Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 38.djvu/357

Rh to headquarters with Lieutenants Manning, Hampton and Mr. Curry (a volunteer aide), and charged with important duties. Not one of us slept that night.

Fighting by day and retreating by night we at last reached Peach Tree Creek, and here began the Iliad of our woes. General Johnston was relieved of command and General Hood installed in his place. Like a clap of thunder in a clear and cloudless sky came this unexpected blow. Even General Hood seemed appalled. The Confederacy seemed doomed. Long after the war General Johnston told me if he had not been relieved of command he would have won that campaign. In common with others, I think so, too. When at or near the close of the war he was again placed in command, he applied for me. I joined him promptly, and was by his side at the Battle of Bentonville, the last great battle of the war.

At different times during the war the signal for active work. An aide came with sweating horse from General Johnston, who had upon his staff some very able men, among them I may mention, without disparagement others:

General William W. Mackall, Chief of Staff, an officer of the old army, and the most accomplished staff officer I was ever thrown with; Colonel Benjamin S. Ewell, Adjutant-General, a man among men when Virginia was full of giants, President of William and Mary College before and after the war; Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas B. Lamar, Assistant Adjutant-General, one of nature's noblemen, without previous training he quickly mastered the duties of the office and became a power on the Staff; Major James B. Eustis, in charge of military courts and courts-martial, represented his State( Louisiana) in the United States Senate after the war, and recently ambassador to France from the United States.

I never heard General Johnston tell an anecdote, and yet he appreciated and enjoyed wit. I recall two stories which he and Mrs. Johnston made me tell more than once. Followed by his Staff on the retreat from Dalton he was passing a long line of army wagons. The roads were bad and one of the wagons stuck fast in the mud, the driver cursing and swearing and lashing the mules. Just then an army chaplain rode up and said, "My