"General, I have no flag of truce."
I told him to get one. He replied:
"General, we have no flag of truce in our command."
Then said I, "Get your handkerchief, put it on a stick, and go forward."
"I have no handkerchief, General."
"Then borrow one and go forward with it."
He tried, and reported to me that there was no handkerchief in my staff.
"Then, Colonel, use your shirt!"
"You see, General, that we all have on flannel shirts."
At last, I believe, we found a man who had a white shirt. He gave it to us, and I tore off the back and tail, and, tying this to a stick, Colonel Peyton went out toward the enemy's lines. I instructed him to simply say to General Sheridan that General Lee had written me that a flag of truce had been sent from his and Grant's headquarters, and that he could act as he thought best on this information. In a few moments he came back with some one representing General Sheridan. This officer said: