nd for a while I thought we were going to have, then and
there, a little inside fight on purely personal grounds.

An officer--a captain--I presume the captain in command of the party
in the yard that we had attacked and driven back upon the main
body--had, I rather expect, been laughed at by his own people for his
prompt and sudden return from the expedition he had set out on.

He rode up at once to General Gary, and with a good deal of heat (he
had his drawn sabre in his hand) wanted to know what he, Gary, meant
by keeping up the fight after there had been a surrender. "Surrender!"
said Gary, "I have heard of no surrender. We are South Carolinians,
and don't surrender. [Ah! General, but we did, though.] Besides, sir,
I take commands from no officers but my own, and I do not recognize
you or any of your cloth as such."

The rejoinder was about to be a harsh one, sabres were out and trouble
was very near, when an officer of General Custar's staff--I should
like to have gotten his name--his manner was in striking contrast to
that of the bellicose captain, who seemed rather to belong to the
snorting persuasion--he, with the language and manner of a thorough
gentleman, said, "I assure you, General, and I appreciate your
feelings in the matter, that there has been a suspension of
hostilities, pending negotiations, and General Lee and General Grant
are in conference on the matter at this time."

His manner had its effect on General Gary, who at once sheathed his
sabre, saying, "Do not suppose, sir, I have any doubt of the truth of
your statement, but you must allow that, under such circumstances, I
can only receive orders from my own officers; but I am perfectly
willing to accept your statement and wait for those orders." (Situated
as we were, certainly a wise conclusion.) Almost on the instant
Colonel Blackford, of the engineers, rode up, sent by General Gordon,
with a Federal officer, carrying orders to that effect.

We drew back to the artillery and infantry that were just behind us,
and formed our battered fragments into regiments.

Desperate as we knew our condition to be since last night's affair,
still the idea of a complete surrender, which we began now to see was
inevitable, came as an awful shock. Men came to their officers with
tears streaming from their eyes, and asked what it all meant, and
would, at that moment, I know, have rather died the night before than
see the sun rise on such a day as this.

And