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which was approaching; but the ammunition was fast giving out. Col. Florence's regiment fought hand to hand with the enemy, after their cartridges were expended; but it was of no avail, and, although the enemy's dead lay in heaps, we were obliged to give way, our left being completely turned. Everything assumed the appearance of a panic, when, by dint of great personal exertions on the part of my staff, together with the general officers and their staff officers, we compelled a rally and stand on Corse's Brigade, which was still in perfect order, and had repulsed, as had W. H. F. Lee's cavalry, every attempt of the enemy against them. One of the most brilliant cavalry engagements of the war took place on this part of the field, near Mrs. Gillian's residence. The enemy made a most determined attack in heavy force (cavalry), but were in turn charged by Gen. W. H. F. Lee, completely driving them off the field. This, with the firm stand made by Corse's men, and those that could be rallied at this point, enabled many to escape capture. Thus the shades of the evening closed on the bloody field."

The men who escaped capture were assembled on the railroad; their losses had been severe, several thousand having been taken prisoners. As night fell, Gen. Pickett with the remnant of his command took up his line of march towards Exeter Mills, intending to cross the Appomattox river at that point, when he received orders by a staff officer to report to Lieut.-Gen. Anderson at Sutherlan's. In the following morning, while on the march, he found the road strewn with stragglers from Wilcox' and Heth's divisions, who informed him that the lines in front of Petersburg had been forced. He at once struck for the general line of retreat towards Amelia Court-House, where he reported to Gen. Anderson. After the affair of Sailor's Creek, the history of this retreat, so often referred to in this volume, became a dull, harsh record of occasional skirmishing and continual marching, day and night; and in its last stages Gen. Pickett reported to Gen. Longstreet, and continued to receive orders from him until the army was surrendered and dispersed.

In his final report, officially addressed to Gen. Lee, Gen. Pickett thus epitomizes the deeds of the Virginia troops he had led so long, in language which his ardent and honourable regard for his men inspired, and to which history will add the commentary which

his personal modesty has withheld. "It is needless in this, my last report of the Virginia Division, to recall to the Commanderin-Chief the trials, hardships and battles through which they have passed. Baptized in war at Bull Run and the First Manassas, under Lieut.-Gen. Longstreet's instructions, they continued afterwards to follow the lessons taught them on their various marches; in the lines about Yorktown; at the glorious battle of Williamsburg, where, with Wilcox' Alabama Brigade, they withstood the advance of the whole of McClellan's Grand Army, and absolutely drove them back; at Seven Pines, where they were so highly complimented by Gen. Joseph E. Johnston; at Gaines' Mills, Frazier's Farm, Second Manassas, Boonsboro, Sharpsburg, Gettysburg, and the engagements about the lines in front of Bermuda Hundred, Fort Harrison, etc., which came under the personal observation of the Commander-in-chief. The written and verbal acknowledgments of their worth from him, have been gratefully appreciated by them."

The "Virginia Division," with such a record, will live as long as there is a pen to transcribe deeds of glory and living hearts to treasure the proud and tender memories of the past. The command of Gen. Pickett was composed of Virginians, himself the product and representative of the best school of the Virginia gentleman. In it was gathered much of the best and most cultivated manhood of the State; and men belonging to noble families, some with muskets in their hands, showed that superiour courage which belongs to the well-trained gentry of the Old Dominion, and proved themselves worthy of the blood which coursed in their veins. From their near countrymen the survivors of the command that fought at Gettysburg obtain homage, love, respect and admiration; from their enemies they need fear nothing but the weakest and vainest attempts at detraction, for there is a certain assured glory where stings of envy cannot enter and where shafts of slander fall harmless; and we solemnly believe it would be as vain to dispute before the world, after the experience of the past war, the heroic character of the modern Virginians, as that of the old Romans, whom centuries have accepted as types of the martial and manly virtues.

MAJ.-GEN. CHARLES W. FIELD.

CHAPTER XLVI.

Services in the United States Army and at West Point.-Commands a Brigade in "the Seven Days' Battles" around Richmond.-Promoted Major-General in 1864.Field's Division restores the Battle in the Wilderness. An unheralded victory on the Richmond lines.-Apocrypha of the newspapers.-Remarkable and brilliant appearance of Field's Division at the Surrender-What the Federal General Meade said of "the Rebels."

