Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 34.djvu/254

 246, Southern Historical Society Papers.

from the Yankee artillery swept over the top of the hill behind which the Yankee prisoners were lying down, and struck into the hill behind them. The prisoners naturally stuck pretty close to the ground, and some of them said "they were damn-fool Yankees shooting those guns," for they were very dangerous to their own men.

At nightfall we resumed our march towards Appomattox. During Saturday we were on the march, without incident of im- portance. In the evening we heard the guns of a skirmish near Appomattox. We halted about nightfall, about a mile before reaching Appomattox, and for the first time during the retreat the harness was taken off of the horses that carried Colonel Hask ell's guns.

THIN GRAY LINE AT APPOMATTOX.

On the morning of April gth, the day of surrender, we were early in arms that is, those who had them. My ten men had none, and HaskelPs battalion marched in the rear of Field's division to Appo- mattox Courthouse. Passing through the village, Colonel Hask ell's guns were placed in position in the line of battle formed on the western side of the courthouse. I cannot say at what point Field's division was put in position. As my ten men had no guns to serve, nor small arms to use as infantry, I kept them near the court- house. There I met a lieutenant of Ramseys's battery. We walked out of the village, where we could see the Confederate line, and I remarked to the lieutenant how slender it looked, and how many openings there were in it, covered by their infantry or artillery. Most of our artillery were in the hollows behind the infantry, and it was evident that the army, as one of the generals said, "had been worn to a frazzle." We turned after surveying the scene to rejoin our men in the village, when we heard the guns of a skirmish in the direction of the Lynchburg front. Soon after that, a Yankee gun, the brass Napoleon of Company M, United States Regular Artillery, and the caisson also, each hauled by six horses, were brought into the village by a Confederate cavalry escort on horseback, the Yankee detachments going along with the guns, and the Yankee drivers being in the saddle. A Federal lieutenant of artillery rode along with them. A little later I met General Alexander, chief of artillery of Long-street's corps, in the village. He said to me, after our greetings : "I am sorry, Lieu-