exactly word for word, as the British journalist has reported him.

An amusing anecdote, related by Gen. Wilcox, relieves the story of his hard fight at Gettysburg, and may be inserted here. A few days before the battle, Longstreet's and part of Hill's corps were resting near the town of Fayetteville. While lying here Gen. Wilcox published an order against all marauding, and forbidding the men to leave camp to hunt poultry, fruit, &c., lest they should be "gobbled up" by the militia with which the country swarmed. A member of the 10th Alabama regiment, one Pat Martin, had been detailed as teamster at the General's headquarters, with the view no doubt of keeping him out of the peril of battle, as he was a young and nice little fellow whom it seemed a pity to expose to war's rude and bloody usages. The day following his order referred to, the General espied Pat Martin slipping through the woods and bushes near his head-quarters with a string of fine chickens in his hand. He spoke to the little fellow harshly for his disobedience of orders, and ordered as a punishment that he should return at once to his regiment. A few days thereafter and the General was in the thick of the fight at Gettysburg. When he struck the enemy on the Emmettsburg road, he found himself, as we have already seen, in the midst of a terrible fire; several batteries on Cemetery Hill were playing upon his command; the shells were flying thick and fast, the General had one courier killed by his side and another wounded, the reins of his bridle were cut by bullets, and his alarmed horse was rearing and plunging, and had become almost unmanageable. Just at this moment he caught sight of little Pat Martin, who advanced towards him, halted a squad of sixteen Federal prisoners he was conducting, formed them and faced to the front, and, saluting the astonished General with an air of triumph or revenge, said: "Here are your chickens, Sir."

On the 9th August, 1863, Wilcox was promoted Major-General, and assigned to the command of the division in Hill's corps that Pender had commanded at Gettysburg. It consisted of Lane's North Carolina brigade, five regiments, Thomas's Georgia brigade, four regiments, McGown's South Carolina brigade, five regiments, and Scales' North Carolina brigade, five regiments. This act of promotion was but tardy justice to Wilcox, and the

general sentiment of the army was that he had deserved it long before. Henceforth his name was more brilliantly associated with the Army of Northern Virginia; and it is hardly necessary to make a distinct statement of a career which ran through all the operations of the main army, in the great campaign of 1864, and is bound up in its general history.

From the Wilderness to Appomattox Court House, Wilcox' division bore its part and inscribed its banners with new victories. Conspicuously engaged in the bloody battles of the Wilderness, where, in conjunction with Heth's division, it forced the enemy back on the plank road; fighting desperately at Spottsylvania Court House, where one of its brigades drove the enemy out of his lines; making another gallant affair at Jericho Ford (May 24); distinguished in the action of Reams' Station (August 25); repulsing a movement of the enemy towards the Boydton plank-road (Sept. 30 and Oct. 1); engaged in the last battles around Petersburg, and in at the last shot at Appomattox Court House, the record of Wilcox's division is an essential part of that of the whole army, and an adorned chapter in the history of its achievements. But from this summary record we must detach one incident that glorified the last days of the Southern Confederacy, and is generally related as having fitly closed, with illuminated scroll, the career of the Army of Northern Virginia. It is the story of the defenders of Fort Gregg. Whose troops they were that gave this last example of devotion on Gen. Lee's lines had been subject to some doubt; but it is now certain that they were of Wilcox' command, and that the General himself, in the eventful morning of the 2d April, gave the order by which 200 men, mostly of Harris' Mississippi brigade, with cannoniers for two pieces of artillery, were placed in this work. The remainder of Harris' brigade were placed in Battery Whitworth (or Alexander), in which work were three pieces of artillery. These two small detachments of troops were ordered to hold these batteries to the last extremity, for these two points were all that now barred the road to Petersburg, since Longstreet's forces had not yet arrived, which were to occupy the interval between the right of the Petersburg lines and the Appomattox River. Extra ammunition was issued to the men. As the enemy's long line advanced, the two guns in Gregg and the

three in Whitworth opened on them. Their advance was not much retarded by this weak fire, and they soon got within reach. of the musketry fire of both Gregg and Whitworth. The three guns in Whitworth swept the ground well in front of Gregg, but, as the enemy advanced, they were withdrawn without orders from Gen. Wilcox. The main effort of the enemy seemed to be directed against Gregg. He advanced boldly against it, and, as the glittering array drew near, men could be seen falling rapidly under the close musketry fire of the little detachment in the fort. Three or four times did the enemy stagger and give way. But the attack was constantly renewed. Six Federal flags were counted on the parapet at one time, and still the contest continued. At last the little work was entirely surrounded; Federal troops, standing thick upon the parapet, fired down among the devoted men who still, with clubbed muskets, refused to surrender; and, when finally the flag of the enemy was secured on the work, it was found that not more than thirty of its defenders remained not killed or wounded. Such heroism has no parallel in the war. There had been nothing like it, no instance where a force so small had held in check so long such overwhelming numbers, and inflicted such losses upon the enemy. The Federal General Gibbon, who commanded the corps that took the fort, told Gen. Wilcox, at Appomattox Court House, that it had cost him from 800 to 1,000 men, killed and wounded.*

