The Washington critic., 1888-09-06
THE LAST CHARGE OF THE WAR
Made Mt Appomattox on South Carolina
Brigade.

Made Mt Appomattox on "a South Carolina
Brigade.
lFrom posthumous article of General Sheridan
in the September North American Revow.l
Beyond us, in a low valley (near Appomat-
tox Courthouse, after my flank movcment)
lay Lee ana the remnant of his army. There
did not appear to be much organization, ex-
cept In the advanced troops under General
Gordon, whom we had been fighting, and
rear guard under General Longstreet, still
further up the valley. Formations were i'm
medately begun to make a bold and sweeping
charge down the grassy slope, when an aide
de-camp from Custer, filed with excitement
hat In hand, dashed up to me with the mes
sage frorl his chief: "Lee has surrendered !
Do not charge; the white flag is upln Orders
were given to complete the formation, but not
to charge.
Looking to the left, to Appomattox Court
House, large group was seen near by the lines
of Confederate troops that had fallen back to
that point. General Custer had not come
back, and, supposng that he was with the
group at the courthouse, moved on a galop
dow down the narrow ridge, followed by my staff.
The courthouse was, perhaps, three-fourths
OF mile distant. We had not gone far before
heavy fire was opened on us from a skirt of
timber to our right, and distant not much over
three hundred yards. halted for moment,
and taking off my hat, called out that the flag
was being violated, but could not stop the
firing, which now caused us all to take shelter
were on, and down which we then travelled.
AS We approached the courthouse, a gentle
ascent had to be made. / was in advance,
followed by sergeant carrying my battle.
flag. Within one hundredto one hundred and
fry, yards getrom the courthouse and
Confederate lines, some of the men in their
ranks brought down their guns to aim on us
nBd great efftjrtwas made by their officers tc
keep them from firing halted, and, hearing
some noise behind, turned in the saddle and
saw Confederate soldier attempting to take
my battle-hag from the color-bearer. This the
sergeant had no idea of submitting to, and
had drawn his sabre to cut the man down. A
word from me caused him to return his sabre
and take the flag back to the staff officers,
who were some little distance behind. l re-
mained stationary after these events, then
calling q staff officer, directed him to go over
to the group Of Confederate officers and de-
mand what such conduct meant. Kind apol.
ogies were made and we advanced. The su.
perior officers met were General j. B. Gordon
and General Cadmus NJ. Wilcox, the latter an
old army officer. As soon as the first greeting
was over, furious firing began in front OF
our own cavalry from whom we had only
few minutes before separated. General
Gordon seemed to be somewhat disconnected
by it. remarked to him, General Gordon,
your men fired on me as was coming over
here, and undoubtedly they have done the
same to Merritt's and Custers commands.
We might just as well let them fight it ou."
To this proposition General Gordon did not
accede. / then asked, "Why not send staff
officer and have your people cease flring,i
They are violating the flag ' He said 81
have no staff officer to send" i replied 81
will let you have one Of mine;" and calling fol
Lieutenant Vanderbilt Allen he was directed
to report to General Gordon and carry his
orders. The orders were to go to General
Geary, who was in command of small bri
gade Of South Carolina cavalry, and ask hin
to discontinue the firing Lieutenant Allen
dashed off with the message, but on deliver
ing 1t to General Geary was taken prisoner,
with the remark from that officer that he did
not care for white flags, that South Caro-
| linians never surrendered.
| 1t was about this time that Merritt getting
impatient at the supposed treacherous firing
ordered a charge Of portion of his command
| While Generals Gordon and Wilcox were en-
gagged in conversation with me, a cloud o.
dust, wild hurrah a flashing of sabres, in
dicated a charge, and the CALCULATIONS of my
staff officers were heard: "Look Merritt hal
ordered q charge Vn The fight of Gearys bri
gade followed; Lieutenant Allen was thus re-
leased. The last gun had been fired and tn,
last charge made in the Virginia campaign.