faithful,

and persistently loyal to my clients' interests, trying never to

neglect them even when they were small. Then litigations were

sharper generally than at present, and often, as now understood,

unnecessary. The court-term was once looked forward to as a time

for a lawyer to earn fees; now it is, happily, otherwise with the

more successful and better lawyers. Commercial business is too

tender to be ruthlessly shocked by bitter litigations. Disputes

between successful business men can be settled usually now in good

lawyers' offices on fair terms, saving bitterness, loss of time,

and expensive or prolonged trials. A just, candid, and good attorney

should make more and better fees by his advice and counsel and in

adjusting his client's affairs in his office than by contentions

in a trial court-room.

I was an active member of the Independent Rover Fire Company in

Springfield, and with it ran to fires and worked on the brakes of

a hand-engine, etc.

I gave little attention to matters outside of the law, though a

little to a volunteer militia company of which I was a member; for

a time a lieutenant, then in 1860 brigade-major on a militia

brigadier's staff. We staff officers wore good clothes, much

tinsel, gaudy crimson scarfs, golden epaulets, bright swords with

glistening scabbards, rose horses in a gallop on parade occasions

and muster days, yet knew nothing really military--certainly but

little useful in war. We knew a little of company drill and of

the handling of the old-fashioned muster.

My wife (Eliza Stout) was of the same Stout family of New Jersey

from whence came my maternal grandmother. She was born at Springfield,

Ohio, July 11, 1834, and died there March 12, 1899.

Her father, Charles Stout, and mother, Margaret (McCord) Stout,

emigrated from New Jersey, on horseback, in 1818, to Ohio, first

settling at Cadiz, then at Urbana, and about 1820 in Clark County.

The McCords were Scotch-Irish, from County Tyrone. Thus in our

children runs the Scotch-Irish blood, with the German, Dutch, Welsh,

English, and what not--all, however, Aryan in tongue, through the

barbaric, Teutonic tribes of northern Europe.

Thus situated and occupied, I was, after Sumter was fired on, and

although wholly unprepared by previous inclination, education, or

training, quickly metamorphosed into a soldier in actual war.

Five days after President Lincoln's first call for volunteers I

was in Camp Jackson, Columbus, Ohio (now Goodale Park), a private

soldier, and April 27, 1861, I was commissioned and mustered as

Major of the 3d Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and with the regiment went

forthwith to Camp Dennison, near Cincinnati, for drill and equipment.

Here real preparations for war, its duties, responsibilities, and

hardships, began. Without the hiatus of a day I was in the volunteer

service four years and two months, being mustered out, at Washington,

D. C., June 27, 1865, on which date I settled all my ordnance and

other accounts with the departments of the government, though they

covered several hundred thousand dollars.

I served and fought in Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama,

Georgia, West Virginia, and Maryland, and campaigned in other

States. I was thrice slightly wounded, twice in different years,

near Winchester, Virginia, and severely wounded in the left forearm

at the battle of the Wilderness, May 5, 1864. I was off duty on

account of wounds for a short time only, though I carried my arm

in a sling, unhealed, until after the close of the war.

The story of my service in the Civil War is told elsewhere.

II

PUBLIC SERVICES SINCE THE CIVIL WAR

On my return from the war I resumed, in Springfield, Ohio, the

practice of law, and have since pursued it, broken a little by some

official life.( 8) I took a deep interest in the political questions

growing out of the reconstruction of the States lately in rebellion,

and especially in the adoption of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and

Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution. The _first_ of these

abolished slavery in the United States; the _second_ (1) secured

to all persons born or naturalized in the United States, citizenship

therein and in the State wherein they resided; prohibited a State

from making any law that would abridge the privileges or immunities

of citizens, and from depriving any person of life, liberty, or

property without due process of law, and from denying to any person

the equal protection of the laws; (2) required Representatives to

be apportioned among the States according to number, excluding

Indians not taxed, but provided that when the right of male citizens

over twenty-one years to vote for electors and Federal and State

executive, judicial or legislative officers, was denied or abridged

by any State, except for participation in rebellion or other crime,

the basis of representation therein should be reduced proportionately;

(3) excluded any person who, having previously taken an oath as a

member of Congress or of a State Legislature, or as an officer of

the United States or of a State, to support the Constitution of

the United States, shall have engaged or aided in rebellion, from

holding any office under the United States or any State, leaving

Congress the right by a two-thirds vote of each House to remove

such disability, and (4) prohibited the validity of the public

debt, including debts incurred for the payment of pensions and

bounties, from being questioned, and prevented the United States

or any State from paying any obligation incurred in aid of the

Rebellion, or any claim for the emancipation of any slave, and the

_third_ provided that citizens shall not be denied the right to

vote "By any State on account of race, color, or previous condition

of servitude."( 9) Those amendments completed the cycle of

fundamental changes of the Constitution, and were necessary results

of the war.

