University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER XLII.

1865 opened with gloomy prospects for the Southern cause.
Sherman's devastating "march to the sea" had cut off all possibility
of aid from the Gulf States in the way of either men or
supplies. The troops which were constantly forced to fall back
before his host were consequently disheartened and demoralized.
Hood's unfortunate advance into Tennessee only added to the
discouragement and loss everywhere so distressing. Upon Lee's
army around Petersburg seemed to hang the only hope for any
prolonged struggle and ultimate success. That army was now,
as never before in its severest experience, suffering for food, fire,
and clothing. Every day also added to the hardships and difficulties
of the people of Virginia, and many a brave soldier felt
his heart fail him at the knowledge that his wife and little ones
were in absolute want. Sheridan's wholesale pillage and wanton
destruction of everything in his progress through the valley of
Virginia had left that fair region utterly impoverished and the
inhabitants reduced to destitution,—unable to provide for their
own necessities, much less to send any material assistance to their
defenders.

For a while the severity of the winter kept the armies in front
of Petersburg comparatively quiet, but the utmost vigilance was
required to defend the long lines of intrenchments around Petersburg
against sudden assault by the overwhelming numbers of
the besieging army. The artillery was in constant use day and
night, and General Pendleton's work in superintending and directing
that arm of the service was incessant. With the opening of
spring active operations must be resumed, and the almost impossible
task of getting horses in proper condition and men in sufficient
numbers to serve the batteries in the field weighed heavily
upon him.

His personal anxieties that his family might be kept in some
comfort were also increased by the information already referred
to, that his beloved brother Walker had been captured at his
home in Richmond County by a marauding expedition up the
Rappahannock, which had committed many outrages,—burning
houses and hauling off old men to prison. Dr. Pendleton's infirm
health had for years unfitted him for active exercise, and the
knowledge that he had been forced to march many miles at the
point of the bayonet, was subjected to hardship and cruelty he
was so unable to stand, and that his wife and daughters were left
without support or protection, was an additional trouble to his
loving brother. No definite information as to the whereabouts
and circumstances of the prisoner could be obtained, and when,
after several months' detention, he returned home, he was so absolute
a wreck, both in body and mind, that he could give no
satisfactory account of his sufferings and experience. But they
killed him. He died in a few weeks, without ever comprehending
the fact of Lee's surrender and that the cause, to which he
was an innocent martyr, had failed.

Where incessant vigilance was demanded from every one, it
was impossible for General Pendleton to leave his post of duty.
He therefore made arrangements for his wife and daughter to
pay the visit to their kind friends the Lynches, which had been
so sadly interrupted by his son's death. Mrs. Pendleton had
received into her household in Lexington her nephew, Frank
Page, and several other boys, sons of relatives and friends, who
wished to attend the grammar school at Washington College.
These youths were a protection and help to the family of ladies,
and their presence in the house enabled the mistress to be away
for a while, and she and her daughter Mary went to Petersburg
towards the last of January.

General Pendleton's letters shall again speak for him.

To his daughter, Mrs. Lee, he wrote,—

Of this beloved little grandson Mrs. Pendleton had written,—

From these letters we learn that whenever the weather and the
constant duty of the men in the trenches permitted a congregation
to be gathered, General Pendleton was glad of such opportunity to
preach. When such ministration was impracticable he attended

church in Petersburg, where he was always urged to take part in
the service.

Mrs. Pendleton and her daughter, accompanied by Mrs. John
Page, spent several weeks at Mr. Lynch's, receiving great kindness
from their hospitable hosts. The house was distant from
General Pendleton's tent only a few hundred yards, and about
two and a half miles from Petersburg. Two roads led to the
city, and it not infrequently happened that when driving into
town they would find the bridges too dangerous from fierce
shelling and be warned by the pickets that they could not pass.
In wet weather the mud kept the armies stationary, and when a
freeze hardened the roads it also froze up the rivers, and so prevented
the approach of the gunboats, which frequently shelled
Lee's lines near the James and Appomattox Rivers. On such
occasions Miss Pendleton took several long rides to points on the
line too much exposed in ordinary for such a venture. The appearance
of the country—everywhere torn up by trenches and
earthworks, and of the abandoned dwelling-houses riddled by
shot and dismantled by the soldiers—was sad and desolate in the
extreme.

