The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1884-01-09
NOW MILL WAS SLAIN.
The Only Confederate Eye-Wit-
ness Of the 0eath.Shot De-
scrbes the Event.

The only men who saw Gen. A. 2.
Hill killed before Petersburg, on April
Q 1865, were two FEDERAL soldiers,
names unknown, and Sergt. G w.
Tucker. The latter was chief OF Gen.
Hills couriers, and was riding with the
distinguished officer at the time OF the
tragic occurrence. For the first time
Mr.. Tucker tells of the death-shot, and
describes the death scene. In the cur
rent number of the Southern Historical
Society Papers he says:
About midnight the cannonading in
front of Petersburg, which had begun at
ni1ntfall, became very heavy, increasing
as the hours went by. Col. Palmer,
chief of staff, woke Maj. Starke, A. A.
G., and requested him to find out the
cause and effect of the prolonged firing.
This was between 2 and 3 O'Clock on
the morning of April .. Maj. Starke
returned before day light, and reported
that 1.-THE enemy had part OF our line
! near the Rives salient, and that matters
| looked critical on the lines in front OF
he citv.'' This he communicated to
| Gen. Hill at Venable's.
Before sunrise Gen. Hill came over
and asked Col. Palmer If he had any re-
port from Gems. Wilcox and Heth
whose divisions On the right extended
from the 'front.' of Fort Gregg, to ant
beyond BURGESS mill. on Hatcher
run. The colonel told him that he hat
heard nothing from them, add hat
nothing further to report beyond Maj
Starke's statement.
He directed me to follow him wit
two couriers Immediately to Gen. Lee
headquarters. He then rode of rapidly
1t was our custom in critical times t
have during the night two of the cou
riers' horses always saddled. l calle'
10 Kirkpatrick and jenkins, the courier
next in turn, TO follow the General a
quickly as possible. l saddled up a
once and followed them. kirkpatrick
and jenkins arrived at Gen. Lees to
gether, only a few minutes after Gen
Hill. who at once directed kirkpatrick
to ride rapidly back to our quarters {
met him IN the road, going at full
speed and tell Col. Palmer to follow
him to the right, and the others of tn
staff and couriers must rally the men OF
the right, This was the first infOrma
ton received at corps headquarters tina
u rk&QC Udu gwen way oOh I'LL
then roe, attended only by jenkins, t.
the front gate of Gen. Lees headquar
tiers (Turnbull house, on the Cox road
nearly one and a half miles westerl.
from Gen. Htll's,) where l met them.
We went directly across the road int
the opposite field, and riding due soutl
a short distance, the General drew rel
and for a few moments used his field
glass, which, in my still profound igno
rance of what had happened, struck m
as exceedingly queer We then rode OF
in the same direction down a declivit
toward a small branch running east
ward to Old Town Greek and a quartz
of a mile from Gen. Lees. We ha
gone little more than half this distanc
when we suddenly came upon two of th
enemy's armed infantrymen. Jenkin
and myself, who up to this time rod
Immediately behind the General, wer
instantly upon them, when at the dc
mand surrender they laid down the
guns. Turning to the General l aske
what should be done with the prisoner
he said: jenkins, take them to Ge'
Lee" jenkins started back with h
men and we rode Old.