so the day wore on, and the sun went down, and with it the hopes
of a people who, with prayers, and tears, and blood, had striven to
uphold that falling flag.

It was all too true, and our worst fears were fully justified by the
result. The suspension of hostilities was but a prelude to surrender,
which was, when it came to a show of hands, inevitable.

General Lee's army had been literally pounded to pieces after the
battle of "Five Forks," around Petersburg, which made the evacuation
of Richmond and the retreat a necessity. When General Longstreet's
corps from the north bank joined it, the "army of Northern Virginia,"
wasted and reduced to skeleton battalions, was still an army of
veteran material, powerful yet for attack or defence, all the more
dangerous from its desperate condition. And General Grant so
recognized and dealt with it, attacking it, as before stated, in
detail; letting it wear itself out by straggling and the disorganizing
effect of a retreat, breaking down of men and material. The infantry
were almost starved.

It was not until the fourth day from Richmond, at the high bridge on
the "Appomattox," the battle of Sailor's Creek was fought, in which,
with overwhelming masses of cavalry, artillery and infantry, our
starved and tired men were ridden down, and General Grant destroyed,
in military parlance, the divisions of Kershaw, Ewell, Anderson and
Custis Lee.

The fighting next day was of the same desultory character as before,
and the day after there was no blow struck until we encountered with
the artillery Custar's cavalry, at the depot of Appomattox
Court-house, as has been described--all their energies being directed
toward establishing their "cordon" around that point.

The terms of the surrender, and all about it, are too well known to go
over in detail here--prisoners of war on parole, officers to retain
side arms, and all private property to be respected, that was
favorable to our cavalry, as in the Confederate service the men all
owned their horses, though different in the United States army, the
horses belonging to Government.

General Gary, true to the doctrine he had laid down in his discussion
with the irate captain, that "South Carolinians did not surrender,"
turned his horse's head, and, with Captain Doby and one or two others,
managed to get that night through the "cordon" drawn around us, and
succeeded in reaching Charlotte, North Carolina, which became, for a
time, the headqua