Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 23.djvu/182

 176 Southern Historical Society Papers.

mond may be recalled, the marriage last evening at St. Paul's church of his highly-esteemed son, John Wilder Atkinson, Jr.. to one of Richmond's jewels, reminds me of the brilliant occasion of his own marriage, forty years ago, to the lovely and charming Miss E. A. Mayo, sister of Mr. Peter H. Mayo, and daughter of Mr. Robert A. Mayo, deceased, at which I remember that my lamented friend, Marmaduke Johnson, and myself, then young barristers, were groomsmen, and the fashion and beauty, from far and near, were assembled, amid flowers and sparkling jets d'eau de Cologne, in the famous old family mansion, Powhatan (below the city), radiantly illuminated for the event. By contrast, it was his destiny some ten years after, at no great distance from that historic place, and imme- diately across the James river, to witness a sad and awful but more splendid illumination. The description is equally graphic and touch- ing of his silent midnight retreat from the Confederate lines, without the knowledge of the Federal commander, in direct front, and the forlorn approach, amid deafening explosions of wrecked war vessels, to the sublime spectacle of burning Richmond, that, like Milton's ascending sun,

" Flamed in the forehead of the morning sky."

Here is the letter:

WILMINGTON, N. C, October 25, i8j8.

To John Howard, Esq.:

MY DEAR SIR, I received your letter of the 23d instant this morning.

For several months prior to the retirement of General Lee's army from the defences around Petersburg, that portion of the command to which I was immediately attached, under General G. W. C. Lee, was stationed at Chaffin's Bluff, in front of and only a few hundred yards from Fort Harrison. I commanded at the time two of the Virginia battalions of artillery, being then lieutenant-colonel of artil- lery. On Sunday night, April 2d, 1865, under orders from General G. W. C. Lee, I drew in my first picket guard and sentinels as quietly as possible, and left our lines about midnight, and with the residue of Custis Lee's Division started on the memorable retreat.

Our movement had been so quietly effected that I am sure the enemy had no idea of what was going on, and certainly made no demonstration of pursuing; and I was afterwards informed by some of the Yankee officers stationed at Fort Harrison that the with-