Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1865-12-13
UNI0N&AMERICAN
The Last Days of the Confcdcracy---An
Account by a Partieipator I'm the
Closing Scenes.

From the Cincinnati Enquirerl
In your issue of November %, see an
account of the last days the Confederacy.
l contribute this as my mite to full his
tory of that eventful month. | was a full
member of DibrelPs Division of Wheeler's
cavalry, and had some opportunities for
knowing much of what was transporting.
Our division had been selected to escort
Mr.. Davis from Greensboro to Charlotte,
and leaving Battle Bridge, over the Neuse
River, we reached Greensboro about mid
night of April II, after two days and half
of rapid marching. For the first time we
we were fully informed of the extent of our
disasters-of the retreat, defeat, surrender
humiliation Of General Lees great army
and were told that We were relied upon to
guard Mr.. Davis, his cabinet and archives
to Charlotte, and keep off Sherman, who
| was lowering upon our right flank. Next
evening as Mr. Davis and General Breckin-
ridge rode through the division, at the
head Of the Government corteqe, they
were welcomed with the most enthusiastic
! cheers.
We continued our march toward Char
lotte. General Breckinridge-the will and
| brains of the government in its last DAYS
| left us upon the third morning, returning to
the army to hold those consultations with
Generals Johnston and Sherman, of which so
much has been said. Perhaps the country
| may yet believe that Sherman, Johnston and
| Breckenridge were better statesmen and truer
| patriots than Seward and Stanton. Mr..
| Davis rode near or at the head of the col
umn all the time was always polite, affable
| and accessible; seemed cheerful and reso-
| lutte talked pleasantly, kindly and socially
| to all who approached. Mr.. Benjamin and
| General Cooper rode in an ambulance, Mr.
Trenholm and family in another. Judge
Reagan, Colonies Lubbock, of Texas, TAYLOR
Wood and Preston Johnston always rode
near the President. General Lawton, Quar-
| termaster-G General, General Gilmer, Chief
Engineer, and General St. Johns, with their
attaches Mr.. Mallory, Mr.. George Davis,
and others of less note, accompanied the
Presidential party. Besides General DID
relPs division, General Geary, of South Car
DINA, had a small body of mounted men,
some seventy-fve or one hundred, collected
at Greensboro, from the debris of the Vir-
ginia cavalry. At Salisbury we met Gen
erai Echols and staff, of Southwestern Vir-
ginia, and various staff, post and furloughed
officers, who had run from Richmond,
Lynchburg, Abingdon, Western North Car
DINA and various parts of South Car
DINA men driven to a common center
by Grant, Sherman, Stoneman, VIII
son and Foster; members of Congress,
civil fImctionaries and refugees You may
be sure, we dirty soldiers who had borne the
heat, and burden, and danger of the war;
made great sport of the beloved "post"
officer, the chilled" shirt and black-coated
gentry who without horses ard unused to
camp life, were begging for mules, (horses
were not attainable,) so that they might &C
company u.s. Gladly would a kingdom
have been given for horse. Alas our
kingdom was in as desperate a condition as
poor Richards was, and was not worth
horse. For the first time during the war we
soldiers had revenge upon the gentlemen
who had been seeking and filling soft places. |
After moving across Yadkin river, Gen. |
Dibrell received word from Gen. Ferguson,
who with a small cavalry brigade was at |
Charlotte, that Stoneman was approaching
Charlotte, and begging him TO move on i'm
mediately, which he did, marching all night |
and reaching Charlotte about sunrise, to find |
that Stoneman was not near the place, but |
had deceived our officers there and burned |
all the bridges over the Catawba. General |
Ferguson moved out of Charlotte as soon as
NC lCtlIICU bliNlOi W 4NihAOh Olu ONCI INC
Catawba, the point where the railroad from |
Charlotte to Columbia crossed that river.
About midday General Basil Duke with the |
remnant of Morgans celebrated cavalry |
about five hundred-reached Charlotte |
from Christianburg. When General Echols |
disbanded his infantry and abandoned his |
wagons and artillery at Christiansburg, he |
ordered his cavalry to follow him across the
mountains to General Johnston. General |
Dukes brigade was dismounted, their hor-
ses being in North Carolina, but they seized |
the artillery and wagon mules and rode
bare-backed to Charlotte. A few of Dukes
men refused to accompany him. and came
to Kentucky with some Kentucky cavalry,
who surrendered at Mount Sterling; but
over one hundred under Lieutenant-cOlonel |
Diamond of this cavalry, reported to and
accompanied Duke. General Vaughn, also,
with about three hundred of his brigade,
marched with General Echols to Charlotte.
So that we had at or near Charlotte, Dbl
relPs Division, consisting of his own brig
ade under Colonel McLemore and Will
Jams Kentucky brigade, under Colonel
Breckinridge-about 1900 fighting men;
General Dukes brigade of Kentuckians,
badly mounted, five hundred; Vaughn's
Tennesseans, badly armed and disciplined,
three hundred; Fergusons brigade of Ala
bamians and Mississippians, seven hundred;
in all $500 men-a large part badly mount
ed and armed-sOme of them disheartened
and demoralized. Mr.. Davis reached
Charlotte late that afternoon and made the
speech so falsely reported. Two days after
ward, General Breckenridge returned from
Greensboro, with definite account Of
what had occurred and been agreed upon
between himself and General Sherman, and
the existence of truce was officially pro-
mulgated.
Upon the morning of the Goth of April,
we were ordered to Nation Ford, and then
to cross the Catawba River. After resting
nearly twenty-four hours on the bank of
the river, we received orders to move by
way of Yorkville and Unionville to Coles-
bury-Duke's Brigade and Vaughn to move
by Chesterville, UniOnville and Laurens-
to move by lower route.
High water, burnt bridges, &c, made us
change our route, and we reached Cokesbu-
~ after Duke, Vaughn and Furguson had
passed through thence we moved to Able
Vile, where all were concentrated by noon
of May 2. In the mean time, rumors had
reached US of Johnstons surrender; Gener-
al Bragg had disbanded the Second and
Third South Carolina Cavalry; news of
Wilson's Cavalry moving toward Augusta
and Lexington, Ca; Stoneman crossing the
Savannah and moving to Athens, and At
lanta being occupied, thus closing the en-
tire line of retreat to Taylor and Forrest
of the defeat of Forrest at Selma of Fos-
ter moving toward Augusta from the coast;
and of the utter Generalization of that part
of Johnson's army that had not surrendered
had become rife through the commands.
The men appreciated the utter hopeless
ness of The contest-the almost equal hope
lessness of reaching the Mississippi River
and crossing it, or of General Smith making
any resistance.
AtAbbeville, late in the afternoon of May
2, a consultation was held-the last mill
tary consultation in which the Confederate
Government participated. 1t was his
toric scene. Mr.. Davis presided with
General Bragg, who had become, by the
surrender of Lee, Johnston, Beauregard
and Cooper, the senior General of the Con-
federacy, on his right hand, and General
Secretary OF War and Major
General, on the other side of him. Next
came Brigadier-General G.. W. Ferguson,
gallant and enterprising South Carolinian,
a West-P Pointer, pet of Beauregard's, and a
favorite Of Davis; next General George G.
Dibrell, plain, practical, sensible, middle
aged Tennessee clerk and merchant, who |