Some Reminiscences:
Electronic Edition.
William Lawrence Royall, 1844-1911
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Call number E605 .R88 1909 (Davis Library, UNC-CH)
Source Description:
Some Reminiscences
By William Lawrence Royall
New York and Washington
The Neale Publishing
Company
1909
The electronic edition
is a part of the UNC-CH
digitization project, Documenting the American
South.
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Library of Congress Subject Headings,
19th
edition, 1996
- LC Subject Headings:
- Royall, William Lawrence, 1844-1911.
- Confederate States of America. Army. Virginia Cavalry Regiment, 9th. Company A.
- Virginia -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Personal narratives.
- United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Personal narratives, Confederate.
- Virginia -- Politics and government -- 1865-1950.
- United States -- Politics and government -- 1865-1900.
- 1997-01-30,
Natalia Smith, project editor,
finished TEI-conformant encoding and final proofing.
- 1996-12-10,
Bill McGloughlin
finished scanning (OCR) and proofing.
SOME REMINISCENCES
By
WILLIAM L. ROYALL
New York and Washington
THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY
1909
Copyright, 1909, by
THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY
CONTENTS
- CHAPTER . . . . . PAGE
- I. The War . . . . . 9
- II. Events in Richmond - Duelling . . . . . 65
- III. The State Debt - The Presidency . . . . . 100
- IV. The Trusts . . . . . 154
- V. Free Silver and Politics . . . . . 195
SOME REMINISCENCES
Page 9
CHAPTER I
THE WAR
I was born on November 15, 1844, at my
father's place, Mount Ephraim, in the lower end
of Fauquier County, Virginia. Our home was, in
summer, the most beautiful place I have ever seen.
It was a large brick house situated upon a commanding
bluff directly on the Rappahannock River,
with broad low grounds directly in front and high
bluffs heavily timbered upon the Culpeper side of
the river, with the Blue Ridge Mountains looming
up some forty miles away. We were comfortably
well off, owning some fifteen slaves, a farm of one
thousand acres, with enough money at interest to
supply us with what the farm did not furnish. It
was an ideal home and a happy one.
My grandmother, who was Chief Justice Marshall's youngest sister, lived with us. When she was a young girl she married George Keith Taylor, a very distinguished lawyer of Petersburg, Virginia. John Adams appointed him one of his midnight judges. I have always thought that those judicial appointments testify powerfully to the influence that John Marshall had even so early
Page 10
as that. Adams appointed his brother-in-law one of these judges, his brother another, and gave the plum to John himself.
My grandmother was the most intellectual person that I have ever known. She lived in our family until 1867, when she died at the age of eighty-five. I was raised at her knee and she taught me all that I ever learned during the school period. Sir John Falstaff says, "If I know what the inside of a church is made of, I am a pepper-corn." I can say the same of a schoolhouse. I have never to this day seen the inside of one. My grandmother hated Thomas Jefferson as if he had been the Devil, and in that I have no doubt she reflected the views of the Chief Justice. But at any rate, she thought him the embodiment of all evil. I have heard her often denounce him as centering in himself all that was dangerous to the American people. Federalism versus Democracy.
In 1860 the people of Virginia were strongly in favor of the Union. But when Mr. Lincoln called for troops to coerce the States south of us, opinion in Virginia changed in the twinkling of an eye. The entire population became unanimous for siding with the States to the south and resisting coercion to the death.
In March, 1862, at the age of seventeen, I volunteered as a Confederate soldier, joining Company A, Ninth Virginia Cavalry. From the foundation
Page 11
of the colony Virginians have been devoted to fine horses, and in 1861 the State was as well supplied with throroughbred and partially thoroughbred horses as with sheep and cattle. The half-bred horse is the best for a saddle horse. In the Confederate cavalry the men furnished their own horses, the government agreeing to pay for them if they were killed. The young men in Virginia were all perfect horsemen, and mounted on their thoroughbred or half-bred horses they made a magnificent spectacle in regimental formation.
My regiment was as fine as any in the Confederate service, and our colonel was Wm. H. F. Lee, a splendid officer, and son of Gen. Robert E. Lee. We were very proud of this.
How the Confederate cavalry performed the feats it did perform in the early part of the war is more than I can comprehend, for not one company in ten had any arms that were fit to fight with. When I joined my company I was given a saber which I think was used in the Revolution, and this was the only weapon given me. One day in June, 1862, while my regiment was standing in a road I bantered a comrade to see which of us could cut the largest twig from a tree. I made a powerful cut and the blade of my saber broke off at the hilt. In a short time we were dismounted and ordered to clear the Yankees out of a piece of woods in skirmish formation. We marched through the woods,
Page 12
but fortunately no Yankees were there. I have often wondered what I should have done, armed with that saber hilt, if I had met a Yankee armed with a Springfield musket. A comrade to whom I mentioned this said he knew what I would have done - I would have turned around and run like smoke, and I suspect he was right.
I was in the Seven Days' battles around Richmond, in Second Manassas, in Sharpsburg or Antietam, in Fredericksburg, and in Chancellorsville, besides, in that same time, in a hundred cavalry battles, many of which would have been called "great battles" in the Cuban war.
I cannot help pausing to refer to one of these, the battle of Brandy Station or Fleetwood, on June 9, 1863. That was a fight to stir the heart of any soldier. Gen. J. E. B. Stuart, commander of the cavalry of Gen. Lee's army and in many respects the greatest cavalry soldier that ever lived, had collected all of his cavalry in the great plains that lie between Culpeper Court House and Brandy Station. The Confederate army was then engaged in the movement from Fredericksburg by way of Culpeper Court House to the Valley of Virginia to move forward to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
On June 7 Stuart ordered out his whole command, more than eight thousand horsemen, to pass in review before Gen. Robert E. Lee. It was a noble sight, a sight that no one could ever forget.
Page 13
Next morning Stuart was hastily summoned to move down to the Rappahannock River to face General Pleasanton, who was crossing with all the cavalry of the Army of the Potomac, supported by several brigades of infantry, in an effort to penetrate the operations known to be going on in General Lee's army. This resulted in an all-day battle on June 9 between the cavalry forces of the two armies. It was a great battle, nobly supported by both sides. One incident of it has remained vividly impressed upon my mind. Our colonel, W. H. F. Lee, had been promoted to brigadier-general, and my regiment was in his brigade. About 4 o'clock in the afternoon Lee put himself at the head of my regiment which was at the foot of a hill out in the open field, standing in column of fours, and gave the order to charge up the hill, he riding at the head of the regiment. I was very near to the head of the column and could see all that took place. When we got to the summit of the hill, there, some two hundred yards away, stood a long line of blue-coated cavalry. Lee did not hesitate an instant but dashed at the center of this line with his column of fours. The Yankees were of course cut in two at once, but each of their flanks closed in on our column, and then a most terrible affray with sabers and pistols took place. We got the best of it, and we had soon killed, wounded, or captured almost all of them. They
Page 14
had a good many more men over beyond the hill, but the thing was over before the others could come to their assistance.
We drew off back under the hill and then commenced to take stock of the situation. It at once appeared that Capt. Tom Towson, captain of my company, was missing. The major of the regiment called for two volunteers from my company to go up on the hill and hunt for Captain Towson. Robert W. Monroe and myself rode out and said we would do it. We went up there in plain sight of the enemy, but seeing that we were on an errand of mercy not a shot was fired at us. We found Towson stone dead, and I brought him down before the whole regiment across the neck of my horse. I mention this last incident because I have heard of a braggart member of my company telling that he and I did this thing, when Monroe and I did it. He saw me come down the hill with Towson, and long after the war, when he thought most of the witnesses were dead, he thought he would be safe in playing the hero of the event.
This was the beginning of the movement to Gettysburg. The infantry and artillery crossed the Blue Ridge range of mountains into the Valley of Virginia, and the cavalry remained upon the eastern side of the mountains to mask the movement. We moved along up into the upper part of Fauquier
Page 15
and Loudoun counties. When we had got to Aldie in Loudoun County, General Pleasanton, at the head of all the cavalry of the Army of the Potomac, thought it was time for him to be looking into the case, and he attacked us furiously there. We had two or three days of tremendous cavalry battles, in which the success of each side was about the same, and many gallant men lost their lives. Finally Pleasanton drew off without having got up on the Blue Ridge Mountains to see what was going on in the valley below.
Then General Stuart marched off on what I have always thought the wildest of wild-goose chases. Why such a splendid soldier as Stuart should have done it passes my comprehension. Obviously the thing for him to do was to put himself upon General Lee's right flank, between him and his enemy, to inform General Lee, as far as possible, of what that enemy was doing. But Stuart marched away from Lee around the Army of the Potomac, and was entirely lost to Lee for a week or more. If any one will take a map of Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania and trace Stuart's course I feel confident he will be amazed at it. When he saw that Pleasanton had abandoned his attempt to interfere with Lee, Stuart was near Paris Gap in Fauquier County. He set out and marched straight to Brentsville in Prince William County, thence he struck out for the Potomac at Rowson's Ford, near
Page 16
Rockville, Maryland, and from there to Hanover, Pennsylvania, where he had a severe battle with the enemy's cavalry, and thence he made his way to Gettysburg, where he joined General Lee on the second day of the battle.
I consider myself qualified to speak as an expert on the battle of Gettysburg. I became so qualified in this manner: In 1895 I was the editorial writer of the Richmond Times. In one of my articles I spoke of the unparalleled heroism of Pickett's charge of Virginians at Gettysburg. Some North Carolinians took me up on this and said I was ascribing to Virginians credit that belonged to North Carolinians. I was very much shocked at this, and for two reasons. I had always understood that Pickett's Virginians had carried off the honors of the day, and I did not like to see these honors torn from my fellow Virginians. Again, the idea of having done an injustice to my comrades from North Carolina stung me very acutely. I resolved therefore to study Gettysburg and find out the facts. I got the records and carefully studied every line that had been written about it, and at the end I felt that I knew my ground and could speak with confidence upon every phase of the battle. I accordingly wrote an address upon the battle, and the Confederate Army and Navy Society of Maryland coming to know of it, invited me to deliver it before them in Baltimore and I did so on the evening of January 20, 1896.
Page 17
I have received two compliments upon this address which I prize very highly. I sent a copy of it to Lord Wolseley, at that time commander-in-chief of the English army, and he wrote me a very nice letter about it, in which he asked me to let him have it published in the United Service Magazine, the mouthpiece of the English Army and Navy. It can be readily imagined that I gave my consent, and it was published in that magazine for April and May, 1897, but was credited to W. S. Reyall, First Virginia Cavalry - the glory of war, to have your leg shot off and have your name misspelled in the Gazette!
The other compliment was this. The late historian, John C. Ropes of Boston, was an intimate friend of Capt. W. Gordon McCabe of Richmond. Shortly before his death he paid McCabe a visit of several weeks, and myself and Judge James Keith, Chief Justice of Virginia, called upon him. Ropes had read my address, and he spoke to me of it in very complimentary terms, saying he had filed it away amongst his choicest pamphlets for future use and reference. When Judge Keith and I told Ropes that we had both served as privates in the Confederate Army, and that all of our fellows had done the same, he was immensely surprised and said that fact gave him more information about the Confederate armies than all he had ever read.
Page 18
What I am going to say now about Gettysburg in a condensed form can be seen in detail in that address, with reference to official documents to sustain every statement. Incidentally I will say here that General Lee was considerably outmatched in the battle. He had 62,000 men while General Meade had 105,000.
