Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 12.djvu/426

 416 Southern Historical Society Papers.

our restricted means permitted, and owing to the lack of time for better instruction, were exercised only, and but slightly, in company and battalion drills, while awaiting orders to march to the battle- field." It was with such improvised, such raw and imperfect mate- rials, that the Southern Confederacy was to be saved from destruction in as unequal a contest as can be imagined.

A Leaf from my Log-Book. By W. F. Shippey.

The gray dawn of a frosty morning in February, 1865, broke upon a party of about one hundred officers and men in the uniform of the Confederate States navy, assembled at Drewry's Bluff, on the banks of the James river, Virginia. The morning was very cold, and as the men were formed in two ranks and their arms and equipments carefully inspected by the officers, it was easy to see that stern work and great danger was to be encountered, by the unusual attention given to this inspection, and the expression, half serious, half reck- less, that characterized the men who, in those stirring times, were familiar with dangers and hardships. After some little delay in ar- ranging preliminaries, the little command moved off in the direction of Petersburg, then invested by Grant's army. The situation at this time was gloomy and the hearts of the bravest had begun to fail. The enemy was pushing hard, and our brave army, reduced by sick- ness, death and disability, had diminished to a mere handful, to face the overwhelming numbers of our well-fed, well-clothed and well- equipped foe. Every effort had been made to compel the enemy to fall back, but without success. Grant's army then held the lower James river, his base of supplies being at City Point, and the heavy Federal monitors lay at anchor there, protected from an attack of our navy by obstructions in the river. Our iron-clads and gunboats inac- tive at Chaffin's Bluff; officers and men resdess under their forced inactivity and eager to try their strength against the enemy's fleet and share the laurels being won by our more fortunate brother officers who were upon blue water.

If we could gain possession of the river and hold it Grant would be compelled to fall back, as City Point would no longer furnish him a base and the James river an avenue of supplies, and to effect this object, the possession of the river at City Point, it was decided to