The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-07-07

1
 entire command. While Lee, thinking | from the vigor of their attack that a
 much larger force was behind them, stopped to entrench. Then the gallant General Rosser mounted the superb black horse of General Read, and with
 bis sabre buckled at his side, both of
 which he called beauties, made his re- port to General Longstreet. l hope he
 was not allowed to keep them longer l than three days.
 So the retreat went on. A rebel wri-
 ter who sees everything through @ vii
 sion of that color gives an account of 1t from point beyond where We have
 reached. We were passing abandoned
 cannon, and wrecked and overturned
 wagons, and their now useless contents | belonging to the quartermasters. | Horses and mules were dead or dying in | the mud. At night our march is lighted
 by the fires of burning wagons, and the | hoarse roar of cannon and the rattle of
 small arms before, behind and on our Hanks are ever in our ears. The con
 stant marching and fighting without 1 sleep or food are rapidly thinning the
 ranks of this grand old army. Men who have stood by their flags since the | beginning of the war now fall out of
 the ranks and are captured, simply be-
 cause 1t is beyond their power of physi- | cal endurance to go any further. We
 can see from this how tired that army
 was getting. Not so with their oppo-
 nents. Much of their past had been in
 charging upon the well built works of | the enemy This they had alternated with marching out of their own en- | trenchments and after a defeat or an
 undecided battle marching back to them | again. For the first time, after Grant | took them in hand and began to work | them for all they were worth, did they | march by the left flank toward Rich | mond after a battle instead of by the right flank back again to Where they
 had started from. Now even that had ended. General Meade thought only of following the rebels up and they came very near getting away. Grant insisted
 in heading them off and his orders were
 most ably sustained by every one in the
 command. The Army of the Potomac fairly scuttled along. The infantry were indeed a match for the cavalry. If there had been wings to their feet they could hardly have moved more rapidly.
 They were on the home stretch and ev-
 cry nerve was thrilling with the excite
 ment of victory.
 On the night of the 9th the remnant of
 the Confederates had reached Farmville
 and High Bridge, some six miles below,
 and by the dawn of the 7th they had all crossed the river At Farmville they
 succeeded in burning the bridge, but
 were prevented from doing so at High
 J,iI I,,iI iIr,n j,Y-t
 by the arrival of the second corps,
 which had resumed the pursuit at half
 past five that morning. The redoubts
 on each side of the bridge with their
 eighteen guns, were a trophy to their
 early rising. The same corps brought
 the whole fieeting army at bay some
 four miles further on and at once at-
 tackled without waiting for any others
 to come up. There was indeed no time
 for prudence. The enemy must be stopped at every risk. That would al-
 low Sheridan and the army of the James to cross lower down, or on a pontoon
 bridge, and get ahead, The success of
 the attack was all that could have been asked for and added another wreath to the high efficiency of the Second corps. For with an unknown force immediate ly In his presence Lee could not retreat any further that day and so stopped to
 entrench. That was another mistake fatal to his escape Sheridan, with the Fifth and Twenty-fourth corps, crossed the river and pushed for his front. The attack, however, by the Second corps was made memorable to them from the death of General Thomas Smyth, of Delaware who had been distinguished by the best qualities in nearly every battle In which that corps had taken part. He was the last general officer who fell In behalf of his country In the civil war. That night-the 7th-Grant stopped at Farmville. It could not be said slept" since he was tortured by headache which almost crazed him. Here he learned of the rapid disintegra- ton of the enemy's forces. The hotel at which he stopped was owned by a Con- federate colonel, who in the morning put in an appearance for he was the last one left of his regiment. The rest had gone home. as that was their local ity, and likely enough there would nev- CT be better time. So General Grant gave him a parole. It Is to the dfsin- genious character of Grants S mind that lft SlNtS Cltu1l lU t SOuliitIH pllySlt1dil for the hint of the correspondence that he here opened with General Lee. He felt deeply the uselessness of further struggle and was unwilling to be re- sponslble for the loss of a single life not necessary He therefore asked for the surrender of the Army ol Northern Vir- ginia, and sent the request through the lines to General Lee. Four years ago last December I was privileged to pass over this route. took good long look | at that old tavern, long enough to last | me for a life-tim I also gave free | rein to my imagination while looking | upon the veranda where the great chief | tain sat when he wrote that ever-to be- | famous dispatch. With well written | account of the last campaign in my | hands, and knowing from experience | how soldiers act under given circum- | stances, l could easily see the gallant | Sixth corps marching down the street | singing, shouting, laughing, cheering, | until they came iii front of the hotel | and seeing the commander, who had made them grapple in close, unyielding grip, with their adversary and fought | him on through the months, until now, l they had him down and about ready to | riu tbatr ct, hoo