Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1882-11-25
THE LAsr SALUTE.
An Old confs0's Account OF the Closing
Scene of the War.
T,affar r.. EonaSf and Gfraapa

Letter 10 fOreSt ana stream.
The scene was at Appomattox
Court House; the time, a gloomy
April morning in the Spring of '65.
Lee had sent in his flag of truce,
and the news flew from lip to lip
that the army Of Northern Virgin
ia was about to surrender. Surren-
der? A laugh of scurn and deris-
ion came from many who deemed
our battalions invincible, whether
eombatted singly by overwhelming
numbers, unlimited resources, star
vation and wounds and death, or
opposed by all. Surrender the
granf old army of North Virginia,
that Incompatible body of i'm antry,
as Swinton called them? 1t was as
false as hell. Yet the whispers
grew louder, and cheeks that never
blanched before death, grew white
to the lips now, and soon the news
grew into a certainty. Manyindi-
vidual cavalrymen determined to
break out of the surround and strike
for JOhnston's army in North Caro-
lima. Sixteen in one squad charged
through the line, and twelve, horse
men and steeds, went down; four
escaped more or less wounded, and
two horses gave out and left but
two cavalryInen, Jack II. and my
self, as reinforcements. We were
both young boys, in a strange
country, without a ration, both
with flesh wounds, and riding
the sorriest specters OF horses ever
seen.
'tIf we can cheat the buzzards, I"
said Jack, driving his spur between
the ribs OF his skeleton steed, "we
will make the trip, sure"
We reached Johnston after a few
days, steady riding, and the Gener-
al told us to go back to Virginia,
give ourselves up, and return to our
homes. We turned on the back
track and aimed for TarborO, a
beautiful little town on the Roam
oke river. When within a few
miles of the place, what a sight met
our eyes, A wholedivision wagon
train that had left Petersburg before
the evacuation, filled and jammed
with supplies, had tried in vain TO
reach Leo, and finding him envir-
Oned by Sheridan's troopers, turned
the caravans head toward john
ston, and had traversed a good deal
of the way, when they learned that
the bottom had fallen out of the
whole thing. was this all.
Two six-gun batteries and regi-
ment of infantry guarded the train.
The guns were brand new and had
never been fired. They were beau
tiful rifle pieces, fresh from the
English foundries, that had run the
blockade. by way of Nassua. The
caissons were bright and green as
new paint could make them, and
the guns cleaned like gold. I..
A sad council of war by old COM
rades, that had come together by
chance, was held in the recesses OF
the North Carolina piny woods.
There was no officer higher than the
Major, young Virginian named
Slaughter, who commanded the
provision train. 'a ,fi-..tt
The discussion was brief, for there
was only one side to be argued.
Lee had surrendered Johnston was
about to lay down his arms Kirby
Smith and Dick Taylor had an
army in Louisiana, nearly a thous-
and miles away, so all chance of
reaching him was futile; President
Davis and his Cabinent were fuga-
tives, and the Confederate Govern
ment dissolved; there was but one
course to follow, and that was
for every man to disperse to his
home. .....
A few hot-blooded, scatter-brain-
ed soldiers urged that guerilla
warfare should be inaugurated but
such proposition was voted down
by all the veterans present, who
knew what a guerilla warfare real
ly meant. saN .tag
No time was lost. The meeting
broke up, each man selected a mule
or a horse, and mounting, rode
away in twoS and threes. Old COM
rades looked with lingering glances
into each others eyes, and their
hands met in firm, warm, cordial
pressure for the last time, and turn
ing their faces
"some toward the setting sun have gone, +
And some 10 the setting mooh"-
they disappeared in the tortuous
road, never to meet again in this
world. In an hour the scene so full
of bustling life was almost desert
ed. There in the road stood the
twelve guns with the appurtenances
all complete and the chests filed
with ammunition. They were the
property of any who chose to claim
them. Any enterprising farmer
h0 nhncn nod nKaIxy fn f.n,,
mule and bear away with him to
his country home the finest rified
guns in the world, and he could
celebrate the Fourth of July,
Christmas, or his mother-in.law's
birthday, or his tin wedding, as he
minded to, in fine style. And then
what splendid adornment to his
grounds would be twelve brass and
steel cannons encirclihg his man.
sion, and pointing their grim muz-
zles TO every point of the compass.
All, me! have often wished l had
yanked two of those guns away
quietly nobody would have missed
them, and they would have been
like Mrs. Toodle's ldoor-plate, a
handy thing to have around the
house.
But more than that; there in the
pine woods was train of wagons a
mile long, and over a couple of hun
dred mules, left, like the guns, for
somebody to help themselves.
Owing to false report the officers
thought that Sheridan's cavalry
were but few miles off, but the
half dozen scouts who remained
all day by the wagons found out
that there wasn't blue coat within
twenty miles. '''
A few of us built our fires and
over night with the train,
looting the wagons and drinking
some blockade whisky, the meanest
l ever swallowed. The next morn
ing we debated whether we should
spike the guns and burn the wag-
ons, but AS the country people began
to arrive we told them TO help
and then loading one
of the field pieces, under the direc-
tiOn of an old artilleryman, who
had been transferred to the cavalry,
we touched her off. The sound
echoed and re echoed through the
vast pine forest, and then died away
in the far distance. Mounting our
horses we struck for Virginia. v
/ claim that our small body of
half a dozen scouts were the final
executors of the effects of the Confed-
eraey, and we fred the last gun and
the last salute of the war. rI.
How to be Beautiful
A celebrated beauty. whose COM