Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 38.djvu/17

Rh About the last day of February, Colonel Baldwin ordered me to go to Amelia Courthouse and Lynchburg, see the ordnance stores there and report on them. I went by train, and at Amelia Courthouse I found a large supply of ammunition, etc., stored in the open, but protected by tarpaulins, and in charge of a wounded officer. On account of representations made to me by some citizens, I directed the ammunition to be moved to a different location, for the safety of the village. There was a good house there with a large yard with trees and grass. It was occupied by Mrs. Francis L. Smith, a refugee from Alexandria, and I was invited to spend the evening there. In the course of conversation Mrs. Smith remarked that General Lee was a relative of her husband and Arlington familiar to her, but that she had never seen him since the war commenced. I casually remarked that the war had seen many changes of field, and that General Lee's quarters might even be in her yard before it closed, thinking of the fine surroundings. This was entirely a casual remark, and no attention was paid to it at the time. But, when we got to Amelia Courthouse, on our retreat. General Lee's tent was pitched in the yard. I heard at that time that Mrs. Smith recalled that remark and charged me with knowing of the retreat and of not giving her warning. But this was not correct. Of course, I could not help having my own idea that this meant provision for a possible retreat along, that line, but that idea was never put into words. We never talked retreat.

But I take this occasion to comment upon the efficiency of the ordnance service. At the beginning of the war, military critics thought that we might fail for want of guns and ammunition, and our first supplies of both justified that criticism, but with captures and manufacture we kept supplied and always had guns and something to put into them. Our manufacture has never received the attention of military historians that it deserved. Even our cap-machine was considered superior to that used by the United States. The wonderful record of the Ordnance Department was published a few years after the war by General Gorgas, Chief of Ordnance, in the Southern Historical Society Magazine, and also by Colonel Mallet (now of the University of Virginia) in the same in 1909. But we never had