Ohio ratified each of them through her Legislature, but, in January,

1868, rescinded her previous ratification of the Fourteenth

Amendment. I voted and spoke in the Ohio Senate against this

recession.

The Constitution of Ohio gave the elective franchise only to "white"

persons. In 1867 the people of the State voted against striking

the word "white" from the Constitution. In that year I was elected

to the Ohio Senate, and participated in the political discussion

of those times, both on the stump and in the General Assembly, and

favored universal suffrage and the political equality of all persons.

The wisdom of such suffrage will hardly be settled so long as there

exists a great disparity of learning and moral, public and private,

among the people, race not regarded.

I originated some laws, still on the statute books of Ohio, one or

two of which have been copied in other States. An amendment to

the replevin laws, so as to prevent the plaintiff from acquiring,

regardless of right, heirlooms, keepsakes, etc., is an example of

this. I served on the Judiciary and other committees of the Ohio

Senate in the sessions of 1868-69.

I supported my old war chief for President in 1868 and 1872. I

was Commander of the Department of the Ohio, Grand Army of the

Republic, for the years 1868, 1869, and 1870, during which time,

under its auspices, the Ohio Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' Home

was established at Xenia, through a board of trustees appointed by

me. The G. A. R. secured the land, erected some cottages and other

buildings thereon, and carried on the institution, paying the expense

for nearly two years before the State accepted the property as a

donation and assumed the management of the Home. I was Junior Vice-

Commander-in-Chief of the G. A. R., 1871-72; was trustee of the

Orphans' Home from April, 1871, date when the State took charge of

it, to March, 1878; have been a trustee of Antioch College since

June, 1873; was the first President of the Lagonda National Bank,

Springfield, Ohio, (April, 1873), a position I still hold; was a

delegate-at-large from Ohio to the National Republican Convention

in Cincinnati, in June, 1876, when General Hayes was nominated for

President; was thereafter, serving in the Forty-fifth, Forty-sixth,

Forty-seventh, and Forty-eighth Congresses, ending March 4, 1885,

covering the administrations of Presidents Hayes, Garfield, and

Arthur. I served in the Forty-fifth on the Committee on War Claims,

and in the Forty-sixth on Elections, and on other less important

committees.

I opposed the repeal of the act providing for the resumption of

specie payments, January 1, 1879. In a somewhat careful speech

(November 16, 1877), I insisted that the act "to strengthen the

public credit" (March 18, 1869), and the resumption act of January

14, 1875, reaffirmed the original promise and renewed the pledges

of the nation to redeem, when presented, its notes issued during

and on account of the Rebellion, thus making them the equivalent

of coin. I then, also against the prophecy of many in and out of

Congress, demonstrated the honesty, necessity, and ability of the

government to resume specie payment.

The act was not repealed, and resumption came under it without a

financial shock, and the nation's credit, strength, honor, and good

faith were maintained inviolate with its own people.

I advocated the payment of claims of loyal citizens of the

insurrectionary States for supplies furnished or seized by the

Union Army, necessary for its use for subsistence, but opposed

payment, to even loyal citizens, of claims based on the loss or

destruction of property incident to the general devastation of the

war. Claims for destruction of property were the most numerous,

and the most energetically pressed, and, in some instances,

appropriations were made to pay them, but the great majority of

them failed. The loyalty of claimants from the South was often

more than doubtful. For want of a well defined rule, which it is

impossible to establish in Congress, very many just claims against

the United States never are paid, or, if paid, it is after honest

claimants have been subjected to the most vexatious delays, and,

in many instances, forced to be victimized by professional lobbyists.

Many claimants have spent all they and their friends possessed

waiting in Washington, trying to secure an appropriation or to pay

blackmailing claim-agents or lobbyists. It is doubtful whether

the latter class of persons ever really aided, by influence or

otherwise, in securing an honest appropriation, though they, to

the scandal of the members, often had credit for doing so. It is

doubtful whether there is any case where members of either House

were bribed with money to support a pending bill, yet many claimants

have believed they paid members for their influence and votes.

An illustrative incident occurred when Wm. P. Frye of Maine was

serving on the War Claims Committee of the House. A lobbyist in

some way ascertained that Mr. Frye was instructed by his committee

to report a bill favorably by which a considerable claim would be

paid. The rascal found the claimant, and told him that for five

hundred dollars Mr. Frye would make a favorable report, otherwise

his report would be adverse. The claimant paid the sum. But for

an accident Mr. Frye never would have known of the fraud, and the

claimant would have believed he bribed an honest member.

I opposed the payment of a large class of claims presented for

institutions of learning or church buildings destroyed by one or

the other army, not so much on account of their disloyal owners,

but because their destruction belonged to the general ravages of

war, never compensated for, as of right, according to the laws and

usages of nations.

