RECEIVING THE PRESIDENT.
Abraham Lincoln riding through Richmond, April 4th, 1865, after the evacuation of the city by the Confederates.
Lee and his famishing host were fleeing towards Danville, hotly pursued by the Federal Army. Resting there until the 5th they resumed the march, fighting and running, until, at Appomattox they gave up and surrendered. Major Alexandria S. Johnson of the 116th Phalanx Regiment thus relates the story in part which the Phalanx brigade took in the memorable movement of the two armies to Appomattox. He says:
"As a participant in these events I will speak merely of what came under my own observation. The One Hundred and Sixteenth (colored) Infantry, in which I commanded a company, belonged to the Third Brigade, Second Division of the Twenty-fifth Army Corps, and during the winter of 1864-65 held the lines on Chapin's farm, the left resting on Fort Burnham. The division was commanded by Major-General Birney. The winter was passed in endeavoring to get the troops in as high a state of discipline as possible by constant drill and watchful training. When the spring opened we had the satisfaction of feeling that they were the equal, as soldiers, of most of the white troops. They were a contented body, being well fed and clothed, and they took delight in their various duties. The news of the capture of Savannah by Sherman and the defeat of Hood at Nashville had a cheering effect upon the whole command, and we looked forward with confidence that the end was drawing near.
"On the night of the 26th of March our division silently left the lines on Chapin's farm, and marching to the rear some three miles went into bivouac. On the night of the 27th we crossed the James on muffled pontoons, and after a weary march arrived at Hatcher's Run at daybreak of the 28th. Crossing the original lines of breastworks we built new breastworks some two hundred yards in advance and bivouacked in the pine woods awaiting events. Sheridan at this time was operating on the Confederate right flank. The news of his decisive victory at Five Forks and of the complete turning of the enemy's flank was the immediate cause of a verbal order, given to company commanders by our colonel on the afternoon of April 1st, to advance on the lines in our front at dawn on the following day. That night the Union artillery opened along the whole line. Hissing and bursting shells from Appomattox river to Hatcher's Run filled in a scene never to be forgotten by those who witnessed it. It was as if demons incarnate were holding a jubilee. As far as the eye could reach there was one blaze of fiery shot. The world has seldom seen its like. Where our brigade was to operate was a dense wilderness of pines with matted underbrush, but in the morning it looked as though a sirocco had kissed it.
"With the dawn of day the brigade was in line of battle. Not a breath of air was stirring. A misty vapor shed its gloom and hung like a pall among the tree-tops. The silk covers were taken from our flags, but their folds hung lazily along the staff when the command, 'Forward! guide centre! march!' was given. At first slashed timber and brush obstructed our way, but as the obstruction began to cease an obstacle in the shape of a long line of abattis met our gaze. The dusky line broke through the abattis, however, as if the stakes had been so many reeds, and charged over the breastworks and into the Confederate camp. The rush must have been a surprise, as the enemy offered little resistance. In front of one of the tents a Federal sergeant (white) lay dead, his right arm extended to the full length, and firmly clenched in his hand was a piece of fancy soap. A bullet had entered his forehead, the blood from the wound was trickling down his face, but the hue of health was still on his cheek. How he came to be there is to me a mystery, as that part of the line was forced by colored troops. Swinging by the right flank we kept our way along the Boydton road. A Confederate light battery in position alongside of a cottage, which stood in a hollow, shelled the column as it advanced, and so accurate had the gunners got the range that almost every shell did damage. A couple of shells burst together above my company. The flash blinded me for a few seconds. I heard a scream of pain and just then was ordered to lie down. Not twenty yards from me was a wounded soldier. His leg was shattered badly. He prayed and sang hymns alternately, but his voice gradually grew weaker until it ended in death. One of our batteries was brought into position, and engaging the Confederate battery, the latter was silenced, when the column again resumed the march, arriving in front of Petersburg about noon.
