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[368] and for a time we smoked ‘the pipe of peace.’ In reply to a question from me as to their loss in the battle on Saturday he replied that they had lost five thousand men. While we were talking a remarkably handsome Yankee general in the crowd came near us. I asked General Potter who he was, and was informed that he was General Ferrero, who commanded the negro troops. I said: ‘I have some of his papers which I captured in the fort,’ and showed them to General Potter. He then said: ‘Let me call him up and introduce him, and we will show him the papers and guy him.’ I replied, however, that we down South were not in the habit of recognizing as our social equals those who associated with negroes. He then asked me to give him some of Ferrero's papers. He wanted them for a purpose. I did so. The others I kept, and they are now lying before me as I write. He also asked me to point out to him some of our generals, several of whom were then standing on the embankment of the wrecked fort. (I noticed that none of our generals except Saunders, who had charge of affairs, came over and mingled with the crowd.) I pointed out to him Generals Harris, of Mississippi; A. P. Hill, and finally pointed out General Mahone, who was dressed in a suit made of tent cloth, with a roundabout jacket. Be it remembered that General Mahone was quite small, and did not weigh much, if any, over one hundred and twenty-five pounds. Potter laughingly said: ‘Not much man but a big general.’ When the dead were buried each side returned to their entrenchments, and soon the sharpshooters were firing at each other when and wherever seen. Truly ‘War is hell.’ I am not writing this alone from memory, but, in addition thereto, from letters contemporaneously written to my wife, whom I had but a short time before married, which letters, as well as extracts from Richmond papers of that date, as contemporary records, will probably prove of sufficient interest to publish in these columns. Saunders' Alabama brigade continued to occupy the ‘Crater,’ which they had captured on Saturday about 2 o'clock, until Monday night, August 1st, when, under cover of darkness we were relieved by another brigade, as was also the gallant Virginia brigade, which had, by a superb charge, captured the entrenchments on the left of the ‘Crater.’
Richmond, VA. 1905.
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