The absence of General Lee's cavalry caused the battle to come on through pure accident, and without any preparations or plans for it. Heth's division of Hill's corps having arrived near Gettysburg on July 1, undertook to march into the town to get some shoes. Just outside the town they met Buford's division of Federal cavalry, and a brisk skirmish commenced. The rest of Hill's corps was steadily arriving and Ewell's corps, returning from York, commenced arriving at the same time. On the Union side the First and Eleventh Corps were up, and they joined with Buford in repelling the attack, so that in a short time there was a very brisk action in progress between from twenty to twenty-five thousand men on each side. The battle was splendidly fought on both sides, but ended in a complete triumph for the Confederates, the First and Eleventh Corps being almost destroyed. There were not more than six thousand of these two corps available for duty when the battle was over.
General Lee arrived upon the field just at the
Page 19
conclusion of the battle, and saw the remnants of the First and Eleventh Corps scampering over the hills behind Gettysburg. While he was standing in the field watching this interesting spectacle General Longstreet rode up and reported. On being asked how near his corps was he replied that he could have two divisions, Hood's and McLaw's, up for business by daylight next morning, but that Pickett's division was nearly a day's march behind. General Lee told him then and there to get his men up as quickly as possible, as he intended to attack the enemy next morning at daylight if he was there.
The situation next morning, July 2, was this. The Twelfth Corps of the Union army arrived during the night and went into line at Meade's extreme right on Culp's Hill. Their line was extended round the curve by the remnants of the First and Eleventh Corps and there was nothing else from their left to Round Top. About eight thousand of the Third Corps arrived at General Meade's left during the night and went in bivouac This was the whole Federal force on the field for a battle at early morn on the second. They made about twenty-five thousand men, with an unfilled gap in their line between Round Top and the left of the Eleventh Corps.
What was General Lee's situation? All of Hill's and Ewell's corps were up and in line, and
Page 20
two-thirds of Longstreet's corps were near enough to be in line at daylight. In some way Lee had become possessed of the information that but a small part of Meade's army had arrived at Gettysburg, and he determined to attack them at daylight on the morning of the 2nd. He gave the necessary orders to Ewell and Hill, and having personally told Longstreet on the afternoon of the 1st to get his command up by light next morning, he rested on his oars waiting for Longstreet's men to arrive. Next morning he was up and had breakfast when day broke. About light Longstreet arrived with his two divisions and Lee ordered him to get ready and attack Meade's line between Round Top and Gettysburg. But as Pickett was not up Longstreet did not want to make the attack, so he entered into a warm argument with Lee in an endeavor to persuade him to postpone the attack. He upset Lee's resolution and caused the attack to be postponed until four in the afternoon, at which time all of General Meade's army was up, and the whole advantage that had accrued to the Confederates from the situation in the morning had disappeared. General Longstreet is responsible, therefore, for General Lee's failing to inflict an awful disaster on General Meade on the morning of July 2, perhaps the utter destruction of his army. If Longstreet had done what Lee wanted, the Twelfth Corps, the remnants of the First and
Page 21
Eleventh Corps, and the two divisions of the Third Corps would have been routed by 5 o'clock. The Second, Hancock's force, arrived on the field of battle at 7 A. M. and it would, of course, have been routed in a very short time. The Fifth Corps began to arrive at 8 A. M. and it would have met the same fate. The Sixth did not begin to arrive until the afternoon, so that Lee would have fought Meade's army by fragments with the whole of his own army. The result of such a conflict cannot be a matter of doubt. General Longstreet therefore, by his contumacy (the word is not too strong) lost the Confederates the battle of Gettysburg on July 2. He equally lost it for them on July 3, but before showing this there is an outside matter I wish to relate.
General Longstreet did not attack until 4 P. M., July 2. But when he did attack he fought one of the most splendid battles that ever was fought. Longstreet was a great soldier on the field of battle. His defect was obstinacy and procrastination, but when once engaged all of that generally disappeared and he was usually as prompt and fiery as Stonewall Jackson himself. On the afternoon of July 2 he handled his adversaries so roughly that they were very glad when nightfall came on.
Now General Meade had never been satisfied with the position at Gettysburg. He was in positions
Page 22
forced on him by chance and never selected by him. During the night of July 2 he called a council of war of his chief generals and told them plainly that he thought the army should abandon its position and get to another nearer its base of supplies. It is said that a majority of the generals wanted to stay there and fight it out but the last thing Meade said to them was, "This is no place to fight a battle." Whilst he was in this hesitating mood an incident occurred that determined him to stay at Gettysburg and fight it out.
When General Lee started on his trip to Gettysburg he wrote Mr. Davis urging that every soldier that could be spared in other parts of the Confederacy should be collected at Culpeper Court House under the command of General Beauregard to make a threatening demonstration against Washington. Even "the effigy of an army" (his words) with Beauregard's name attached to it would afford him great relief. General Lee was so intent upon this that the last thing he did before crossing the Potomac was to write another letter to Mr. Davis urging that this should be done.
There was every reason in the world why Mr. Davis should have done what General Lee asked. In the first place it was obviously the right thing to do. In the second place, General Lee wanted it done and whatever he wanted done should have been done if it were possible to do it. He was
Page 23
undertaking one of the great events in the world's history with means utterly inadequate to the end, and whatever he asked for in the way of assistance should have been given him if it were possible. The student of the records will find that there were 36,000 soldiers and 125 guns along the coast that could have been easily put at Culpeper Court House before July 1, as I show further on. It was inexcusable in Mr. Davis to make no effort to carry out General Lee's wish. Instead of doing this, he wrote General Lee telling him it was impossible to do what he wished, and trusted it to a single cavalryman to carry it through a hostile country to General Lee.
One of the leakiest things in the world was the Confederate War Office, and Lee had hardly asked for this force to be put at Culpeper Court House before it was known in Washington, and Meade fought the first two days' battles with the fear of an attack upon his rear haunting him. Ulric Dahlgren, son of the Admiral, was an adventurous young captain of twenty-one on Meade's staff While the battle was in progress he, with a small command, was scouting in rear of the Confederate army, and he fell in with Mr. Davis's courier in the streets of Greencastle and searched him and got his letter. On reading the letter he saw the importance of getting it to General Meade, and so he rode hard and handed it to him just as the
Page 24
council of war ended. The probabilities all are that Meade was going to change his position at Gettysburg, leaving the Confederates the moral effect of a great victory gained there, but that this information relieving him from all fear as to his rear, determined him to stay there and fight the third day's battle.
General Longstreet caused the Confederates to lose the third day's battle by not carrying out General Lee's orders to him. Lee directed that artillery should be sent in front of the infantry that charged the Federal line. If this had been done the terrific artillery fire that decimated Pickett's division would all have fallen on this artillery, and when Pickett's division got to the stone wall, instead of being a mere fragment of itself it would have been in full force. As it was, it cut through the Federal line. What might not have been the result if it had been united with Anderson's division directly behind it as General Lee expected would be the case, to make good what it had won? But to understand all this my lecture must be read as printed.
There is one curious thing about this matter. The North Carolinians say they went farthest at Gettysburg. But General Longstreet says in his official report that they went to pieces under the artillery fire in crossing the field and that their principal losses were incurred in quitting their work.
Page 25
Before leaving the war there are one or two phases and incidents of it that I wish to record. I missed Gettysburg, and how I missed it opens up a much debated question and that question is, whether or not General J. E. B. Stuart is to blame for not being there with General Lee when he arrived there. My good friend, Colonel John S. Mosby, the famous partisan ranger, has written a great deal, and especially a most interesting book recently published, to prove that Stuart was not to blame for not being there, and that his absence caused no injury to Lee. Notwithstanding all he has said, however, I, for one, am of the opinion that Stuart ought to have crossed the Potomac at Shepherdstown and ridden on Lee's right flank all the way. The man is a fool that contends that Stuart disobeyed orders in riding around the Federal army. General Lee's orders to him plainly permitted him to do this, but the point is that Stuart ought not to have exercised the discretion conferred upon him. His hard horse sense ought to have told him to stick to Lee. That was the place where he was wanted. But what I want to point out is that the criticism of Stuart is really not criticism. It is a lamentation that so great and powerful a man as he was was not at Lee's right hand to counsel and advise with him about what was best to be done.
While Lee was moving down the Valley of Virginia
Page 26
with Hooker absolutely perplexed about his whereabouts, as I have said before, Pleasanton took it into his head to ride up to the top of the Blue Ridge Mountains at Ashby's Gap and take a peep over in the valley to see if Lee was really there. But when he got to Aldie and Middleburg he encountered Jeb Stuart and his cavalry right there for the purpose of preventing Mr. Pleasanton from doing that identical thing. There was tremendous fighting there for two or three days, Stuart gradually falling back to the mountains; but after awhile Pleasanton resolved to give it up.
Stuart then determined to exercise the discretion that Lee had conferred upon him. He determined to ride around Hooker's army, between him and Washington City. He started straight from Ashby's Gap toward Brentville, some twenty or thirty miles. The roads there are limestone pikes. My horse having lost all of his shoes, he became so lame, on these limestone pikes, that he could not travel at all. I reported his condition to my commanding officer and asked him what I should do. He told me to fall out of ranks and go to a blacksmith's shop and get him shod, and then to follow along as best I could. I did this, and then rode over into the Valley of Virginia to follow in General Lee's track, but before I reached the army the battle of Gettysburg had been fought. I do not know, of course, how many men this ride cost
Page 27
Stuart, but it is obvious that there may have been many in my fix.
I have been very harsh in my criticisms of General
Longstreet for his part in the battle of Gettysburg,
but it would be a mistake to suppose that
Longstreet was always an inefficient soldier. Upon
the contrary, when once engaged in battle there
have been few more superb soldiers than he. I
got that splendid gentleman and gallant soldier,
Col. Wm. H. Palmer, who was Gen. A. P. Hill's
chief of staff, to write me the following account of
what he witnessed of General Longstreet's conduct
in the battle of the Wilderness on May 6, 1864.
This shows Longstreet at his best, and shows what
a magnificent soldier he was upon the field of
battle. He saved the day then, and if he had not
been shot down by his own men at the critical moment
Grant's army would probably have been destroyed,
tangled up in that wilderness as it was
Colonel Palmer's letter is as follows: RICHMOND, Va., May 11, 1908.
MR. W. L. ROYALL, Richmond, Va.
DEAR
SIR: I will endeavor to repeat a conversation
had with you as to some of the occurrences of the first
and second days of the battle of the Wilderness that came
under my observation.
We had full notice of General Grant's movement from
around Culpeper C. H. General Longstreet's First
Corps was near Gordonsville (lately returned from East
Tennessee), General A. P. Hill's Third Corps was
around Orange C. H., and General Ewell's Second Corps
to the right of Orange C. H. General Hill moved on
the plank road below Verdierville, with Heth's and Wilcox's
divisions on the 4th of May, Anderson's division being
left at Orange C. H. to protect our trains and rear.
Ewell moved below Verdierville on our left, on the old
Brock road.
Our orders on the 5th were to attack and press the
enemy. I remember that our troops as they passed beyond
the lines erected the previous winter at Mine Run,
which they expected to occupy as before, exclaimed,
"Mars Bob is going for them this time," and the poor
fellows cheered as they pressed forward. About a mile
beyond we came to a heavy line of dismounted cavalry.
