From Smithfield to Greensboro--The Surrender.
The army took up quarters for a while around Smithfield. The troops
were as jolly and full of life as they ever were in their lives. Horse
racing now was the order of the day. Out in a large old field, every
day thousands of soldiers and civilians, with a sprinkling of the fair
ladies of the surrounding country, would congregate to witness the
excitement of the race course. Here horses from Kentucky, Tennessee,
Georgia, and North and South Carolina tried each others mettle.
They were not the thoroughbreds of the course, but cavalry horses,
artillery horses, horses of Generals, Colonels, and the staff--horses
of all breeds and kinds, all sizes and description--stood at the head
of the track and champed their bits with eagerness, impatient to get
away. Confederate money by the handfuls changed owners every day. It
was here that Governor Zeb Vance, of North Carolina, visited us, and
was a greater favorite with the soldiers than any man in civil life.
It was here, too, our old disabled commander, General James Connor,
came to bid us an affectionate farewell. General Kennedy formed the
brigade into a hollow square to receive our old General. He entered
the square on horseback, accompanied by General Kennedy and staff.
He had come to bid us farewell, and spoke to us in feeling terms. He
recounted our many deeds of valor upon the field, our sufferings
in camp and upon the march, and especially our supreme heroism and
devotion in standing so loyally to our colors in this the dark hour of
our country's cause. He spoke of his great reluctance to leave us;
how he had watched with sympathy and affection our wanderings, our
battles, and our victories, and then envoking Heaven's blessings upon
us, he said in pathetic tones, "Comrades, I bid you an affectionate
farewell," and rode away.
While in camp here there was a feeble attempt made to reorganize and
consolidate the brigade by putting the smaller companies together and
making one regiment out of two. As these changes took place so near
the end, the soldiers never really realizing a change had been made,
I will do no more than make a passing allusion to it, as part of this
history. The only effect these changes had was the throwing out of
some of our best and bravest officers (there not being places for
all), but as a matter of fact this was to their advantage, as they
escaped the humiliation of surrender, and returned home a few days
earlier than the rest of the army.
After passing through South Carolina and venting its spleen on the
Secession State, the Federal Army, like a great forest fire, sweeping
over vast areas, stops of its own accord by finding nothing to feed
upon. The vandalism of the Union Army in North Carolina was confined
mostly to the burning of the great turpentine forests. They had burned
and laid waste the ancestral homes of lower South Carolina, left
in ashes the beautiful capital of the State, wrecked and ruined the
magnificent residences and plantations of the central and upper part
of the country, leaving in their wake one vast sheet of ruin and
desolation, so that when they met the pine barrens of North Carolina,
their appetites for pillage, plunder, and destruction seems to have
been glutted.
It was the boast of the Federal commander and published with delight
in all the Northern newspapers, that "where his army went along a crow
could not pass over without taking its rations along." Then, too, this
very country was to feed and support, while in transit to their homes
almost the whole of Johnston's and the greater part of Lee's Army. All
these, in squads or singly, were fed along the way from house to house
wherever they could beg a little meal or corn, with a morsel of meat
or molasses. A great number of negro troops also passed through this
country on their way to the coast to be disbanded. But the noble women
of South Carolina never turned a hungry soldier from their doors as
long as there was a mouthful in the house to eat.
Another terror now alarmed the people--the news of a great raid, under
Stoneman, being on its way through North Carolina and upper South
Carolina, coming across the country from East Tennessee, laying waste
everything in its track. General Sherman had concentrated his whole
army at Goldsboro, and was lying idle in camp, preparatory to his
next great move to connect with Grant. He had at his command the right
wing, under General Howard, twenty-eight thousand eight hundred
and thirty-four; its left wing, under General Slocum, twenty-eight
thousand and sixty-three. General Schofield had come up from Newbern
with twenty-six thousand three hundred and ninety-two and constituted
the center, besides five thousand six hundred and fifty-nine cavalry,
under Kilpatrick, and ninety-one pieces of artillery. General Johnston
had encamped his army between two roads, one leading to Raleigh, the
other to Weldon. The Confederate Government, after the evacuation of
Richmond, had now established its quarters at Danville, Va., awaiting
the next turn of the wheel. Lee had fallen back from Petersburg; while
Johnston, before Sherman, was awaiting the move of that General to
fall back still nearer to his illustrious chieftain. The government
and all the armies were now hedged in the smallest compass. Still our
leaders were apparently hopeful and defiant, the troops willing to
stand by them to the last.
On the 10th of April President Davis and a part of his cabinet left
Danville on his way to Greensboro. Even at this late day President
Davis was urging the concentration of the troops under General Walker,
the scattered troops at Salisbury and Greensboro, and those under
Johnston at same place on the Yadkin, and crush Sherman, and then it
is supposed to turn on Grant. All this with less than twenty thousand
men!
The last conference of the great men of the Confederacy met at
Greensboro, on the 13th of April, 1865. Those present were President
Davis, Messrs. Benjamin, Secretary of State; Mallory, of the Navy;
Reagin, Postmaster General; Breckinridge, Secretary of War, and
General Johnston. The army had been falling back daily through
Raleigh, and was now encamped near Greensboro. President Davis still
clung to the delusion that by pressing the conscript act and bringing
out all absentees, they could yet prolong the struggle, even if
they had to cross the Mississippi and join with Kirby Smith. General
Johnston urged in his and General Beauregard's name its utter
impracticability, and informed the President plainly and positively
that it was useless to continue the struggle--that they had as well
abandon all hope of any other issue than that which they could gain
through the Federal authorities, and besought Mr. Davis to open
negotiations looking to peace--that he was yet the executive and head
of the Confederate Government; that he was the proper one to commence
such negotiations. This Mr. Davis refused, saying the Federal
authorities would refuse to treat with him. Then General Johnston
proposed doing so in his own name. This was agreed to, and a letter
written by Mr. Mallory, he being the best penman in the group, and
signed and sent by General Johnston to General Sherman. The letter
recapitulated the results in the army in the last few days, changing
the status of the two armies and the needless amount of bloodshed and
devastation of property that the continuance of the struggle would
produce, and asked for a conference looking to an armistice in the
armies until the civil government could settle upon terms of peace.
