The Tree of Appomattox | Page 2

the Confederate Cabinet. U. S. GRANT,
Northern Commander. ROBERT B. LEE, Southern Commander.
STONEWALL JACKSON, Southern General. PHILIP H. SHERIDAN,
Northern General. GEORGE H. THOMAS, "The Rock of
Chickamauga." ALBERT SIDNEY JOHNSTON, Southern General. A.
P. HILL, Southern General. W. S. HANCOCK, Northern General.
GEORGE B. McCLELLAN, Northern General. AMBROSE E.
BURNSIDE, Northern General. TURNER ASHBY, Southern Cavalry
Leader. J. E. B. STUART, Southern Cavalry Leader. JOSEPH
HOOKER, Northern General. RICHARD S. EWELL, Southern
General. JUBAL EARLY, Southern General. WILLIAM S.
ROSECRANS, Northern General. SIMON BOLIVAR BUCKNER,
Southern General. LEONIDAS POLK, Southern General and Bishop.
BRAXTON BRAGG, Southern General. NATHAN BEDFORD
FORREST, Southern Cavalry Leader. JOHN MORGAN, Southern
Cavalry Leader. GEORGE J. MEADE, Northern General. DON
CARLOS BUELL, Northern General. W. T. SHERMAN, Northern
General. JAMES LONGSTREET, Southern General. P. G. T.

BEAUREGARD, Southern General. WILLIAM L. YANCEY,
Alabama Orator. JAMES A. GARFIELD, Northern General, afterwards
President of the United States.
And many others
IMPORTANT BATTLES DESCRIBED IN THE CIVIL WAR
SERIES
BULL RUN KERNSTOWN CROSS KEYS WINCHESTER PORT
REPUBLIC THE SEVEN DAYS MILL SPRING FORT DONELSON
SHILOH PERRYVILLE STONE RIVER THE SECOND
MANASSAS ANTIETAM FREDERICKSBURG
CHANCELLORSVILLE GETTYSBURG CHAMPION HILL
VICKSBURG CHICKAMAUGA MISSIONARY RIDGE THE
WILDERNESS SPOTTSYLVANIA COLD HARBOR FISHER'S
HILL CEDAR CREEK APPOMATTOX

CONTENTS
I. THE APPLE TREE
II. THE WOMAN AT THE HOUSE
III. OVER THE HILLS
IV. THE FIGHT AT THE CROSSWAYS
V. AN OLD ENEMY
VI. THE FISHERMEN
VII. SHERIDAN'S ATTACK
VIII. THE MESSENGER FROM RICHMOND
IX. AT GRIPS WITH EARLY

X. AN UNBEATEN FOE
XI. CEDAR CREEK
XII. IN THE COVE
XIII. DICK'S GREAT EXPLOIT
XIV. THE MOUNTAIN SHARPSHOOTER
XV. BACK WITH GRANT
XVI. THE CLOSING DAYS
XVII. APPOMATTOX
XVIII. THE FINAL RECKONING
CHAPTER I
THE APPLE TREE
Although he was an officer in full uniform he was a youth in years, and
he had the spirits of youth. Moreover, it was one of the finest apple
trees he had ever seen and the apples hung everywhere, round, ripe and
red, fairly asking to be taken and eaten. Dick Mason looked up at them
longingly. They made him think of the orchards at home in his own
state, and a touch of coolness in the air sharpened his appetite for them
all the more.
"If you want 'em so badly, Dick," said Warner, "why don't you climb
the tree and get 'em? There's plenty for you and also for Pennington and
me."
"I see. You're as anxious for apples as I am, and you wish me to gather
'em for you by making a strong appeal to my own desires. It's your
clever New England way."
"We're forbidden to take anything from the people, but it won't hurt to

keep a few apples from rotting on the ground. If you won't get 'em
Pennington will."
"I understand you, George. You're trying to play Frank against me,
while you keep yourself safe. You'll go far. Never mind. I'll gather
apples for us all."
He leaped up, caught the lowest bough, swung himself lightly into the
fork, and then climbing a little higher, reached for the reddest and ripest
apples, which he flung down in a bountiful supply.
"Now, gluttons," he said, "satiate yourselves, but save a lot for me."
Then he went up as far as the boughs would sustain him and took a
look over the country. Apple trees do not grow very tall, but Dick's tree
stood on the highest point in the orchard, and he had a fine view, a
view that was in truth the most remarkable the North American
continent had yet afforded.
He always carried glasses over his shoulder, and lately Colonel
Winchester had made him a gift of a splendid pair, which he now put
into use, sweeping the whole circle of the horizon. With their powerful
aid he was able to see the ancient city of Petersburg, where Lee had
thrown himself across Grant's path in order to block his way to
Richmond, the Southern capital, and had dug long lines of trenches in
which his army lay. It was Lee who first used this method of defense
for a smaller force against a larger, and the vast trench warfare of
Europe a half century later was a repetition of the mighty struggle of
Lee and Grant on the lines of Petersburg.
Dick through his glasses saw the trenches, lying like a brown bar across
the green country, and opposite them another brown bar, often less than
a hundred yards away, which marked where the Northern troops also
had dug in. The opposing lines extended a distance of nearly forty
miles, and Richmond was only twenty miles behind them. It was the
nearest the Army of the Potomac had come to the Southern capital
since McClellan had seen the spires of its churches, and that was more
than two years