They were picked men and hard to move. We had to
thicken our skirmish line. The enemy's officers behaved
with the greatest gallantry, on horseback encouraging the
men, and exposing themselves to hold their line; finally
they gave way. We captured a number of men, and many
fine horses, and moved some distance below Parker's store
while waiting for Heth's division to form, as we could
not drive them farther with skirmishers, and had left the
infantry. Generals Lee, Hill, and Stuart rested in a large
field on the left of the road (Trapp's farm). Suddenly a
force of the enemy, in skirmishing order, came out of the
woods on the left. General Lee walked rapidly off toward
Heth's troops, calling for Colonel Taylor, his adjutant-general.
General Stuart stood up and looked the
danger squarely in the face; General Hill remained as he
was. We were within pistol shot, when to our surprise
the Federal officer gave the command "right about" and
disappeared in the timber, as much alarmed at finding
himself in the presence of Confederate troops as we were
at their unexpected appearance.
A little after 3 o'clock General Heth was attacked
furiously. Wilcox's command, part of which had been
sent into the interval between Ewell on the Brock road
(and into which the skirmishers above described had
penetrated), was recalled and gradually put into action,
the Federals attacking at short intervals furiously, all concealed
by the thick woods and underbrush. The roar of
musketry was incessant, and was not relieved by any
artillery fire, nothing but deadly musketry. We had had
five of these heavy atacks. General Hill had moved sixteen guns
of Poague's and McIntosh's battalions into the
large field (Trapp's farm) on the left of the road, and
close to the infantry line. His attention was called to the
fact that there was no road by which the guns could be
moved if our infantry line should be driven back. He
answered that he knew this, but in battle the guns must
take their chances of capture, and would help to hold the
line if the emergency pointed out should occur. The
guns were not used during the day. Near nightfall the
sixth heavy attack, bearing heavily on our extreme right,
commenced - a turning movement. General Hill exposed
himself to encourage the men, and sent me for the last
brigade he had in reserve, Lane's. I found General Lane
putting his men in a weak spot some distance to the left,
where help had been called for, and part of his brigade
already engaged. He hesitated for a moment only, and
upon my urgent demand as from General Hill, he followed
to the extreme right, where he put his troops in, as
he always did, in perfect order and effectively stayed the
threatened danger. I hurried back to the point from
which he had been taken, and found it safe. As I passed
the plank road General Stuart and Colonel Venable were
sitting on their horses listening to the increased roar of
battle on the extreme right, and one of them exclaimed
"If night would only come!" I explained that the increased
roar of battle came from Lane's brigade going in,
and that they were such steady troops that we felt that
they could not be driven off before nightfall, and Colonel
Venable rode off to say as much to General Lee. Still
later there was an alarm from the extreme left, the enemy
pushing into the interval between Ewell and ourselves.
There was nothing out of the line except the Fifth
Alabama Battalion (125 strong) under Major Vandegraff,
who had charge of the prisoners. They went in
with a cheer, and whatever was before them was driven
back, and night settled down on the dreadful field - our
lines all held.
It was estimated from the prisoners we had from
different commands that Hill's two divisions of about
15,000 had held their ground in the six attacks against
40,000 men. General Ewell sent word to General Hill
that he had heard his battle, and congratulated him on
his success.
A small fire was made close to the line, and near the
right gun of Poague's battalion, for the headquarters of the
Third Corps in the field so often referred to, and soon
Generals Heth and Wilcox came for orders. They said
their lines in the woods were like a worm fence, at every
angle, and when they had undertaken to straighten them
the enemy had captured our men and we captured theirs.
General Hill told them that General Lee's orders were
to let the men rest as they were; that General Longstreet
would be up by, or soon after, midnight, and would
form in the rear of the line before daylight; and to let the
men of the Third Corps fall back after Longstreet's troops
were in position - Longstreet's troops in the first line for
the next day, Anderson's division of the Third Corps and
the other divisions forming a second line.
After midnight General Hill rode to Parker's store to
see what news General Lee had of Longstreet. General
Wilcox also rode to Parker's store. General Lee repeated
his orders.
What could be done toward straightening our line was
done, and the anxious night wore slowly away. The
men had marched and fought all day of the fifth, and
slept the sleep of exhaustion on the ground as the battle
left them at 9 o'clock at night. We could not sleep,
but waited for news of Longstreet; for we knew that
at the first blush of the morning the turning attack on
our right would open with overwhelming numbers, and,
unsupported, the men must give way.
As soon as it was light General Hill rode to the left to
examine the ground in the interval between General
Ewell's troops and his, leaving me at the fire by the right
gun of Poague's battalion. Shortly after he left I looked
across the field and saw General Longstreet loping his
horse across the open. I had served in his brigade with
the First Virginia Infantry, and knew him well, but had
not seen him since his Chickamauga and Knoxville campaign.
As I grasped his hand I said, "Ah, General, we
have been looking for you since 12 o'clock last night.
We expect to be attacked at any moment, and are not in
any shape to resist." His answer, "My troops are not
up, I have ridden ahead," was drowned in a roar of
musketry. He rode off to form his troops in the road, and
in a moment General Hill returned, and together we rode
to the main road. As far as we could see the road was
crowded with the enemy moving forward; our troops
slowly and in order retiring, except just at the road, where
they were holding fast. General Hill directed me to ride
to the guns, and to order them to fire obliquely across the
road. McGowan's brigade were for the most part
through the guns and forming behind them. There were
a few of our troops in front. General Hill said it could
not be delayed, the guns must open. The sixteen guns
firing, the last one reaching the enemy far in rear, did
great execution, as the road was packed with Federal
troops. It was unexpected, as no artillery had been used
the day before, except one gun in the road, which was
soon silenced by the enemy's skirmishers. It enabled us
to hold at the road, and soon the Texas brigade of Longstreet's
corps filed behind the guns, and as they moved
into position General Longstreet rode down the line, his
horse at a walk, and addressing each company said, "Keep
cool, men, we will straighten this out in a short time -
keep cool." In the midst of the confusion his coolness and
manner was inspiring. When the Texas brigade had
formed they were moved through the guns. General Lee
rode on their flank. The tall Texan on the left lifted his
hat and called to General Lee to go back, and it was
taken up by the others. General Lee lifted his hat to
them, and moved slowly to the rear. It did not strike me
as remarkable at the time. The brigade was noted for
steadiness and courage, and had been detached from him.
It had been months since he had seen them. There was
no heroic leading. He was glad to be with them; he was
saluting them. When the Texans moved forward General
Longstreet had no time to form more troops in front; he
halted and faced his men as they were marching in the
road, and broke by brigades and moved them in echelon
to meet the turning movement of the enemy. It was a
beautiful movement. The Texans, part of McGowan's
and much of Davis's Mississippi brigade under Colonel
Stone and other troops of Heth and Wilcox, were holding
all the ground around the guns, and to their right across
the road; and General Longstreet's echelon movement
caught the sweeping enemy and forced them back steadily
and surely.* In a short time he was master
of the field,
and everybody felt that way about it. Nothing finer was
ever done on a battlefield. Of course, we of the two
divisions of the Third Corps were sore - after putting
up such a battle the day before, to have to be found by
Longstreet's troops retiring, and in more or less confusion
was dreadful. They did not know anything about
their slowness in getting to the field. They only knew
that with conspicuous courage and steadiness they had
redeemed a losing battle, and saved the Army of
Northern Virginia from disaster. It was an inspiring
homecoming for the First Corps.
General Hill, with the part of Heth's and Wilcox's
divisions not engaged, moved to the left in the interval
between his troops and Ewell's to a second large field,
screened from the field in which the guns were by a strip
of woods. Before the troops came up we rode to a house
and outbuildings in the lower end of the field and dismounted.
We had been there only a short while when
we were startled by the breaking down of a fence just
below, and in plain view was a long line of Federal infantry
clearing the fence to move forward. General Hill
commanded, "Mount, walk your horses, and don't look
back." When near our troops he directed me to ride to
General Lee and say if Anderson's division had arrived he
wanted a brigade of that division sent to him. Anderson's
division had just arrived. (Longstreet being late, had the
road, and Anderson's division of the Third Corps could
not reach us until all of Longstreet's troops were out of
it.) The roar of musketry was far extended as I asked for
the brigade, and General Lee said, "Well, let's see General
Longstreet about it." When we got near him,
General Lee said, "General Hill wants one of Anderson's
brigades." General Longstreet said to me, "Certainly,
Colonel, which one will you take?" I said, "The leading
one," and hurried back with it; and General Hill
at once attacked the force and broke it up, capturing many
prisoners. As I passed a group of prisoners an officer
asked, "Were you not at the house a short time ago?"
I told him, "Yes." He abused his officers and said, "I
wanted to fire on you, but my colonel said you were
farmers riding from the house." Later I rode back
(everything being quiet on our line) to the plank road,
and shook hands with General Jenkins, of the South
Carolina brigade, with whom I had been associated, and
who I had not seen since the Chickamauga and East
Tennessee campaign of the First Corps. Just at this time
General Longstreet, continuing his counter-turning movement,
had launched Mahone's, Wofford's, and Anderson's
brigades on the extreme left of the enemy, under the
general direction of Colonel Sorrell, his adjutant-general
and chief of staff. It was in every way successful, and
part of Mahone's brigade reached the plank road in
front. As General Longstreet rode forward, General
Jenkins accompanying him, both were shot by our own
men; Jenkins being killed, also Captain Dobie, and
Orderly Bowen, of Kershaw's staff. It is hard to supply
the place of any general in direct charge of a battle, but
especially difficult in a tangled wilderness, in which we
were fighting. General Lee directed that the lines be
straightened, and we did not attack again until nearly 4
o'clock p. m., when a part of the enemy's line at the
Brock road was carried, but not held; and night settled
again on the dreadful battlefield.
We had thrown up good works along our whole line
on the evening of the 6th and morning of the 7th. Davis's
Mississippi brigade, under Colonel Stone, who had held
their ground, and fought with Longstreet's troops, were
drawn from the line on the evening of the 6th, and formed
in the Trapp field near the guns, and were complimented
and thanked with earnestness and emotion by General A.
P. Hill.
Late on the 7th General Lee rode over to our line,
Heth's and Wilcox's divisions covering the interval between
Longstreet's left and Ewell's right, and had a
conference with General Hill in the porch of the house.
From the roof some shingles had been broken out, and
we had a fine marine glass, and could see clearly the open
ground around Wilderness tavern over the tops of the
trees. From the constant stream of couriers and officers
we felt assured that it was General Grant's headquarters
in our view. In a field near the headquarters was a large
park of heavy guns, and as I looked these guns moved
into the road and took the road to our right, their left. I
went down and reported the movement and direction
taken by these heavy guns. It was no doubt simply confirmatory
of numerous other reports from the cavalry and
other points of the line, that General Grant was moving
to Spottsylvania C. H. Orders were at once given for
the all-night march of Kershaw's and Field's brigades
General Longstreet's division, now under the command of
General R. H. Anderson. The Third Army Corps moved
on the same route on the 8th of May, passing through the
burning woods, in which many a poor soul perished from
tire, who had escaped death from his wounds. We had a
small engagement with the enemy on our march, the
enemy pushing a force from near Todd's tavern. They
were moved from our path by the brigade skirmishers of
Mahone's brigade, a splendid body of sharpshooters.
General Early was now in command of the Third Army
Corps, General Hill being sick, but he followed in his
ambulance.
We reached what was to be the still bloodier field of
Spottsylvania C. H. early on the 9th of May.