It is needless to repeat here any part of the sorrowful story of Gen. Lee's retreat. The painful stages, the desperate straits of the hard-pressed army have already been related. In the last scene in which it stood, Gen. Wilcox was conspicuous, having been ordered to support Gordon in his fearful.enterprise of forcing an exit to Lynchburg. As his division moved, and two of his brigades advanced to engage the enemy, Gen. Wilcox rode rapidly

*Fort Gregg could be seen some months ago, an interesting monument of the war. It was a lunette. Across its gorge, some fifty yards wide, was planted a palisade of pine posts, and in these were loop-holes to allow musketry fire in that direction. On the other portions of the work was a deep ditch, and in it water collected from the rains. The parapet was too high to be surmounted from the ditch without the aid of ladders. On the right, dirt had been dug and thrown up, and it had been designed to connect Gregg with Whitworth. This, however, was not done, and an embankment extended some twenty yards, which the enemy mounted, and got thence on the parapet of Gregg.

forward to communicate with Gordon, and had barely reached him when a horseman was seen in the direction of the enemy waving a white handkerchief and galloping towards the Confederate lines. As he approached, he was discovered to be a Federal officer, and proved Gen. Sheridan himself. Wilcox readily recognized him, as Sheridan had graduated at West Point when he was an instructor there. The latter asked "if it was true that there was a correspondence going on between Gens. Lee and Grant, with the view of suspending hostilities." Gen. Wilcox was about to answer in the negative, not having been advised of such a correspondence, when Gordon, who had just ridden from the front, spoke up and remarked that he had just been ordered to pass a flag, and forward it to Gen. Lee. Sheridan replied, "if that is the case we should arrest this affair at once, and have no more people hurt." He ordered his troops to be retired ont of view; Wilcox at the same time withdrawing his two brigades, and releasing some prisoners that had been captured by his skirmishers. Groups of officers quickly collected between the two lines; many of Gen. Wilcox' old West Point acquaintances rode forward to greet him, among whom were Gens. Gibbon, Griffin, Merritt and Ayres, and, as they awaited news of the conference of the two Commanding Generals, a free and pleasant conversation sprung up, in which present animosities seemed to be forgotten in recollections of the past and hopes of the future.

This brief sketch of the military life of Gen. Wilcox, shows him constantly identified with the Army of Northern Virginia. His reputation in this army commenced early, never declined, and grew to one of the most famous names of the war. He was known to the last as one of the most gallant and intrepid officers of the armies of the Confederacy. He had other distinguished elements of character and is not likely to be forgot or overlooked in the changes which have ensued upon the close of the war. Unimpeachable habits, integrity of aim and purpose, capacity and cultivation of the highest order, assure the reputation of the past, and promise, even in new walks of life, a brilliant destiny.

MAJ.-GEN. GEORGE E. PICKETT.

CHAPTER XLV.

His gallantry in the Mexican War.-Spirited action of Capt. Pickett in the "San Juan Difficulty."-Position of the State of Virginia in the Sectional Controversies. -Pickett's early appointments in the Confederate States Service.-The "GameCock Brigade," in Longstreet's Division.-Memorable and heroic action of Pickett's Division at Gettysburg.-Account of it in the Richmond Enquirer.Gen. Pickett's expedition on the North Carolina Coast.-His return to Petersburg -How "The Cockade City" was narrowly saved.-Operations around Petersburg.-Gen. Lee's Compliment to Pickett's men.-The Battle of Five Forks.The suppressed official report of Gen. Pickett.-His last tribute to his troops.Historical glory of "The Virginia Division."

GEORGE E. PICKETT is the eldest son of the late Col. Robert Pickett, of Turkey Island, in the county of Henrico, Virginia. He was born in the city of Richmond; entered West Point in June, 1842, and graduated in June, 1846. In the autumn of this year he was assigned to duty, with the rank of brevet secondlieutenant, and joined the United States army then in Mexico. The celebrated battles of Gen. Taylor had been fought before his arrival; but in the winter following, the command, to which Lieut. Pickett belonged, joined the expedition of Gen. Scott against the city of Vera Cruz. From Vera Cruz to the city of Mexico, Pickett served as second lieutenant in the 8th Infantry, Worth's command, and was noticed in the reports of Gen. Scott for his gallant conduct in the battles of Contreras, Cherubusco, Molino Del Rey, and Chapultepec. He was brevetted first lieutenant for gallantry at Contreras, and, "for gallant and meritorious conduct" at Chapultepec, he received the rank of captain.

After the close of the Mexican War, and until 1861, Capt.