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I had only two men with me; but I dispatched one to General Custis Lee, with a brief note of explanation, asking that fifty men be sent me immediately.
Meanwhile I mounted my remaining man on our old picket line, faced toward Fort Harrison, and ordered him to walk rapidly — I walking at his side-just inside the little curtain of earth.
When the negroes saw us coming they turned back and I could see the one nearest us was trembling as he heard our steps approaching.
When we came close upon him he turned, his face actually ashy, and holding his gun in both hands horizontally, he obtruded it towards us, at the same time backing away and saying:
“‘Tain't my fault.
Officer ob de day tell me to come up dis way.”
Noticing this revelation, but not remarking upon it, I picked up a billet of wood and laid it across the top of the little work, between my man and the negro, saying, “If that negro steps across that piece of wood, shoot him; and if he steps off the line, on either side, shoot him.”
This broke up the little scheme.
The negroes retired beyond the intersection of the lines and I never saw one of them pass it again.
During the seven months from September, 1864, to March, 1865, inclusive, no intelligent man could fail to note the trend and progress of events.
The defeat of Hood, the fall of Atlanta, the unfortunate expedition into Tennessee, the march of Sherman southward through Georgia to the ocean, his march northward through the Carolinas to Goldsboro, the fall of Savannah, of Charleston, of Wilmington-all these and other defeats, losses, and calamities had left to the Confederacy little save its Capital and the narrow strips of country bordering on the three railroads that fed it. Of course I was-we all were-thoroughly aware of this, and yet, though it may be difficult now to realize it, we did not even approximate the failure of heart or of hope.
One of our dreams was that Lee, having the inner line, might draw away from Grant, concentrate with Johnston, and crush Sherman, and then, turning, the two might crush Grant.
Yet we relied not so much on any special plans or hopes,
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