Yours truly,
In his history of the Army of the Potomac
Swinton says the Federals were at a complete loss
to understand why Longstreet's overpowering rush
was suspended, and after mentioning that he was
shot by his own men, he adds a footnote to page
434 as follows:
"General Longstreet stated to the writer that he saw
they were his own men, but in vain shouted to them to
cease firing. He also expressed with great emphasis his
opinion of the decisive blow he would have inflicted had he
not been wounded. 'I thought,' said he, 'that we had
another Bull Run on you, for I had made my dispositions
to seize the Brock road.'"
It certainly looks as if Providence had determined
that we should not succeed. Look at the
facts. Albert Sydney Johnston stricken down at
Shiloh just as he was about to inflict a death-wound
upon his enemy; Joseph E. Johnston, at Seven
Pines, Stonewall Jackson, at Chancellorsville, and
General Longstreet at the Wilderness.
It has been generally supposed that Lee had
in his Gettysburg campaign the finest army that
he ever commanded. He had veteran troops,
it is true, troops that had become accustomed to cooperating
with each other, and so far as that goes
to make a fine army, his army was up to a high
mark. But his troops had been starved and frozen
until men and beasts had wasted much of their
strength, and they were far from possessing that
stamina, physical and moral, which naturally belonged
to them.
My excellent friend, Col. Wm. H. Palmer, of
Richmond, already quoted from, has made from
the War Records the following most interesting
summary of events shown by the records that bear
upon that subject. It also shows what a large
body of troops were within reach for Mr. Davis
to utilize in placing the army at Culpeper Court
House that General Lee wanted formed there.
What would not have happened if these 35,000
veteran troops had been put at Culpeper Court
House under Beauregard? Colonel Palmer permits
me to insert his paper here.
War Records, Series I, Vol. XXV, Part II.
Correspondence,
Serial Number 40.
CHANCELLORSVILLE.
R. E. Lee, March 27,
1863, to James a. Seddon, Secretary
of War, (page 687): His army not supplied with
food.
R. E. Lee, March 29, 1863, to Seddon, (page 691):
Scouts on duty ordered away by Department without
his knowledge.
R. E. Lee, April 1, 1863, to Gen. W. N. Pendleton
(page 697): Tells him to have his artillery horses
"grazed and browsed" in the absence of long forage.
R. E. Lee, April 16, 1863, to President Davis, (page
725): Unable to bring his army together for want of
subsistence and forage.
R. E. Lee, April 17, 1863, to Seddon, (page 730):
Army failing in health because of insufficient rations -
1/4 lb. bacon, 18 oz. flour, 10 lbs. rice to each 100 men
every third day. Will break down when called upon
for exertion.
I interrupt Colonel Palmer's narrative at this
point to insert the following on my own account.
The letter of General Lee to the Secretary of War
of March 27, 1863, referred to above, is too important
not to be quoted. He says:
The troops of this portion of the army have for some
time been confined to reduced rations, consisting of eighteen
ounces of flour, four ounces of bacon of indifferent
quality with occasional supplies of rice, sugar and
molasses. The men are cheerful and I receive but few
complaints; still I do not think it enough to continue them
in health and vigor, and I fear that they will be unable to
endure the hardships of the approaching campaign.
Symptoms of scurvy are appearing among them, and
to supply the place of vegetables each regiment is directed
to send a daily detail to gather sassafras buds, wild
onions, garlic, lambs-quarter and poke sprouts, but for
so large an army the supply obtained is very small. I
have understood, but I do not know with what truth,
that the Army of the West and that in the department of
South Carolina and Georgia are more bountifully supplied
with provisions. I have also heard that the troops in
North Carolina receive one half pound of bacon per day.
I think this army deserves as much consideration as either
of those named, and if it can be supplied, respectfully ask
that it shall be similarly provided.
This letter was referred by the Secretary of
War to L. B. Northrup, Commissary-General of
Subsistence, and he made the following reply to it:
April 1, 1863.
The reduction of the meat ration in General Lee's
army was mainly due to local causes, that of transportation
being chief, as will appear by the following endorsement
on a letter received from J. H. Claiborne, commissary
of subsistence:
RICHMOND, March 28, 1863
Respectfully
referred to the Secretary of War, with a
statement of Mr. Hottel, my transportation agent. This
paper I directed to be prepared for the purpose of showing
the inadequacy of the transportation for bringing even
the rough articles of meat, the sugar on hand and to hand
since the 13th of December having been used as a substitute
for bacon. This condition requires an instant
remedy. Mr. Hottel suggests one, viz: to reduce the
passenger trains one half.
Major W. H. Smith, from Raleigh, reports the
depots blocked up at three points, and the railroad men
prefer private freight, which they say pays better.
This army is living from hand to mouth as to meat
and bread, due to a want of means to get both meat
and wheat brought to market. Railroads worn out,
horses killed up, all obstacles beyond the reach of the
commissary-general of subsistence.
Dr. Cartwright in a lengthy report on the reduction of
the meat ration (which was referred to this bureau by the
President) urges that it be done on sanitary grounds.
The appearance of the men of General Lee's army
and their health confirms the opinion of Dr. Cartwright,
as to diminishing the ration, and it is recommended that
the bacon and pork rations be reduced to one fourth of
a pound throughout the army.
Well, well, well! Does not that outdo anything
that was ever heard of? Here is General Lee telling
the Department that his soldiers are starving,
but with a heroism never shown before are making
no complaint; that he is trying to eke out their
meager rations by making them gather sassafras
buds and wild onions - grazing them along with
the cattle - and the Department replies he must
not feed his men too high, or they will get fat,
sleek and lazy! What is to be thought of that?
But that is not all. Commissary-General Northrup
adds in this same communication that if a sufficiently
strong military guard is furnished him he
thinks he can glean something out of the counties
of Fauquier, Loudoun, Culpeper, and Madison,
Virginia, which had been the camping-ground of
the two armies during all the war. They were rich
counties and they were near at hand and convenient,
and the people had hidden a little from the
Federal armies, and if he had soldiers sent with
him he thought he could drag out of those desolated
counties a little more. This correspondence
furnishes a key to the incompetency of the Confederate
civil administration in all directions. Instead
of grappling with the difficulties of the case
at the source they were treated as weak men always
treat exigencies, weak substitutes were resorted
to where there should have been nothing but
positive and energetic action. Instead of the
forcible seizure of such trains as were necessary to
bring food to the army, we have an imbecile essay
upon the peril of soldiers getting fat and lazy if
fed too high, and a suggestion that as the four
counties named might be drained of something
more, resort had better be had to them.
This correspondence furnishes a clue to the
whole civil administration of the Confederacy.
This inefficiency went on dragging the Confederate
soldier's condition down until it became pitiable in
the last degree. General Lee's army became so
ragged it could scarcely be said to be clothed at
all, and to a great extent it was without shoes.
The men received rations that were actually not
enough to keep body and soul together, but they
remained patiently at their posts fighting odds of
two or three to one every day, never murmuring,
never complaining.
I quote in this connection the following passage
from the autobiography of Gen. Benjamin F. Butler
(page 610). Speaking of the conditions existing
in the Confederate Army in the summer of
1864 he says:
In the matter of starvation, the fact is incontestible
that a soldier in our army would have quite easily starved
on the rations which, in the latter days of the war, were
served out to the Confederate soldiers before Petersburg.
I examined the haversacks of many Confederate soldiers
captured on picket, during the summer of 1864, and
found therein, as their rations for three days, scarcely
more than a pint of kernels of corn, none of which were
broken but only parched to blackness by the fire, and a
piece of meat, most frequently raw bacon, some three
inches long by an inch and a half wide and less than half
an inch thick. Now no Northern soldier could have lived
three days upon that, and the lank, emaciated condition
of the prisoners fully testifies to the meagerness of
their means of subsistence * * * With regard to clothing
it was simply impossible for the Confederates at that
time and for many preceding months to have sufficient
clothing upon the bodies of their soldiers, and many
passed the winter barefoot.
Of course if there had been no food in the country
no criticism could be made upon the Confederate
civil administration for giving the army none.
But there was plenty of food if energetic action
had been taken to concentrate it for the army.
Major Lewis Ginter, who died in 1897, was
one of the most respected and beloved citizens that
Richmond ever had. During the war he was the
quartermaster of Thomas's Georgia brigade. He
was a very prosperous business man, and after the
war he made a very large fortune in the cigarette
business in the firm of Allen & Ginter. This business
developed into the great American Tobacco
Company. Prior to the war Gen. Robert E. Lee
knew Major Ginter well, and had the greatest confidence
in him and the greatest respect for him.
In 1895 the same Judge Keith, to whom I have
already referred, and myself were calling upon
Major Ginter one evening, and the starving condition
of our army at Petersburg in the winter and
spring of 1864-65 came under discussion. Major
Ginter made the following statement, in effect, to
us. He said that General Lee sent for him during
that time and told him to go down into North
Carolina and see if he could not find something
there to feed and clothe his army with. Ginter
said he went to Danville, Virginia, and there
found warehouses bursting with grain and meat.
On inquiring what this meant, the quartermaster in
charge said they could not get the use of any trains
to send these provisions to the army; that the sutlers
controlled all the transportation and were
using it to carry wines and whiskey and cigars and
other such things to Richmond; that these sutlers
had the authority of the Confederate administration
for what they were doing. The quartermaster
said that if General Lee would only say the
word they would forcibly seize the engines and
cars and send the provisions to the army. Ginter
said he went to Charlotte, North Carolina, and to
other North Carolina towns, and he found the
same conditions existing in all of them. He returned
to Petersburg and reported what he had
learned to General Lee, and he urged him to send
orders to the quartermasters to seize the trains and
send him provisions. He said General Lee walked
up and down in his tent for awhile and then said,
"No, Major, I can't do it. It would be revolutionary.
If the administration chooses to let this
army starve it will have to starve."
The thing happened just as Major Ginter told
it, because he was incapable of telling a falsehood;
and Judge Keith will testify I have related it just
as Major Ginter told it to us.
If the Army of Northern Virginia had been kept
supplied with food and clothing General Grant
would have found his work cut out for him when
he undertook to drive it away from Petersburg. I
don't believe the army was ever marshalled that
could have done it. The Army of Northern Virginia
was not conquered. It was simply forsaken
by its government and left to perish.
It may be thought that after these bitter reflections
I am still an "unreconstructed rebel." But I
am not. I have come to believe that the thing
turned out as it ought to have turned out. Slavery
and the principle of secession had to be got rid of
and the only way they could ever have been got
rid of was to fight the war to a finish.
I am a thoroughly reconstructed rebel that looks
upon the Government of the United States as his
government, and I am as ready to offer my life
for it as I was to offer it for the Confederate Government.
But when I get to writing of those old
days my fighting blood gets up and all the enthusiasm
of the period returns to me.
I return now to Colonel Palmer's narrative.
R. E. Lee, April 20, 1863, to Davis, (page 737): Gives
points in the South (Florida and Georgia) where
supplies can be had in abundance.
R. E. Lee, May 2, 1863, to Davis, (page 407): Insufficiency
of cavalry in his army; points out where
cavalry regiments doing nothing can be ordered to him.
Fears disaster from insufficiency of cavalry.
R. E. Lee, May 2, 1863, to Davis, (page 765): "If I
had all of my command and could keep it supplied with
provisions and forage, I would feel easy."
