Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 August 1884 — THE LAST GASP. [ARTICLE]

THE LAST GASP.

The Colonel Who Didn't Recognise Gen. Ice’* Authority to Surrender. Gen. Sheridan tells a very interesting story about the last campaign against Lee, and the incidents of the surrender. It will be remembered that he headed off Lee at Appomattox Court House, and captured eleven trains of supplies which were waiting for him there. When Lee found that he had no stored or ammunition for his army, and that his retreat was cut off, he sent a flag of truce, which Custer received and conducted to Sheridan. The two armies laid on their arms waiting for Grant, who was on his way to ttfb front In the meantime Sheridan and some oi his staff started to ride over toward Appomattox Court House, where they were fired upon by a regiment of rebels half concealed among some underbrush. The General and his party waved their hats toward the place where the shots came from, and made all sorts of demonstrations to silence the unexpected and mysterious attack, but to no purpose. Finally, the Confederate officer who brought the flag and Maj. Allen, of Sheridan’s staff, rode over to see what the matter was. They found a South Carolina regiment, whose Colonel, in a grandiloquent tone, informed them that the war wasn’t over, and that he and his regiment did not recognize the authority of Gen. Lee to make terms for peace. “Be Gawd, sir,” exclaimed this gallant Johnny, “South Carolinians never surrender!” The two officers rode back to Gen. Sheridan, who, with his party, had retired under cover, and reported to him the situation. The General called Custer and told him there was one regiment over in the brush which hadn’t got enough of it, and it would be well for him to go over there and “snuff it out.” Custer ordered his bugler to sound “Forward,” and at the head of a regiment dashed across the interval which lay between the two armies, which were drawn up in long lines and stood at rest. It was a beautiful Sunday morning—a perfect spring day—and the sight of that regiment, with Custer’s long, tawny hair as their banner, dashing at full gallop across the fields, evoked a cheer from both armies. Meantime Sheridan had reached the Court House, where he met Gen. Gordon, recently Senator from Georgia, and Gen. Wilcox, who had been his classmate at West Point, but whom he had not seen for many years. Wilcox has since been a doorkeeper of the United States Senate. While this party were sitting on the steps of the Court House, chatting, familiarly over the situation, heavy musketry was heard in the distance. Gordon looked up in anxiety and alarm, and asked one of his aids to ride over in that direction and find out what it meant. “Never you mind, General,” said Sheridan. “It’s all right. 1 know what it means. Custer is over there having some fun with a South Carolinian who never surrenders.” Gordon insisted upon sending the officer to stop the fight, but before he got there the doughty Colonel had presented Custer with a very much battered sword. It was the last gasp of the Army of Northern Virginia.— National Tribune.