her than be left in the hands of
the Federals, rode in an ox-cart and walked twenty miles, and finally
reached his home in Rockbridge.

After leaving the hospital we passed on to Main street and the business
part of the city, where the scene would remind one of Bulwer's
description of "The Last Days of Pompeii." The storehouses had been
broken into and stood wide open, and fires had been kindled out of the
goods boxes, on the floors, to afford light to plunder. Articles of
liquid nature, especially intoxicants, had been emptied into the
gutters, from which such portions as could be rescued were being
greedily sought.

From dark garrets and cellars the old hags and half-starved younger
women and children had gathered, and were reaping a harvest such as they
had never dreamed of. I saw a small boy, with an old, wrinkled, grinning
woman at his heels, steer a barrel of flour around a corner and into a
narrow alley with the speed and skill of a roustabout. The fire on the
floors had not extended to the structures as we passed, but as no one
seemed in the least concerned or interfered with their progress the
flames soon put in their work and spread in all directions.

We crossed the James on Mayo's Bridge, following the road in a
southwesterly direction. With the first appearance of dawn the blowing
up of the naval vessels in the river began, culminating in a gigantic
explosion that made the earth tremble. This last was the magazine at
Drewry's Bluff.

Witnessing such scenes, with a realization of their significance, in
the early part of our war experience would, no doubt, have been
hopelessly demoralizing, but now the calmness and fortitude with which
we took it demonstrated the fact that four years of such schooling had
seasoned us to meet unflinchingly the most desperate situations. When
broad daylight came we had the opportunity of seeing some of the
heterogeneous elements of which Richmond was composed. Disaster had come
too suddenly to afford time beforehand for the non-combatants to
migrate, even if there had been safe places to which to flee.

That such looking objects should have undertaken to accompany an army in
the field, or rather into the fields, indicated what desperate chances
they were willing to take rather than abandon themselves to a doubtful
fate by remaining behind. In addition to the city contingent and those
who garrisoned the forts where heavy ordnance only was used, the line of
march was joined