New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1886-02-24
Last View Of the Confederacy

Last View Of the Confed eracy.
From New York Sun.
When Gen. Jubal A. Early, on hear
ing of Lees surrender, exclaimed.
elbow your horn, .Gabriell'' he butex-
pressed the universal sentiment ofthe
south, certainly that OF the soldiers;
for we knew that it was only a ques-
ton OF time, and a very short time,
too. when there would be a general
collapse. And so when we started
homeward, in April. 1865, we knew
that we were going there to stay, that
the end had come at last. Although
many of the men had secured horses
still the large majority were on foot,
like myself, and I trudged back on
about the same route by which I had
come to Virginia four years before.
What eventful years! And what
difference in the. country through
which l had travelled, a boy Of l6, in
a fast train filled with my young COM
rades, cheering and singing i'm
provised war songs, greeted every
where along the road with over
flowing hospitality, speeding day
and night through land teeming
with abundance, and now! More than
half of my young comrades had found
shallow graves here and there, from
Malvern Hill to Appomattox, and
was tramping back alone, through a
desolate, war-stricken country, with
a thousand miles between me and
home
Danville was the first town [ reach
ed after the surrender, and rumors
had already reached there of that
event. There were a few who were
loud in their assertions that the Gov
eminent could hold out still, but there
was one sure sign that those in
authority there had no hope-the
men were breaking into the commits
sary stores and Government ware
houses, and no effort was made to
stop them. Seeing train of two
coaches and a baggage car at the de-
pot, headed south, thought it would
be a good opportunity to get a ride.
A number of kegs about the size OF
beer kegs, and strongly hoped, stood
on the platform, and four men were
with much effort loading them in the
car.
"What is tllat?" / asked one OF the
men.
"Specie," he replied
It was the Confederate treasury and
the contents OF the Richmond Bank
vaults.
Stepping on the platform OF one of
the coaches, a colored porter met me
at the door with a whispered, ssMr.
Davis is in dar.'
"Who?"
"Mr. Davis!"
Not only did that train contain the
Confederate treasury, but the whole
government-President. Cabinet, arch
ives, everything.
So started southwark and home
ward afoot. The railroad was now
lined with men, all moving in the
same direction, and no one could have
told from any word or act OF theirs
that they were soldiers of defeated
army and lost cause, for while there
was no exultation, there was no de
lection; the one dominant thought
and feeling was, "The war is ended,
we are going home," which many had
left four years before, and had not
even heard from in three years. l
caught a freight train ontht road and
rode into Greensboro, n. c., at
about midnight, on top of box car,
whence could be seen on all sides
around and in the town innumerable
camp fires Of stragglers, paroled men,
and deserters, and beyond these in
in the woods was Johnson's
dissolving army. His men were leav-
ing by hundreds.
Getting into a car of q train on a
side track to sleep, found it loaded
with blankets, and the sun was high
up before I awoke. The first thing
that greeted my sleepy eyes next
morning was this: In the shallow
dry ditch not five yards away stood
Gen. Beauregard, speaking in low
voice to an officer seated on an empty
box. He held a cup of coffee in one
hand, and gesticulated slowly
and earnestly with the other.
Two or three officers were break
fasting off asspine box, while a
negro was baking hot cakes at a little
fire on which steamed a pot of coffee.
recognized no one except Beauregard.
Some fifty yards beyond this group,
on low hill, stood q very small one
story house. It was Johnston's head
quarters. On the opposite side of the
train were number of small fires, at
which men were cooking, eating, or
sleeping. Some genius discovered that
part Of the train was loaded with
powder, and in q short time barrels
were rolled OR thrown out, the heads
knocked in, and canteens and bottles
were filled to carry home. Out OF
mere wantoness, barrels of cannon
powder were upset, and lay in heaps
near the fires. Remonstrance and
/ warning were received with jeers and
! ridlcule; so got out OF my car on the
/, other side and cautioned one
of Gen. Beauregard's staff I had
scarcely got to the end of the train,
when a pile of the loose powder went
"