preferred should rest on his achievements as a soldier. In private life General Thomas was of a genial and sunny temperament, social, and devoted to his friends. In all business and official transactions he was the soul of honor, and, like many of our great men, he died leaving but little property. All that he owned at the beginning of the war happened to be located in Virginia, and was promptly confiscated by the Confederate authorities. He never could be induced to accept a gift from any source. At the close of the war, the patriotic citizens of Cincinnati desired to buy and present him with a suitable home in that city; but he declined to accept it, and asked that the money might be appropriated for the benefit of wounded and disabled soldiers. England voted vast sums to Wellington.

Thomas was content with the modest pay of a major-general in the army, to which he was entitled by law.

Many have received the impression from the biography of General Thomas written by Chaplain Van Horne, that he was captious and discontented, disposed to raise questions of rank and precedence with his superiors and associates. Any impression of that character does him great injustice. His relations with Buell, Rosecrans, and Sherman, under whom he served during nearly the whole period of the war, were always of the most cordial and friendly character. He declined the command of the Army of the Cumberland at Louisville, in the fall of 1862, because he feared it might operate unjustly toward General Buell, who was ready to move out and attack Bragg. He was always loyal to Rosecrans, who relied on his counsel, and was his most trusted adviser and warm personal friend. Every act of his public life shows that he was not captious over questions of rank, but often submitted to injustice without a murmur. He was modest to a fault, brave, generous, and magnanimous always, and any biography which gives a different impression is incorrect.

General Thomas entertained no bitterness toward the people of the South, though the fact that he was a native of Virginia and did not follow in the footsteps of Lee and others was one that they could not easily forget or forgive. During his lifetime no one dared to question the purity of his motives; but after his lips were sealed by death there were some who were prompt to charge that his adherence to the Union was the result of disappointment in not receiving rank or position with the Rebel authorities. The charge that he ever wavered for one moment in his duty to his country needs no denial. It was impossible for General Thomas to have been other than he always showed himself to be from the beginning to the end of his public career, — a faithful and loyal servant of his country. The Virginia of the future will yet honor him as one of her noblest sons; and his countrymen have already assigned him a high place on the roll of our greatest and purest soldiers and patriots.

27

From the "Personal Memoirs of P. H. Sheridan," published by Charles L. Webster & Co.

LAST DAYS OF THE REBELLION.

BY PHILIP H. SHERIDAN.

[Read February 7, 1883.]

PUBLIC attention having of late been occasionally

called to some of the events that occurred in the closing scenes of the Virginia campaign, terminating at Appomattox Court House, April 9, 1865, I feel it my duty to give to history the following facts:

When, April 4, 1865, being at the head of the cavalry, I threw across the line of General Lee's march at Jettersville, on the Richmond and Danville Railroad, my personal escort, the First United States Cavalry, numbering about two hundred men, a tall, lank man was seen coming down the road from the direction of Amelia Court House, riding a small mule and heading toward Burkesville Junction, to which point General Crook had, early that morning, been ordered with his division of cavalry, to break the railroad and telegraph lines. The man and mule were brought to a halt, and the mule and himself closely examined, under strong remonstrances at the indignity done to a Southern gentleman. Remonstrance, however, was without avail, and in his boots two telegrams were found from the commissary-general of Lee's army, saying: "The army is at Amelia Court House, short of provisions; send three hundred thousand rations quickly to Burkesville Junction." One of these despatches was for the Confederate Supply Department at Danville, the other for that at Lynchburg. It was at once presumed that, after the despatches were written, the telegraph line had been broken by General Crook north of Burkesville, and they were on their way to some station beyond the break, to be telegraphed. They revealed where Lee was,

and from them some estimate could also be formed of the number of his troops. Orders were at once given to General Crook to come up the road from Burkesville to Jettersville, and to General Merritt, who, with the other two divisions of cavalry, had followed the road from Petersburg on the south side of and near the Appomattox River, to close in without delay on Jettersville, while the Fifth Army Corps, under the lamented Griffin, which was about ten or fifteen miles behind, was marched at a quick pace to the same point, and the road in front of Lee's army blocked until the arrival of the remainder of the Army of the Potomac on the afternoon of the next day.

My command was pinched for provisions, and these despatches indicated an opportunity to obtain a supply; so, calling for Lieutenant-Colonel Young, commanding my scouts, four men, in the most approved gray, were selected, good, brave, smart fellows, knowing every cavalry regiment in the Confederate Army, and as good "Johnnies" as were in that army, so far as bearing and language were concerned. They were directed to go to Burkesville Junction and there separate. Two were to go down the Lynchburg branch of the railroad until a Confederate telegraph station was found, from which they were to transmit by wire the above-mentioned Rebel despatches, represent the suffering condition of Lee's army, watch for the trains, and hurry the provisions on to Burkesville, or in that direction. The other two were to go on the Danville branch, and had similar instructions. The mission was accomplished by those who went out on the Lynchburg branch, but I am not certain about the success of the other party; at all events, no rations came from Danville that I know of.

I arrived at Jettersville with the advance of my command, the First United States Cavalry, on the afternoon of the 4th of April. I knew the condition and position of the Rebel Army from the despatches referred to, and also from the following letter (erroneously dated April 5),