Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 38.djvu/25

Rh going to try to go to Brazil, and I wanted to go with him. I have an interesting letter from him from the "Brandreth House, N. Y., April 22nd, 1865," telling of the inability of getting there and asking that it be communicated to Latrobe, General Longstreet's A. A. G., who also thought of going. We could not then see into the future, but fortune has been kinder to General E. P. Alexander, Colonel Osmon Latrobe and myself than an exile to Brazil could have brought. I mention this only to show the feeling of the time.

It rained, not heavily, but persistently, and our spirits were as gloomy as the weather. In the afternoon, while we were seated on some logs over a smouldering fire, we heard a clatter of horse-hoofs and saw General Meade approaching with some members of his staff and an escort. General Meade was taken into General Lee's tent and they talked in private, while the members of his staff, of whom I remember Captain Meade, his son, joined the group at the fire. I felt quite envious of Captain Meade, a young fellow of about my own age, well dressed, well equipped and well groomed as he was, and I thought of the inequalities of our services.

When General Meade left, General Lee called Colonel Taylor into his tent, and when he came out he told what the "Old Man\ (as General Lee was always called by those around him) told him of his talk with General Meade. I remember one part very well. General Meade asked him how many men he had before Richmond and Petersburg, and when General Lee told him he replied: "I had more than five men to your one."

Colonel Marshall, of General Lee's staff, had been a fellow-student at the Warren Green Academy, Warrenton, Va., but was then a resident in Baltimore, as I was. I went to him to consult about our going home, and after a little talk he said: "Fred Colston, General Lee has told me to write a farewell address. What can I say to those people?" I took this for a hint, of course, and left him to write that well-known address which General Lee revised and issued.

On Tuesday, April 10th, we signed the parole-sheets and our paroles were issued to us. These paroles were printed for us by the enemy, as they had a printing press with them by" that