LAST DAYS OF THE WAR WITH THE CONFEDERACY’S BOY GENERAL:
CAPTAIN THEODORE GARNETT WITH ROBERTS’ NORTH CAROLINA CAVALRY BRIGADE TO APPOMATTOX

When describing Major General J.E.B.(simply known as Jeb) Stuart’s fatal wounding at Yellow Tavern, Virginia on 11 May 1864, Lieutenant Theodore S. Garnett wrote “I could not bring myself to believe that the General’s wound was mortal, and not until Dr. John Fontaine assured me that there was no hope for his recovery did I force myself to contemplate the extent of our loss.” It had been nearly a year since the young officer joined Stuart’s staff during the Gettysburg campaign. In that time he had grown so fond of his commander and friend that he recalled Stuart’s day long struggle that preceded his death, “as if my own father was dying . ” Following the funeral, Garnett, along with the other staff officers, left Richmond and returned to the army, which still confronted Lieutenant General. U. S. Grant’s Union forces in the vicinity of Spotsylvania Court House.

The small group of saddened soldiers reached the army the following day. Upon their arrival, Major Henry McClellan, assistant adjutant general, reported directly to General. Lee. Unfortunately for the staff, Stuart’s death meant reassignment, and for the most part, separation. While McClellan was initially assigned to Lee’s staff and later joined that of Major General. Wade Hampton, the hard reality facing Lieutenant Garnett was a return to the 9th Virginia Cavalry Regiment. So, after a frightening, exhilarating year on Stuart’s staff, Garnett was to return to the obscurity of the ranks.

Theodore Stanford Garnett, Jr., was born 28 October 1844, in Richmond, the second of many generations of Theodore Garnetts. In 1854, the family moved to Hanover County, Virginia. When war broke out seven years later, “The,” as he was called, was attending Episcopal High School in Alexandria. Like so many young men during times of war, he was eager to participate in the grand adventure before it was over. Not surprisingly, then, he left school and returned home and joined William Nelson’s Hanover Artillery. Shortly the unit traveled to Richmond where a mustering officer took notice of Garnett’s youth and refused to enlist him.

Unable to persuade President Jefferson Davis’ military advisor, General Robert E. Lee, to intercede on his behalf, the youth sought out his uncle, Secretary of the Navy Stephen Mallory. Either unable or perhaps unwilling to obtain admission into a combat unit, Mallory offered his nephew a clerk’s position in his offices. Garnett, much to his disgust, remained there for more than a year. The only break in this monotonous duty came in June 1862, when Brigadier General Jeb Stuart requested the services of a quick- handed clerk. Garnett’s tour with the famous cavalry leader was short-lived and before long he returned to the Naval Department.

The brief stint on Stuart’s staff only whet his appetite for active duty. Fortunately for Garnett, the cavalry leader had been impressed and after the Battle of Chancellorsville, when he needed a clerk to replace the deceased Major R. Channing Price, Stuart requested Garnett. In accordance with official policy, Garnett went through the formality of enlisting in Company F, 9th Virginia Cavalry and immediately thereafter joined Stuart’s staff. First as an enlisted clerk and later as an aide-de-camp, Garnett served continually with Stuart until the latter’s death.

Not long after returning from Stuart’s funeral, Major General W.H.F. “Rooney” Lee had Garnett assigned to his staff at his old rank. For the next ten months, as the situation grew increasingly bleak, Garnett skillfully served on Lee’s divisional staff, which remained with the main army in the Petersburg area. Duty with Rooney Lee ended on the Ides of March 1865, when he was promoted to captain and assigned as assistant adjutant general to the Confederacy’s youngest general, William P. Roberts. The general, who was not much more than a boy himself, had only been appointed to the North Carolina command less than a month earlier, in late February. Roberts’ small brigade consisted of the Fourth North Carolina Cavalry Regiment as well as the Sixteenth North Carolina Cavalry Battalion and a contingent of Georgians commanded by Lieutenant Colonel T. Boyd Edelin.
Although Roberts was new to brigade command, both he and the troops he led for the last month of the war were hardened veterans. Prior to his promotion, the general rose through the ranks of the Second North Carolina Cavalry Regiment, which he eventually led through bitter fighting in and around Petersburg in late 1864. Although not organized together until near the end of the war, during the course of the previous two years, the North Carolina commands were heavily involved in the fighting in the Virginia theatre.

