View attachment 330947
So much as a background to the picture; so much as the setting for the incident we now give, and which ever after endeared the memory of General Custer to everyone who was a witness to it... with a delicacy of feeling and magnanimity of spirit which only true chivalry can appreciate, as soon as the applause had subsided and the band ceased, he turned to its leader and said, "Give the boys Dixie."
The Battle of Sailor's Creek was fought April 6, 1865, near Farmville, Virginia, as part of the Appomattox Campaign. It was the last major engagement between the armies of Confederate General Robert E. Lee and Union General Ulysses S. Grant, just three days before the surrender of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House. About one fifth of the remaining retreating Confederate army became casualties. According to some historians, the total Confederate loss in killed, wounded and captured was not less than 8,000. Among the prisoners were Generals Richard S. Ewell, G W Custis Lee, Joseph B. Kershaw, Eppa Hunton, Meriwether L. Clark, Montgomery Corse, James P. Simms (commanding Semmes/Bryan's old brigade), Seth Barton, and Dudley M. DuBose (commanding Wofford's old brigade.) Commodore John Randolph Tucker, CS Navy, commanding the "naval brigade" fighting as infantry, was also taken prisoner.
So much as a background to the picture; so much as the setting for the incident we now give, and which ever after endeared the memory of General Custer to everyone who was a witness to it.
The morning after the battle, the prisoners were ordered to fall in line. Soon, Gen. Custer and his staff appeared on the scene, and this was the signal for an outburst of uproarious applause. The sky was fairly darkened with caps thrown in the air, the band played 'Yankee Doodle,' and all together it was a sight to sadden the captive Confederates, more especially as they beheld eighteen of their battle flags, which had been torn with shot and shell on an hundred battlefields, now adorning the train of the conqueror.
Gen. Custer seemed to realize this, and with a delicacy of feeling and magnanimity of spirit which only true chivalry can appreciate, as soon as the applause had subsided and the band ceased, he turned to its leader and said, "Give the boys Dixie" (meaning the prisoners.)
As the sweet strains of the Confederate war song rolled in waves of liquid melody through the air, Gen. Custer took off his hat and waved it as a signal and the applause was deafening. The Union huzzah and the rebel yell blended into one and shook notes as well as hearts and hands, across the bloody chasm.
[
Richmond Dispatch., January 05, 1896, page 2.]
Link