north bank, General Longstreet's immediate command, the men
leading their horses over. One of the young men attached to our mess,
a good looking young fellow, had his pockets filled with ham and
biscuits near the crossing by some good Samaritan he had met, and so
our herring, grilled by one of the couriers on the half of a canteen,
was helped out by this addition.

We were suddenly roused in the night by a fire in the dry grass on
which we were sleeping. It caught from our camp fire and was among our
blankets before we knew it. There was a general jumping up and
stamping it out. One of the men created quite a sensation by shaking
his India rubber, which was on fire; it flew to pieces in a shower of
flame. The effect of the night attack is still shown in the blistered
and scorched condition of my field-glasses. We were at this point but
a few miles from Amelia Court House, between which and our camp of
that night the road from Petersburg joins the road from Richmond, and
the two columns respectively met--the two streams flowed into
one--forming what was left of Lee's great army of Northern
Virginia--the men exchanging in the fresh morning air kindly greetings
with one another, from Texas to Maryland, from the Potomac to the Rio
Grande. They marched along, leaving their fate in the hands of the
great leader they knew so well and had trusted so long.

About a mile or two from Amelia Court House our brigade was ordered to
graze their horses in a clover field, still keeping the regiments
together as near as could be in squadrons, for we could make no
calculations, as will be seen, upon the movements of the enemy's
cavalry. Colonel Haskell, Colonel Robbins, of the Twenty-fourth
Virginia, and myself were seated upon the steps of an old house,
breakfasting with Colonel Robbins, who had been fortunate enough to
meet a friend who had filled his haversack, and shared his good luck
with us, watching the men and horses who were eating what they could
get, when here it came at last: "Mount the brigade and move up at
once!" The enemy had gotten in force between us and Burkville, and his
cavalry had struck our wagon and ordnance train some three or four
miles from where we were. So there was mounting in hot haste, and off
we went at a gallop.

We soon reached the point they had first attacked and set fire to the
wagons--the canvas covers taking fire very easily. Their plan of
operation seemed to be to strike the train, which was sev