As the situation facing the Army of Northern Virginia rapidly deteriorated, the small force played an active role during the last month of the war, including the Battle of Five Forks and the ensuing Appomattox campaign. Garnett’s narrative, which covers the entirety of Roberts’ brief tenure in command of the North Carolinians and Georgians, enhances our understanding of the efforts made by the mounted forces in the waning weeks of the war. This is especially so given the extreme paucity of first person accounts from anyone who served in the Confederate cavalry command at war’s end.

The operations about to be described are such only as came under the limited observation of a staff officer of Major General W. H. F. Lee’s Division, and related chiefly to the part taken by Roberts’ Brigade of that division.

The Fourth North Carolina Cavalry, Sixteenth Battalion North Carolina Cavalry, and a small detachment of Georgians formed the command of [Brigadier] General James Dearing, who had been promoted from the artillery service, where he had won an enviable reputation. The brigade’s first service was rendered during the spring of 1864, when Petersburg was threatened by [Union Major General Benjamin] Butler’s troops, though the Fourth Regiment had served through the previous year in nearly all the encounters of Stuart with the enemy in Northern Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania under the command of Colonel Ferebee. The Sixteenth Battalion was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Boyd Edelin.

During the long siege of Petersburg and until February, 1865, General Dearing command the brigade, but in that month he was ordered to the command of Rosser’s Brigade in the Valley and William P. Roberts, Colonel of the Second North Carolina Cavalry, was promoted to the rank of brigadier general and assigned to the command which Dearing had just vacated. Upon assuming this command General Roberts had some difficulty in reorganizing the staff and he found the troops in want of nearly everything. But by diligent work and his active energy he soon placed his brigade in excellent condition.

It was on the march from Bellfield, Va., to Stony Creek that he took charge of the brigade, and in less than a week a sudden summons carried W. H. F. Lee’s Division by a rapid march to Dinwiddie Court House, to meet a threatened advance of the enemy cavalry. The alarm proving false the other two brigades of the division were marched back to Stony Creek, leaving Roberts’ Brigade to picket the right flank of the army from the vicinity of Burgess’ Mill to the Vaughan road.

Brigade headquarters were established on the White Oak road at its intersection with a new military road which ran to Dinwiddie Court House, distant about five miles. Here the brigade remained in comparative quiet and comfort during the month of March 1865, save an occasional alarm on the picket line, when we would hurry down to the support of the squadron reserve, exchange a few shots with the enemy, who would politely retire and leave us to return quietly to our camps. On one of these occasions, shortly after nightfall, [Brigadier General Henry A.] Wise’s Brigade of infantry on our left ran out of their breastworks and fell back to the heavy works at Burgess’ Mill. The flurry was soon over on our end of the line and General Roberts, with the writer, while seeking to re-establish communication with the infantry, was suddenly fired upon by the Thirty-fourth Virginia Infantry and narrowly escaped death at the hands of our troops.

About the 23rd of March 1865, an order was received from army headquarters directing General Roberts to send one hundred picked men to report for duty to [Major] General John B. Gordon at Petersburg. The men were selected and placed under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Edelin, who marched to Petersburg and participated in the attack on the enemy’s fortifications on the 25th of March, known as the Hare’s Hill Fight, and which resulted in the repulse of Gordon’s magnificent advance, at first successful, but finally overwhelmed for want of proper support. Colonel Edelin returned with the detachment to our camp on the White Oak road just in time to take part in the operation about to be mentioned, but he was captured by the enemy on the second day after his return.

On the morning of the 29th of March 1865, the enemy commenced that series of movements which resulted in the fall of Petersburg. At dawn Roberts’ Brigade was drawn up in support of our advanced pickets. As the movement developed, it became apparent that the advance of the enemy was in such force as to render vain all hope of disputing his progress with our two little regiments. Yet we tried it. Slowly, but surely and steadily the heavy columns of infantry formed in our front, deployed and advanced, brushing us away as they enveloped our flanks and without haste or dash closed up on the ground we had stubbornly contested. Twice we checked them, so that they had to reinforce their line, and after losing many of our best men and most gallant officers we saw coming up to our aid the two brigades of Wise and [Brigadier General William Henry] Wallace –a mere handful to throw away on the hosts we had encountered. General Wise rode up and requested General Roberts to retire his cavalry, as he was about to order his infantry to charge.