Besides making reports on various war claims, I spoke (December

13, 1878) at some length against a bill to reimburse William and

Mary College, Virginia, for property destroyed during the war, in

which I collated the precedents and reviewed the law of nations in

the matter of payment of claims for property destroyed in the

ravages of war by either the friendly or opposing army. I also

frequently participated in the debates on the floor of the House

involving war claims and other important matters.

The necessity for presenting claims for the judgment of Congress

results in the most grievous wrong to honest claimants, and often

results in the payment of fraudulent claims through the persistency

of claimants and the lack of time and adequate means for investigation.

In the absence of judicial investigation according to the usual

forms of procedure it quite frequently happens that fraudulent

claims are made to appear honest, and hence paid. Want of time

causes other, however just, to fail of consideration, thus doing

incalculable injustice. The government of the United States suffers

in its reputation from its innumerable failures to pay, at least

promptly, its honest creditors. Thousands of bills to pay claims

are annually introduced which go to committees and to the calendar,

never to be disposed of for want of time. To remedy this, on April

16, 1878, I proposed in the House an amendment to the Constitution

in these words:

"_Article ----_

"Section 1. Congress shall have no power to appropriate money for

the payment of any claims against the United States, not created

in pursuance of or previously authorized by law, international

treaty, or award, except in payment of a final judgment rendered

thereon by a court or tribunal having competent jurisdiction.

"Section 2. Congress shall establish a court of claims to consist

of five justices, one of whom shall be chief-justice, with such

original jurisdiction as may be provided by law in cases involving

claims against the United States, and with such other original

jurisdiction as may be provided by law, and Congress may also confer

on any other of the courts of the United States inferior to the

Supreme Court, original jurisdiction in like cases.

"Section 3. All legislation other than such as refers exclusively

to the appropriation of money in any appropriation act of Congress

shall be void, except such as may prescribe the terms or conditions

upon which the money thereby appropriated shall be paid or received."

--_Con. Record_, Vol. vii., Part III., p. 2576.

The adoption of this amendment would have relieved Congress of much

work; have given claimants at all times a speedy and certain remedy

for the disposition of their claims and at the same time secured

protection to the government against unfounded claims. A statute

of limitations could have put a rest old and often trumped-up

claims, still constantly being brought before Congress. It is

impossible for Congress to make a statute of limitations for its

own guidance.(10) It never will obey a law against its own action.

In the Forty-sixth Congress there were many contested election

cases, growing out of frauds and crimes at elections, especially

in the South. The purpose of the dominant race South to overthrow

the rule of the blacks or their friends was then manifest in the

conduct of elections. The colored voter was soon, by coercion and

fraud, practically deprived of his franchise. The plan of stuffing

ballot-boxes with tissue ballots (printed often on tissue paper

about an inch long and less in width) was in vogue in some districts.

The judge or clerk of the election would, when the ballot-box was

opened, shake from his sleeve into the box hundreds of these tickets.

In these districts voters were encouraged to vote, but the tissue

ballot was mainly counted to the number of the actual voters; those

remaining were burned. The party in the majority in the House,

however, generally voted in its men, regardless of the facts.

As early as June 7, 1878, I proposed to amend the postal laws so

as to extend the free-delivery letter-carrier system to post offices

having a gross revenue of $20,000. This amendment subsequently

became a law, and gave many cities the carrier system. Prior to

this, population alone was the test for establishing such offices.

I opposed the indiscriminate distribution of the remaining $10,000,000

of the $15,500,000 paid by Great Britain, as adjudged by the Geneva

Arbitration, for indemnity for losses occasioned by Confederate

cruisers which went to sea during the Rebellion from English ports

with the connivance or through the negligence of the British

Government. I insisted in a speech (December 17, 1878) that the

fund should be distributed in payment of claims allowed by the

arbitrators in making the award, or retained by the government as

general indemnity. Many of the losers whose claims were taken into

account in making the award could not be proper claimants to the

fund, as they had been fully paid by marine insurance companies.

It was insisted by some members that the companies had no equitable

right to be subrogated to the rights of the claimants who were thus

paid, because the companies had charged war-premiums, and hence

did not deserve reimbursement.(11)

The Forty-sixth Congress will long be memorable in the history of

our country. It was Democratic in both branches, for the first

time since the war.

The previous Congress (House Democratic) adjourned March 4, 1879,

without having performed its constitutional duty of appropriating

the money necessary to carry on,. for the coming fiscal year, the

legislative, executive, and judicial departments of the government,

and for the pay of the army. The avowed purpose of this failure

was to coerce a Republican President to withhold his veto and

approve bills prohibiting the use of troops "to keep the peace at

the polls on election days"; taking from the President his power

to enforce all laws, even to the suppression of rebellion, except

on the motion first taken by State authorities; repealing all

election laws which secured the right, through supervisors of

elections and special deputy marshals, to have free, fair elections

for electors and members of Congress; and also that made it a crime

for an officer of the army to suppress riots or disorder or to

preserve the peace at elections.