springing from the roof of the Capitol, although the State had not joined the Confederacy. The people were to vote on the question, and yet the Convention had enjoined that the act of Secession should be kept a secret till Norfolk Navy Yard and Harper's Ferry Arsenal could be seized. The newspapers of Richmond had no announcement to make the next morning that the State was no longer a member of the Union.

Then came the volunteers thronging the streets. Professor Jackson (Stonewall) was drilling the cadets. Three days after the passage of the ordinance of Secession, troops were swarming in the yard around the Capitol, and A. H. Stephens, Vice-President of the Confederacy, and ex-President Tyler, and the drunken Letcher were negotiating an alliance, offensive and defensive, between the sovereign State of Virginia. and the States already confederated to establish a slaveholding republic. Next in order was the arrival of Jeff Davis and the perambulating Government of the Confederacy, to tarry a few days in Richmond before proceeding to Washington. Davis and his followers made boastful promises of what they could and would do, breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the hated Yankees. Then the hurly-burly, — the rush of volunteers, the arrival of troops, welcomed with cheers and smiles, the streets through which they passed strewn with flowers by the ladies of Richmond. The Confederate Congress and heads of departments came, Stephens, Toombs, Cobb, Floyd, Wigfall, Memminger, Mallory, with thousands of place-hunters, filling the city to overflowing, putting money into the pockets of the citizens, not gold and silver, but Confederate currency, to be redeemed two years after the ratification of the treaty of peace with the United States. Beauregard, the rising star of the South, came from Charleston, to reap fresh laurels at Manassas. Richmond was solemn on that memorable Sabbath, the 21st of June, 1861, for through the forenoon the reports were that the Yankees were winning the day; but at night, when the news came from Davis that the "cowardly horde" was flying, panicstricken, to Washington, how jubilant the crowd!

A year later there were pale faces, when the army of McClellan swept through Williamsburg. Jeff Davis packed up his furniture, and made preparations to leave the city. There was another fright when the rebels came back discomfited from Fair Oaks.

From the roof of the Capitol anxious eyes watched the war-clouds rolling up from Mechanicsville and Cold Harbour. Those were mournful

days. Long lines of ambulances, wagons, coaches, and carts, filled with wounded, filed through the streets. How fearful the slaughter to the rebels in those memorable seven days' fighting! Deep the maledictions heaped upon the drunken Magruder for the carnage at Malvern Hill. Beneath the roof on which I stood Stuart, Gregg, and Stonewall Jackson, -- dead heroes of the Rebellion, had reposed in state, mourned by the weeping multitude.

Before me were Libby Prison and Belle Isle. What wretchedness and suffering there! Starvation for soldiers of the Union, within sight of the fertile fields of Manchester, waving with grain and alive with flocks and herds! Nearer the Capitol was the mansion of President Davis, the slave-trader's jail, and the slave market. What agony and cries of distress within the hearing of the Chief Magistrate of the Confederacy, as mothers pressed their infants to their breasts for the last time.

In front of the Capitol was the stone building erected by the United States, where for four years Jeff Davis had played the sovereign, where Benjamin, Memminger, Toombs, Mallory, Seddon, Trenholm, and Breckenridge had exercised authority, dispensing places of profit to their friends, who came in crowds to find exemption from conscription. Beyond, and on either side, was the forest of blackened chimneys, tottering walls, and smoking ruins of the fire which had swept away the accumulated wealth of years in a day. How terrible the retribution! Before the war there was quiet in the city, but there came a reign of terror when ruffians ruled, when peaceful citizens dared not be abroad after dark. There was sorrow in every household for friends fallen in battle, and Poverty sat by many a hearthstone.

Hardest of all to bear was the charity of their enemies. Under the shadow of the Capitol the Christian and Sanitary Commissions were giving bread to the needy. Standing there upon the roof I could look down upon a throng of men, women, and children receiving food from the kind-hearted delegates, upon whose lips were no words of bitterness, but only the song of the angels, – "Peace on earth, good-will to men!"

AT

CHAPTER XXVIII.

SURRENDER OF LEE.

