ight of his bright, brave face
has long gone from our eyes; the soul-stirring war time--when we were
with him--has long passed away. The changes and chances of this mortal
life have brought many experiences to us who survived him. Our feet have
wandered far, into many paths. We have toiled, and thought, and
suffered, and enjoyed much, in the long years, since we last looked upon
his form dead on the red field of "Cold Harbor." "The strong hours have
conquered us" in many things. But--the noble memory of this man! as a
patriot and a hero!

Ah! that lives in our hearts! The hearts of his comrades who, with their
own eyes, saw him live and bear, and fight and die--for _Virginia_--and
the South.

The battle of Cold Harbor ended Grant's direct advance on Richmond. He
drew off in confessed defeat and inability to go on--afterwards, he
advanced by way of Petersburg.

The operations on that line resolved themselves into a siege. That siege
lasted through the fall and winter and early spring of '65, with many
attempts to break our lines, which always failed.

On the second day of April, 1865, according to General Lee's own
statement to General Meade, just after the surrender, the Army of
Northern Virginia stood, with 27,000 men, holding a line thirty-two
miles long; facing an army of 150,000 men. On that day our line was
broken, and the retreat began.

Under the circumstances, the disentanglement of our army from that long
line, and getting it on the march, with the enemy's powerful army close
in their front, was a supreme display of, at once, the consummate
generalship of General Lee, and the unshakable morale of the Southern
troops.

The retreat continued for one week; we started from Petersburg Sunday,
April 2, and reached Appomattox, Saturday, April 8th. On that day, after
the hunger, exhaustion, and losses in the many fights along the way,
the Army stood at Appomattox, ninety miles from Petersburg, with 8,000
men with arms in their hands; and they were as "game" as ever. On that
morning of April 9th, when General Gordon surrendered his little force
of 1,300 men, he had to surrender 1,700 Federal soldiers, and fourteen
pieces of artillery, which he had just captured from the enemy, while
driving back their encircling line more than a mile.

Then General Lee, unwilling for useless sacrifice, surrendered the army,
because it was "compelled to yield to overwhelming numbers and
resources"--and that Army of Northern Virg