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264 NortH Carorina Troops, 1861-65.

man to the ground. Considerable confusion ensued, and be-
cause of that circumstance, an order was issued from Federal
headquarters that no Union soldiers would be allowed to visit
the Confederate camps without written permission.

On that day, also, General Custer rode over to Johnston’s
Brigade to see his friend and classmate at West Point, John
W. Lea, who was Colonel of the Fifth North Carolina Regi-
ment, and then in command of the brigade. They had met
the day before at General Custer’s quarters. General Cus-
ter brought with him an orderly with a basket of provisions
and a flask of whiskey. Upon invitation of Colonel Lea, sev-
eral of the officers of the brigade joined General Custer and
himself in the luncheon. He was of a most cheerful disposi-
tion and very handsome in personal appearance. He told
us that the honors of the 9th were really with the Confed-
erates, all things considered; that he took no glory to him-
self when he ascertained the numbers of the Confederate
army. On Monday also the paroles were printed and sent
around to regimental headquarters—mine is now before me
and is dated 10 April, and signed by P. Durham, Captain
Commanding Regiment.

We kept no guard around the camp and had no duties of
any kind to perform; nor did we see a Union soldier with
arms in his hands until the very moment at which our men,
early on Wednesday morning, stacked their guns in front of
the Federal Corps detailed to receive them. That was a
most simple ceremony. In a line north and south, in a field,
a Federal Corps was standing with arms at a shoulder wait-
ing to receive the Confederates and their arms. We filed,
in fours, just in front of them and ten feet off came to a
halt and faced to the left; the guns were then stacked and
the flags laid on the stacks.

The officers were allowed, under the terms of the surren-

der, to keep their side arms. Not a word was spoken; we
did not even look into each others faces. We were

marched from the spot to the road and, without returning
to camp, turned our faces toward the South, toward our
homes—and as I looked back for the last time the Federal
Corps had not moved from its tracks, nor had a gun or a flag