Page:A Memoir of the Last Year of the War for Independence in the Confederate States of America.djvu/124

120, towards Harrisonburg, and Rosser ordered to the front with all the cavalry he could collect. Custer's division reached Lucy's Spring, nine miles north of Harrisonburg, on the evening of the 20th, and, next morning before day, Rosser, with about 600 men of his own and Payne's brigades, attacked it in camp, and drove it. back down the Valley in some confusion. Lomax had been advised of the movement towards Gordonsville, and. as soon as Custer was disposed of, Wharton's division was moved back, and on the 23 a portion of it was run on the railroad to Charlottesvilie—Munford, who had now returned from across the great North Mountain, being ordered to the same place. On my arrival at Charlottesville on the 23rd, I found that the enemy's two divisions of cavalry, which had crossed the Blue Ridge had been held in check near Gordonsville by Lomax, until the arrival of a brigade of infantry from Richmond, when they retired precipitately. I returned to the Valley and established my headquarters at Staunton—Wharton's division and the artillery being encamped east of that place, and Rosser's cavalry west, of it; and thus closed the operations, of 1864 with me. At the close of the year 1864, Grant's plans for the campaign in Virginia had been baffled and he had merely attained a position on James River, which he might have occupied at the beginning of the campaign without opposition.So far as the two armies,with which the campaign was opened, were concerned he had sustained a defeat, and, if the contest had been between those two armies alone, his would have been destroyed. But unfortunately, he had no means of recruiting General Lee's. Four years of an unexampled struggle had destroyed the finances of the Confederate Government, and exhausted the material out of which an army could be raised. General Lee had performed his task as military commander, but the Government was unable to furnish him the means of properly continuing the war; and he had therefore to begin the campaign of 1865 with the remnant of his army of the previous year, while a new draft and heavy reinforcements from other quarters had furnished his opponent with a new army and largely increased numbers. The few detailed men sent to General Lee, after the revocation of their details, added nothing to the strength of his army, but were a positive injury to it. The mass of them desired to keep out of the service, because they had no stomach for the fight, and when forced into it, they but served to disseminate dissatisfaction. In the ranks of the army. Some writers who never exposed their own precious persons to the bullets of the enemy have written very glibly about the desertions from the army. Now, God forbid that I should say one word in justification of desertion under any circumstances. I had no tolerance for it during the war, and never failed to sanction and order the execution of sentence for the extreme penalty of that offence, when submitted to me; but some palliation was to be found for the conduct of many of those who did desert, in the fact that they did so to go to the aid of their families, who they knew were suffering for the necessaries of life, while many able-bodied young men remained at home, in peace and plenty, under exemptions and details. The duty to defend one's country exists independently of any law, and the latter is made to enforce, not create, the obligation. By the law, or the unwise administration of it, a man