red.
But the army sustained a greater loss than that, a loss second only to
that of Stonewall Jackson.
Just behind our line in the field was Gen. Stuart with his staff. A
bullet struck him somewhere about the stomach. He was held on his horse
until it was led to a place of safety. Then he was taken from his horse,
put into an ambulance and carried to Richmond. He died the next day.
Stuart was considered the greatest cavalry leader of the war on either
side, and his death brought a very great loss to Gen. Lee, and also to
the whole Confederacy.
The Confederacy had from the beginning attached greater importance to
the cavalry arm of the service than had the North, and many had been the
daring raids that Stuart made within the enemy's lines, capturing
thousands of wagons laden with military stores, and many thousand
prisoners. In fact, almost our entire cavalry was equipped with
saddles, bridles and arms captured from the enemy; nearly all the wagons
in Lee's army were captured wagons. But perhaps Providence knew that the
time was near at hand when we would not need these things, so He
permitted the one who had been the means of supplying our wants in this
particular to retire from the field. He was buried in Hollywood
Cemetery, Richmond, Va., and a magnificent equestrian statue marks the
spot.
Many of Stuart's raids were made under the cover of darkness. He always
wore a long ostrich feather in his hat, and was a splendid rider. The
soldiers had a war song, the chorus of which was something like this:
"We'll follow the feather of Stuart tonight."
The prisoners were taken back and put under guard. I think this was
about 4 o'clock in the afternoon. We remained there quietly until after
dark, all the time, however, the fighting was going on, but we were out
of reach of danger in that respect, so we had a brief breathing spell.
After dark Sheridan's whole command began to move slowly toward
Richmond, making frequent stops of a few minutes. The prisoners
marched two abreast, with a line of cavalry guard on each side. We
had, of course, to keep up with the cavalry.
[Illustration: A BATTLE-SCARRED CONFEDERATE BANNER.]
Our guard was very kind to us, and allowed us to take hold of their
stirrup straps, which was quite a help to us as we marched along,
especially in crossing streams, one of which I remember was up to our
waists. It began raining at midnight, and continued most of the next
day. The night was very
|