This summary has been, of necessity, a brief and general one. For this
volume has for its object, rather to narrate the fortunes of a set of
individuals, than to record the history of an epoch, crowded with
tragic scenes. I cannot here paint the great picture. The canvass and
the time are both wanting. The rapid sketch which I have given will
present a sufficient outline. I return, now, to those personages whose
lives I have tried to narrate, and who were destined to reach the
catastrophe in their private annals at the moment when the Confederacy
reached its own.
I shall, therefore, beg the reader to leave the Confederate forces at
bay on the White Oak road--the flanking column under Pickett and
Johnson falling back on Five Forks--and accompany me to the house of
the same name, within a mile of the famous _carrefour_, where, on the
night of the 3lst of March, some singular scenes are to be enacted.
It was the night fixed for Mohun's marriage. I had been requested to
act as his first groomsman; and, chancing to encounter him during the
day, he had informed me that he adhered to his design of being married
in spite of every thing.
When night came at last, on this day of battles, I was wearied out with
the incessant riding on staff duty; but I remembered my promise; again
mounted my horse; and set out for "Five Forks," where, in any event, I
was sure of a warm welcome.
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