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several other points lower down, and followed in rapid pursuit, and were soon
charging Mumford's rear furiously through Farmville. One column charged a
piece of woods in which lay a force of infantry in ambush, and was literally cut
to pieces.

The streams about Farmville were much swollen, and in order to save time
General Fitz Lee's Division, still in several different columns, crossed at as many
different points, in most cases swimming their horses. At nightfall the fighting
ceased, but was resumed in the morning with increased fury.

All this time a large force of the enemy, both infantry and cavalry, had
marched rapidly by parallel roads, and had gotten between General Lee and
Lynchburg, then his only depot of supplies, had captured all the trains with
provisions sent out from that city to meet his army, then on the verge of starvation,
and on the morning of April 8th, near Appomattox Court House, suddenly
attacked his ordnance train, which, in advance of the whole army, was pressing on
toward Lynchburg, guarded only by one small brigade of cavalry. But notwith-
standing the great disparity of forces a severe fight was kept up nearly an hour,
the artillery particularly being well and effectually served, and drove back the
enemy in front.

The infantry and dismounted cavalry, however, now completely surrounded
and drove the men from their guns, and captured all the artillery and wagons,
which left General Lee almost destitute of both. Some few artillerists escaped on
their horses, and fled down the road toward the infantry, followed by a column of
cavalry. But the infantry was prepared for their approach, and permitting the
flying artillerists to pass, they poured in a most deadly volley, which scattered the
pursuers in all directions.

For the balance of the night all remained quiet, and the two armies anxiously
awaited the coming of the morrow, which must decide the fate of the Army of
Northern Virginia. Further retreat was impossible, as the enemy held the roads
on all sides, and without cannon or ammunition, or rations to supply even the
wants of twelve thousand men now left of the once grand army, General Lee. on
the morning of April 9th, confronted Grant's mighty hosts. All the difficulties
of the position were well known and appreciated by the Confederate Army, but the
men who formed that army then, who had followed their flag through all the gloom
and trials of the retreat — a retreat which needs only the pen of a Xenophon to
make as famous as that of the " Ten Thousand " — those men, though not of
numbers, but of country, in the dawn of that April morning, advanced to meet
their persistent foe with all the calm and lofty courage that would have made
Appomattox Court House a Thermopylae. Those men, had their leader so willed
it, would have laid down their arms and lives together. They were men. indeed,
and worthy to close the record of the Army of Northern Virginia.