neral Wharton, and the small brigades
commanded by Colonels Trigg and Preston. My brigade was doing duty as
infantry--the horses having not yet returned. Marching about twenty-five
miles every day, the men became more than ever disgusted with the
infantry service, and their feet suffered as much as their temper. It
was observed that the men just returned from prison, although least
prepared for it, complained least of the hard marching.

We well knew at this time, that General Lee had been at length forced to
evacuate Richmond, but we hoped that followed by the bulk of his army,
he would retreat safely to some point where he could effect a junction
with General Joseph Johnston, and collect, also, all of the detachments
of troops which had previously operated at a distance from the large
armies. The troops which General Echols commanded, were veterans, and
they understood the signs which were now rife and public. But they were
not altogether hopeless, and were still resolute although their old
enthusiasm was utterly gone. They still received encouragement from the
citizens of the section through which they marched.

It is but justice to the noble people of Virginia to declare that they
did not despair of their country until after it was no more. There were
individual defections among the Virginians--rare and indelibly
branded--but as a people, they were worthy of their traditions and their
hereditary honor. With rocking crash and ruin all around her, the grand
old commonwealth, scathed by the storm and shaken by the resistless
convulsion, still towered erect and proud to the last, and fell only
when the entire land had given away beneath her. Two strange features
characterized the temper of the Southern people in the last days of the
Confederacy. Crushed and dispirited as they were, they still seemed
unable to realize the fact that the cause was utterly lost. Even when
their fate stared them in the face, they could not recognize it.

Again, when our final ruin came, it was consummated in the twinkling of
an eye. We floated confidently to the edge of the cataract, went
whirling over and lying utterly stunned at the bottom, never looked back
at the path we had followed. The Southern people strained every nerve to
resist, and when all efforts failed, sank powerless and unnerved.

The struggle was a hard one. Since the days of Roman conquest the earth
has not seen such energy, persistency and ingenuity in arts of
subjugat