It would have been useless to attempt to deter the old man from this rash endeavor by telling him that the enemy were about ten to his one in front. He thought it a mere feint and would not believe our report that a heavy line of battle had been steadily advancing on us for two hours. General Roberts, therefore, mounted his skirmishers and passed with his cavalry to the right while General Wise formed his lines for the charge. We had scarcely reached our position near the Wilson house on the Boydton plank road when we heard the yell of Wise’s men as they burst upon the enemy and hurled back his skirmishers upon his main line. We listened for the reply. It came in one tremendous burst of smoke and flame and the rattling thunder of close-order volleys told of the fearful check, which met Wise’s exultant advance. In another moment we saw his broken lines sweeping back, leaving many of their dead and wounded on the bloody field.

General Roberts had formed his brigade along the Boydton plank road, at Wilson’s house, in easy range of the field over which Wise had advanced and retreated. Here in the open field, adjoining Wilson’s, occurred as brilliant an episode of petit guerre as came under observation in the whole war. From the east side of the Boydton plank road sloped an open field down to a ditch running parallel with that road and distant from it about two hundred or three hundred yards. On the further side of this ditch was rolling ground, quite steep, and beyond that rose a hillside of broom straw crowned by a skirt of stunted pines.

Looking from our position on the plank road we observed a strong skirmish line advance from the pines, come down the slope and deploy at the ditch in the open field. Lying there in close range they made everybody keep under cover on our side of the field. Their fire became galling, their position was menacing and it soon became necessary either to retire or to drive them back. General Roberts determined to attempt the latter by a mounted charge. One squadron of the Fourth North Carolina Cavalry was selected for the work and instructed not to draw rein until the had swept the enemy away. General Roberts led the charge in person. In an instant we were upon them, and strange to relate, the volley with which they received us as we dashed at them killed only two men in our squadron. Before they had time to realize the audacity of the thing they commenced throwing down their arms and surrendering.

But off to our right their line remained intact and an officer, not so demoralized as those in our immediate front yelled out: “Don’t surrender! Shoot ‘em!” And one after another took up the cry, until in another instant they were all firing upon us at close quarters with the very arms they had just thrown down. It was our turn to be surprised now. This complete reversal of our former relations brought about a hasty retreat and we reached the cover of our lines swearing vengeance against those skirmishers and determined to try it once more.

Again the attempt was renewed. Another squadron of the Fourth was sent in, and the same thing was repeated. Many of the skirmishers surrendered only to be recaptured by those who stood their ground and drove us back by a galling fire. A third time we charged them, and being supported by a detachment of the Thirty-fourth Virginia Infantry, of Wise’s Brigade, we dislodged the enemy and they broke and fled. As we pursued them towards the pine thicket their main line of battle, which had been quietly lying down, concealed from us by the tall brown straw, watching our little fight, suddenly rose to their feet and advanced upon us at double-quick, firing as they came. Their volleys, however, flew harmless over our heads. We retreated to the plank road and soon thereafter abandoned its defense. The loss of the Fourth North Carolina in this affair was surprisingly small, though it had suffered terribly in the engagement of the morning.

While we were thus occupied, reinforcements of infantry were rapidly assembling at Burgess’ Mill, Wise’s Brigade retired to the fortifications and General Roberts marched towards White Oak road and camped on the right of Bushrod Johnson’s Division. The brigade was ordered to picket the front and right of the army, and it was near midnight before the videttes were fully posted.
Early on the morning of the 30th of March General Roberts received orders from army headquarters to make a reconnaissance towards the Boydton Plank Road in the direction of Dinwiddie Court House. General R. E. Lee desired that a Federal cavalry officer be captured and sent to him as speedily as possible, that he might ascertain the position of [Major General Phil] Sheridan’s [Cavalry] Corps, which had not yet made its appearance in the general movement. This request was immediately obeyed, and in less than a half hour, as General Roberts and two of his staff were passing through our outer picket, they stumbled on a detachment of the Second Massachusetts Cavalry (eight men and a captain), and after a brief encounter Captain Culp, of the California Battalion, Second Massachusetts Cavalry, Second Brigade, Second Division, Sheridan’s Corps, was a prisoner in our hands and was immediately sent on to General Lee at Burgess’ Mill.

