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Mrs. Knight gave me, little dreaming that I would get nothing more to eat for more than three days.
Orders to burn.
Reaching my quarters in the city about 2 o'clock A. M. of the 3d, my adjutant,
Linden Kent, a youth about eighteen (who afterwards became a distinguished lawyer in
Washington city, and died a few years since), showed me an order from
General Ewell, directing all the tobacco warehouses, then full of tobacco, to be burned at a certain signal.
He and
Captain Herron, of
Orange, the ranking officer in my absence (
Captain W. T. Early, of
Albemarle, and
Major James Strange, of
Fluvanna, then being absent, sick), had made all the arrangements necessary to carry this order into effect.
I directed
Captain Herron and
Adjutant Kent, so soon as the signal was given, to fire these buildings, then pass over the river on
Mayo's bridge and follow the army.
Being dead tired, I threw myself down to rest, fell asleep, and did not waken until the arsenal exploded.
This woke me up most effectually.
I threw my blanket over my shoulder, sword and haversack on one side, and canteen, with a little brandy, on the other.
I struck out for
Mayo's bridge, some one or two miles distant. The streets were quiet and apparently deserted.
When I reached
Mayo's bridge the small bridge over the canal connecting the basin with the dock was on fire on one side, a burning canal-boat having drifted up against it.
