Three years ago the chivalric Brown joined my old regiment with twenty-three Maryland volunteers with light hearts and full of fight. I soon learned to admire, respect and love them for all those qualities which endear soldiers to their officers. They recruited rapidly, and as they increased in numbers, so did their reputation and friends increase, and they were soon able to form a command and take a position of their own. Need I say when I see that position so high and almost alone among soldiers, that my heart swells with pride to think that a record so bright and glorious is in some part linked with mine? Would that I could see the mothers and sisters of every member of your battalion that I might tell them how nobly you have represented your State and maintained our cause. But you will not be forgotten. The fame you have won will be guarded by Virginia with all the pride she feels in her own true sons, and the ties which have linked us together memory will preserve. You who struck the first blow in Baltimore, and _the last in Virginia_, have done all that could be asked of you, and had the rest of our officers and men adhered to our cause with the same devotion, to-day we would have been free from Yankee thraldom. I have ordered the brigade to return to their homes, and it behooves us now to separate. With my warmest wishes for your welfare, and a hearty God bless you, I bid you farewell. THOMAS T. MUNFORD, _Brigadier General Commanding Division_. The scene which followed this announcement and letter can only be conceived by those who have had every energy and sentiment of soul and heart wrapped up in the attainment of some end a thousand fold dearer than life, only to find after years of the bitterest struggles and dearest sacrifices, that all vain, and themselves bankrupt of all that would make life supportable. This little band of Maryland soldiers, despairing and broken hearted, were hundreds of miles from home, but separated still farther by a wanton exercise of power forbidding them to return to Maryland, which exercise of power was due to the petty malice of some of the civil authorities of Maryland’s cowardly jackals, tearing at the dead body of the lion, which living, they dared not face. With this letter of General Munford, announcing the surrender of General Joseph E. Johnston’s army, perished the last hope of the Southern Confederacy, and the few surviving members of the First Maryland cavalry prepared to bid each other adieu. That was a sad and solemn parting indeed, and stout hearts melted, and tears from eyes unused to weeping were profusely shed, when hand clasping hand, farewell was spoken.