The Last Grand Review - Selma NC
Posted by: 
Don.Morfe
N 35° 33.537 W 078° 17.812
17S E 745005 N 3938393
The Stevens House at Mitchener Station is where in the final days of the war, the last reviews of the Confederate army under Gen. Joseph E. Johnston’s command took place on April 4, and April 7, 1865.
Waymark Code: WM17Z8N
Location: North Carolina, United States
Date Posted: 04/25/2023
Views: 0
TEXT ON THE GRANITE MARKER
The Last Grand Review-On this site, April, 1865, the last grand review of the Confederate Army was held. The troops were reviewed by General J.E. Johnston, Governor Vance and others.
From the Civil War Trail Marker- Mitchener Station-The Last Review - Selma NC:
"This is the Stevens House at Mitchener Station, where in the final days of the war, the last reviews of the Confederate army under Gen. Joseph E. Johnston’s command took place on April 4, and April 7, 1865. The entire army—the remnants of the Army of Tennessee—paraded on April 4, but only Gen. William J. Hardee’s Corps marched on April 7, watched by Johnston and numerous dignitaries. Among them were North Carolina Governor Zebulon B. Vance, RaleighDaily Confederate editor Duncan Kirkland McRae, and several women from Raleigh. Hardee gave a reception afterward, then the party headed to Gen. Robert F. Hoke’s headquarters, where Governor Vance urged the North Carolina Junior Reserves to “fight till Hell freezes over!” After the speech, the governor and his entourage rode to the nearby Stevens farmhouse, where a cotillion was held in their honor before they returned to Raleigh. This proved to be the final review of the Confederate army, though few believed that the end was so near.
“I thought it rather too much of a good thing to be paraded twice in a week but the sight of the girls soon drove such unsoldierly thoughts away.” — Lt. Col. James W. Brown, 2nd South Carolina Artillery, on the review of Hardee’s Corps
“I witnessed to-day the saddest spectacle of my life…the review of the skeleton Army of Tennessee, that but one year ago was replete with men, and now filed by with tattered garments, worn out shoes, bare-footed and ranks so depleted that each color was supported by only thirty or forty men…The march was so slow—colors tattered and torn with bullets—that it looked like a funeral procession.” — Maj. Bromfield L. Ridley, Aide to Gen. A.P. Stewart, April 4, 1865"
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