etters of fire:

"While the lamp holds out to burn,
The vilest rebel may return."

Toward the latter part of March our battery moved half a mile back of
the line of breastworks. Two or more incidents recall, very distinctly
to my memory, the camp which we there occupied. The colored boy Joe, who
had cooked for my mess when rations were more abundant, was on hand
again to pay his respects and furnish music for our dances. If we had
been tramping on a hard floor never a sound of his weak violin could
have been heard; but on the soft, pine tags we could go through the
mazes of a cotillion, or the lancers, with apparently as much life as if
our couples had been composed of the two sexes. The greatest difficulty
incurred, in having a game of ball, was the procurement of a ball that
would survive even one inning. One fair blow from the bat would
sometimes scatter it into so many fragments that the batter would claim
that there were not enough remains caught by any one fielder to put him
out.

CHAPTER XXVIII

EVACUATION OF RICHMOND--PASSING THROUGH RICHMOND BY NIGHT--THE
RETREAT--BATTLE OF SAILOR'S CREEK--BATTLE OF CUMBERLAND CHURCH

While here, in the midst of our gaiety, came the news of the breaking of
our lines near Petersburg, and with this a full comprehension of the
fact that the days of the Confederacy were numbered. I was in Richmond
on Sunday, April 2, and escorted to church a young lady whose looks and
apparel were in perfect keeping with the beautiful spring day. The
green-checked silk dress she wore looked as fresh and unspotted as if it
had just run the blockade. As the church we attended was not the one at
which the news of the disaster had been handed to President Davis, our
services were not interrupted, nor did I hear anything of it until I had
parted with her at her home and gone to the house of a relative, Dr.
Randolph Page's, to dine. There I learned that a fierce battle had been
fought at Five Forks, on the extreme right of our line, in which the
Federals had gotten possession of the railroads by which our army was
supplied with food. This, of course, necessitated the abandonment of
both Richmond and Petersburg.

As I passed along the streets in the afternoon there was nothing to
indicate a panicky feeling; in fact, there was rather less commotion
than usual, but much, no doubt, within doors.

On arriving at camp I was the first to bring tidings of what had
occurred to the company,