Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 18.djvu/111

 Last Days of Johnstons Army. Ill

The men were each furnished with the following :

"HEADQUARTERS SECOND MILITARY DISTRICT, DEP'T N. C,

BUNN'S HOUSE, April 20, 1865.

In accordance with an agreement with Major-General Sherman,

Commanding United States Forces in North Carolina, private ,

Co. A, Thirteenth Battalion North Carolina Artillery, is permitted to go to his home and there quietly remain, taking with him one horse,

his private property.

L. S. BAKER,

Brigadier- General. ' '

In passing, let me say that the horse was the best pay I ever received from the Confederacy, and he proved a most valuable acquisition.

Early the next morning (Friday, April 2ist) we turned our faces homeward, feeling as if a heavy weight had been lifted off our shoulders, and relieved that the suspense was over. Captain Webb, who was going to join his wife on the Blackwater, accompanied the Perquimans county boys, of whom there was about a dozen.- This party kept well together, until just before reaching Halifax, when Captain Webb, Wm. H. Whedbee and I pushed on ahead. I quote again from the captain's diary :

" On Sunday, the 23d of April, at Martin's Cross-Roads, North- ampton county, N. C., I parted from Mullen and Whedbee, the last two of my company to remain with me."

And now, comrades, I have but little more to add. After leaving Captain Webb, Whedbee and I pushed onto Murfreesboro; reaching there, we found the ferry had been destroyed, and we were compelled to cross the Meherrin in a small canoe, swimming our horses. Our nearest route home from Murfreesboro would have been to cross the Chowan at Winton, but the citizens of Murfreesboro informed us that at Winton were several Federal gunboats. We did not know how we might be received by the enemy, so deemed it the wiser course to abandon that route and cross the Chowan at a ferry higher up. This we did, but there we met with the same luck as at the Meherrin, and had to cross in a small boat ourselves, and swim our horses. Here a bit of good luck befell us not much, but we were thankful for small favors. We met with a gentleman who had a sulky which he wanted to get to the town (Hertford) in which I lived.