unded, and it
reached my home before I got there, but I soon arrived and explained the
mistake.

Shortly afterward I was in company with a number of others en route for
Lee's army, the greater portion of which was south of Richmond,
stretching from there to Petersburg.

Now to go back to my capture at Yellow Tavern. After Grant's repulse at
Cold Harbor he crossed the James river with his army and began the siege
of Richmond, which lasted all through the remainder of the fall and
winter of 1864 and 1865 into April.

The colonel of my regiment (Flournoy), who I stated was killed at the
battle of Cold Harbor, was the last of the colonels in my brigade to
lose his life. A gallant young officer, but a little too fond of the
bottle, not very choice in his language, rather reckless. A few days
before he was killed he remarked to one of his staff as they stood
around the camp-fire, "I don't believe the bullet that is to kill me has
yet been molded." Foolish man; at that very time, not far from where he
stood, was a soldier in blue carrying about his waist a leather
cartridge-box that held the very bullet that was to end his life, and
not many hours afterward that bullet and that colonel met. The latter
surrendered without a word.

The winter was a long, dreary one, and the Confederates, being compelled
to live in the trenches night and day, suffered terribly from cold and
hunger. Wade Hampton took Gen. Stuart's place after the latter's death,
and during the winter made a raid inside Grant's lines and drove out
1500 head of fat cattle. It did not take Lee's hungry soldiers long to
dispose of them and lick their chops for more. Grant's great army,
stretching from the James river to Petersburg, compelled Gen. Lee to do
the same with his little, half-starved and scantily-clothed force, and
all winter long Grant pounded away at Lee's front, trying to break
through. The most sensational event that occurred was the battle of the
Crater, as it was called. Grant attempted to break Lee's line by digging
a great tunnel, which had for its object the blowing up of Lee's
intrenchments, and then in the confusion, rushing a large force into the
opening. The tunnel was finished up to and under Lee's line and loaded
with explosives. I believe there was a premature explosion, which
resulted in the killing of more of Grant's soldiers than of Lee's, and
then the attack that followed resulted in a great slaughter of Grant's
men and the total fa