I had pretty well made up my mind to leave the Dispatch if I should receive an offer of employment elsewhere. There was no prospect of advancement in the Dispatch office, and I was very much disgusted by the intention of the proprietors to stop my pay during my absence on account of my illness, contracted in their service. When I returned to Richmond I was sent for by Colonel Briscoe G. Baldwin, who had been Chief Ordnance officer of General Lee’s army, and had been appointed Superintendent of the National Express Company. He told me he wanted me to take a position under him in the National Express Company. This company was organized after the war as a rival of the Southern Express Company, and had been something of a hospital for Confederate officers of high rank. It was at this time in a tottering condition; but Colonel Baldwin said he thought it was not too late to save it, if he could get such men as he wanted to do the active work of the Company. He did not pretend to hide the condition of the Company from me, but told me that he desired to have me there and thought that it would be a good place for me, as, if the Company did pull through its difficulties, I would be on the sure road to promotion. I resigned from the Dispatch, and on September 17th, 1866, I was appointed Route Agent in the National Express and Transportation Company, “with all the rights, privileges, authority, and duties attaching to the position.” My salary was one hundred dollars a month, and the Company paid my travelling expenses. The territory which I was to supervise covered the lines of railroad from Richmond to Alexandria in one direction, and from Richmond to Bristol, Tennessee, in the other. I went out on the road at once, visiting the agents at every depot, and examining into the condition of the business. There was great confusion everywhere, and the railroads were threatening to discontinue taking freight for us, as the Company did not pay the charges promptly. One of the places that I visited was Lexington, where I had the great happiness of seeing General R. E. Lee and his daughters again. I saw General Lee only once after this, and that was when he visited Charleston not long before he died. Engaged as he was with visitors, he gave me, in kindly remembrance of my services with his nephew, General Fitzhugh Lee, a private interview, in order that my wife, Virginia, might be presented to him. General Lee’s youngest son, Robert E. Lee, married Miss Lottie Haxall. I heard after I left Richmond that they would probably become engaged, but I lost sight of Miss Lottie until 1872, when I heard that Mr. and Mrs. R. E. Lee, who were newly married, were staying at Aiken. Assuming that Mrs. Lee must be my old friend Miss Lottie, I wrote to her and begged her to come to Charleston. A night or two afterwards I was at the theatre in Charleston, and as I looked at the audience I saw her sparkling face turned towards me and smiling recognition. The next day Mr. and Mrs. Lee spent with me and my wife, and we went down to Fort Sumter together. It was the last time that my wife went out; and only two or three months afterwards Lottie Lee died of consumption. Almost the last words that my wife, Virginia, who died in 1872, said to me before her death were: “When I die, I shall see Lottie again.”

I also had the opportunity of visiting Warrenton, where I spent a day with General W. H. Payne, whom I had not seen since we bade each other good-bye when he was wounded at Five Forks. General Lomax was living near Warrenton, and we had a glorious day reviving the memories of our service in the cavalry. The National Express Company, however, was on its last legs, and when I reached Richmond in October I found that it had been determined to wind up the concern. So ended my career as an expressman. While on one of my tours of inspection, and waiting at a wayside station for the train, I wrote the following verses:

“ONLY A PRIVATE.”

Richmond, Va., October 24, 1866.