Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 18.djvu/387

 Paroles of General W. P. Roberts and Command. 387

cerned. The brigade was a part of Major-General W. H. F. Lee's division of cavalry, and was made up of the Fourth North Carolina, a part of the Eighth Georgia and the Sixteenth North Carolina bat- talion. I remember well that on that memorable morning the com- mand was promptly upon the field of Appomattox, and with it a rem- nant of Barringer's North Carolina cavalry, which had been assigned to it a few days previous. Early thereafter this command charged and captured four Napolean guns, the last, I am sure, captured by the Army of Northern Virginia, and immediately after which I received orders to withdraw from the field and march towards Buckingham Courthouse. Subsequently the command was halted about two miles from Appomattox to await the arrival of General Fitz Lee, and when he came up, it was by his orders that I directed my Acting Adjutant- General, Captain Theodore S. Garnett of Virginia, to disband the men, and advise them to make their way to their homes in North Carolina and Georgia.

Shortly thereafter I traveled South, accompanied by one of 'my men, but upon reflection I felt it my duty to return to Appomattox, which I did, and surrendered to the officer in command, General Gibbon.

I had with me on the gth only one staff officer, Captain Theo. S. Garnett. My ordnance officer, Captain Webb, a gallant young sol- dier from Alabama, being in charge of the ordnance train, had passed the courthouse on the evening of the 8th ; Captain Coaghenson of North Carolina, my Inspector-General, had been dangerously wounded on the 5th near me, and while gallantly doing his duty, and my Aide-de-Camp, Lieutenant Holcombe, of Virginia, reported that he had been disabled by a collision with a trooper in a charge at Dr. Boisseau's near Petersburg, which occurred on the 4th of April. My couriers were all killed or wounded, save Private Forbes of the Fourth regiment, who remained by my side to the end. My Acting Adjutant-General, Captain Garnett, than whom no commander ever had a more faithful or gallant lieutenant, was always by my side, and was among the last to leave when the command was ordered from the field.

The reason, therefore, that these gallant officers and men of my command were not paroled at Appomattox was because they obeyed orders to disband and shift for themselves.

I have written this much in justice to that little band of heroic men who ever responded with promptness and gallantry to every com-