XXV.
HUNTED DOWN.
On the morning of the 7th of April, and throughout the 8th, the horrors
of the retreat culminated.
The army was fighting at every step. Hope had deserted them, but they
were still fighting.
On every side pressed the enemy like bands of wolves hunting down the
wounded steed.
Gordon and Longstreet, commanding the two skeleton corps of infantry,
and Fitzhugh Lee the two or three thousand cavalry remaining, met the
incessant attacks, with a nerve which had in it something of the
heroic.
Fitz Lee had commanded the rear guard on the whole retreat. All along
the route he had confronted the columns of Sheridan, and checked them
with heavy loss.
At Paynesville he had driven Sheridan back, killing, wounding, and
capturing two hundred of his men. At Highbridge he captured seven
hundred and eighty more, killing many, among the rest the Federal
General Read. On the morning of the 7th, beyond the river, he drove
back a large column, capturing General Irwin Gregg.
That was a brave resistance made by the old army of Northern Virginia,
reader, as it was slowly advancing into the gulf of perdition.
Beyond Farmville there was no longer any hope. All was plainly over. I
shrink from the picture, but here is that of one of my friends.
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