From Petersburg to Appomattox. From the Times-dispatch, October 28, 1906.
Lampkin's Battery of Artillery and how it fought on famous retreat. A glimpse of General Lee.Fight near Farmville and splendid service of the Second Rockbridge Battery.
The account below of the retreat of Lampkin's Battery from near Fort Harrison, on the north side of the James, to Appomattox, is by Lieutenant Fletcher T. Massie, of that splendid company of artillery.
It is interesting in its incidents, and particularly so in the account it gives of the gun and caisson captured on the morning of surrender with their commanding officer and their men.
It is shown by the report of General W. H. F. Lee, which has come to light, that two guns were captured that morning by Beale's and Robins's Brigades ot his division.
In the assault General Beale was wounded, and Wilson and Walker, of Rockbridge, were killed.
One of the two guns was thrown over in a ditch, as other accounts have made known.
The one gun and the caisson, which were brought into Lee's lines, were each drawn by six horses.
It is possible, if not, indeed, probable, that this gun and caisson were counted by some onlookers as two guns, for some accounts say that four guns were captured.
It is needlessly to go farther into this question now, and it suffices to remark that this account of Lieutenant Massie is valuable, so far as it goes, in fixing the circumstances under which the gun and caisson were brought into Lee's lines, and that being put in charge of Lieutenant Massie and his ten men, were turned over by him in a short time after the surrender to the officer and men from whom they were taken.
Lieutenant Massie is an active and vigorous man, enjoying excellent health at his home in Amherst County.
Captain Lampkin, a gigantic grenadier, who would have been picked out on sight by Frederick the Great for one of his guards, and who made a great name while gallantly commanding his guns
