14th April, 1865. In a later number of the same paper, a member of
the First Tennessee Cavalry says that it is a mistake; that
companies E and F, of the same regiment to which he belonged,
skirmished sharply with the Federals on the 15th, and claims that
this was the last blood shed. Both are in error; there was a
skirmish near Mt. Zion church, two miles south-east of Pittsboro,
North Carolina, between a body of Wheeler's cavalry and a party of
Federals, on the 17th of April; two Yankees were wounded, and three
others, with several horses, captured. There was other skirmishing
in the neighborhood about this time, and as late as the 29th (two
days after General Johnston surrendered), a squad of Federal
cavalry rode through Pittsboro, firing upon the citizens and
returned soldiers, and receiving their fire in return. These men
were pursued and overtaken near Haw river, where a skirmish
occurred, in which two of the Yankees were killed and two others
wounded, one mortally. This Haw river incident is a familiar and
well authenticated one and most probably it really showed the last
of the long bloodshed.

* * * *

_WHY NO PURSUIT AFTER MANASSAS._

Attention has frequently been drawn to the restiveness of the entire
southern people, under alleged neglect to seize golden opportunities
for pressing the enemy, after Confederate successes. Most frequently
repeated of all these charges, is that which puts upon the shoulders of
Jefferson Davis the onus of delay--and of all resulting evil--after the
first victory on Manassas Plains. This charge receives semi-official
sanction, from ex-Vice-President Stephens; for his history of the war
plainly asserts that to the President was due "the failure of the
Confederate troops to advance after the battle of Manassas." The
following correspondence between the two men most interested in that
mooted question may therefore be read with interest by all candid
thinkers:

RICHMOND, VA., November 3, 1861.

_General J. E. Johnston, Commanding Department of the Potomac:_

SIR: Reports have been and are being widely circulated to the
effect that I prevented General Beauregard from pursuing the enemy
after the battle of Manassas, and had subsequently restrained him
from advancing upon Washington City. Though such statements may
have been made merely fo