The Lynches were rich people, accustomed to exercise a bountiful
hospitality, and desirous to extend every comfort to their
guests, but the utmost that they could provide was fare more
indifferent than any but war-times would have made endurable.
Corn-bread, black-eyed peas, and bacon were the staple articles
of food, with an occasional fowl, a dish of dried apples, and some
homely dessert compounded with sorghum molasses. The rations
served to men and officers were a little coarse corn-meal—
too coarse to be palatable and too scanty to allow of sifting—and
a very diminutive piece of fat bacon.[2] In the case of officers this
scant provision was divided at once, and half of the meal and
meat given to the negro servant. Often there was no salt to
season the wretched meal. Those troops which were stationed
immediately "on the lines" had a small ration of coffee, and as
General Pendleton was constantly on the front he got his share,
and this furnished the only coffee for the Lynch household.
Miss Pendleton happened one morning to see the breakfast carried

into Captain John Esten Cooke's[3] tent,—two batter-cakes
and a snow-bird!

During this visit General Pendleton was many hours of each
day out on the lines, constantly riding from point to point giving
supervision to artillery matters, besides discharging a great
amount of office-work, but he was able to spend the evenings at
Mr. Lynch's, and always concluded the day with prayers. Mr.
Lynch used to say, "General Pendleton is a good enough Presbyterian
for me when he gets on his knees."

On Sunday, February 5, having accompanied his wife and
daughter to Dr. Platt's church, that gentleman called upon him
to assist in administering the Holy Communion. General Robert
E. Lee also was at church, and took a seat in the pew beside
Miss Pendleton. Towards the close of the sermon a note was
brought to him by an officer. He read it, but made no move
until the communicants were summoned to the Holy Table. To
the surprise of the congregation, General Lee was the first person
to go up to the chancel-rail. Having received the sacred elements,
he remained a moment on his knees, then arose, returned
to his seat for his hat and gloves, and passed quickly out of the
building. Sad news had thus hastily summoned the devout commander.
An advance of the enemy on the right had seized the
Confederate position on Hatcher's Run, and the gallant General
Pegram had been killed in a desperate but unsuccessful attempt
to dislodge them.

The unsuccessful errand of the Peace Commissioners, who had
been sent about this time to confer with Mr. Lincoln and ascertain
whether there were any possible terms on which an honorable
peace could be established between the warring sections of the
land, greatly dashed the hopes and anticipations of many persons
in the South. Scarcely any, however, were willing to submit to
Mr. Lincoln's demand for unconditional surrender, and Mr. Davis's
spirited proclamation aroused anew the patriotism and zeal
of the Southern army and people. To take advantage of this
revived enthusiasm, and to extricate his destitute and diminishing
army from the destructive cordon within which Grant was endeavoring
to enclose it, General Lee was now desirous to withdraw

secretly from Petersburg and, abandoning the defence of
Richmond, at least for a time, to establish the army towards the
southwest in the hill country, where the mountains of Virginia,
North Carolina, and Tennessee would prevent its being surrounded,
and where he could gather to it many detached bodies
of troops at present of little avail.

Of this contemplated withdrawal of the Southern army General
Pendleton wrote in 1873,—

"Weeks before his forced evacuation of the Petersburg lines
our resolute but discerning commander, finding that his force
could not be strengthened as he desired, reached the conclusion
that it was unwise longer to remain there, and silently made
arrangements for getting away. The artillery arm, for the management
of which I was, under him, chiefly responsible, being in
such movement most difficult of withdrawal, I was sent for by the
general, and received from him confidential disclosure of his plan
and corresponding instructions. . . . In accordance with instructions
looking to such an endeavor the artillery was, as far as
possible, at once mobilized."

The enemy's success at Hatcher's Run added another proof
that it would not be much longer possible for the ill-fed and depleted
army of defence to hold out against Grant's legions. For
days—in sleet and snow and rain, exposed to pelting storm as
well as leaden hail—the Southern soldiers were under arms and
that almost without food. There was "no meat" reported the
Confederate commissary.

To carry out this plan for change of base General Lee directed
the accumulation of provisions at other points, especially Amelia
Court-House, and sent thither all his surplus material.[4] Looking
forward to such a move, it was expedient to send away all
visitors from the vicinity of the army, and Mrs. Pendleton and
party left Mr. Lynch's, and his family quickly followed, having no
mind to stay where it was unsafe for other ladies to remain. After
a brief stop in Hanover County, Mrs. Pendleton and her daughter
took the cars for Staunton, where they arrived on the evening of

February 29, to find the little town in dire alarm and distress.
Early's small force at Rockfish Gap had just been dispersed or
captured by Sheridan's powerful cavalry, and the whole valley
lay at the mercy of that ruthless invader.

