our or two at furthest, perhaps within a few minutes, for
Sheridan is sleepless and his force is not only on our flank, but in
front of us. There is very little left of the Army of Northern Virginia.
It can fight no more. It is going to surrender here, but in the meantime
there may be a tidy little scrimmage in this strip of woods, and I for
one want to have my share in it. Now let me go to sleep and wake me
when Sheridan comes."

In a minute the captain was asleep. So were all his men except the
sentinel posted to do the necessary waking.

That came all too quickly, for at this juncture in the final proceedings
of the war Sheridan was vigorously carrying out Grant's laconic
instruction to "press things." When the sentinel waked the captain,
Sheridan's lines were less than fifty yards in front and were pouring
heavy volleys into the unsupported Confederate artillery park.

Guilford Duncan and his men were moved to no excitement by this
situation. Their nerves had been schooled to steadiness and their minds
to calm under any conceivable circumstances by four years of vastly
varied fighting. Without the slightest hurry they mounted their horses
in obedience to Duncan's brief command. He led them at once into the
presence of Colonel Cabell, whose battalion of artillery lay nearest to
him. As they sat upon their horses in the leaden hailstorm, with
countenances as calm as if they had been entering a drawing room, Duncan
touched his cap to Colonel Cabell and said:

"Colonel, I am under nobody's orders here. I have eleven men with me,
all of them, as you know, as good artillerymen as there are in the army.
Can you let us handle some guns for you?"

"No," answered Colonel Cabell; "I have lost so many guns already that I
have twenty men to each piece." Then, after a moment's pause, he added:

"You, Captain, cannot fail to understand what all this means."

"I quite understand that, Colonel," answered Duncan, "but as I was in at
the beginning of this war, I have a strong desire to be in at the end of
it."

The Colonel's cannon were firing vigorously by this time at the rate of
six or eight shots to the minute from each gun, but he calmly looked
over the little party on horseback and responded:

"You have some good horses there, and this is April. You will need your
horses in your farming operations. You had better take them and your men
out of here. You can do no good by staying. This fight is a formality
pure and simpl