He sent for his cavalry commander, and gave orders for him to transfer his troopers from the rear to the advanced guard, and called General Gordon, commanding in front, for report and orders. The advance was then at Appomattox Court-House, Wallace’s brigade resting in the village. His orders were to march at one o’clock in the morning, the trains and advanced forces to push through the village in time for my column to stand and prepare to defend at that point in case of close pursuit. General Gordon reported, as I remember, less than two thousand men. (General Fitzhugh Lee puts it at sixteen hundred, but he may have overlooked Wallace’s brigade, which joined the advance on that day.) My column was about as it was when it marched from Petersburg. Parts of Ewell’s, Anderson’s, and Pickett’s commands not captured on the march were near us, and reported to me, except Wallace’s brigade.
On the 9th the rear-guard marched as ordered, but soon came upon standing trains of wagons in the road and still in park alongside. The command was halted, deployed into position, and ordered to intrench against the pursuing army.
It was five o’clock when the advance commands moved,—four hours after the time ordered. To these General Long’s batteries of thirty guns were attached. They met Sheridan’s cavalry advancing across their route. The column was deployed, the cavalry on the right of the artillery and infantry, as they advanced to clear the way. They reported some success, capturing two pieces of artillery, when General Ord’s column came up. He had, besides his Army of the James, the Fifth Army Corps. These commands, with the cavalry, pushed the Confederates back a little, while the two corps of the Army of the Potomac were advancing against my rear-guard.
Of the early hours of this, the last day of active existence of the Army of Northern Virginia, Colonel Venable, of General Lee’s staff, wrote thus:
“At three o’clock on the morning of that fatal day, General Lee rode forward, still hoping that he might break through the countless hordes of the enemy, who hemmed us in. Halting a short distance in rear of our vanguard, he sent me on to General Gordon to ask him if he could break through the enemy. I found General Gordon and General Fitz Lee on their front line in the dim light of the morning, arranging our attack. Gordon’s reply to the message (I give the expressive phrase of the gallant Georgian) was this: ‘Tell General Lee I have fought my corps to a frazzle, and I fear I can do nothing unless I am heavily supported by Longstreet’s corps.’
“When I bore the message back to General Lee, he said, ‘Then there is nothing left me but to go and see General Grant, and I would rather die a thousand deaths.’
“Convulsed with passionate grief, many were the wild words which we spoke as we stood around him. Said one, ‘Oh, general, what will history say of the surrender of the army in the field?’
“He replied, ‘Yes, I know they will say hard things of us; they will not understand how we are overwhelmed by numbers. But that is not the question, colonel; the question is, “Is it right to surrender this army?” If it is right, then I will take all the responsibility!’”[214]
Presently General Lee called to have me ride forward to him. He was dressed in a suit of new uniform, sword and sash, a handsomely embroidered belt, boots, and a pair of gold spurs. At first approach his compact figure appeared as a man in the flush vigor of forty summers, but as I drew near, the handsome apparel and brave bearing failed to conceal his profound depression. He stood near the embers of some burned rails, received me with graceful salutation, and spoke at once of affairs in front and the loss of his subsistence stores. He remarked that the advanced columns stood against a very formidable force, which he could not break through, while General Meade was at my rear ready to call for all the work that the rear-guard could do, and, closing with the expression that it was not possible for him to get along, requested my view. I asked if the bloody sacrifice of his army could in any way help the cause in other quarters. He thought not. Then, I said, your situation speaks for itself.
