ievements of the war. Although
invested on the 26th of March, the siege of Blakeley was not pressed
until April 1, when Steele's corps of Canby's army joined the original
force before it. Here, with a garrison of twenty-eight hundred men,
commanded General Liddell, with General Cockrell, now a Senator from
Missouri, as his second. Every assault of the enemy, who made but little
progress, was gallantly repulsed until the afternoon of the 9th, when,
learning by the evacuation of Spanish Fort how small a force had delayed
him, he concentrated on Blakeley and carried it, capturing the garrison.
Maury intended to withdraw Liddell during the night of the 9th. It would
have been more prudent to have done so on the night of the 8th, as the
enemy would naturally make an energetic effort after the fall of Spanish
Fort; but he was unwilling to yield any ground until the last moment,
and felt confident of holding the place another day. After dismantling
his works, Maury marched out of Mobile on the 12th of April, with
forty-five hundred men, including three field batteries, and was
directed to Cuba Station, near Meridian. In the interest of the thirty
thousand non-combatants of the town, he properly notified the enemy that
the place was open. During the movement from Mobile toward Meridian
occurred the last engagement of the civil war, in a cavalry affair
between the Federal advance and our rear guard under Colonel Spence.
Commodore Farrand took his armed vessels and all the steamers in the
harbor up the Tombigby River, above its junction with the Alabama, and
planted torpedoes in the stream below. Forrest and Maury had about eight
thousand men, but tried and true. Cattle were shod, wagons overhauled,
and every preparation for rapid movement made.

From the North, by wire and courier, I received early intelligence of
passing events. Indeed, these were of a character for the enemy to
disseminate rather than suppress. Before Maury left Mobile I had learned
of Lee's surrender, rumors of which spreading among the troops, a number
from the neighboring camps came to see me. I confirmed the rumor, and
told them the astounding news, just received, of President Lincoln's
assassination. For a time they were silent with amazement, then asked if
it was possible that any Southern man had committed the act. There was a
sense of relief expressed when they learned that the wretched assassin
had no connection with the South, but was an actor, whose