In a few minutes after this capture the enemy’s cavalry advanced upon Roberts’ Brigade at Boisseau’s house. A sharp contest ensued, in the midst of which General Roberts’ horse was shot under him, and the enemy charging at the same moment he barely escaped capture by leaping on the horse of one of his couriers. The retreat to the White Oak Road was conducted in good order, and in view of the fact that only two small regiments of Confederates, say 350 men in all, opposed the advance of this division of Federal cavalry we felt some satisfaction in preventing the enemy from seizing the White Oak Road, the only route by which troops could be hurried to Five Forks.

As we lay there awaiting further attack the infantry of [Major General George] Pickett’s Division commenced passing behind us on their march for Five Forks, distant about two and a half or three miles. [Brigadier] General Matt Ransom kindly permitted one of his regiments to remain and assist us in repelling the attack. This regiment of North Carolinians (the number of which is not now remembered) was concealed behind rail-piles along the road in our rear, and General Roberts was to maneuver as if about to retreat and so decoy the enemy to make a charge. The plan worked like a charm. The infantry had scarcely gotten into position before the movement of our brigade had the desired effect.

We rapidly uncovered the front and the enemy dashed gallantly forward in column of fours at a gallop. But the eagerness of the infantry to fire upon them caused the miscarriage of the whole plot, for just as the head of their column appeared over the crest of the hill in front the whole regiment blazed away and the volley passed high over the heads of the charging enemy. Only one man was seen to fall. This checked the advance and the enemy retreated to the Boisseau house, where they established their pickets. It was in following up their retreat that Colonel Edelin, of the Sixteenth Battalion, dashed upon their rear guard and was unhorsed and captured.

On the morning of the 31st of March, General Roberts led his brigade up to Boisseau’s house and drove in the enemy’s videttes, holding the command in readiness to cooperate with the attack which was about to be made by Generals Pickett, Fitz Lee, and W. H. F. Lee upon Sheridan’s Corps. As soon as the firing began we moved forward, driving in the enemy’s pickets, but were halted and forced to await the development of the battle on our right. Towards evening the sound of the guns receding in the direction of Dinwiddie Court House gave us the pleasing assurance that Sheridan was being driven back. Upon our pressing forward the enemy rapidly vacated our front, leaving behind some of their skirmishers, who surrendered to us at long range as soon as they could understand our signals. Pushing on with the brigade, all mounted, General Roberts united his command with the victorious troopers of Fitz Lee and Rosser, then fighting forward toward Dinwiddie Court House, and we were about to join in their fight when a remarkable change of front occurred.

We had scarcely reached the left flanked of Rosser’s line when the rear of Roberts’ Brigade was suddenly attacked by what seemed to be an infantry skirmish line and we had sharp work to hold the ground. It appears that an infantry brigade of the enemy had followed us across the country from the direction of Burgess’ Mill and caught up with us just at dusk. Their attack was vigorous, but darkness rapidly descended and put an end to the fight. Under its cover we extricated the brigade from its awkward position, and during the night marched over the worst road in the world to the intersection of the Court House Road with the White Oak Road, the point which on the next day was destined to become famous as the scene of the Battle of Five Forks.

On April 1, 1865, General Roberts was on his old line at dawn, about half-way between Five Forks and Burgess’ Mill, on the White Oak Road. As the sun rose long columns of the enemy - [Major General Gouverneur] Warren’s [V] Corps - were passing in front of our videttes, pushing on to the relief of Sheridan to turn his recent defeat into a complete victory. Roberts’ Brigade continued to guard the White Oak Road, and during the forenoon we had a visit from General R. E. Lee. He rode up with only one or two of his staff, and after noting the condition of things in our front, the prospect for a cavalry fight at that moment being unusually good, we were rather pleased to see him bid us “good morning,” and rode slowly away in the direction of Burgess’ Mill.

