Chapter 99

CHAPTER XCIX

Thursday, May 4^th.  Started on the move about 8 o’clock, a. m., and continued to march until nearly sunset, having during the day crossed the Roanoake River and encamped near the Meherring River, after a 20 mile march.

Friday, May 5^th.  Broke camp early in the morning, crossed the river and after an 18 mile march went into camp near the Nottaway River.  In this camp we learned that the 49^th Penna., was in this vicinity, and since there was a company in the regiment from our place, Company I, commanded by Captain William H. Byers, a brother of our captain, and in which company there were many of our acquaintances, we were anxious to meet with the command.

Saturday, May 6^th.  Moved early in the morning, about noon were surprised by meeting Captain Byers and Lt. Stahl, of company I, 49^th, who had heard of our approach and had left their camp in the morning and walked to meet us.  The meeting was a happy one, and they returned with us to camp near Wellville Station, a short distance from where the 49^th, was lying, doing guard duty on the railroad.

No sooner had we thrown our knap­sacks off and prepared our frugal supper ere a number of our friends and acquaintances from the 49^th, visited us, and after passing several hours in a very pleasant and agreeable manner, comparing notes and rehearsing some of the main features and incidents in which mutual friends and acquaintances had, been killed or wounded, quite a number of our boys visited the 49^th camp, and found them quite comfortably fixed.  After spending several hours with the boys we returned to our camp in order to snatch a few hours sleep to prepare ourselves for the duties of the morrow.  We had marched about 14 miles.

Sunday, 7^th.  Moved out of camp at about 8 o’clock, a. m., having been on the march one week from the time we left Raleigh, N. C., to start on our home-ward march.  During the day we crossed the Appomattox River and went into camp after a march of 17 miles.

Monday, 8^th.  Moved from our camp near the Appomattox River at daybreak crossing Falling Creek and encamping.  Distance traveled being about 11 miles.

Tuesday, 9^th.  Moved out of camp and moved about one mile and went into camp near Manchester, a town on the south side of the James River, opposite Richmond.

We remained in this camp next day.  Here at last we had an opportunity of feasting our eyes upon the city of Richmond, which for about four years had been the seat of the now defunct Confederate Government, and which had resisted the valor and military skill of the ablest generals of the Union Army, since the beginning of the war, and which at last had fal­len into our victorious hands.  We co’d see Belle Island and Castle Thunder from our camp, as well as the State House, in which the Rebel Congress had held its sessions, besides a number, of other buildings and objects which were of historic importance, could be also readily discerned.       During the day we watched a num­ber of the negroes fishing in the river, and wished, that we had money enough to purchase a good mess of fish, but finding that wishing would not avail us much, we satisfied our craving by consoling ourselves with the thought that the time is not far distant when we might be able to satisfy cravings of the inner man.

A number of the boys crossed the river and visited a number of the places of note in the late Rcbel Capital.  Among the places visited was Castle Thunder and Libby Prison, names which will never fail to send a shudder. through the breasts of every loyal person in the land, since within their walls were confined many of the bravest of the brave, and upon whom were heaped many insults and barbarities which alone will forever damn the memory of the actors in this inhuman drama.

At one of the prison pens in a yard an aperture was be seen which was the mouth of a burrow which had been dug by prisoners confined in the prison, and through which a number of prisoners had escaped a few nights before the surrender of General Lee’s Army.  As our boys stood and examin­ed the narrow opening they could not refrain from expressing their surprise that a man should attempt to squeeze his body through so small an opening.

Among the other places of note vis­ited was the Capital, and as we gazed around in the vacant halls, which had recently reverberated with the eloq­uence of the fiery Southroners, we could not refrain from exclaiming, “alas, how have the mighty fallen.”   The halls, in which Treason a short time ago ran riot, were now resounding to the tread of the loyal blue-coated legions of General Sherman.

The equestrian Statue of General Washington in the Capitol grounds attracted considerable attention.  One of the boys made a discovery that the General was facing in the direction of what had once been the seat of the Confederate government and with his arm extended was pointing with his index finger in the direction of the Penitentiary, thus showing where in his opinion, the leaders of the rebellion should he confined.

While in camp at Manchester orders were issued for us to make arrangements to pass in review on the following day before Major General Halleck.

As there was a serious misunderstanding between Generals Sherman and Halleek, as soon as news of the contemplated review reached General Sherman, who was not in the city at the time, he ordered the troops to move forward at once.  Thus it was that we passed through Richmond late in the afternoon of the 10^th of May, with the teams, and in the morning early of the following day, our troops passed through the city of Richmond en route for Washington.

Thursday, 11^th.  The march during the day was a very interesting one, as we soon began to see abundant signs and traces which indicated that we were once again treading upon the hotly contested soil of the old Dominion.  We soon reached the place where General McClellan’s Army had advanced in the summer of 1862, and from which place by means or climbing on trees, the spires of Richmond could easily be seen, and from which elevation many of his soldiers, like the venerable Hebrew law-giver, they were enabled to catch a glimpse of the land of promise, but into which they were never allowed to come, and Moses like, many of their graves cannot be found to this day.

After a march of about 12 miles, we went into camp in the vicinity of Hanover Courthouse, a name with which we had become familiar and which place had frequently fallen into our hands and which was again as often recaptured.

A very impressive sight to us were the large number of slightly raised little mounds which marked the last resting place of some unfortunate soldier, both friend and foe, who had “fought his last battle,” and who was quietly enjoying that sleep which shall not be disturbed until Gabriel sounds the last trump.  They were to be met with in almost every conceivable place in the deep grand woods, where the sighing of the chill blasts of winter or the gentle rustle of the spring zephyrs among the branches of the trees, is their requiem, or on the hillside where the first bright flower of spring will with natures own hand, bedeck the humble mound with garlands of bright colors; or in the meadow near the murmuring brooklet, which day and night sings its glad song to the hushed voice within the grave by its side; along the highway, where the traveler in after years as he passes and re-passes them, may be reminded at what price the boon of freedom was purchased.  All of which spoke to us in an unmistakable voice of the blasted hopes which were shattered when the vital spark took its final departure from its frail tenement.