University of Virginia Library

THE LAST GALLANT STAND OF VIRGINIA NAVAL FORCES.

At midnight of April 4th, Semmes reached Danville with his forces.
Here he found President Davis and Secretary Mallory, to whom he
reported. He was ordered to form his command as a brigade of artillery
to serve in the defenses around Danville. Only four hundred men
were left him, but these were divided into the regiments which remained
in the Danville trenches until the bitter end.

The naval brigade under Captain Tucker withdrew from Drewry's
Bluff on April 2d, and joined General Custis Lee's division of Ewell's
corps, acting as Lee's rear guard in the retreat from Richmond. It was
a dreary march for four days, without rest, without food, in falling rain
and heavy mud, with the cavalry of the victorious army hovering
about them on every hand. On April 6th a stand was made at Sailor's
Creek, and the last heavy battle on Virginia ground was fought.
Scharf, in his "Confederate States Navy," pays this eloquent tribute to
the Virginia naval force:

"Ewell's depleted ranks were enveloped by the masses of Sheridan's
infantry and cavalry, and came to a stand at the creek for their final
resistance to the overwhelming thousands of the enemy. The naval
brigade held the right of the line, where it repulsed two assaults of
cavalry and one of infantry with its firm formation and rapid, steady

fire, the Federals splitting on its front and going to the right and left
of it. In one of these dashes of cavalry General Ewell and his staff were
captured, and he passed the order of surrender to his troops, whose
line, except that held by the sailors, had been pierced by the Federal
charges. The naval brigade and two hundred marines, under command
of Major Simmons, were holding precisely the same position then which
had been assigned them in the morning. Commander Tucker was
informed that Ewell had ordered a surrender but refused to believe it.
The brigade of infantry on either side of him had ceased flring, but
with the remark `I can't surrender,' he ordered his men to continue the
engagement. General Wright, commander of the Federal Sixth Corps,
had directed the fire of a dozen batteries upon him, and a mass of
cavalry were making ready to ride him down, when he was informed for the
second time of the surrender, and followed the example of the infantry.
He had continued fighting fifteen minutes after they had lowered their
arms, and the naval colors were the last to be laid down. The bravery
of the sailors was observed along the Federal lines, and when they did
surrender the enemy cheered them long and vigorously. The salutations
of the foe to the men who `didn't know when to surrender,'
brought to a close the history of the Confederate States navy upon the
waters of Virginia."