In less than ten minutes after General Lee’s departure we were charged by a division of cavalry. The Eleventh Pennsylvania [Cavalry] led the advance and their first and second squadrons were successively repulsed as they charged up to the road on which we were lying. A handful of men of Roberts’ Brigade, not more than fifty or sixty, were dismounted and posted behind rails (the same from which Ransom’s men had fired two days before) and these behaved with conspicuous gallantry. Among them Lieutenant [E.B.] Holden, of the Fourth North Carolina Cavalry, deserves especial mention.

Being the tallest man in his regiment, like Saul - head and shoulders above his fellows - his commanding presence and encouraging voice as he directed the fire of his skirmishers were particularly prominent. But it is only just to say that every officer and man of that little group did his duty faithfully and well, and it was not until the enemy in overwhelming numbers leaped their horses actually over the rail-piles and got behind our line that we gave up the ground. The woods in our rear afforded excellent shelter to the men and they escaped through them to their led horses with comparatively small loss.

The enemy did not pursue, but turned southward and made their way toward Five Forks, in which direction the sound of battle had at that moment reached our ears. It lasted only a short while, becoming very heavy at times, but soon died away westward, indicating to us the defeat and retreat of Pickett’s Division and the abandonment of the line of the White Oak Road. This was, indeed, the sad reality and the beginning of the end. General Roberts retired slowly from the White Oak Road, but kept his pickets well out and bivouacked about two miles from the scene of our last encounter. During the night [early a.m. hours] the earth fairly trembled with the roar of the guns, on the lines around Petersburg.

On Sunday morning, April 2, the startling intelligence reached us that Petersburg was evacuated, accompanied by orders from army headquarters directing the line of our retreat. We retired to Sutherland’s Station, on the South Side Railroad, where we found a committee of the Richmond Ambulance Corps, who were on their way to reach the wounded of the Five Forks’ fight, but found it impossible to proceed further. These gentlemen very kindly offered us some supplies, and about 1 p.m., after loading a detachment of twenty men with sacks of corn and some provisions, we took up the line of march westward and the retreat began.

The enemy did not pursue on our road and we marched at leisure. But just at nightfall we joined a column of Fitz Lee and Rosser and W. H. F. Lee, then skirmishing with the enemy near Namoz[ine] Church. Some of our infantry - a part of [Major General] Bushrod Johnson’s Division - were also in line of battle at this point. We dismounted and took position on the left of Munford’s Brigade. One of General Roberts’ couriers was killed as we were getting into position. The night was spent on the battlefield, and early next morning we crossed Namoz[ine] Creek.

Soon after crossing the creek we were halted, and nearly all of General Fitz Lee’s old division passed by us on the march, leaving in our rear only one regiment, the Ninth Virginia Cavalry, of our division, to guard the ford. We had just taken the road when a great stampede occurred among the led horses of the Ninth Regiment. The enemy had forced or flanked their way across the creek, and a few of the Ninth, escaping at a run, communicated the demoralization to the ranks of the cavalry who had preceded us and also to a part of our brigade, and soon a panic seized the whole command, except a small part of Roberts’ Brigade, which remained steady with General Roberts and did not share in the general consternation and flight.

Men who have witnessed such a scene as this, fortunately of rare occurrence on either side during our war, are puzzled to explain how even the bravest lose their heads and are borne away on the sweeping tide of panic-stricken fugitives long after the cause had ceased and all danger had been removed. To retain self-possession and yield to discipline in the midst of a panic is the truest test of a good soldier, and this was handsomely illustrated by the good men who rode in solid ranks under the immediate eye and command of General Roberts that morning. It is proper also to except from the mass of our cavalry who disappeared so hastily from our sight a small body of men under Colonel Morgan, of Munford’s and [Brigadier General W.H.F.] Payne’s Brigades, who formed squadron on the opposite side of the road from us and awaited the onset of the victorious enemy.

With this little force General Roberts met their advance. It was at first a very feeble attack. They seemed to think we had prepared a trap for them and were not disposed to press their advantage. The country was very open and the movements of both parties could be plainly seen by each. The enemy was slow in finding out the real condition on our side. But they advanced after about an hour’s delay and charged us gallantly. They were held in check long enough, however, to enable the command to rally and form at Deep Creek, where late in the evening we joined the remnant of W. H. F. Lee’s Division.

