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

and painful, as the animals approached
| the limits of endurance. At last we
! had to abandon ordnance-wagons and
| the caissons, and even some guns,
which would mire down and could not
! be extricated. We would cut down
wheels and axles and leave them in the
road. The march was kept up until
late at night, when I and my staff rode
| off into a pine thicket and hid, lest
stragglers should steal our horses while
we lay on the saddle-blankets and slept,
with the saddles for pillows.
The sth was but repetition of the
| 7th except that we were less inter
I rupted by the enemy's cavalry, which
had left our flank, and was being push
ed forward to get ahead of US at Apo
| mattox.
| Soon after sunrise on the morning of
the 9Th, came up with General Lee,
halted. with his staff, by the roadside,
a mile and a half from the village.
Gordon, who was in advance, was al
ready engaged, and the increasing
sound of cannon and musketry told
that the enemy was in heavy force,
The progress of the column was
stopped, and trains were parked in the
fields, while guns and infantry moved
forward to the sound of the firing.
General Lee called me to him, and,
walking off from the group sat down
on a log and said: The enemy seems
to be across our road in Nforce this
morning. What have we got to do?"
Now, our artillery had not been seri-
ously engaged during the retreat, and
was never in better humor for a fight.
The cannoneers. for some days before,
beginning, perhaps, to appreciate the
situation, had called out along the road,
Don't let us surrender any of this am
munition! We have been saving am
munition all the war! We did not save
it to be surrendered"
I told General Lee of this, and said
that 1 could show up near forty guns
with one hundred rounds apiece. if he
wished to give battle. He replied that
the force in front of US was too great.
that while he had, perhaps, fifteen
thousand infantry, half of them were
mere fragments of different commands.
unorganized and largely without arms
or ammunition, and that he could
scarcely concentrate an effective force
of eight thousand men, which was too
small to accomplish any valuable re-
suits. I was not unprepared to hear
y
hours had made apparent the desperate
condition to which we were reduced, |
and 1 had views on the matter, which
was glad of so favorable an oppor-
tunity to express. So I spoke up:
Then. general, we have choice of but |
two courses: to surrender. or to order |
the army to dispense, and, every man |
for himself. to take to the woods and |
make his way either to Johnston's |
army in Carolina, or to his home, TAX |
ing his arms. and reporting to the |
governor of his State. And Of these |
the latter is the best. For |
if there is any hope for the Confederacy !
it is in delay. But If this army is sur /
rendered today, the Confederacy is
gone The morale of the army has
sustained both the people at home and |
the other armies. Our surrender would |
demoraIize all, and Grant turning one |
hundred thousand men. released from
duty here against Johnston, Taylor,
and Kirby Smith they will all go. one
after the other, like a row Of bricks
Then. if there is any hope from Europe,
we stand a chance of delay; but we de-
stroy it when the news OF the surrender
Of this army crosses the water. II was
to some very private rumors
circulated in Richmond q short while
before as TO an alliance on foot with
France and Mexico under Maxmilian.)