JUDGE RUFFIN--HIS HISTORY--HIS CHARACTER--HIS SERVICES--GENERAL COUCH'S OUTRAGES AFTER PEACE HAD BEEN DECLARED--GENERAL SHERMAN'S OUTRAGES--HIS UNBLUSHING OFFICIAL REPORT.--"ARMY CORRESPONDENTS"--SHERMAN IN FAYETTEVILLE--CORNWALLIS IN FAYETTEVILLE--COINCIDENCES OF PLANS--CONTRASTS IN MODES--THE NEGRO SUFFERS--TROOPS CONCENTRATING UNDER GENERAL JOHNSTON. In the first week of May, 1865, _after_ the final surrender of General Johnston's army, and _after_ General Grant's proclamation of protection to private property, Major-General Couch, with a detachment of some twelve or fourteen thousand infantry, passing up the main road from Raleigh to Greensboro, encamped on a noble plantation, beautifully situated on both sides of the Haw river, in Alamance county. Of the venerable owner of this plantation I might be pardoned if I were to give more than a cursory notice; for, as a representative North-Carolinian, and identified for nearly fifty years with all that is best in her annals and brightest in her reputation at home and abroad, no citizen in the State is regarded with more pride and veneration than Judge RUFFIN. His claims to such distinction, however, are not to be fairly exhibited within the limits of such a sketch as this, though a reference to his public services will have a significant value in my present connection. Judge Ruffin was born in 1786, graduated at Princeton in 1806, was admitted to the bar in 1808, and from the year 1813, when he first represented Hillsboro in the House of Commons, to the present time, he has been prominently before the people of our State, holding the highest offices within her gift with a reputation for learning, ability, and integrity unsurpassed in our judicial annals. In the year 1852, after forty-five years of brilliant professional life, he resigned the Chief-Justiceship, and, amid the applause and regret of all classes of his fellow-citizens, retired to the quiet enjoyment of an ample estate acquired by his own eminent labors, and to the society of a numerous and interesting family.