CHARLES W. FIELD was born in Woodford county, Kentucky, in 1818; his parents having migrated from Virginia, his father being a native of Culpepper county, where the family had lived for several generations, and maintains to this day some honoured representatives. The illustrious Henry Clay conceived a great fondness for young Field, and was indeed a devoted friend of his father, but being defeated in his candidacy for the Presidency, he was in no position to serve the boy, who, however, through the solicitation of ex-President Jackson, secured a cadetship at West Point, which he had long coveted, being appointed "at large" by President Polk, in 1845. Being graduated in 1849, he was assigned to the 2nd Dragoons, Col. Harney, and for the five suc ceeding years operated against the Indians on the frontier of New Mexico, Texas and the Plains. In 1855 he was promoted first lieutenant and transferred to the Second Cavalry, then being raised, A. S. Johnston, colonel, and R. E. Lee, lieut.-colonel. In 1856, he was ordered by the War Department on duty at West Point, as chief of cavalry at that institution, and remained there until 1861, when he resigned his commission as captain, and, going to Richmond, offered his services to the Southern Confederacy.

His first duties in the war were quiet and obscure, he having been appointed to organize a school of instruction for cavalry at Ashland, near Richmond; thence he was appointed to command the 6th Virginia Cavalry; but it was not until Johnston's army abandoned North Virginia, in 1862, that he appeared conspicuously in the field. He was then made a Brigadier-General, and finally, falling into the command of an infantry brigade (all Virginia regiments), he was placed in A. P. Hill's division, and in that fought in the Seven Days' Battles around Richmond, Cedar Run, and the Second Manassas. In the last named battle Gen. Field was dreadfully wounded, and was actually confined to his bed for nearly a year. In February, 1864, though still on crutches, he reported for duty, was made a Major-General, and was assigned to Longstreet's corps, and to the division that Gen. Hood had formerly commanded.

From that time to the surrender at Appomattox Court-House Field's Division was an honourable and familiar name. It was this division that mainly restored the battle in the Wilderness, when at one time it appeared that the Confederate right wing was gone, and Gen. Lee in desperation had offered to lead the Texas Brigade into action. "Go back," said these hardy soldiers, "and we'll show you what we will do." They did show it, they did repulse the enemy; but in twenty minutes two-thirds of this devoted brigade were on the ground, killed or wounded.

When Gen. Lee fell back to Richmond and Petersburg, Field's division was withdrawn and sent to the north line of the James, to meet a demonstration in that direction. On the 14th August, 1864, while Gen. Field held a line extending from Chapin's Bluff to New Market Heights, reinforced by some brigades from Mahone's, Wilcox' and Pickett's divisions, he sustained a heavy attack of the enemy, which at one time broke through a a gap of two brigades in his centre. It appeared that everything on the field was lost, and that there was nothing to stop the enemy short of the works immediately around Richmond. Gen. Field, however, called upon his old division, which had never yet failed him, formed it rapidly in front of the enemy, dashed at his advancing columns, drove them half a mile, and completely reëstablished his lines. It was a critical success; it may be said to have snatched Richmond itself from the grasp of the enemy. Gen. Field's forces

numbered about 14,000; those of the enemy were not less than 40,000, and the presence of Gens. Grant, Butler and Hancock on the field attested the breadth and seriousness of the enterprise. Yet this important and brilliant victory was scarcely ever heard of in Richmond, a few miles away. The only notice of it was a paragraph in the Whig, giving the credit to Mahone-who had never been nearer the battle-field than Petersburg, and who was even ignorant that a battle had been fought-and "hoping that his modesty would not prevent him hereafter from at least reporting his victories." Field's division was not even mentioned--a remarkable instance indeed of apocrypha, and the uncertainty of "the gazette" in heralding and distributing the honours of war.

It was in the last days of the Confederacy that Field's division shone in its greatest and most peculiar glory; for, to the very day of the surrender, it was remarkable that this body of troops was in prime fighting condition, compact and brilliant, partaking of none of the disorganization around it, animated by its glorious memories, and retaining its arms and spirit to the last. We respond to the noble and touching pride of its commander, when he writes: "I am proud of my division, always was, but was never so proud of it as on that black 9th of April, when, for the first time on the retreat, our army was all together, and I could compare their soldierly appearance and numbers and bearing with the wrecks about me." On the 1st April, Field's division was about the strength of the others; on the 9th he surrendered nearly 5,000 men-more than half Gen. Lee's entire infantry force surrendered in arms. Although it constituted the rear-guard on the retreat, and was thus constantly exposed, there was scarcely a straggler from the division, and but few captures. The division was composed of five brigades: Laws' Alabama, Jenkins' (afterwards Bratton's) South Carolina, Benning's and Anderson's Georgia, and Gregg's Texas. Jenkins was killed in the Wilderness, and Benning badly wounded there. At Cold Harbour, Law was wounded slightly, but was afterwards detached, and never rejoined his brigade. At Charles City road, October 7, 1864, Gregg was killed, and Bratton painfully wounded.

Gen. Field relates a pleasant incident of the surrender. While his division was at Appomattox Court-House, waiting to obtain their paroles, Gen. Meade, whose army was just in his rear, sent