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

80
OOKING back at the situation of
k@ the Confederate Army of North
ern Virginia at the opening of
the spring campaign of 1855, it is hard
to conceive that any man in it could
have failed TO realize that it's career
must soon be brought to a close. To
defend Richmond and Petersburg, it
was stretched out from the Chicka-
hominy, on the left, to Five Forks, on
the right, crossing two rivers, a dis
lance by its shortest roads of over
thirty miles, TO hold which there were
only about fifty thousand men of all
arms, and there were, virtually, no
more men left where those came from.
In front of US, in many places within
pistol-shot, lay the enemy with about
one hundred and thirty thousand men,
and with no end of men left at home
to be had if needed. Had Grant chosen,
he could have gotten twice as many,
for the United States at that time had
nearly a million men in arms. And, in
deed, up through the Carolinas were
marching Sherman and Schofield, al
most unopposed, with nearly ninety
thousand more to come upon our flank.
Yet the army never seemed to realize
at all the drawing near of the newt
able result.
When the Confederate peace commits
sioners went to the Fort Monroe con-
ference, 1 recollect sort of indignant
apprehension that they might be led
to discuss something less than our alb
solute independence, and nothing else,
I am sure, would have been easily ac-
cepted by the army.
1t was developed at that conference
that by returning to the Union we
might not only secure favorable politi-
cal conditions, but possibly, also, four
hundred millions in government bonds
as compensation for slavery. Perhaps
we may be called monumental idiots in
not realizing our desperate situation
and in refusing such liberal terms.
But, if so, We have paid the penalty of
our folly, and is It not now best for all
that our cause was lost-not comprom-
Used?
While l cannot recall the faintest
conscious doubt of the final success of
our cause, one circumstance makes it
evident that that subconsciousness
which seems to feel the ''haps in the
air that a moment may bring" had be-
gun to absorb some idea of what was
coming.
The circumstance was this: I had
some seven hundred dollars in bank in
Richmond One warm day in March,
as the air began to feel springlike and
balmy without any conscious thought,
] got a friend going into Richmond to
draw my Confederate money and in
vest it in gold. He brought me ten
dollar gold piece, which I put in my
pocket and thus I saved that much
from the wreck.
General Lee himself was not yet en-
actually left his own lines and made
a furious and bloody, but unsuccessful,
assault upon the enemys strongly for
titled position at Fort Stedman, appar-
emily in the belief that he could still
cope with the whole Federal army if
he could get them out of their intrench-
ments. This desperate sortie was
thoroughly characteristic of General
Lee.
When he first assumed command of
the army. ne came from West Virginia,
where there had been no fighting, and
some of the Richmond papers assailed
him bitterly as yaciilatfng and tsmid.'
In conversation on the subject, at the
time with Colonel Ives of President
Daviss staff. during a ride along the
lines, 1 asked his estimate of Lee. His
reply was impressive. Stopping his
horse and turning to face me, he said:
Lee is the most audaciouS officer in
either army, Confederate Federal.
He Will fight quicker and longer, and
take more desperate chances, than any
other general this country has ever
seen, and you will live to see it, 1t
was a remarkable prediction to have
been made before Lee had ever fought
a battle. Many of our subsequent bat
ties recalled it to my mind, but none of
them more forcibly than this brave eff /
fort to destroy veteran army of nearly /
thrice his numbers.
My command at this time included, !
with the field artillery north of the |
Appomattox, the heavy batteries and i
torpedo defenses of the James River. [
The enemy's feet of ironclads occupied |
the river a short distance below, and I
would frequently steam up and ex-
change shots with our long-range guns.
In the latter part of March a lot of
torpedoes were prepared to be set adrlft
at night, arranged to float with the
current down among the enemy's YES
sells, then settle few feet under wa
ter, anchor themselves promiscuously
about, and wait for something to run
against them. AS it would be impossi-
BILE to guess how many there were and
where they had settled, they would tend
to discourage navigation in our direc-
ton.
On April 2 I went down into the
swamp, where arrangements were being
made to launch the torpedoes that
night, and spent the whole day in hav-