R. E. Lee, May 7, 1863, to Davis, (page 782): Calls
attention to insufficiency of his cavalry. His army
40,000; Hooker's, 120,000 men. Losses at Chancellorsville
heavy; always so where the inequality of numbers
is so great. Recommends that troops be brought
from the South, where they have nothing to do and
will perish from disease and inaction. Bring Beauregard
with them and put him in command here.
R. E. Lee, May 20, 1863, to Davis, (page 810): A. P.
Hill, I think upon the whole, is the best soldier of his
grade with me.
R. E. Lee, May 30, 1863, to Davis, (page 832): Requests that the War Department take charge of D. H.
Hill's department of the Cape Fear and that he be
relieved of its supervision. D. H. Hill does not cooperate
with him or obey him or return troops that belong
to the Army of Northern Virginia. These delays, he
fears, will leave him nothing to do but to retreat.
Fears that the time has passed when he can take the
offensive with advantage.
R. E. Lee, May 30, 1863, to Seddon, (page 834): Recommends
that troops be brought from South Carolina,
Georgia, Florida, Cape Fear Department, and James
River. Asks to be relieved of command of Cape Fear
Department.
R. E. Lee, June 2, 1863, to Davis, (page 849): Regrets
to lose Jenkins's and Ransom's brigades; good officers
and veteran troops. Comments on D. H. Hill's actions.
R. E. Lee, June 2, 1863, to Seddon, (page 849): Further
comments on D. H. Hill's retaining his troops and attempting
to send inferior troops in their stead.
R. E. Lee, June 3, 1863, to Seddon, (page 851): About
D. H. Hill's conduct and the best brigades retained
from the Army of Northern Virginia.
Series I, Vol. XXVII, Part III, Serial Number
40 GETTYSBURG.
R. E. Lee, June 5, 1863, to Gen. A. P. Hill, (page 859):
Third army corps in front of Fredericksburg, balance
of the army moving north.
R. E. Lee, June 8, 1863, to Seddon, Secretary of War,
(page 868): Writing of D. H. Hill. "He does not
seem to have projected much and has accomplished
less." Nothing to be gained by remaining on the defensive.
If the Department thinks it better to remain
on defensive it has only to inform me. Troops not
needed in the South. Sent to the armies in the field,
we might hope to make some impression on the enemy.
Note on the way to Gettysburg: Insufficient food,
insufficient transportation, insufficient cavalry. No
infantry reinforcements. Can't get his own troops from
Cape Fear Department. Troops rotting from inaction
in South. Heroically starts north, but on June 8th
at Culpeper Court House. Is uncertain if Department
will let him go.
Seddon, Secretary of War, June 9, 1863, to Gen. Lee,
(page 874): Apologizes to General Lee and explains
that the disposition of the troops in North Carolina is
determined by Mr. Davis.
Gen. R. E. Lee, June 9, 1863, to Davis, (page 874):
Culpeper Court House. Reports that the enemy's cavalry,
infantry, and artillery have crossed the Rappahannock
in force. Prisoners from two corps captured.
Suggests orders to Cooke's brigade and Jenkins's brigade
to be sent to the Army of Northern Virginia.
President Davis, June 9, 1863, (page 874): Mr. Davis
refers General Lee's dispatch to Gen. D. H. Hill as to
Jenkins's and Cooke's brigades.
Saml. Cooper, A. A. G., June 10, 1863, to Gen. D. H.
Hill, (page 870): Informs Gen. D. H. Hill of General
Lee's order as to Cooke's and Jenkins's brigades
and leaves it to Gen. D. H. Hill's discretion if General
Lee's order shall be carried out.
R. E. Lee, June 13, 1863, to Seddon, (page 886): "You
can realize the difficulty of operating in an offensive
movement with this army if it is to be divided to cover
Richmond. It seems to me useless to attempt it with
the force against it."
Saml. Cooper, A. A. G., June 15, 1863, to D. H. Hill,
(pages 890-891): Authorizes Hill to retain Jenkins's
brigade, Ransom's to Drewry's Bluff. Corse's Virginia
brigade drawn from General Lee's command at Culpeper.
R. E. Lee, June 16, 1863, to A. P. Hill: Informs him
that Anderson's division of his corps, Third, has reached
Culpeper Court House. Expects another division next
day.
Davis, June 19, 1863, to Lee, (page 904): Informs General
Lee why a part of his army, "Pickets's division,
Gorse's brigade, has been detained. Jenkins's brigade
deemed necessary by D. H. Hill to protect Petersburg."
Gen. A. G. Jenkins, June 20, 1863, to D. H. Hill, Murfee's
Depot, (p. 908). I beg as a personal favor that
you arrange to send my brigade to join General Lee. I
have sent scouts to Suffolk. No enemy, no gunboats.
Gen. G. E. Pickett, June 21, 1863, to A. A. G. Chilton,
(page 910): Wants his scattered command sent to
him.
Gen. Lee, June 22, 1863, to Gen. J. E. B. Stuart, (page
913): Move with three brigades into Maryland.
(Two brigades can guard the Blue Ridge and take care
of your rear.) Take position on General Ewell's right.
Place yourself in communication with him. One column
will move by Emmitsburg route, another by
Chambersburg.
Gen. Lee, June 23, 1863, to Gen. Stuart: I think you
had better withdraw on this side of the mountain tomorrow
night, camp at Shepherdstown the next day and
move over to Frederickstown. In either case, after
crossing the river you must move on and feel the right
of Ewell's troops, collecting information, provisions,
etc.
Gen. Lee, June 23, 1863, to Davis, (page 925): Urges
withdrawal of troops from Carolina and Georgia under
Beauregard and part at least pushed forward to Culpeper
Court House. His presence would give magnitude
to even a small demonstration and tend greatly to
confound and perplex the enemy. Good results would
follow from sending forward under Beauregard such
troops about Richmond and North Carolina as could be
spared for a short time. The good effect of beginning
to assemble an army at Culpeper Court House would,
I think, soon become apparent, and the movement might
be increased in importance as the result might appear to
justify.
R. E. Lee to Saml. Cooper, A. A. G., June 23, (p. 925):
Urges that Corse's brigade be sent to Pickett's division.
Not needed where it is, especially if the plan of assembling
an army under Beauregard at Culpeper C. H.
is adopted.
Gen. Lee to Davis, opposite Williamsport, June 25, 1863,
(p. 93): "If the place I suggested the other day of organizing
an army, even in effigy, under Beauregard at
Culpeper C. H. can be carried into effect, much relief
will be afforded. If even the brigades in Virginia and
North Carolina, which Generals D. H. Hill and Elzey
think cannot be spared, were ordered there at once and
General Beauregard were sent there, if he had to return
to South Carolina, it would do more to protect
both States than anything else."
Gen. Lee to Davis, Williamsport, June 25, 1863: "It
seems to me that we cannot afford to keep our troops
awaiting possible movements of the enemy, but that
our true policy is, as far as we can, to employ our own
forces so as to give occupation to his, at points of our
selection. * * * I feel sure, therefore, that the
best use that can be made of the troops in Carolina and
those in Virginia now guarding Richmond would be the
prompt assembling of the main body of them * * *
together with as many as can be drawn from the army
of Gen. Beauregard at Culpeper C. H. under the command
of that officer. It should never be forgotten that
our concentration at any point compels that of the
enemy, and his numbers, being limited, tends to relieve
all other threatened localities."
Page 946. - Abstract from the Department of North
Carolina, Maj.-Gen. D. H. Hill, commanding, headquarters
near Richmond, Virginia, June 30, 1863. Permanent force: Clingman's brigade, Cooke's brigade,
Martin's brigade, Colquitt's brigade, Jenkins's brigade,
Ransom's brigade, unattached infantry; artillery;
cavalry. Officers, 1,308; aggregate present, 22,822; pieces
of field artillery, 104.
Major General Elzey's Command: Wise's brigade,
Corse's brigade of Pickett's division; local troops, number
not given.
Mr. Davis's letter to General Lee of June 28, 1863,
giving reasons why he could not send General Beauregard
to Culpeper C. H. to make a diversion in his favor
was entrusted to a courier who was captured by Captain
Dahlgren of General Meade's staff, so that General
Meade had full knowledge that he had nothing to fear in
the direction of Washington. General Lee first learned
that his suggestions would not be entertained by reading
Mr. Davis's letter to him in the New York Herald and
the New York Tribune.
This ends Colonel Palmer's narrative. There
are several remarks to be made upon it. It is positively
sickening to see the contempt with which
General Lee's recommendations and suggestions
were treated. He, the Hercules of the undertaking,
without whom all of them would have been
kicked into the James River in a jiffy, receives no
more consideration when he tells them what is necessary
to do than if he had been a quartermaster's
clerk in some bomb-proof. He cannot even require
his subordinate, D. H. Hill, to send him his veteran
brigades which he needed so sadly in the crisis
at Gettysburg. His recommendations, so full of
wisdom and common sense, that the large force
scattered over the south should be concentrated at
Culpeper Court House to threaten Meade's rear
when he and Meade came to their death grapple
is treated as if it were the suggestion of an idle
school boy.
"Those whom the gods wish to destroy they
first make mad," and this seems to have been the
reason the Confederacy had its civil administration.
No wonder General Lee resigned the command
of his army when he got back from Gettysburg,
and no one without his sublime patriotism and heroism
would ever have consented to withdraw his
resignation.
Gen. Robert E. Lee was, in my opinion, one of
the greatest, if not the very greatest, characters in
all history. The domination which he established
over the Army of Northern Virginia is as high a
tribute to him as could be paid. There were some
of the fiercest and most inflexible men in that army
that the world has ever seen. Stonewall Jackson,
Jubal A. Early, John B. Gordon, J. E. B. Stuart,
J. B. Hood were men who would stand erect in any
presence on earth and yet they all stood uncovered
in Lee's presence, and took the law from him as a
child takes it from his father. Stonewall Jackson
once said that General Lee was the only man in the
world that he would follow blindly, but that he
would follow Lee blindly wherever he chose to
lead. The whole army had exactly that feeling
toward General Lee. They all called him "Marse
Robert," and this expressed their feeling of devotion
toward him. None but the most extraordinary
man could have established such a mastery
over these inflexible men. It was General Lee's
domination of his army that made it the greatest
fighting machine the world ever saw.
In the year 1890 the magnificent equestrian
statue of General Lee was unveiled at Richmond.
There was an immense turnout of Confederate soldiers
from all over the South. It was a day to be
remembered by all who saw it. Many members of
the old Third Virginia Cavalry attended, and they
formed themselves into an organization. Their
old colonel, Owens, was there, one of the most gallant
and splendid soldiers who ever drew a sword.
He was very poor and was unable to secure a horse
to ride at the head of his regiment. My dear
friend, Ned Minor, who belonged to the Third,
told me the state of the case. Another dear friend
of mine, Willie Trigg, had lent me his horse, and
so I said to Minor, "What, Colonel Owens without a horse on such an occasion as this! That shall
never be while Buck Royall has one." (My
friends have always called me "Buck.") "Take
my horse and convey him to Colonel Owens with
my compliments." He did it, and the dear old
colonel rode at the head of his regiment on that
proud day, one of the proudest men there. He
was unable to make me what he considered a fitting
acknowledgment of my service to him, but he had
just had a girl baby born and he went home and
named her "Buck Royall."
Speaking of General Robert E. Lee, in my opinion
there was never anything more preposterous
than the claim of Union zealots that General Lee
was a traitor because he cast in his lot with the
Southern people. It is well known that one of
their heroes, General George W. Thomas, hesitated
a long time whether he should not resign
from the Union Army and come South, and the
admirers of Admiral Farragut (and who is not an
admirer of him?) had better not press their inquiries
too closely or they may find out the same
thing about him.
detailed for that service until March 20, 1864,
coming under the personal orders and direction of
General J. E. B. Stuart.
