On the morning of the 9th we moved a few miles and then halted for several hours and then moved on a short distance and halted within a few rods of where General Meade had his headquarters, about noon. About 3 o'clock in the afternoon an ambulance bearing a flag of truce and in which were seated some rebel officers, coming from the front, drove up to General Meade's headquarters. The ambulance soon returned accompanied by General Meade and his chief of staff, General Webb. They had been at the front but a short time when we heard great cheering in that direction, and also heard the music of the bands playing patriotic airs. The cheering came nearer and nearer, and our men began to line both sides of the road, when soon we saw the forms of Generals Meade and Webb approaching, their horses at an easy gallop. General Webb was riding ahead and shouting to the men: "Boys, your fighting is over; General Lee has surrendered." General Meade, who had been sick for several days, was waving his cap, but was so exhausted that he was scarcely able to dismount.
Then for a while it seemed as if our army had suddenly become insane with joy. Men pushed each other over, mounted a stump or fence and crowed like roosters, laughed or wept for joy. It was hard to realize that the men whom we had been fighting for nearly four years were no longer our foes, and that the weary nights on picket duty in storm and rain were ended.
According to the records of the War Department the number of officers and enlisted men of Lee's army paroled on the 9th of April, 1865, was: Officers, 2,862; enlisted men, 25,494; total, 28,356. Of the troops surrendered only 8,000 were armed.
When the surrender took place our corps was near Clover Hill, about three miles from Appomattox Court House. It remained there on the 10th and on the 11th we moved to the rear and bivouacked for the night at a place called New Store. Moving on the next day over very muddy roads and in the rain, we halted for the night at Farmville. On the 13th, after a hard march, we arrived at Burkesville Junction, where we went into camp and remained there until May 2d. While at this place we heard the sad news that President Lincoln had been assassinated at Ford's Theater in Washington on the night of April 14th.
On the 28th we had the joyful news that the rebel army under General Johnson had surrendered to Gen. W. T. Sherman. The most doubtful now knew that the war was over.
CHAPTER XIV.
BY E. C. STROUSS.
Departure from Burkesville—Marching Through Richmond—The March to Washington—Passing Over Old Battlefields—Camp at Bailey's Cross Roads—Grand Review of the Army of the Potomac—The Order of March—The Fifty-Seventh Ordered Mustered Out—Names of Engagements in which the Regiment Participated—Its Casualties—We Start for Harrisburg—Finally Paid and Discharged—Farewell Address of Our Field Officers.
The regiment with the corps received orders on May 2d to go to Richmond. It left its camp at Burkesville accordingly and marching via Amelia Court House, it reached Manchester on the James river, opposite Richmond, about 11 a. m. on May 5th. On the 6th it marched through Richmond with bands playing and colors flying, passing the famous—or infamous—Libby prison on the way. But few of the men who then marched with the regiment had ever been prisoners within its walls. Crossing the Chickahominy river the regiment bivouacked four and a half miles north of Richmond on the Fredericksburg pike. On the 7th it marched through Hanover Court House, and across the Pamunkey river, halting for the night after a march of sixteen miles. On the 8th it marched sixteen miles and on the 9th, seventeen miles, and halted for the night on the Po river, near the old battlefield of Spottsylvania. On the 10th it passed through Fredericksburg and crossing the Rappahannock, camped for the night on familiar ground near Stoneman's Switch on the Aquia Creek railroad.
By the 15th the corps had reached the vicinity of Washington and went into camp near Bailey's Cross Roads. This proved to be the last camping ground of the regiment, it remaining here until the last of June.