"It was the intention of General Birney to carry by assault the main fort which commanded the city, and he deployed the division in line of battle for that purpose, but General Ord, coming up in time, ordered him to retire his division out of range and await further orders. We went into bivouac for the night, and at early dawn of the 3d we entered the city, the Confederates having evacuated the forts during the night. The field music played "John Brown's Body," and a tiny Union flag in the hands of a girl of ten years waved us a welcome. Resting an hour in the city the division started in pursuit of the Confederates. For a mile or two outside of the city the road was strewn with plug tobacco. Blood could be seen also at intervals in patches along the road. We bivouacked some fifteen miles from the city. A few of our officers took supper in a house close to our camping ground. Our fare was "corn pone," scraps of bacon, sorghum molasses, and a solution of something called coffee, for which we each gave our host, a middle-aged Virginian, one dollar. The colored troops being encamped on his farm his indignation was stirred and he exclaimed, while the tears trickled down his cheeks, 'Poor old Virginia! poor old Virginia! that I should have lived to see this day!'
"At dawn of the 4th the column resumed the pursuit. It is needless for me to tell in detail how our cavalry destroyed and burned over five hundred Confederate wagons on the 5th and 6th, and how Ewell's command was defeated and captured at Sailor's creek on the 6th. Our brigade having arrived at Farmville on the afternoon of the 6th and encamped for the night, some of the citizens poured forth pitiful tales to our officers. They told how our cavalry had entered their houses and ripped open their feather beds, how the rude troopers had broken open bureaus and chests in search of valuables, and how they had carried away with them what they could find. Nothing of interest took place until the 8th, which was noted for the forced march made by the brigade, starting at daybreak and going into bivouac at twelve midnight. The morning of the 9th broke calm and serene. It was a lovely morning, the sun had not yet gotten above the horizon when the brigade was on the march again, but it went only a short distance when it was halted. To the right of the road, in a clearing, was a portion of the Twenty-fourth Corps, with arms stacked and the men cooking breakfast. Sides of bacon at intervals hung from their bayonets. Although the woods were full of our cavalry and three divisions of our infantry were in close proximity, all was as quiet as a Sabbath morning. One of our batteries, some six hundred yards to the right, broke the stillness by fitfully throwing a shell once in a while, but to a looker-on all seemed inaction. Such was the situation at Appomattox at sunrise on the morning of the 9th.
"Our brigade, after resting some thirty minutes, resumed the march. It soon filed to the right. In a few minutes the command was given—'Right shoulder, shift arms! double quick, march!' Onward we went, the objective point being the Lynchburg pike. Dismounted cavalry retreating from the front broke through the column, saying as they passed us, 'Give it to them, boys! they are too many for us!' In a few minutes the head of the column reached the pike, when it halted and faced to the front. The command—'Unsling knapsacks!'—was given, and then we knew we were stripping for a fight. Skirmishers were deployed on our front, and as we advanced the Confederate skirmishers retired before us. After advancing some eight hundred yards the brigade was ordered to halt and form in line of battle. It formed into column of companies. Some eight hundred yards away was the Army of Northern Virginia, with its three lines of battle awaiting us.
"We had not been at a halt more than twenty minutes when the news of Lee's surrender reached us. Our brigade celebrated the event by firing volleys of musketry in the air. Officers hugged each other with joy. About four hundred yards to the rear was a portion of the Twenty-fourth Corps, which had been marching to our support. The men in that long line threw their caps upwards until they looked like a flock of crows. From wood and dale came the sound of cheers from thousands of throats. Appomattox will never hear the like again. The brigade moved forward a short distance and went into camp some three hundred yards from the Confederate camp. In the afternoon I strolled over the ground we had traversed in the morning. I came across the body of a dead Confederate soldier, covered with a blanket. Some one had taken the shoes from his feet. Uncovering him I found that a shot had pierced his right breast. His white cotton shirt was matted with blood. A small bag was attached to the button-hole of his jacket. Undoing the bag I found it contained sixty ounces of corn meal. He was not over twenty-six years of age, and was of fair complexion. Who knows but he was the last soldier who fell belonging to the Army of Northern Virginia?"