[From the New Orleans, La., Picayune, October 4-11, 1903.]

CLOSING SCENES OF THE WAR ABOUT
RICHMOND.

Retreat of Custis Lee's Division and the Battle of Sailor's Creek.

By Captain MCHENRY HOWARD, of Baltimore, Assistant Inspector General, C. S. A., General Custis Lee's Division.

Between 10 and 11 o'clock Saturday night, April 1, 1865, just as I was falling asleep on the lines in front of Chaffin's Bluff, on the north side of the James river, a faint red glare illuminated the tent, followed by a low muttering like distant thunder.

The night was very dark and cloudy, the atmosphere damp and heavy, and at another time I might have found it hard to determine whether the sound was the distant roll of musketry or the rumbling of an approaching storm, but under the circumstance there was no difficulty in attributing it to the right cause.

Flash after flash shone through the canvas, and the muttering presently became almost continuous, although very little louder. There was something particularly awful in these half-suppressed, but deadly, signs of a far-off struggle, when contrasted with the perfect tranquility immediately around us.

Dressing ourselves and mounting the works, we watched and listened for half an hour, out the battle was across the James, and away over to our right all remained quiet along our part of the lines; and the "Richmond defenses" soon came to the conclusion that so far it was no affair of theirs, and like true soldiers went to sleep as fast as they could to make the most of their present exemption.

Sunday morning was cloudless and lovely, and everything continuing quiet in our front and not the slightest intimation of any change in the condition of affairs being received at division headquarters, I saw no reason why I should not ride to Richmond for the purpose of attending church. On reaching the city, I was not a little astonished to find it in great commotion. Fields' Division, which had formed the left of the line of three divisions on the north side of the James had been withdrawn and marched through town early in the morning, being called away in haste to re-enforce the

south side, where heavy fighting, it was stated, had been and was still going on. Matters were reported to be in a critical condition there, but there were also cheering rumors that Joe Johnston had eluded Sherman and was within a few hours' march of Grant's left flank, and many were buoyant with the expectation that the day would witness a repetition of the scenes of 1862.

The panic in St. Paul's Church, when one after another the principal officers of the government and other leading men were mysteriously summoned away in the middle of the service, has been often described. Many persons simultaneously left the church, and for a time there was great confusion among those who remained, but order was presently restored, and, being communion Sunday, the services were brought to a conclusion without further interruption and with usual solemnity.

By the way, it so happened that the disorder was at its height just before the time for taking up the usual collection, and I afterwards read an account of a Northern correspondent which related how the rector, recognizing the impending end of all things, with happy presence of mind, seized the occasion for reaping a last harvest from his scattering congregation.

At 2 o'clock the Spotswood Hotel and General Ewell's headquarters, corner of Franklin and Seventh streets, were points of greatest interest, and here large crowds blocked the pavements, eagerly discussing the rumors which hourly became more exciting and took more definite shape. It seemed certain that there had been heavy fighting the day before on the extreme right, in which the Confederates had been unable to withstand the attack of overwhelming numbers. I saw one of General Pickett's staff officers, who, reaching Richmond by railroad, after passing all the way around by Barksville Junction, reported that General's command as cut off and in a critical situation, and it was ascertained that the firing which we had listened to the night before was an attack made on the centre of our line, halfway between Petersburg and Chaffin's, where, owing to Pickett's Division having been drawn off to reinforce the extreme right, the works were defended by less than a skirmish line.

This attack had resulted in the capture of the works; a gap was thus made in our centre, through which the Federals poured their troops and massed them, preparatory to sweeping the entire line. It had been reported early in the day that General Ewell had received orders from General Lee to prepare to evacuate Richmond, and the story had been twenty times repeated and denied. By 4

o'clock, however, the belief was common that the Capital must be abandoned, causing a general activity, though more settled gloom. The scenes that afternoon will never be forgotten. Bundles, trunks and boxes were brought out of houses for transportation from the city, or to be conveyed to places within it which were fancied to be

more secure.

Vehicles of every sort and description, and a continuous stream of pedestrians, with knapsacks or bundies, filled the streets which led out from the western side of Richmond, while the forms of a few wounded officers, brought home from the battlefields, were borne along the pavement on litters, their calm, pallid faces in strange contrast with the busy ones around.

Ladies stood in their doorways or wandered restlessly about the streets, interrogating every passerby for the latest news. All formality was laid aside in this supreme calamity, all felt the more closely drawn together, because so soon to be separated.

I did not, however, witness the last and saddest hours of the evacuation, for learning that movements would soon take place in my own command, I mounted at sundown and galloped back to Chaffin's farm.