The letter was sent to General Hampton, and by him to the Federal
commander the next day. General Sherman acknowledged the receipt of
the letter on the 14th, and it reached General Johnston on the 16th,
agreeing to a cessation of hostilities until further notice. General
Sherman expressed in his letter a great desire to spare the people of
North Carolina the devastation and destruction the passing of his army
through the State would necessitate. When it began to be noised about
in the camp that the army was about to be surrendered, the soldiers
became greatly excited. The thought of grounding their arms to an
enemy never before entered their minds, and when the news came of a
surrender the greatest apprehension and dread seized all. So different
the end to their expectation. None could even think of the future
without a shudder. Some anticipated a term in Federal prisons; others,
the higher officers, a military trial; others thought of their private
property and their arms. Even in a prison camp, where our soldiers
would be kept confined under a Federal guard, all was mystery and
uncertainty. The wives and helpless children, left in the rear to
the mercy of the negroes (now for the first time known to be free),
agitated the minds of not a few. Men began to leave the army by twos
and by squads. Guards were placed on all roads and around camps,
and the strictest orders were given against leaving the army without
leave. Cavalrymen in great numbers had mounted their horses and rode
away. General Sherman sent guards to all fords and bridges to examine
all the paroles of the troops of Lee now swarming through the country.
General Johnston met General Sherman at Durham, on the 17th of April,
at the house of Mr. Bennett, but after a long and tedious controversy,
nothing was agreed upon. A second meeting took place at the same house
next day, at which General Breckinridge was unofficially present,
when terms of an armistice were agreed to until the department at
Washington could be beard from. President Davis had already gone South
with such of his cabinet as chose to follow him, the whole settlement
of difficulties now devolving upon General Johnston alone.
But just as all negotiations were progressing finely the news came of
President Lincoln's assassination, throwing the whole of the Federal
Army in a frenzy of excitement. While the troops of the South may not
have given their assent to such measures, yet they rejoiced secretly;
in their hearts that the great agitator, emancipator--the cause of all
our woes--was laid low. To him and him alone all looked upon as being
the originator, schemer, and consummater of all the ills the South had
suffered. However the hearts of the Southern people may have changed
in the thirty years that have passed, or how sadly they deplored his
death, even in a decade afterwards, I but voice the sentiment of the
South at the time when I say they hated Lincoln with all the venom of
their souls, and his untimely taking off by the hands of the assassin
partly consoled them for all they had suffered.
Orders came from General Sherman to General Johnston to the effect
that part of their agreement was rejected by the Washington Authority,
and notifying the latter that the truce would be called off in
forty-eight hours. This occasioned a third meeting between the two
commanders to make such changes that were required by the authorities.
On the 26th General Johnston sent a communication to General Sherman
requesting a meeting at same place for further conference. This was
agreed to and the meeting took place, where such terms were agreed
upon and signed as was thought to be in accordance with the wishes of
the Washington Government. Rolls were made out in duplicate of all the
officers and soldiers, and on the 2nd of May the troops marched out,
stacked their arms, were given paroles, and slowly turned away and
commenced their homeward journey.
A military chest, containing $39,000, had been received from the
Government in Richmond and divided out among the soldiers, being $1.29
apiece. All the Wagon and artillery horses and wagons, also, were
loaned to the soldiers and divided by lot. A few days' rations had
been issued, and with this and the clothes on their back, this remnant
at a once grand army bent their steps towards their desolate homes. It
was found advisable to move by different routs and in such numbers as
was most agreeable and convenient. Once away from the confines of the
army, they took by-ways and cross country, roads, avoiding as much as
possible the track of the late army. The troops of Kershaw's Brigade,
on reaching the borders of their State, each sought for himself the
easiest and nearest path home. The Western Army made their way,
the most of them at least, to Washington, Ga., where there was yet
railroad communication a part of the way through Georgia.
And now, gentle reader, my task is done--my pen laid aside, after days
and days of earnest toil to give a faithful and correct account of
your daring, your endurance, your patriotism, and your fidelity to
the cause you had espoused. Your aims have been of the highest, your
performances ideal, and while you were unsuccessful, still your deeds
of daring will live in history as long as civilization lasts. While
your cherished hopes ended in a dream, still your aspirations have
been of the loftiest, and your acts will be copied by generations yet
unborn, as a fitting pattern for all brave men. You have fought in all
the great battles of the East, from the trenches of Petersburg to
the rugged heights of Round Top. Your blood mingled with that of your
comrades of the West, from Chickamauga to the storming of Fort London.
You combatted the march of Sherman from the Saltkahatchie to the
close, and stacked your arms more as conquering heroes than beaten
foes. You have nothing to regret but the results--no hope but the
continued prosperity of a reunited people. This heritage of valor left
to posterity as a memorial of Southern manhood to the Southern cause
will be cherished by your descendants for all time, and when new
generations come on and read the histories of the great Civil War, and
recall to their minds the fortitude, the chivalry, and the glories of
the troops engaged, Kershaw's Brigade will have a bright page in the
book of their remembrance.
* * * * *