It may be proper to state here that near Namoz[ine] Church, on a road south of our position at the time the stampede occurred, the enemy attacked and dispersed [Brigadier General Rufus] Barringer’s Brigade of W. H. F. Lee’s Division, and only a small part of that brigade was afterwards with us on the retreat. At Deep Creek we went into camp and spent a quiet night, the enemy occupying the range of hills east of the creek. The next morning we moved towards Amelia Court House. The enemy pushed after us rapidly and, by another road than that on which we traveled, actually passed beyond us.

On nearing Amelia Court House we were surprised to find a skirmish going on near the town and in our rear. They had cut off a small detachment of [Brigadier General R.L.T.] Beale’s Brigade and were on the point of driving it back into the Court House. General Roberts hastened forward alone and at the most critical moment put himself at the head of a company of the Fourteenth Virginia Cavalry and gallantly met a charging squadron of the enemy, putting them to flight and saving the village from capture.

It is not saying too much to assert that but for his timely arrival at that particular spot the enemy’s cavalry would have charged into Amelia Court House, and either taken the commanding general himself prisoner or forced him and his staff to leave the place, for at that moment General Lee had his headquarters in the village, within a quarter or half mile of the scene of this skirmish, and had no reason to apprehend the approach of the enemy. Within a very few minutes after this occurrence General Longstreet came to us in person and soon a regiment of his corps was sent to our aid. The evening was spent in desultory firing and at dark we passed through Amelia Court House and bivouacked a few miles southwest of that place.

On the morning of the 5th of April General Lee ordered General Roberts to make a reconnaissance towards Jetersville. Before reaching that point we encountered another force of Sheridan’s Corps, who seemed to be picketing the road in our front. We drove them in on their reserve. They received reinforcements and advanced upon us. Here a remnant of Captain Martin’s squadron of the Sixteenth North Carolina Battalion made a very gallant fight and repeatedly repulsed and returned the enemy’s charges.

In this affair General Roberts, who was constantly present encouraging his troops and charging with Martin’s squadron, received a severe blow from a spent ball, which struck him fairly over the heart and rendered him insensible. Fortunately, it did not penetrate his body. He revived and resumed the command as soon as he could remount his horse. A large part of the infantry of the Army of Northern Virginia was then assembling in some open country immediately in our rear, and while we were occupied with the enemy they must have been amused spectators of a little incident which occurred here.

The Fourth North Carolina was ordered to support Captain Martin in one of his gallant charges. Martin was driven back and the enemy’s squadron rushed after him. The Fourth North Carolina started in, but failed to get under way in time to resist the headway of the advancing enemy, and the front rank failing to respond promptly to the “charge” hesitated, broke and incontinently fled. The enemy pursued only a short distance, but one adventurous and gallant Yankee dashed past his fellows and made for the color-bearer of the Fourth North Carolina. He seized the colors and wrested them from him in a hand-to-hand tussle, neither of them attempting to use their pistols or sabres, and so the flag of the Fourth Regiment was seen making off at a run as fast as this Federal cavalryman could carry it, who seemed as much astonished at the result of the bold dash as the bewildered color-bearer who had lost it.

A few minutes later a horse and rider at full speed was seen coming out of the woods, and the disordered remnant of the Fourth North Carolina mistaking him for another impudent Yankee commenced a fusillade upon him with pistols and carbines. In the midst of it the rider, who proved to be Captain Thomas W. Pierce, ordnance officer of W. H. F. Lee’s Division, was recognized by one of General Roberts’ staff and the firing was checked before any damage was done. Captain Pierce had been in the enemy’s hands only a few minutes before, but escaped from them by a dash and came near being shot by his own people, his horse having become unmanageable.

It was in this engagement that Captain Coughenour, Inspector of Roberts’ Brigade, while delivering a message to the General, was severely shot. The bullet entered one side of the throat under the chin and passed out on the other side of and across the throat. It was, of course, deemed a mortal wound, but the gentleman [lived].

