s I thought, riding up the hill toward me,
on a very fine grey horse, and was thinking what a type of the veteran
soldier he looked, as indeed I had often thought before, until he got
within a few feet of me, when I changed my intended rather familiar,
but still most respectful salute, meant for the captain, for the
reverence with which the soldier salutes the standard of his
legion--which represents to him all that he has left to love and
honor--as I discovered that it was General R.E. Lee himself, riding
alone--not even an orderly in attendance. He returned our salute, his
eye taking it all in, with a calm smile, that assured us our confidence
was not misplaced. He bore the pressure of the responsibility that was
upon him as only a great and good man could--as one who felt that,
happen what may, selfishness--consideration of what might happen to
himself--had nothing to do with it.

So I felt satisfied that there was a likeness between Captain Allen,
of the Twenty-fourth Virginia, and General R.E. Lee of the Southern
Confederacy.

A little after this we got orders to move on, as quickly as we could,
in advance to Appomattox Court-house. "Appomattox Court-house" is a
small county town about a mile from the Lynchburg railroad. At the
foot of the hill on which the courthouse and the three or four houses
that constitute the village stand, run the headwaters of the
Appomattox river, a small stream, not knee deep to a horse.

As soon as we cleared the wagon train we got over ground much faster,
and rode into and through the town just as the sun was setting. We
stopped at a piece of woods on the outskirts of the village, and
halted in the road while the quartermasters were selecting the ground,
and the regiments were closing up. Our foragers, that had been
detailed before we got into town, were riding in with the hay they had
collected on the pommels of their saddles, and all was as quiet as a
scene in "Arcady," when the stillness was broken by the scream of a
shell, the report of a gun, and then the burst-up of the missile as it
finished its mission and reported progress--and then another, and
another, until as pretty battery practice was developed down yonder by
the depot--Clover Hill I think it is called--as you would wish to
hear.

Without knowing positively anything about it, those whom I had
conversed with relative to our pushing on to the Court house were
under the impression that a large body of our infantry were