still confident that he would be able to join
General Lee at some point to the south west of Richmond, most probably
Danville, we learned with a dismay which is indescribable, that he had
surrendered. If the light of heaven had gone out, a more utter despair
and consternation would not have ensued. When the news first came, it
perfectly paralyzed every one. Men looked at each other as if they had
just heard a sentence of death and eternal ruin passed upon all. The
effect of the news upon the infantry was to cause an entire
disorganization. Crowds of them threw down their arms and left, and
those who remained lost all sense of discipline.

On the next day, General Echols called a council of war, announced his
intention of taking all the men who would follow him to General Joseph
E. Johnston, and consulted his officers regarding the temper of the men.
The infantry officers declared that their men would not go, and that it
was useless to attempt to make them.

General Echols then issued an order furloughing the infantry soldiers
for sixty days. He believed that this method would, at the end of that
time, if the war was still going on, secure many to the Confederacy,
while to attempt to force them to follow him would be unavailing and
would make them all bitterly hostile in the future. He issued orders to
the cavalry commanders to be prepared to march at four P.M., in the
direction of North Carolina.

I obtained permission from him to mount my men on mules taken from the
wagons, which were necessarily abandoned. My command was about six
hundred strong. All the men furloughed during the winter and spring had
promptly reported, and it was increased by more than two hundred
exchanged men. Of the entire number, not more than ten (some of these
officers) failed to respond to the orders to continue their march to
General Johnston's army. The rain was falling in torrents when we
prepared to start upon a march which seemed fraught with danger. The men
were drenched, and mounted upon mules without saddles, and with blind
bridles or rope halters. Every thing conspired to remind them of the
gloomy situation. The dreadful news was fresh in their ears. Thousands
of men had disbanded around them, two Kentucky brigades had left in
their sight to go home, they were told that Stoneman held the gaps in
the mountains through which they would have to pass. The gloomy skies
seemed to threaten disaster. But braver in the hour of despair than e