Here I found more of the confusion which I had left in Richmond, but there was only, instead, the unnatural stillness of stealthy prep

arations.

Orders had been received at Division Headquarters to move out as soon as the moon went down, which would be at 2 A. M. The hostile lines were very close at this point, Fort Harrison (Burnham) being only four or five hundred yards from Elliott's Hill, while the pickets were almost face to face; at one place two logs thrown across a path, separated by an interval of a few steps only, marked the limits of the respective beats.

An "armed neutrality" had always been strictly observed, however, and this tacid understanding of the pickets could be as well trusted as a safeguard from Lee or Grant together.

It is well known that during the latter part of the war pickets often declared war on each other and made truces independent of the rest of the army, and I have often known a warfare to be carried on between posts at one end of a brigade picket line while peace prevailed at the other; here one might expose himself without the slightest apprehension of danger, there the same exposure would be certain to draw a shot.

Ever since I had been attached to the command at Chaffin's, however, we had kept the truce.

I remember one morning standing in front of and very near to a long line of negro sentinels, endeavoring to recognize the faces of former acquaintances, when the officer of the guard passed along and with his sword beat unmercifully a number, who, true to their nature, were sitting on stumps fast asleep. But to return.

The country for half a mile in the rear of our works was perfectly open, so that the enemy could in daylight observe our slightest movement, or even any unusual activity on the part of couriers. We had, therefore, to exercise the very greatest circumspection. So, while at the different headquarters active but quiet preparations were in progress, every effort was made to preserve along the line its wonted aspect of apathy and Sunday rest.

But as soon as we had the friendly cover of night the work of breaking up camp and packing was begun in earnest.

Unfortunately, owing to the fact that the greater part of Custis Lee's Division had been persistently regarded as attached to the Richmond defenses, it had never been equipped like the rest of the army, and now at this crisis found itself utterly deficient in means of transportation.

The few wretched teams were driven down as close to the line as was prudent, and men carried the cooking utensils, baggage and ordnance on their backs to meet them. Although all the wagons were loaded almost beyond the ability of the miserable animals to start them, still piles of baggage remained lying by the wayside.

There was no help for it, and no time for selection even; and many an officer and man found himself about to start on an indefinite campaign without a single article, except what he wore upon his back, and with a very dim prospect indeed of being able to get a new supply.

But all minor griefs were absorbed in the one great disaster to the cause; and, according to their different temperaments, officers and men resigned themselves to their private destitution with cheerful resignation or the apathy of despair.

I took some comfort in the reflection that I was tolerably well shod at least, having invested $800-about six months' pay-in the purchase of a pair of boots a few days before in Richmond.

If night has the effect of covering a military movement to the eye, it nevertheless brings the disadvantage of discovering it to the ear, and, although the greatest possible silence was enjoined, it was

strange that from the creaking of wagons and noise of removing guns, of which there were about twenty along our front (not to speak of some twenty-four mortars and twenty heavy pieces at Chaffin's, etc., all of which latter were abandoned), the enemy did not get an intimation of what we were about.

Besides, either from the proverbial carelessness of soldiers, or from accident, every now and then a hut or pile of brush at the bluff, or in the woods in the rear, would blaze up, throwing a lurid glare far and wide; and although a staff officer galloped from spot to spot and endeavored to impress upon the men the imminent danger of drawing the enemy's fire, it was impossible to keep those fires down.

Shortly after midnight all was ready for the final and delicate operation of withdrawing the troops.

Fields' Division, as before explained, had been already taken away and there were now but two divisions on the north side of the James-except the cavalry, of the movements of which I am wholly ignorant-Custis Lee's command included, and stretched one mile. from Chaffin's Bluff, and was there joined by Kershaw's, which extended away to the left.

Kershaw had already moved out, and marching diagonally from the line and across our rear, had passed the river at Wilton Bridge. Custis Lee's command now took up the movement, commencing on the left. Generally the companies were marched by the right or left of companies to the rear, and there converging to form their respective battalions, then in turn concentrated still further to the rear into brigades, which finally formed the division line of march.

The pickets were left out with orders to withdraw just before day and rapidly overtake the main body. To the relief of all, no notice seemed to be taken of our movement by the enemy; it would have produced a fearful scene of confusion had his batteries been opened upon us at such a time.

The different columns united with tolerable regularity, and the command followed the route in the rear of Kershaw, across Wilton bridge, some two miles back of Chaffin's.

The wagon-train meanwhile had passed through Richmond to cross one of the upper fords and meet the troops somewhere about Farmville. We never saw it again.

By daylight we had made several miles on the Amelia Courthouse In the early gray of morning, while the command was resting for a few minutes, a sudden bright light drew the attention of