The next morning, April 6, after marching and counter-marching and repeated skirmishes with the enemy, losing another one of our couriers and several men, we were ordered to pass rapidly to the right flank of a part of Gordon’s [II] Corps, then making preparations to defend the crossing of Sailer’s [Saylor’s] Creek. At a rapid gallop we passed around under the fire of the Federal artillery, who had mysteriously appeared on our flank, and as we neared the ford at Sailer’s Creek we found it blocked up by a vast assemblage of wagons, ambulances and artillery trains. It was seen at a glance that the command could not possibly cross at this ford, so we were marched down the stream and found a rough crossing near an old mill, where we scrambled up the steep banks of the opposite side and placed ourselves on the west bank of Sailer’s Creek, just as the final assault was made on the gallant little band of [Brigadier General James A.] Walker and others, who held the ground until they were actually merged in the swarming masses of the enemy, who enveloped them on both flanks.

From our lofty position on the hill above the ford we saw the final charge and the wild burst of Walker’s men as they broke through the enemy in their rear and cut their way out to the ford. We covered the retreat of the few who escaped by a strong line of mounted skirmishers posted well down on the creek, and another night soon closed in around our weary troops. Late that night we reached the High Bridge and, crossing the river, rested until daybreak near the foot of the bridge.

The next morning, April 7, found us still acting as the rear guard, and from the High Bridge on to Farmville there was a constant skirmish with the enemy’s advance. They moved slowly and we were kept in observation. Meanwhile a part of [Major General William] Mahone’s Division had prepared for their reception at a little church near Farmville, and we retired behind our infantry line there. The enemy soon advanced in compact column and formed double lines of battle, attacking Mahone’s front with great vigor and determination. They were repulsed at every charge with heavy loss and before dark abandoned the effort to break our line. During the fight General Roberts was ordered to take his command over to the left of Mahone’s line and protect that flank. He marched by way of the Ca-Ira Road. Just at the point where this road crossed the Farmville road there was a blockade; nearly all the wagons and trains were hopelessly stuck in the mud.
General R. E. Lee was resting quietly at this place, looking over a map with many officers of high rank grouped around him or dismounted near at hand. As we approached the spot a heavy column of Federal cavalry was seen coming at a charge, evidently bent on capturing the trains. Before they could reach the position, however, a regiment of Rosser’s old brigade and a part of Munford’s command charged the flank of the Federal column, dispersing the whole force and capturing [Brigadier General J.] Irvin Gregg and bringing him a prisoner before General Lee. Our brigade went on over to the left and picketed that flank all the night. The end was now near. During the night the blockade was relieved and the trains of the army placed on a parallel road.

Nothing has been said during all this time of the severe toils and privations to which the men had now been exposed for ten days and nights. From the 1st to the 9th of April not a single ration was drawn by our command, and the men had to eke out a scanty substance by sharing with their horses the little corn that could be begged or taken through the country. Night brought no relief from the fatigues of the day, and the result was the sure wasting away of all the energies of man and horse. Captain Martin that night announced to the Adjutant General of the brigade with great sorrow the solemn fact that of his old company he had only two men fit for duty, and this not because of desertion of failure of duty, since he could account for every man that had left Petersburg with him - killed, wounded, and captured.

The 8th was marked as the only quiet day of the retreat. An ominous silence reigned all around us. The whole day we moved on the flank of the army, on the right in retreat and parallel to its line of march, and were untroubled by any sign or sound of battle. The distance marched this day was greater than that of any preceding one, and as night came on we passed through the camps of a body of infantry who seemed to be making merry over their misfortunes. Their bands were playing “Dixie” and “The Girl I Left Behind Me,” vying with each other in a sort of musical contest, encouraged by the vociferous “rebel yell,” demanding an encore or a “change of air.” Throwing ourselves down among the rustling leaves of a fine forest we slept until midnight, at which hour we received orders to report as speedily as possible at Appomattox Court House. Arriving there about dawn we observed the preparations then being made for a general engagement, and shortly after sunrise took position mounted on the right of General Gordon’s Corps.