T three o'clock Monday morning, April 3d, Willcox's division of the Ninth Corps entered Petersburg just in season to see the rear guard of Lee's army disappear over the hills on the north bank of the Appomattox, having burned the bridges and destroyed all the supplies which could not be transported. Lee's army was divided, - Longstreet, Pickett, and Johnson being south of the stream, fifteen miles west of the city. Gordon, Mahone, Ewell, and Elzy, with the immense trains of supplies and batteries from Richmond, were north of the river, — all moving southwest, towards Danville, with the intention of joining Johnston in North Carolina.

"Good-by, boys," said the women of Petersburg, some sorrowfully ; others more joyful cried, "We'll drink pure coffee, with sugar in it, to-morrow. No more hard times." They were weary of war. The troops passed through the town in silence and dejection. It was a sorrowful march. The successive disasters of Sunday, the sudden breaking up, the destruction of property, the scenes of the night, soon had their effect upon the spirits of the army. Soldiers slipped from the ranks, disappeared in the woods, and threw away their muskets, sick at heart, and disgusted with war. Virginia soldiers had little inclination to abandon the Old Dominion and fight in North Carolina. They were State-rights men, each State for itself. If Secession could cut loose from the Union, why not from the Confederacy?

Before noon the troops moving from Petersburg, and those retreating from Richmond, with all the baggage trains and flying citizens, came together on the Chesterfield road, producing confusion and delay. Had Lee thrown his supply trains upon the Lynchburg road, and made a days' march farther west with his army, instead of taking the nearest road to Danville, he probably would have escaped; but his progress was very slow. The roads were soft, the wagons overloaded. The stalling of a single horse in the advance delayed the whole army.

The teamsters were quite as unwilling to go south as the soldiers.

They expected every minute to hear the ringing shouts of Sheridan's men charging upon their flank or rear. There were frequent panics,

which set them into a fever of excitement, and added to the confusion. Grant determined to prevent Lee's escape if possible. The Ninth Corps was detailed to hold the town, guard the railroad, reconstruct it, and follow the other corps as a reserve. The Second, Fifth, and Sixth

Corps, instead of crossing the river, were sent upon the double-quick along the road which runs between the Appomattox and the South Side Railroad.

Ord, with the divisions of the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Corps, marched for Burkesville Junction. Sheridan, being in advance with the cavalry, reached Jettersville, on the Richmond and Danville road, fortyfour miles from Richmond, on the 4th, tore up the track, entrenched his

position, and waited for the infantry. Meade joined him on the morning of the 5th, while Ord, by a forced march, reached Burkesville, south of Sheridan.

Lee crossed the Appomattox at Clemenstown, moved southwest to Amelia Court House, where he was joined by Longstreet's, Pickett's, and Johnson's troops. The Appomattox has its rise in Prince Edward County, runs northeast, approaching within fifteen miles of the James, then turns southeast, and joins the James at Petersburg.

The bridge at Clemenstown, on which Lee crossed, was narrow and unsafe, and the army was much hindered. Had he not crossed at all, but marched round the bend instead, he might have slipped past Sheridan while that officer was waiting at Jettersville for Meade to join him. On the 5th Meade, finding that he was ahead of Lee, instead of marching west, turned northeast, and swept up the railroad toward Amelia, with the Fifth Corps on the right, the Second in the centre, and the Sixth on the left with the cavalry. Lee, seeing that he could not go down the railroad, instead of marching southwest, as he had done the day before, moved directly west, to give Meade the slip, if possible. He abandoned wagons, caissons, and forage, and everything that impeded his march.

The trains from Richmond were crossing the bridge when a panic set in. "While we were gazing," says a rebel writer, " at the wagons moving up from the bridge and entering the road leading to the courthouse, our ears caught the sound of five or six shots in succession; and, looking in the direction whence the sound came, we perceived two or three horsemen emerge from a wood about half a mile distant, and as quickly retire. We could not discern their uniform, but the supposition was, of course, that they were a part of Sheridan's cavalry. There was a slight confusion at the head of the train, and then a halt. 'The Yankees! Sheridan!' As the cry echoed from man to man, the teamsters began to turn their mules towards the river, many involving themselves with those in their rear, while others dismounted and sought the nearest wood. In five minutes the scene had been changed from quiet to the utmost disorder. The wagons were turned back with astonishing rapidity, each teamster unmercifully lashing his jaded animals, as anxious to reach the other side as an hour before he had been to get to this. The cavalry, who had been scattered over the fields, cooking or eating their breakfasts, now caught the alarm, and, leaving their rations, grasped their bridles, mounted, and spurred their horses towards the