3-017-106 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Last Days of the Confederate Government: the train of the Confederates crossing the Pe-Dee River, North Carolina, 1865. '...from a sketch by our special artist...[showing] the ex-President's train crossing the Pe-Dee River, in North Carolina. This was a long and tedious operation. There are usually no bridges over the swift watercourses in this part of America, and very frequently no fords. Each waggon, with its team of mules, had in this instance to be ferried across separately, and this delay, with an enemy following in the rear, was, to say the least of it, a very anxious affair. In fact, more than one alarm of the approach of the Federal cavalry was given before half the train had crossed the river, and the excitement amongst the rearguard and teamsters was excessive. The horses of the cavalry escort were made to swim the stream, being stripped of their saddles and their riders of most of their clothes. The confusion at the landing-place was enormous, as many of the frightened animals were scarcely in the water before they threw their riders and struggled to the bank, charging through the crowd of attendant cavalrymen...[However] the entire train passed safely over the Pe-Dee and many other streams while our Artist was in its company'. From "Illustrated London News", 1865.