The Quartermasters said that there were plenty of rations for the army at Amelia C. H., and the prospect kept the men up, and on the evening of the 4th they reached that place, only to meet the bitterest disappointment, for not an ounce of rations was there, and now it really did seem that famine would accomplish what all of Grant’s bayonets could not effect and compel the veteran army of Lee to surrender; but that alternative impressed the men as worse than starvation, and plucking the buds and twigs of the trees as they passed along, these men of iron nerves and lion hearts essayed to quiet the cravings of hunger by eating them.
A short rest was permitted at the Court-house, as the enemy’s cavalry had not pressed them so closely to-day as before, and the reason for this was discovered on the 5th, when near Amelia Springs, a strong force of them dashed in from the flank upon the wagon-train and destroyed more than a hundred wagons, causing such a stampede among the Quartermasters, teamsters and stragglers, as only those who had been in the Valley with Gen. Early could imagine, and leaving the road blocked up with the smoking wrecks. As soon as Gen. Rosser learned this he started the brigade of Dearing forward, and as rapidly as possible they came up with the Yankees at the Springs and attacked them furiously, the 11th Virginia, under Lieut. Col. M. D. Ball, leading most gallantly, and being supported by the remainder of the division, and by a portion of Gen. Fitz. Lee’s division, they whipped the enemy’s cavalry handsomely, killing and wounding nearly as many as were engaged on the Confederate side, and driving the remainder back upon their infantry.
This affair did more to revive the drooping spirits of the Cavalry Corps than anything else could, but it is doubtful if they would have fought so fiercely if they had not been so hungry, and the first demand, on taking a prisoner, was "hand me your haversack, quick, or I’ll blow your brains out."
They camped that night at the Springs, and after this the cavalry fared much better than the infantry, for they were kept constantly riding on the flanks, from rear to front, and back again, having thereby an opportunity to obtain something to eat at the houses of citizens off from the line of march pursued by the main army, but it was saddening to see the despairing looks cast by the inhabitants of the country as they would say farewell to the boys in gray after they had willingly fed them with the best they had and saw them ride away, for they dreaded what was to come after them more than if all the plagues of old Egypt’s King had been turned loose in their land and were approaching their plantations, and on one occasion, when the “Comanches” were riding past a house, some beautiful young ladies came out, and closing the gate in front of the column, said, "You are going the wrong way; please don’t leave us to Sheridan’s mercy; go back and whip the Yankees for our sakes;" but noticing the bitterness which their act and words added to the already heart-crushing sadness of retreat and defeat, they opened the gate, saying, "Go on; we know you can’t help it; but we will pray for you, and hope that you will soon be back to drive them away; don’t forget us when you meet the Yankees."
There is no doubt that the citizens of the South were subjugated long before the armies were reduced to the extremity of surrendering, but the noble-souled, true-hearted women of the sunny Southern land were not, nor ever have been, willing to surrender their faith in the justice of the “Lost Cause,” or to give up their hope of a final triumph of the principles they so fondly loved and cherished, and
“Though long deferred their hope hath been,
Yet it shall come at last.”
The Southern women were the “power behind the throne” during the whole existence of the Confederate States, and were so acknowledged by Seward, the Yankee Secretary of State; by Butler, “the Beast;” and by Sherman, the prince of “bummers” and thieves, in their bitter persecution of them, for they knew that the steady, unchanging influence of the mothers, sisters, wives and sweethearts of the South did more to fill the ranks of the Confederate army than all the edicts of its Congress or acts of its Conscript Bureau. And nobly and bravely did the ladies meet their persecution. Up to the day of Lee’s surrender their voices were still for war, and their tongues, sharper than sabre-blades, turned against deserters and skulkers from the army and “bomb-proof” officers in it. They equalled the women of Poland in their enthusiasm and devotion, and excelled them in persistent opposition to, and hatred of, those whom they regarded as the oppressors of their country. Many a poor fellow whom the surrender caught in a Northern prison, hesitated to take the oath of allegiance which would have procured his release, although he knew there was no longer a “Dixie” banner to be true to, because he did not know “what the women at home would say to it;” and when they did take the oath and go home the women sometimes blamed them, sometimes said nothing, and sometimes only remarked, "Yes, you did right, ’needs must when the devil drives,’ and if ever he held the reins on earth he does to-day."
A Federal officer in North Carolina asked a lady “Are you not sorry you ever used your influence in support of this rebellion, when you see the misery which has followed it?”
“No, sir,” she replied, “we have done what we could, and my sorrow is not for the effort we made, but for its failure. Better, ten thousand times better, the present sufferings than the degredation of submitting tamely without a struggle. We feel that we were right and that is a great thing, let the conviction cost us what it may.”