The advance was sounded and never did the army at any period of its existence respond with more cheerful alacrity or gallantry. With steady step and unwavering front these starved survivors of Stonewall’s Corps moved irresistibly upon the solid lines of Federal infantry and swept them from the field. The Sixth Corps [actually it was the Fifth Corps] and one division of the Twenty-fourth Corps were in their front and both gave way - the Sixth giving ground to the left and the Twenty-fourth to the right. A battery of United States artillery four Napoleon guns, in the interval fell into our hands and panic seemed to have seized the men of the Twenty-fourth Corps. Many of that division on our right surrendered without resistance and to every officer at the front it appeared that the road to Lynchburg had been opened. A single regiment could have cleared the woods on our right and not much more would have been required to effect [sic] the capture of that division of the enemy.

But there was not a man to be spared from Gordon’s line, by this time hotly engaged with the Sixth Corps, who had rallied, and soon, to our utter astonishment, an order came for us to retire from the field and fall back to Appomattox Court House. In another moment the rumor of our surrender was circulated, and in obedience to orders we prepared for that last and bittersweet trial which can ever befall the soldier. The scenes at the surrender need no recital.

In conclusion it is proper to add that General William P. Roberts enjoyed the confidence and esteem of all his men. Coming among them from a different command he soon won their regard by his superior skill and great personal gallantry. He was a soldier of high order, possessing in a marked degree that aptitude for command which none but men of genius can ever attain. And it is safe to say that if the war had been prolonged even another year he would have added fresh laurels to his enviable reputation and attained high rank among those who achieved honorable fame under the battle-flag of the Army of Northern Virginia.

After being paroled on April 21, 1865, Theodore Garnett returned home and promptly entered the University of Virginia, from which he graduated in 1867 with a degree in law. After spending two unsuccessful years attempting to establish a practice in the Warrenton, Virginia area, during which time he also taught at a private school, Garnett moved to Norfolk and set up an office in nearby Suffolk. Following three years as a judge, he established a law partnership with William H. White. Garnett’s life in Norfolk was a good one, he married a local girl, Emily E. Baker, and the partnership with White lasted for over forty years, terminated only by Garnett’s death.

Aside from his family life, which included two children, Lelia and Theodore III, and his law practice, the old soldier kept busy the way many of his former comrades did, by joining the United Confederate Veterans Association and attending as many reunions as he could. He eventually rose to the rank of lieutenant general and commanded the organization’s Department of Virginia. He also penned a few articles, an incomplete memoir, and, in 1907, gave the keynote address at the unveiling of the J.E.B. Stuart statue in Richmond. On April 27, 1915, almost exactly fifty years after his parole, Theodore Stanford Garnett, Jr. died of blood poisoning. In an appropriate tribute written a quarter century earlier, William P. Roberts exalted that “no commander ever had a more faithful or gallant lieutenant,” than Capt. Garnett, “who was always by my side, and among the last to leave when the command was ordered from the field.”

Like Garnett, William P. Roberts, the Confederacy’s boy general, enjoyed a successful life after the Civil War. Although he directed Garnett to disband the depleted ranks of his brigade and “advised them to make their way to their homes in North Carolina and Georgia,” Roberts felt compelled to honor the surrender terms and turned himself over to Union Major General John Gibbon that same day. Thus, Roberts is the only member of his command whose name appears on the Appomattox surrender roles.
After going through the surrender procedures, Roberts drifted back to his home in Gates County, North Carolina and took up farming. Two years later, in January 1867, he married Eliza Ann Roberts. Professionally, the post war years were good for the youthful former general, who embarked on a flourishing career spent largely in public service. In 1875 Roberts attended the North Carolina constitutional convention as a delegate from his hometown of Gatesville. Over the course of the following thirty-five years he served first in the North Carolina state legislature, then as state auditor, and later in life, President Grover Cleveland appointed him Consul General at Victoria, British Columbia. General Roberts’ public successes, however, were tempered by the tragic early deaths of both of his children.
In late March 1910, the nearly seventy- year old general fell and broke a thigh. As his condition worsened he was taken to Sarah Leigh Hospital in Norfolk, Virginia. Never recovering sufficiently enough to return home to Gatesville, he died at the hospital on March 28, 1910. When news of his death reached the state capital, the flags flying over the buildings were ordered flown at half-staff. The most appropriate tribute, however, did not come form the state of North Carolina. Forty-five years earlier, remembered Garnett, as the Army of Northern Virginia prepared to surrender, Roberts walked among “a silent and solemn procession of ab