I had many thrilling adventures in my career as
a scout. On one occasion I had four men with me,
and we came to a house about half a mile from a
camp of three regiments of Federal cavalry in
lower Culpeper County where a party of eight men
from this camp were pillaging and plundering a
poor woman's premises. We waylaid these gentlemen
as they were leaving this house, and springing
up we demanded their surrender. Six of them
surrendered, but two of them tried to run the
gauntlet. One of my men shot one of them dead
but the other one got away.
I knew of course this was going to bring an overwhelming
force down on me and that I had to dust.
I was mounted on one of the captured horses with
two of their Sharp's carbines taken from the enemy
swung around my shoulders. The prisoners were
walking, and one of my men, named Robert W.
Monroe, was on foot with them. The other three
of my men were some distance in the rear with the
captured horses. In turning a corner in some very
thick pines we came face to face with two mounted
Federal soldiers not twenty feet from us. I called
out at once to them, "Surrender!" Instead of
doing so the man on my side of the road commenced
drawing his revolver. I raised one of my
carbines to my shoulder and with the start I had
in firing I ought to have shot him dead before he
got his revolver from the holster. But I retained
the reins in my left hand, and as soon as I slackened
the pressure on the bit my horse would
move forward and disturb my aim. This was repeated
two or three times, by which time I had
lost my advantage over my adversary and I could
see down the barrel of his revolver pointed directly
at me. I saw I must fire or I was gone, and so I
pulled the trigger with the best aim I could get.
I made the luckiest of shots. I struck him at the
pit of his right arm and cut it almost off. His
cocked revolver fell from his hand. It was at full
cock and in another instant he would have fired.
The other man had his revolver in his boot, and
in endeavoring to draw it the lock hung in his
boot strap, and he was tugging away at it while the
battle was going on between me and his friend.
Monroe had run to him and seized his horse by
the bit, but he did not see Monroe, who had to
strike him a violent blow with his revolver to get
his attention; but when that occurred he sung out
in fine style that he would surrender. He wore a
pair of long buckskin gloves that he presented to
me and they had printed across them the words
Augustus J. Mount of New Jersey. I would not
tell this but that Monroe is living to say whether
it is true or not. A letter addressed to him at Goldvein,
Fauquier County, Virginia, will receive immediate
attention. I suspect if Mr. Mount is alive
he, too, has a rather lively recollection of the incident.
We left the wounded man on the side of the
road, knowing full well that his friends would soon
be there. I was told afterward that he died. He
was as game a chap as I ever encountered.
I took my prisoners to Richmond and lodged
them in Libby Prison. At that time General
Meade's army was lying about Culpeper Court
House. The territory around Fredericksburg was
neutral, sometimes occupied by the scouting parties
of one side, sometimes by the other. About seven
or eight miles from Fredericksburg there was a
place called Hamilton's Crossing, to which, as I
knew, the railroad daily sent a train of long box-cars.
I took my prisoners to Hamilton's Crossing
to put them on this train. When I got there I
found Judge R. C. L. Moncure, the President of
the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia, a position
that corresponds to chief justice in the other
States. He is since dead, leaving a saintly name
as a man and a judge. The old gentleman's home
was in the lower end of Stafford County, near
Fredericksburg, though his family was with him in
Richmond. He had been to his home to kill and
slaughter a young steer that he had there and carry
it to Richmond for his family. I knew the old
gentleman well and we greeted each other most
cordially. The conductor gave me one of the long
box-cars to put my prisoners in, and locked the
Judge and myself in it with the prisoners. It was
just at nightfall when the train started for Richmond,
and it took us all night to get there. I had
on me two large army revolvers and I gave the
old Judge one of these. I put the prisoners at one
end of the car and the Judge and I sat on the floor
at the other end. It was pitch dark in the car. I
notified the prisoners that if I heard any movement
amongst them I should commence firing on them
and continue firing while the movement lasted, so
that there was perfect quiet there during the night.
The old Judge sat bolt upright all night guarding
the prisoners, while I laid down and had a good
night's sleep. We have often laughed together
since over how I made him sit up all night and
guard my prisoners while I enjoyed a refreshing
sleep.
I want to make it known that I did my duty as a
Confederate soldier, and so I state the following.
In 1896 I applied for membership in George E.
Pickett Camp of Confederate Veterans at Richmond.
The commander told me I must furnish
references to prove my standing as a soldier. I
replied that a private soldier should always refer
to his captain for testimony as to his standing, and
that my last captain, - two having been killed, -
E. M. Henry, lived at Norfolk, Virginia. He
wrote to him and received the following reply,
which is on file in Pickett Camp in Richmond:
NORFOLK, VIRGINIA, April 9, 1896.
Col. R. N. Northern, Commander Pickett Camp C. V.
Your Comrade, E. M. HENRY
I would not exchange that certificate for Mr.
Rockefeller's fortune.
At "The Grove" there were two churches and
nothing else; one was a Presbyterian church on the
north side of the public road, the other, a Baptist
church, on the south side. My mother's home was
distant only two miles from "The Grove." My
father, a Presbyterian minister, had built the
Presbyterian church at "The Grove," and he
preached in it for twenty years. He was buried at
the back of the church.
The officer in charge of the party that had
captured me was a lieutenant in the Second New
York Cavalry. He had frequently ridden over to
my mother's house and had made the acquaintance
of the family. They treated him courteously and
politely, and he had promised my mother that if
I ever fell into his hands he would see that I was
properly treated. When we got to "The Grove"
I was put into the Baptist church. After a while
I was sent for and taken over to the Presbyterian
church. When I entered I saw a table around
which were seated some five or six officers with a
Bible on the table. I had had sufficient acquaintance
with military matters to know that a drumhead
court martial in the field is usually nothing
but a stepping-stone to the gallows, and this looked
to me prodigiously like a drumhead court martial.
I was ordered to be seated, and then Colonel
O'Brien read an order which he seemed to have
that day received from General Kilpatrick. It was
about like this;
COLONEL O'BRIEN:
GENERAL KILPATRICK.
Colonel O'Brien told me I was about to be tried
by court martial on the charge of being a bushwhacker.
The situation was about as terrible as a
boy of nineteen could be confronted with. For a
time I was dazed and could say nothing. But by
degrees I recovered possession of my faculties, and
was soon pleading my cause more earnestly than
I have ever since pleaded one. I had General
Stuart's orders in my pocket detailing me from my
regiment and ordering me upon the very service I
had been engaged in, and I made the most of that.
Finally I was sent out. In the course of an hour
Colonel O'Brien came to me and told me the court
had acquitted me. I doubt if in all my career my
life has been in as much danger as it was that day.
After the trial I was put into an ambulance to
be carried to General Meade's headquarters at
Brandy Station, Culpeper County. My friend, the
second lieutenant of the Second New York Cavalry,
who had been on the court martial, came to the
ambulance with some loaves of bread for me. I
asked him how it was I escaped. He told me he
had promised my mother to look out for me if I
ever fell in his hands and that he had just taken
the stand in the court that I should not be hung
and had finally brought a majority of the officers
over to his side. When I got to General Meade's
headquarters I was put into the "bull pen." This
was a circular stockade made of split poles set into
the ground and about fifteen or eighteen feet high,
with no covering for it but the heavens. It was
bitterly cold, and the snow fell that night a foot
deep. When I entered the "bull pen," which was
filled with Federal deserters, Confederate deserters,
Confederate prisoners of war and civilian prisoners,
perhaps fifty in number all told, to my amazement
I found amongst them my little brother Taylor,
twelve years of age. Some wretched raiders had
torn him from my mother's arms and had brought
him there. My mother was only able to throw an
old shawl around him, which she had pinned at the
neck. The poor little fellow was shivering with
cold when I found him. There was a small open
fire in the middle of the pen that every one was
struggling to get near. I struggled with the rest,
to get Taylor to the fire, but with my wounded
hand I was not in good shape for the struggle.
That night we had to lie upon the ground to get
what sleep we did get. I had a heavy army overcoat
and I took the child in my arms, wrapping
his shawl and my overcoat around us as best I
could, and there we lay through all that dreadful
night.
Next day I was taken out of the "bull pen" and
sent to the Old Capitol Prison in Washington. I
never saw Taylor again. The exposure was too
much for him. His throat was weak and had been
operated on. In a short time he was taken out of
the "bull pen" and sent to Alexandria, and there,
in the common jail, he died, without a face near
him that he had ever looked on before.
I was kept in the Old Capitol Prison until about
the middle of June, when I was sent around by
sea to Fort Delaware, which is situated upon a
small island about forty miles from Philadelphia,
where the Delaware River debouches into the
Delaware Bay. The river is about four miles wide
at this point and the island is in about the middle
of the river. There were some eight thousand
Confederate prisoners on this island during the
year I stayed there. They were kept in barracks
made by planking up frames of scantling. These
barracks were very open, and there was only one
stove to a barrack containing 400 men, called a
division. The stove was practically useless for
heating the barrack, and the weather was intensely
cold there in the winter. I have seen the Delaware
River frozen over so fast and tight that an army
with all its artillery and trains could pass over on
the ice.
When I had been there a short time, Hon.
Theodore F. Randolph, afterward Governor of
New Jersey and United States Senator from New
Jersey, who had married a relative of mine, found
out I was at Fort Delaware and from that time on,
until I was released from prison in June, 1865, he
supplied me with $25 every six weeks. Two members
of my company were in prison with me and I
shared this money with them. It was most material
in keeping us alive.
The treatment we received at Fort Delaware is
an everlasting disgrace to the Government of the
United States of that period. Much has been said
of the bad treatment of Union soldiers held
prisoners by the Confederacy but it is well known
that the Confederates were anxious to exchange
prisoners and that the Union prisoners fared as
well as the Confederate soldiers in the field. The
Confederates did as well as they could do, but
there was no excuse for the Union Government
not giving us all the food and warmth that was
necessary for they had an abundance of everything.
We were starved and frozen; we had but two
meals a day. Breakfast consisted of a piece of
loaf bread about the size of a man's clenched fist
and a little piece of salt pork or beef about an
inch thick. We had no coffee. Dinner consisted
of the same. This was not food enough to keep a
man from being perpetually hungry and no one
can imagine the pangs of perpetual hunger who
has not endured them.
A piece of wanton cruelty was inflicted upon us
in the matter of blankets. No prisoner was allowed
to have more than one blanket, never mind
how he might have come in possession of the excess.
Once in every two weeks the whole prison was
turned out and each man was searched and all blankets
in excess of one to the man were confiscated.
I used to buy blankets in between these searches,
for myself and my two comrades, but they were invariably
taken away from us and we had to sleep
in that awful cold on bare planks with little or no
covering. Our sufferings were intense.
In June, 1865, I returned to my mother's home
to find the family, consisting of my mother, my
grandmother, my aunt, my elder, but incapacitated
brother, my sister and her husband and four children
and my unmarried sister, existing, but that
was all, on the place. The negroes were all gone,
the Federal army had taken from them every animal
and how they had managed to exist I could
not understand. I went to work as a common
laborer on the farm and labored there two years,
by which time I had pulled the place up so that
my mother and her family could get a very good
living out of it.
My mother had some money at interest before
the war, and getting that in, she gave me $2,000
and started me out in the world to make my future
whether good or bad.
