Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 37.djvu/26

part of November of the same year, Gen. Sherman, having begun his march to the sea, the fifteenth corps of his army, with Kilpatrick's cavalry forming the extreme right of the army, made a feint upon Macon, and there was a skirmish with the small Confederate force that could be sent out from Macon. The ordnance battalion was called out, but did not see the enemy. Finally, at the very end of the war a serious move upon Macon was made by the heavy column of cavalry commanded by Gen. Jas. Wilson. This force came down from north Alabama, had a heavy fight with Forrest at Selma, and then swept eastward through Montgomery and Columbus to Macon, destroying much property on the way. Large ordnance stores were sent out of his way, to Macon, but could not be got any further on account of the previous wrecking of the railroads by Sherman. Gen. Howell Cobb, who was in command at Macon, determined to defend the place with its valuable ordnance works and accumulation of stores, though the prospect of success was not brilliant, there being but a few hundred men available with which to face a splendid body of five or six thousand cavalry. The ordnance battalion was again called out as a part of the defending force. As there was a practically unlimited supply of ammunition on hand, all of which would, of course, be lost if the place were captured, it was ordered that as brave a show as possible should be made by keeping up heavy fire all along the line as soon as the enemy should appear. We were on the afternoon of the 20th of April—eleven days after the surrender of Gen. Lee's army and six days after President Lincoln had been assassinated—drawn up on the line of earth work which had been prepared several months before, and were hourly expecting the arrival of Wilson's force, known to be near at hand, when a joint telegram was received from Generals Johnston and Sherman in North Carolina, announcing negotiations for the close of hostilities, and ordering an immediate armistice between Wilson's command and the Confederate forces opposed to him. Our men were kept in position but ordered not to fire, and a flag of truce with the telegram was sent out to meet the head of the enemy's column. The officer commanding the leading regiment refused to halt,