Rising above the weary groups which had thrown themselves upon the ground, were the grim barrels of cannon, in battery, ready to fire, as soon as the enemy appeared.  In front of all was the still line of battle, just placed by Lee, and waiting calmly.  General Lee had rushed his infantry over, just at sunset, leading it in person, his face animated, and his eye brilliant with the soldier’s spirit of fight, but his bearing unflurried as before.  An artist desiring to paint his picture, ought to have seen the old cavalier at this moment, sweeping on upon his large iron-gray, whose mane and tail floated in the wind; carrying his field-glass half-raised in his right hand; with head erect, gestures animated, and in the whole face and form the expression of the hunter close upon his game.  The line once interposed, he rode in the twilight among the disordered groups above mentioned, and the sight of him aroused a tumult.  Fierce cries resounded on all sides, and, with hands clinched violently and raised aloft, the men called on him to lead them against the enemy.  ’It’s General Lee!’ ‘Uncle Robert!’ ’Where’s the man who won’t follow Uncle Robert?’ I heard on all sides—­the swarthy faces full of dirt and courage, lit up every instant by the glare of the burning wagons.  Altogether, the scene was indescribable.”

On the 7th the army pressed on beyond Farmville, still harassed as it advanced by the Federal infantry and cavalry; but, in some of these encounters, the pursuing force met with what was probably a very unexpected discomfiture.  General Fitz Lee, bringing up the rear of the army with his force of about fifteen hundred cavalry on broken-down horses, succeeded not only in repulsing the attacks of the large and excellently-mounted force under General Sheridan, but achieved over them highly-honorable successes.  One such incident took place on the 7th, when General Gregg attacked with about six thousand horse, but was met, defeated, and captured by General Fitz Lee, to the great satisfaction of General Lee, who said to his son, General W.H.F.  Lee: 

“Keep your command together and in good spirits, general—­don’t let them think of surrender—­I will get you out of this.”

On the 8th and 9th, however, this hope seemed unwarranted by the circumstances, and the commander-in-chief appeared to be almost the only human being who remained sanguine of the result.  The hardships of the retreat, arising chiefly from want of food, began to seriously impair the resolution of the troops, and the scenes through which they advanced were not calculated to raise their spirits.  “These scenes,” declares one who witnessed them, “were of a nature which can be apprehended only by men who are thoroughly familiar with the harrowing details of war.  Behind and on either flank, a ubiquitous and increasingly adventurous enemy—­every mud-hole and every rise in the road choked with blazing wagons—­the air filled with the deafening reports of ammunition