I came to Richmond, January 1, 1868, and
read law with William Green, Esq., the most profound
and learned lawyer that I have ever known
anything of. His argument in the case of Moon
vs. Stone in 19th Grattan has been referred to by
the judges in Westminster Hall.*
* Mr. Green was not
only a most learned lawyer, but he had
picked up a vast deal of miscellaneous information from books,
and when once he learned a thing in reading it stuck in his mind
like a burr. Like all very learned men he always had a "wise
saw and modern instance" for every case, and the thing that
interested him whenever any subject came up for discussion was
the appropriateness of the citation he was going to make for that case.
For two or three years after the close of the war Chief Justice
Salmon P. Chase came to Richmond regularly to hold the
United States Circuit Court. On one of these occasions Mr.
James Lyons, an eminent member of the Richmond bar, gave
Judge Chase a dinner to which Mr. Green was invited. During
dinner Judge Chase told an anecdote about Mr. Lincoln. He
said that soon after the Monitor and the Merrimac had their
bout in Hampton Roads, the Secretary of the Navy invited Mr.
Lincoln, himself, and two or three other members of the Cabinet
to take a little jaunt on a government steamer down the Potomac.
Between Washington and Alexandria they came to a
place where a cordon of logs and other obstructions extended
from either shore to the channel, leaving just enough space for
a good sized steamer to pass through. Mr. Lincoln asked the
Secretary of the Navy what that was meant for. "Oh," replied
he, "that has been constructed here to stop the Merrimac in case
she should get up here." "Well," said Mr. Lincoln, "that reminds
me of an anecdote. Once I was riding through my district
in Illinois accompanied by a friend or two, and we came
to a stream where several naked men were bathing. I said to
one of my friends, 'I wonder why men were given udders.'
'Oh,'
said he, 'it was to suckle babies in case they had any."' Well,
every one was on the go to laugh at the great man's joke and
the laugh had got well under way, when Mr. Green cut
in with, "Well, Mr. Chief Justice, Dr. Haxall there will tell
you that there have been known cases where men have suckled
infants."
At the end of a year's study I was licensed to
practice law, and I hung out my shingle in the city
of Richmond. The society of Richmond was at
that time most delightful as it is to this day. The
young ladies were many of them very beautiful and
of the most fascinating manners. They had just
emerged from the war, during which they had been
constantly thrown with the most gallant and attractive
men in the Confederate Army, and they had
thus acquired an aplomb and a savoir faire excelling
by far that of any set of young women that
I have ever been thrown with. Amongst the men
were to be found the choice spirits of the Confederate
Army. There were youngsters who had won
the stars of a colonel on the battlefield, when
under twenty-one. All of the young men had
served throughout the war in the ranks or with
commissions, and this made a camaraderie amongst
them that never existed anywhere else on the earth.
Into this delightful society I had free access,
and that access left upon me a deep scar which I
bore for a long time.
I was an awkward, gawky youth, some twenty-three
years of age when I arrived in Richmond.
My clothes were of the cut of the countryman and
my ways and manners very much the same. There
dwelt then in Richmond a young girl of nineteen,
who was more beautiful and fascinating than Cleopatra
was ever thought to be by either Caesar or
Mark Antony. Her initials were M. R. Her
eyes were of the deepest blue, her voice was softer
and more tender than any strain in Tannhauser's
Song to the Evening Star, and she had a soft poise
and balance that captivated any man who fell
under her influence the moment he heard her speak
a word. After arriving in Richmond I soon made
the acquaintance of this fairy, and of course at
once fell madly in love with her. Everybody knew
how madly I was in love with her and everybody
said, "What a fool that green young man Royall
is to dare aspire to the hand of Miss M. R." She
was courted by all the best men in the land. But
that did not restrain me. All my life I have dared
to aspire to whatever I want, and obstacles have
only quickened my desires. I went on loving this
fascinating creature and working out schemes deep
down in my inner self for winning her. I soon
declared my love to her, and was of course told
that she could not think of me. Did that moderate
my ardor? Well, I should think not. It simply
increased it. I made that girl's life a burden to
her. I asked myself always, "Why am I not as
worthy of her as any other? No man can love
her as I do. I shall win her." I persisted day in
day out, month in month out, year in year out,
and after a while I saw I was gaining a foothold.
We had quarrel after quarrel, and for days
and sometimes weeks we would not speak. But
I saw she was yielding, and when I was alone I
was ready to dash my head against the wall in
recognition of the thought. In the end she yielded
and admitted that she cared for me. No man can
imagine what ecstasy I enjoyed while we were engaged.
But clouds arose upon our horizon and
I can never forget that day we parted. I was
a wounded man from the hour the separation occurred.
She was at a Virginia mountain resort that summer,
and I, like a fool, went there. She was chaperoned
by her friend, Mrs. T. D. A talented and
charming old widow named Mrs. R. S. sat at their
table with them. One night my friend E. F. told
me Mrs. R. S. was going to seat a gentleman
named R. J., who had arrived that day, at their
table, and that Mrs. T. D. objected very much to
his being placed there. I knew all about R. J.
He was a little dissipated, but he was a gentleman
and had served through the war with great gallantry
as a Confederate soldier. I knew that what
was in my mind would probably cause him to challenge
me to a deadly duel, but that did not amount
to a moment's consideration with me. The only
thing that counted with me was the fact that Mrs.
T. D. objected to his being at her table and that
no doubt Miss M. R. shared in the objection. My
life was of no moment where Miss M. R.'s wishes
were involved. I at once said to E. F., "Mrs. T.
D. is my relative, and if she does not want that
gentleman at her table, he shall not be put there."
I then went up on the long porch where I knew
Mrs. R. S. was in conversation with R. J. I called
her to one side and asked her if it was true she proposed
to put R. J. at Mrs. T. D.'s table. She
said it was. "Then," said I, "you must not do it."
In great surprise she asked why. I replied, "Because
I do not wish it and will not allow it." She
said she would put him there anyway. I replied
that if she did it would become my disagreeable
duty to take him away. She did not put him at
the table, and I did not have the duel that I expected
to result. I merely mention this incident,
very disreputable to me, I admit, to show how
deeply and desperately I loved that girl. As I
have said, we separated, and she married a man
who lived in New York. Though I had not
spoken to her in two years, she wrote me a sweet
note inviting me to her wedding. I did not go,
but I went that night to a faro bank, where I lost
all the money I had about me and also a handsome
overcoat that had cost me $75, a sum to be taken
notice of by us young rebels. I was heart-broken
and became dissipated and lost ten of the most
valuable years of my life. But in time I became
my former self and married my present wife, Miss
Judith Page Aylett, a great-granddaughter of
Patrick Henry, who has made ample compensation
to me for all that I lost.
One incident of the year 1873 in which I played
a leading part made a great noise at the time.
Miss Mary Triplett, one of the most beautiful
women ever created by the Almighty, was at that
time a reigning belle in Richmond. Page McCarty,
an attractive, devil-may-care sort of fellow,
who then lived there, fell desperately in love with
her, and it was generally understood that they had
become engaged to be married. All at once Miss
Mary broke off with him and went to Europe,
where she stayed possibly a year. When she returned
she would not speak to McCarty and would
never afterward have anything to do with him.
We had a german club that met once in two weeks.
The club was usually led by a reckless, bright,
audacious fellow named Sprigg Campbell. At one
of their meetings Campbell contrived a figure that
would throw McCarty and Miss Triplett together
for a dance. It was a wanton act intended
for cleverness. They met, commenced to dance,
but after a turn or two, Miss Triplett disengaged
herself and walked to her seat. Every one knew
that she intended it as a slur on McCarty. It
threw him into a desperate rage. He spoke of it
to me after the german, and I have never seen a
man more wrought up than he was.
Amongst the young men of Richmond at that
time was one named John B. Mordecai. He was
six feet two, about thirty-three years of age, and
one of the handsomest men I have ever seen. He
had served gallantly through the war as a private
soldier in the Richmond Howitzers, was a fellow
of the most delightful wit, and take him all in all,
I think he was about the most charming companion
I have ever known. Handsome, gallant, chivalrous,
affectionate, and witty, I have never seen his
like. He, too, was desperately in love with Miss
Triplett.
The night of the german and after it was over
McCarty went to the Enquirer newspaper and
offered them the following verses which the paper
published next morning:
"For still with fire love tips his dart,
"Of form so fair, of faith so faint,
I was a bachelor then
and took my meals usually at Gerots' restaurant. The next morning after
the german, I was in Gerots' getting my breakfast,
and had just read these verses in the Enquirer when
John Mordecai came in. He took up the paper
and his eyes fell on the verses. He understood
the whole situation at once, and I saw his face get
as black as midnight. Laying down the paper he
said, perceiving that I understood the case, "I shall
kill that fellow."
I remonstrated with him, telling him it was a
matter that he had no right to interfere with; that
Miss Triplett had a grown brother who would do
whatever was proper to be done in such a case,
and that he did not know whether she or her family
wanted anything done. He would not be quieted,
however, but went off to our mutual and very dear
friend, Willie Trigg, to consult with him. Trigg
told him exactly what I had told him, and between
us we got him to promise to let McCarty alone.
That night I met him at the Richmond Club,
and being seated together on a sofa he proceeded
to denounce McCarty in the most unmeasured
terms. A relative of McCarty overheard him and
reported the denunciation to McCarty. At that
time duelling was dying in Virginia, but it was very
far from dead. McCarty sent a friend to Mordecai
demanding a retraction and apology, which
Mordecai refused to make. I knew that McCarty
said he had not written the verses about Miss Triplett,
but about another lady named Mary, and I
intervened as a friend, and got the matter patched
up upon the basis of the verses having been written
about another person. Thereupon the matter was
supposed to be closed.
But there were gossips in Richmond, and one,
a singularly beautiful and intelligent girl, made her
tongue busy with insinuations that McCarty had
backed out because he was afraid. These things
came to McCarty's ear and put him in a terrible
fury.
A short time afterward Mordecai entered the
barroom of the Richmond Club where McCarty
and Charley Hatcher were. Mordecai ordered a
drink, and while it was being prepared McCarty
walked up and down the floor right by Mordecai,
making reference to the affair and making threats
of what he would do the next time he got a chance.
Presently Mordecai walked up to him and said,
"Do you mean those remarks for me?" McCarty
replied in the most insulting manner, "And who
are you, sir?" Mordecai answered, "I am a gentleman,
at least." McCarty said as offensively as
possible, "Ah!" and Mordecai instantly struck him
a powerful blow in the face which cut all the skin
from over his left eye and felled him to the floor.
Mordecai then jumped on him, seizing both his
wrists, and had him pinned to the floor, when I,
hearing the noise, rushed in and separated them.
McCarty at once sent Mordecai a peremptory
challenge by Col. Wm. B. Tabb, and it was agreed
that the duel should come off at once near Oakwood,
McCarty to be represented by Colonel Tabb
and John S. Meredith; Mordecai, by myself and
Willie Trigg. The terms were that they were to
fire at ten paces. The command would be, "Fire -
one, two, three." They could fire at any time
after the word "fire," but not after the word
"three." The weapons to be used were Colt's
army revolvers, all six chambers loaded.
