their motives, were always directed in the channel most ef fectually calculated to thwart the Executive in every line of policy he adopted, and thus introduce irremediable confusion into the councils of the struggling young nation. To them I refer. OW grand and stately are those lines, as mournful as Mozart's requiem. I know not who Miss Dinnies is, but in her writings breathes all the fire and pathos of the true poetic Muse. * ** * * It was Sunday in the Confederate Capital, (April 2nd, 1865,) calm, peaceful and as quiet as if no beleaguering host were thundering at its gates, and indeed, upon that day they were not. In the hush of the holy stillness not a hostile sound was mingled with the solemn ringing of the church bells, but "Welcome to the wearied earth Alas! it was an illusion-at Hatcher's Run, near Petersburg, the fiercest of fights was raging. Lee's lines were forced, the center of his army pierced, while along his extended front dense masses of the foemen were pushing closer and closer-he had not men enough to protect his low mounds of defenses with even a respectable skirmish line. Mortal genius could no longer delay the unwelcome end, and Richmond must be abandoned. The pale, care-worn and haggard President of the expiring Republic was at St. Paul's Church, absorbed in his religious devotions, when a youth glided in with noiseless step and handed him a paper. Hastily he withdrew from the sacred edifice, and, like an electric shock, the rumor ran through the city that its evacuation must be completed before the sun-rise of next day. I rushed to the War Department to ascertain the truth. of it, and found Judge Campbell, the Assistant Secretary, sitting on a chair with his face towards the back of it and his back to the fire, grimly superintending the packing of the archives. "The last train would leave the depot at 10 P. M." I had all my papers to bundle, label and pack, and was kept abundantly busy for the rest of the day. The documents pertaining to my office were all dispatched in time. I tarried to take a tearful farewell of some anxious lady friends, and reached the railroad station just in time to see the final train whirling-with its living freight, more lucky, or perhaps with fewer female attachments, than myself— around a distant hill. Williams and myself, with many others, were left standing on the platform disconsolate, to seek safety in flight the best way we could. He succeeded in obtaining a carriage, and just as day was breaking we started out to flank Grant's army by way of the west. After losing sight of the city we could see dense clouds of smoke climbing up the eastern sky-it was the conflagration of Richmond just commenced by the roughs and scoundrels who, for a few hours, were in uncontrolled possession of the place. We made for Farmville, hoping there to join General Lee, but about noon a heavy dust caused us to reconnoiter our front and discovered a Yankee cavalry regiment. They observed us at the same time and gave chase. The way that carriage traveled would have made the fortune of a Charioteer in the Olympic Games. It was by all odds the rockiest and roughest road we had yet found, and our vehicle lurched from side to side like a canoe in a high sea. At every thump of Williams' head against the top, the window, or mine, he would emit a vigorous expletive. Our ebony driver emulated the swiftest career of Jehu, the son of Jehosaphat, was frightened nearly to death, communi cated his alarm to the horses, crouched down upon his seat and made the woods melodious with his discordant yells. By a blind hog-path, which we took at random, we eluded them, but our horses were crippled, our carriage smashed up, and our driver, like Peter's wife's mother, was sick of a fever. In two days we diminished from small to less in beautiful proportion. We commenced our journey in an elegant rockaway, were glad to supplement that with a four-horse wagon; this we were soon forced to exchange for a onehorse concern which gave way to a cart; this was replaced by a horse to carry our baggage, and finally we were compelled to take it on foot with our valises on our shoulders. On the third day we exchanged our watch chains for a couple of shaky horses, and were proud to be mounted once more. The two armies were moving slowly westward, the Federals between us and ours, and the country where we were journeying was filled with their scouts. It was at an early hour in the morning, the day after that on which I had heard the last guns of the Rebellion (in blissful ignorance of it, however, at the time) and while the surrender at Appomattox was actually transpiring, that Williams had left me for a short time, on a search for rations at a neighboring house, when I saw a blue-coated officer briskly approaching me. I wore a cloak which concealed not only my uniform but my action in drawing and cocking a pistol. He demanded of me