402 NortH Carotina Troops, 1861-65.

consolidated, was 41 officers and 394 men. Here I saw a
large number of Federal prisoners turned over to General
Grant’s army. The inevitable should have been gracefully
acknowledged by the civil authorities at Hampton Roads the
last of January, 1865, and the further sacrifice of life and
property avoided; but under constraint of his office and for
the last three months against his own private judgment, Lee
had fought to a finish.

10 April. On the printing press at General Grant’s head-
quarters the forms of parole to be signed by the Confederate
officers for themselves and on behalf of their men, with the
certificates furnished to the officers, are printed and dated as
of to-day, Monday. This done, and General Grant having
shared his rations with us, the homeward march in small
bands of unarmed men commences, many carrying a copy of
General Lee’s farewell address, which is as follows.

General Orders No. 9.
Heapeuvarters Army or Nortuern VIRGINIA,
Apvromarrox Court Hovss, 10 April, 1865.

After four years of arduous service, marked by unsur-
passed courage and fortitude, the Army of Northern Vir-
ginia has been compelled to yield to overwhelming numbers
and resources. I need not tell the survivors of so many hard-
fought battles, who have remained steadfast to the last, that
T have consented to this result from no distrust of them; but
feeling that valor and devotion could accomplish nothing that
could compensate for the loss that would have attended the
continuation of the contest, I have determined to avoid the
useless sacrifice of those whose past services have endeared
them to their countrymen.

By the terms of agreement officers and men can return to
their homes, and remain there until exchanged. You will
take with you the satisfaction that proceeds from the con-
sciousness of duty faithfully performed ; and I earnestly pray
that a merciful God will extend to you His blessing and pro-
tection.

With an unceasing admiration for your constancy and de-
votion to your country, and a grateful remembrance of your

Firry-Sixta REGIMENT. 403

kind and generous consideration of myself, I bid you an af-
fectionate farewell. R. E. Lez,

General.

For the preservation of many dates and much of the mate-
rial in this imperfect sketch, grateful acknowledgment is
here made to the writer’s valet and friend, David Blount, who
reached him and his brother at Petersburg a few days after
they were both wounded, and attended him thence faithfully
to Appomattox Court House, and back again. He carried
his journal through in a small valise, and was thus occasion-
ally the target for a joke by the wayside. Hailed with the
question whether he was carrying baggage for the division,
he replied with the utmost politeness and sincerity: ‘No, sir;
this is just Marse Robert’s valise.” He was told by his new
acquaintances at Appomattox Court House that he could do
much better by going North with them, but replied that when
he wanted friends, he knew where he could find them. He
accommodated them, however, with a few hundred dollars in
Confederate money for as many units in greenbacks. Safe
at home again, he told his fellow freedmen in his 4 July
speech, 1865, at Hillsboro, N. C., that he knew who were his
best friends, and that he had stood by two of his white folks
when General Grant was mortarfying Petersburg, and when
he could do nothing more, he had surrendered with General
Lee at Appomattox. At his honored grave I now pay this
tribute.

Thirty-odd years have passed since the events herein but
partially portrayed. The issues then settled can never arise
again. The wind was sown, and the harvest was the whirl-
wind. Inter arma silent leges; by a higher law than all
constitutions, out of a vital germ slumbering through eigh-
teen centuries, came emancipation.

The Constitution had guaranteed slave-property to the
owners as a vested right. The South to perpetuate this
right, "broke the Union. The North, to preserve the Union,
as a military necessity, broke the Constitution. But the os-
tensible issue was the right of any State to secede on its own
motion. This brought about another double paradox; for
while a full proportion of the Union lines was composed of