We placed the men, the word was given, both
men fired, and both missed. Tabb said to McCarty,
"Are you satisfied?" McCarty replied,
"Oh, no. I demand another fire." I have quoted
everything exactly. Again the word was given,
both men fired and both fell. McCarty was
badly wounded by a shot in the hip, Mordecai had
been struck near the navel, the ball penetrating
the intestines. He died on the fourth day after the
duel. McCarty lingered a long time but finally
recovered, and in a trial was fined $500 and sent
to jail for six months. The Governor remitted the
jail sentence on the doctor's certificate that it
would endanger his life.
This was the famous duel between Mordecai
and McCarty. There were several duels after this,
but none of them fatal, and the duel in Virginia
is now as dead as Chatham's ghost. I think
Mordecai was one of the knightliest gentlemen that
ever lived on this earth. He was shot on Friday,
but did not die until Tuesday. Monday night
peritonitis set in and all of Tuesday it was known
he must die and he knew it too. They urged that
he should send for a minister of the Gospel, but he
replied, "No, I shall die as I have lived," and he
never uttered a whimper. An hour before his ending
he sent for me. Putting his arms around my
neck he pulled my ear down to his mouth and
whispered, "Remember, Royall, what I told you."
I answered, "I certainly shall, John." It was a
message to his sweetheart.
As I was much mixed up in duels while they
lasted, although bitterly opposed to them on principle
and detesting the very mention of them, I
shall detail here all that I propose to say of them.
In 1861 Bradley T. Johnson was a handsome,
stylish-looking lawyer of about thirty-three. He
lived at Frederick, Maryland, where he had at
that time acquired much reputation as a lawyer
and public man. He was an ardent secessionist
on principle and believed that the time had come
for the South to secede from the Union. When
the Confederate Government was established at
Richmond, he went there as captain of a company
of infantry which he brought from Frederick. In
a short time the Maryland companies were all consolidated
into the First Maryland Infantry, and
Johnson became its colonel.
There was no more daring and gallant soldier
in the Confederate Army than Johnson. His
regiment was with Stonewall Jackson in that renowned
campaign of his in the Valley of Virginia
in 1862, and it contributed most materially to winning
Jackson's prodigious reputation. Jackson,
who knew a soldier the moment he laid eyes on
him, was continually writing Jeff Davis and the
Secretary of War, urging that Johnson should be
promoted to brigadier-general, but Mr. Davis,
hide-bound to one of his pet theories, always
answered there was no Maryland brigade for him,
as if we were not to have the services of the most
useful man in the army if there was no command
from his State.
When the second battle of Manassas was
fought in the fall of 1862 the enlistment of the
Maryland regiment had expired. They were
disbanded, and Johnson was without a commission
and without a command. He was riding at that
time with Stonewall Jackson as a sort of volunteer
aide. One of Jackson's Virginia brigades was
without a brigadier and Jackson told Johnson he
must take command of it. Johnson told Jackson
he had no commission. Jackson replied that made
no difference; that he was well known in the army
as a colonel and wore the uniform of a colonel, and
that if he went to brigade headquarters with his,
Jackson's, order to take command of it, everybody
would submit to his orders, and so the case proved
to be. Though without a commission, Johnson
made one of the greatest fights at the railroad cut
with that Virginia brigade that was ever made in
war.
At one time, after he had repulsed one of the
several attacks and his ammunition was almost
exhausted, he detailed all of the orderly sergeants to
go out on the field and get all the cartridges on the
dead Federals. While the orderly sergeants were
all in a group dividing this ammunition a shell
burst amongst them and prostrated the whole
crowd. This of course produced a very demoralizing
effect on the brigade, which was under a heavy
artillery fire, and Johnson, calling the men to attention,
put the brigade through the manual of arms
as though it had been at a holiday picnic. *
Johnson came back into the service, and finally
his splendid services compelled the administration
to make him a brigadier-general, with which rank
he served to the end. He settled at Richmond
when peace came to practice law, and he had very
great success from the beginning. By 1873 he
was a man of very independent means, and in that
year he offered me a partnership, which I very
gladly accepted. We were as intimate friends up
to the day of his death as ever lived. No two
brothers could have been closer, and I loved him
tenderly and sincerely.
William Mahone was born in Virginia in one
of the counties south of the James River, between
Petersburg and Norfolk. He received a military
education at the Virginia Military Institute, and
this enabled him to get the command of a Virginia
regiment of infantry at the beginning of the civil
war. He was very soon given a brigade of five
Virginia regiments, so that it may be said that he
commenced the war as a brigadier-general. His
brigade was one of the finest in the Confederate
Army, and it did some of the most heroic fighting
that was seen during the war. Mahone was a
splendid organizer and looked after his men with
the most careful attention, so that the brigade was
always in first-class condition. The senior colonel
in the brigade was D. H. Weisiger, who became
brigadier-general commanding the brigade when
Mahone was made major-general. Weisiger commanded
the brigade in almost every engagement it
was in. He has frequently told me that he never
saw Mahone under fire and that he never commanded
the brigade in a single action.
In July, 1864, General Grant blew up a part
of General Lee's lines in front of Petersburg with
a mine that he exploded. Lee had known of this
mine for some time, and had concentrated an artillery
fire on the point that made it simply impossible
for any troops to come through the gap made in
the lines until he was able to reinforce the point.
Two brigades of Mahone's division, the Virginia
brigade and the Georgia brigade, were brought up
by a covered way to retake the position then occupied
by a large force of Union troops. Mahone's
brigade, under Weisiger, marched out of the covered
way, leaving Mahone in it, formed in line
some hundred yards from the point of attack, and
charged the enemy occupying our lines. It was a
heroic act and was perfectly successful. Just as
poor old Weisiger had got possession of our lines
and of everything in them, he was shot through the
body. He was carried back to the covered way
to where Mahone was. Weisiger gave me this
account of what occurred. Mahone said, "Weisiger,
why in the hell are you and old Joe Johnston
always getting yourselves shot?" Weisiger said
he thought it was all over with him, and he was
therefore a little indifferent about insubordination,
and so he answered, "General Mahone, if you
would go where General Johnston and I go, you
would get shot sometimes, too."
Possibly I am not doing Mahone justice in this
sketch of him, because I hated him and he is the
only man I ever hated. For a number of years
he was engaged in a deliberate attempt to dishonor
my native State by forcing a repudiation of her
public debt, and in the contest which grew out of
that attempt I came to hate him. My feeling
toward him may be judged of by the following incident.
In some way or another, all at once, a marble
bust of Mahone appeared in the State Public Library
amongst her dignitaries and honored sons.
Everybody resented it, and I made a diligent effort
to find out by what authority it was put there; but
always found that whenever I got to the critical
point and was just about to find out something
that would count, all sources of information suddenly
closed up and I could get absolutely nothing
In one of the suits about our public debt which I
carried to the Supreme Court of the United States
(a full account of this whole matter will be given
later on), the Supreme Court reversed the judgment
of the Hustings Court of the city of Richmond
and gave me costs against the State, amounting
to something like $120. I applied to the Hustings
Court of the city of Richmond for an execution
against the State and it was given to me, and
I instructed the officers to go into the Public Library
and levy the execution on Mahone's bust and
nothing else. I intended to buy it at the sale, and
then publicly smash it into small fragments on
the public square. The officer went into the
Capitol building to do as I had directed, but Fitzhugh
Lee, who was then Governor, hearing of
the affair, had the officer forcibly ejected from the
building, and he refused to make any other levy
and so I failed to get Mahone's bust and lost my
costs also. We will go on now with Mahone.
He was as vain, conceited, and egotistical a
little chap as ever had anything to do with Virginia's
affairs. At the end of the war he had a
very considerable military reputation, but some
soldiers said it was a reputation made for him by
the newspapers. It has always been persistently
claimed that he kept a newspaper correspondent
hanging about his headquarters to write him up
upon all occasions. However that may be, the
following are undoubted and, in the main, recorded
facts.
In June, 1870, there appeared in the Historical
Magazine, of New York, a monthly of great influence
and importance, an article entitled, "A Military
Memoir of William Mahone, Major-General
in the Confederate Army," by Gen. J. Watts De
Peyster. The article stated that it had been submitted
to General Mahone before publication, and
that it was approved of by him. The article was,
perhaps, one of the most fulsome that was ever
approved by any man. It said that Mahone was a
better soldier than Longstreet, and the equal, and
in some respects the superior, of Stonewall Jackson.
All this would have passed with nothing but the
contempt of judicious men if it had been all. But
it was not all. The article went on to disparage
some other soldiers, and Gen. Jubal A. Early
amongst them. I knew General Early very intimately,
and if Mahone had asked my opinion before
he published his article I should have told
him to be careful about what he said of him.
General Early was a rugged character, but one of
the loftiest, sincerest, and most loyal men that ever
lived, and the last man in the world to submit to
an injustice. Accordingly, when he learned of this
article he wrote Mahone a note calling his attention
to the unjust references to himself, and Mahone,
being then in the pride and plenitude of a
power that I will explain further on, treated
Early's note in the most cavalier manner, and made
no answer at all. Thereupon General Early
wrote him a twenty-page letter reviewing his whole
career in the war and out of the war. It was such
a letter as no one man ever received and submitted
to in the history of the world. In those days of
duelling it meant a fight.
Well, Mahone had no stomach for a fight, and
so he got a number of the most prominent people
in the State to intervene, Gen. Bradley T. Johnson
amongst them, and the matter was adjusted upon
the basis that Mahone should have the article
republished in the Historical Magazine with all the
offensive references to General Early omitted, and
this was done. It was the general understanding
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* I am referring to the movement of the first
moments of
contact. Later, Kershaw's division was stretched out on the right,
and Field's division on the left of the plank road Anderson's
division of the Third Corps supporting. The long interval next
to Ewell was protected by Heth's and Wilcox's divisions of the
Third Army Corps. General Longstreet had for the 6th of May
battle on the right about twenty-one thousand enlisted men. In
the battle of the 5th of May on the same ground General A. P.
Hill had only Heth's and Wilcox's divisions, about fifteen thousand
men, the interval on our left being unoccupied and a source
of anxiety all the afternoon.
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WM. H. PALMER.
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After our return from Gettysburg and while the
army was about Culpeper Court House, Colonel
Chambliss, of the Thirteenth Virginia, commanding
our brigade, had me detailed as a scout because
of my knowledge of the country north of the
Rappahannock, to get information concerning the
enemy then occupying that territory. I remained
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Dear Colonel: Yours
of the 7th inst. received, and in
reply would state that it gives me great pleasure to testify
to the good standing and soldierly qualities of Mr. W.
L. Royall during the war. He was a member of my
Company A, Ninth Virginia Cavalry, Beale's brigade.
He was a brave and gallant trooper, bold and daring, and
served for the last two years of the war as a scout, detailed for that purpose, and rendered valuable service in
gaining information as to the enemy's movements by his
daring and risk of life.
Capt. Co. A, Ninth Virginia Cavalry.
On March 20, 1864, I got into a brush with
some Federal cavalry and was shot through the
left hand and taken prisoner. The headquarters
of the command, which was the Second New York
Cavalry and the Eighteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry,
under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Timothy
O'Brien, were at "The Grove," in the lower
end of Fauquier County, Virginia, where these two
regiments had been for several weeks.
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The first
bushwhacker you catch, you will try by court martial and have hung.
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CHAPTER II
EVENTS IN RICHMOND - DUELLING
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"When Mary's queenly form I press
In Strauss' latest waltz,
I would as well her lips caress
Although those lips be false.
And kindles up anew
The flames which once consumed my heart
When those dear lips were true.
If truth were only in her;
Though she'd be then the sweetest saint,
I'd still feel like a sinner."
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