to all my dear ones, and in company with my brother-in-law, Colonel John S. Saunders, proceeded toward Mayo’s Bridge, which we crossed to the south side of the James, in the lurid glare of the fire, and within the sound of several heavy explosions that we took to be the final scene in the career of the Confederate navy, then disappearing in smoke on the James River, near Rockets.

Before we departed from the colonel’s library, which we felt obliged to do much sooner than we wished to, owing to the condition of his health, he called our attention to an oil portrait of his old commander, which occupied the place of honor above the mantelpiece, and asked his daughters to let us see his scrap-book, containing personal letters from General Lee, Jefferson Davis, and other distinguished men, as well as various war documents of unusual interest.

We felt it a great privilege to handle these old letters and to read them, and the charm of them was the greater for the affection in which the general held Colonel Taylor, as evidenced by the tone in which he wrote.  To us it was a wonderful evening....  And it still seems to me wonderful to think that I have met and talked with a man who issued Lee’s orders, who rode forth with Lee when he went to meet Grant in conference at Appomattox, just before the surrender, who once slept under the same blanket with Lee, who knew Lee as well perhaps as one man can know another, and under conditions calculated to try men to the utmost.

As adjutant, Colonel Taylor took an active part in arranging details of surrender and parole.  He says: 

Each officer and soldier was furnished for his protection from arrest or annoyance with a slip of paper containing his parole, signed by his commander and countersigned by an officer of the Federal army.

     I signed these paroles for all members of the staff, and when my
     own case was reached I requested General Lee to sign mine, which I
     have retained to the present time.

This document, with Colonel Taylor’s name and title in his own handwriting, and the signature of General Lee, I am able to reproduce here through the courtesy of the colonel’s daughters, Mrs. William B. Baldwin and Miss Taylor, of Norfolk.  It is the only parole which was signed personally by General Lee.

[Illustration]

On the back of the little slip, which is of about the size of a bank check, is the countersignature of George H. Sharpe, Assistant Provost Marshal general: 

[Illustration]

Following his parole Colonel Taylor rode with General Lee to Richmond.  The general seemed to be in a philosophical frame of mind, but thought much of the future.  The subject of the surrender and its consequences was about exhausted.  The Colonel tells of one incident: