Gold of the Confederate Treasury. 159
office and received our discharge from the hospital, with "permis- sion to leave the city."
On going out into the street it appeared as if the final day of doom was upon us. The air was filled with smoke and sparks, and the darkness of twilight was over and about the city. Stores were being broken open and rifled; dead men shot down in the attempt to rob were lying at intervals, while negroes fought over barrels of provisions that had been rolled from burning warehouses. Mingled with the roar of flames came the appalling crash of ex- ploding magazines and the rumble of falling walls. Rapidly as possible we forced our way through the frantic masses and gained the Danville Railroad bridge, only to find it in flames at different points, and no evidence of trains on the southern side. Retracing our steps, we sought egress from the north side of the city. When crossing Main street we noticed two blocks below us, advancing on a trot, a regiment of Federal cavalry. They overtook us and rode by without observing us, although we were gorgeous in full uniform, but without side arms or accoutrements, save small haversacks, in which we had stored all the crackers we could get. By means of a locomotive, obtained under compulsion, and with the assistance of two army officers, we rode twenty-five miles from Richmond, and then, having no experienced engineer, and the steam being ex- hausted, we abandoned it on a side track and reached the Valley of Virginia after days of tiresome progress on foot.
THE CONFEDERATE TREASURY.
Going back now to the departure of the midshipmen from the warehouse, we can trace the connection of the Naval Academy with the fleeing treasury of the Confederacy. For the following accurate narrative we are indebted to the diary of Midshipman R. H. Fielding, then a zealous and efficient young officer, and now a Presbyterian minister of prominence in Virginia. He says:
" We left our quarters at the tobacco factory at 4 P. M. on Sun- day, and proceeded rapidly to the Danville depot. On reaching it we were formed in line and were addressed by Captain Lowall, the commandant of midshipmen, who told us that we had been selected by the secretary, because he believed us to be brave, honest and discreet young officers and gentlemen, for a service of peculiar dan- ger and delicacy; that to our guardianship was to be committed a valuable train, containing the archives of the government, with its