Staunton swarmed with paroled prisoners and the advance-guard
of the enemy, whose whole force was approaching. For
fear of capture all male citizens and horses had taken refuge in
the mountains, and there was no possibility of getting on to Lexington.
Stay at the hotel was equally impracticable, and Mrs.
Pendleton's dilemma would have been alarming but for the great
kindness shown her by the family of Rev. Richard H. Phillips.
Mr. Phillips had been compelled to leave, but Mrs. Phillips took
her friends to her house and made them as comfortable as the
troublous time and their own anxieties permitted.

General Lee's intention to leave the trenches at Petersburg
was overruled by the Confederate authorities in Richmond, and
so while Mrs. Pendleton was cut off from communication with
her family for two weeks, although only forty miles away, her
husband heard from them regularly. From his daughter Rose
he learned of private difficulties as well as public calamities
harassing them. A thief had, on a stormy night, ripped off the
back of the smoke-house and stolen almost the whole of the
supply of bacon, the only meat they had to depend upon for
feeding a family consisting of six white females, four school-boys,
and seven negro servants, several of the latter being old and
infirm.

General Pendleton did not know of his wife's detention in
Staunton, while she, on her part, remained ignorant of the loss
of her precious supply of meat. Writing March 2, 1865, General
Pendleton says,—

"Deeply have I felt for you the last six hours, since getting
Rose's letter telling of the robbery last Thursday night. When
I first learned of this loss I felt dismayed, for I could not think
how you could be supplied again. But further consideration has
quieted my mind, and I have already taken some steps towards
your relief. I have written a letter jointly to Mr. James White,
Mr. Tutwiler, and Mr. Steele, requesting their friendly agency
towards having you all supplied with meat and with the additional

flour you will need. I tell them I will pay either in Confederate
money or in current funds after the war what they may
agree upon as proper. . . . My chief anxiety now is lest you
should so harass yourself as to break down your health again.
. . . Dear Rose! How she suffered from the feeling of responsibility
at this loss! But she did her best. My love to them all.
How I wish I could have the darling baby in my arms!"

On March 12 his daughter Rose wrote,—

"The stage from Staunton has not yet come, and it is thought
will not be in before to-morrow night. I wrote you that mamma
had sent me word to send for her. I sent the boys to inquire for
any sort of a vehicle, and they could procure none, and, even if one
could have been gotten, the cost of going and coming from Staunton
would have been very nearly, if not quite, four hundred dollars.
So on the whole I think it is a great deal better to wait until a way
is opened. I have heard of no opportunity to send them a letter,
and we hear nothing from them. I don't think mamma has ever
heard of the loss of the bacon, and am very glad your letters are
here to comfort her when she does hear of it. The whole county
is suffering in the same way. I am very much afraid the gentlemen
you wrote to will not be able to procure the bacon for you
here. There has been a meeting held to contribute supplies for
General Lee's army. The people will, I think, be much more disposed
to contribute liberally than they would have been some time
ago, for they are in a state of uncertainty about the coming of the
Yankees. This county has been very heavily drained to feed
General Early's army for many months,"

On March 15 Mrs. Pendleton announced her safe arrival at
home, having been obliged to leave her baggage in Staunton.
Her letters of the next few weeks show her desire to lighten her
husband's anxieties about her means of subsistence:

"The gentlemen you wrote to have all called to say that they
will do anything for me. Mr. Steele said he was going about to
hunt up provisions for General Lee's army, and would see what
he could do. . . . I am not yet entirely out of meat, and I can

get eggs occasionally for six dollars. Butter is twelve dollars.
I am mistress of about five and a half barrels of flour and about
twenty bushels of corn, so that present necessities are provided for.
As soon as the weather will permit I shall have the garden done
up. Where do you think I expect to get garden-seed from?
The Lunatic Asylum! They gave me peas and snaps and
promised me cabbage-plants."

Through the liberality of a friend, who had heard of the great
loss sustained by General Pendleton's family in the theft of their
provisions, the general received from a fund sent over by an English
sympathizer several English guineas. These he immediately
transmitted to his wife by the hand of his friend and neighbor,
Colonel Reid, who carried up the precious gold in a pill-box in
his pocket. The knowledge that she had even a small quantity
of gold was a comfort to him, and he gave her many hints and
directions for making her garden and lots as productive as possible,
and in one of his last brief letters from Petersburg, March
22, says,—

"Colonel Thomas Carter goes to Lynchburg in the morning,
and I send by him a package of garden-seed to Colonel William
Nelson, for the latter to send to you by some safe person.
Fifty dollars for these seed."