32 Norty Carotina Troops, 1861-65.

Here a few of the officers heard of Lee’s surrender, but it
was not known to the army at large. At midnight, our last
pickets passed through and early on the 13th the United
States forces took possession of the Capital of the State.

We encamped the night of the 12th about seven miles west
of Raleigh. Next morning our army divided, part going
via Hillsboro to Greensboro, while Hardee’s Corps, to which
we belonged, took the route through Chapel Hill and via Al
amance batile ground. Haw river and Alamance creek were
greatly swollen by the rains and with great difficulty were
crossed.

A striking incident of the crossing is thus related by Lieu-
tenant R. M. Furman, of our regiment (since State Auditor).
One of the smaller boys disappearing under the water, a
taller and stouter comrade grabbed him and pulled him up,
he dived down a second and third time and on being pulled up
his comrades, suspecting an attempt at suicide, asked what he
meant. “Why,” said the little fellow, shivering and drip-
ping, “My gun’s down thar and I’m trying to git hat.”

THE SURRENDER.

We halted several days at Red Cross, in Randolph, to await,
as it turned out, President Johnson’s action on the Johnson-
Sherman treaty made at the Bennett house near Durham 14
April. This being disapproved at Washington, we again
moved westward but the definite surrender of 26 April near
Greensboro having been arranged, we were again halted at
Bush Hill, half way between Trinity College and High
Point. This proved our last march and our last halting place
as Confederate soldiers. After it became apparent that a
surrender was at hand, many left, fearing a prison. At
our last halt $1.25 in silver was paid to each man in the army
without respect to rank and at the close the mule teams were
divided among the members of the regiment to which the
wagons belonged.

On 1 May, Major-General Robert F. Hoke, who was one
of the youngest and best generals in the army and command-
ed our division, issued the following farewell address to the

division.

SEVENTY-First REGIMENT. 33

“Soldiers of my Division:

“On the eve of a long, perhaps final separation, I desire to
address to you the last sad words of parting.

“The fortunes of war have turned the scales against us.
The proud banners which you have waved so gloriously on
many a field are to be furled at last; but they are not dis-
graced. My comrades, your indomitable courage, your
heroic fortitude, your patience under suffering have sur-
rounded these with a halo which future years cannot dim.
History will bear witness to your valor and succeeding gener-
ations will point with admiration to your grand struggle for
constitutional freedom. Soldiers, your past is full of glory.
Treasure it in your hearts. Remember each gory battle field,
each day of victory, each bleeding comrade. Think then of
your future.

‘* Freedom’s battle once begun,
Bequeathed from bleeding sire to son,
Though baffled oft, is ever won.”

“You have yielded to overwhelming forces, not to supe
rior valor; you are paroled prisoners, not slaves; the love of
liberty which led you in the contest still burns as brightly in
your hearts as ever, cherish it, nourish it, associate it with
the history of the past. Transmit to your children, teach
them the rights of freemen and teach them to maintain them;
teach them that the proudest day in all your proud career
was that on which you enlisted as a Southern soldier, entering
that holy brotherhood whose ties are now sealed in the blood
of your compatriots, who have fallen and whose history is
covered with the brilliant records of the past four years.

“Soldiers amid the imperishable laurels that surmount
your brows, no brighter leaf adorns you than your late con-
nection with the Army of Northern Virginia. The star that
shone with splendor over its oft repeated field of victory, over
the two deadly struggles of Manassas Plains, Richmond,
Chancellorsville and -Fredericksburg has sent its rays and
been reflected wherever true courage is admired and wherever
freedom has a friend. That star has set in blood, but yet in
glory. That army is now of the past. Its banners trail, but

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