roughly: "What are you?" "A man." "I suppose so; are you a rebel?” "No; I am a soldier." "Southern soldier?" He made a movement to extract his revolver from the holster. Steady there," said I, showing my pistol, "one is enough for two of us." "You ain't a going to shoot me?" He was alarmed; one pistol cocked and in hand is worth a whole arsenal in holsters. "Oh, no," I replied; "not if you will drop your reins and dismount, and be spry about it, for my hand is cold this morning and a little uncertain." He looked ruefully at my revolver and at the cap of his holster, and then slowly dismounted, as the only thing he could do, being so completely in my power. "What do you propose?" he asked, as he strained his eyes for assistance. "I will parole you." "And if I won't give it?" "Then I'll take you with me." "Where are you going?" "The Lord only knows," I replied; "to the Rocky Mountains, possibly." That won't suit me; I would rather give my parole," and he smiled slightly; we had established quite an entente cordiale. Williams now returned and wrote a parole, which was signed by Lieutenant H. O. Cantron, Engineer Corps, U. S. A. As we shook hands and separated, our ci-devant prisoner assured us that In less than half an hour I'll have you captured and then we'll exchange." "The Exchange Bureau has suspended operations and we won't depend on it," said Williams, as we rode off. The engineer was mistaken, as our jaded horses made astonishing speed until we were out of danger. The parole excited a smile on General Johnston's sober face, as he declared it the last victory of the war. We beat along both sides of the picturesque James for days, dodging from one hill to another, until we had passed the stately Natural Bridge and were fairly among the grandest and wildest scenery of Western Virginia and its mountain range. Ultimately satisfied we could not turn the enemy's flank or penetrate the clouds of cavalry that covered their operations, we concluded to trust ourselves to the element on which horsemen could not operate, and abandon the land for the water. Consigning our horses to a faithful mountaineer, we chartered a skiff, launched it boldly on the roaring Roanoke (here called the Staunton river), and with all our fortunes freighted in it, floated upon the turbulent bosom of the mountain stream. Through boiling whirlpools and hidden rocks, beneath impending precipices and close by the feet of overhanging gorges, we were whirled rapidly along upon the edying tide. After sundown, weak, wet and weary with the labor, the spray and the danger of this long day's aquatic travel, we reached our rendezvous, formerly a genuine Virginia home of generous and open-handed hospitality, but now, alas! deserted by all save the women. The white men were in the army, the blacks had absconded, and these ladies, reared amid luxury and wealth, were not only attending to their own wants but nursing three Confederate and two Federal soldiers who had straggled in on them. They were sore distressed for the safety of the father and two stalwart sons, were weary nigh unto death with watching and sick with waiting. "But still the noble Southern women their holy task pursued Through the long dark night of sorrow, worn and faint and lacking food; Over weak and suffering brothers with a tender care they hung, And the dying foeman blessed them in a strange and Northern tongue." We chopped the wood, we milked the cows, we caught the frightened chickens that were to be offered as victims on the altar of domestic hospitality, we made the fire over which they were to be cremated, and strove to be as useful as the limit of our abilities would allow. Our horses at length arriving, we took our departure for Greensboro, N. C., where we wished to interview General J. E. Johnston, the only Confederate chieftain whose crest was still erect in the East. Under the green foliage of a spreading maple I found him, sitting at the door of his tent. He had only eight thousand men left under arms and would surrender next day. Where my brigade was he knew not, nor could he tell where the President had gone, and he advised me to return to Richmondthat the war was at an end-the Confederate States had ceased to exist, and it was left for us to make our peace with the conquering power. My journey back commenced after three days' delay, was a weary one, I was worn down with over seven hundred miles of travel between the 2d of April and the 13th of May, and the abundant food for reflection furnished me was not of the most consoling kind. Lincoln murdered, Andy Johnson as chief magistrate, a drunken demagogue occupying the curule chair at Washington, and the gentleman, the Christian, the statesman, the chosen leader of Southern destiny, lying immured in the noisome dungeons of Fortress Monroe. Truly Providence moves in a mysterious manner-we could not discern it then, but now, when scarce ten years |