Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 33.djvu/351

 Last Days of Army in Southwest Virginia. 347

of the force and about the fourth part of it? Several officers were present [besides McLaughlin]. I left my diary in charge of G. W. Thomas and marched with my command to Dublin, and took up quarter's in the post commissary's office. Echols, who was advan- cing down the railroad, with a considerable army, had not yet ar- rived."

Echols's army was said to number 6,000 or 7,000 men. Two or three generals were with him, including General Duke. "There were important stores at Dublin, We were informed that we would be relied by 8 or 9 o'clock [in the morning]. We remained all night and [Thursday, April 6th] Lieutenant William Branham, and aide-de-camp to General Echols, called me about daybreak and de- sired me to move out to Cloyd's Farm [five miles west], with such men as wculd volunteer to go and guard Pepper's Ferry road until 9 A. M., when, he said, Echols would arrive. We started, but had gone only a very short distance when Lieutenant Branham turned us and sent us down the railroad to within one and a half miles of New River Bridge, which the enemy was cutting down. Here I formed a sort of skirmish line, covering two roads in addition to the railroad, and sent out pickets. Here we remained some hours, when Lieutenant Branham ordered us back to Dublin, saying that there was danger of the enemy moving on another road [the main macadamized road]. On our way back to Dublin we met the Fourth Kentucky Cavalry, the van of Echols's army. From Dub- lin we went on to Camp Instruction, to which place the whole bat- talion had returned.

GLOOM.

By this time it was currently reported that Richmond had been evacuated. A gloom rested upon every countenance. We re- mained in camp all the next day [April 7th]. The news of the fall of Richmond was confirmed. The 8th was spent in camp. It was thought the State of Virginia would be at once evacuated.

General Echols had a man shot at Dublin who had been sentenced long before. Some thought he did wrong to execute the sentence, in view of the evident approach of the collapse of the Confederacy; but it should be remembered that the man was guilty of cold- blooded murder, followed by desertion to the enemy.

"On Sunday, April 9th, the whole army marched down to New river. The enemy was gone. The army crossed over on the rail- road bridge. A single plank spanned the section cut out by the