The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-03-20

of the leading battery, was called on
to surrender, but answered with de-
fiance and orders to his cannoneers to
continue firing whereupon he was shot
dead Huger was captured after
shooting through the cheek a major
who first invited him to surrender, in
the ceremonious and complimentary
language customary on such occasions.
A second invitation coming from a
cavalryman, who came up and held
carbine to his head, was accepted. But
the major bore no malice. and that
night came to thank Huger for de-
lightful ''furlough wound" Custer and
Huger had been friends at West Point,
and having captured him, Custer took
him along all day, as he said, ito let
you see how 1 IN going to take you
fellows i'm
Meanwhile at Rice's Station we Skin
mished little, but having a fairly good
position, the enemy evidently proposed
to turn it in preference to attacking.
So when night came, it being impos-
sible now to make the trip south to
Johnston we abandoned our lines and
changed orr course toward Lynchburg.
That night march was something fear
full. Floundering through rain, mud,
and darkness. with worn-out and starv-
ing horses dragging heavy guns over
narrow road blocked with troops and
trains, we were moving all night, and
scarcely advanced a mile in an hour
And there was nothing in the prospects
for the morrow to cheer one up.
Day by day. death, wounds, and cap
ture We're robbing us heavily of COM
rades with whom we had been through
many campaigns, and now our army
was reduced to little more than col
lection of fragments, out of food and
nearly out of ammunition. The enemy
was ahead of US and around US, in
numbers that could not be counted.
Yet the morale of the men was not inn
paired, and no one seemed to feel any
doubt but that somehow we should still
come out all right. Certainly, during
all the business beginning at Fort
Stedman on March %, including Five
Forks, the Petersburg lines, the defense
of Fort Gregg, Sailors Creek, and all
skirmishes up to the final fight at APP
pomattox Court House on the 9Th, the
plain, hard, solid fighting of the men
was simply wonderful in view of their
Up to the very last
minute, before the flag of truce stopped
the firing it was as unf1inching fighting
as it had ever been, and it was not
without some successes on a scale pro- /
portioned to the numbers engaged.
On the morning of the 7th Malone
captured over thousand of the enc
ny's infantry. and on the afternoon of I
the same day our cavalry brought in
General Gregg of the Federal cavalry .
and many of his men. And, to antici- 1
pate a little in my narrative, on the I
of the 9Th itself, our cavalry (
and sent in a section of artil- (
cry with horses. harness and every
hing complete, down TO the red blank
cts on the horses. I issued them
to James y. Lamkin's bat
cry, which had served mortars in the
ines about Petersburg, but had been
7ery anxious to get field guns. 1 had
promised Lamkin that he should have
hem. and We considered it a melan-
holy sort OF joke that these came just
n time to enable me to make good my
word.
About daylight on the 18th we passed
through Farmville. and crossed the
Appomattox to the north bank, burn
ng the bridges behind US as the enc
ny's cavalry entered the town. We
helled his pursuing columns across the
liver for a while. and he shelled us
pack, and then we continued our re-
reat Each day it became more slow