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Appomattox until General Lee canu- with the Army of Northern Virginia. During that pi-riod ( icneral Colston kept the enemy at bay, ami ivprlU-d several assaults upon our lines; in one of which his horse was shot.
In August, 1864, he was placed in command of the city of Lynch- burg, and ordered to strengthen its defences. There he remained on duty until after the surrender, holding the city committed to his keeping.
In every field of duty General Colston served with distinguished gallantry, fidelity and ability.
After the war he was without resources, except his intellect, attain- ments and character. He delivered lectures in Baltimore, Richmond. Raleigh and other cities, on the life and character of his colleague, friend and commander, Stonewall Jackson. Later he established in Wilmington, N. C., a military academy in the midst of the officers and men whose brigade commander he had once been, and conducted it successfully until March, 1873, when he accepted military service under the Khedive of Egypt, as one of his general staff", with a rank equivalent to that of colonel, to aid in the organization and discipline of his army.
Colston continued in that service until 1879, when he resigned; England having assumed control of Egypt and required the Khe- dive to reduce his army and discharge his American officers. Dur- ing that period he commanded two expeditions of great importance sent for the exploration of the great south country lying between Egypt and the equator. The first occupied him from October, 1873, to May, 1874; the second from 1874 to 1876. His services in these ex- peditions, for which his scientific attainments, and his capacity and experience as a soldier eminently fitted him, were very valuable and were highly appreciated by his government. To attest the esteem and honor in which General Colston was' held, the Khedive obtained for him from the Sultan, the firman and decoration of " Knight Commander of the Turkish Imperial Order of the Osmanieh;" a distinction which is never granted except for eminent and merito- rious public services.
During the last expedition he was called upon to exhibit the high- est virtues which ever adorn mankind. Marching with his command over deserts of sand, hundreds of miles in extent, with watering places distant four or five days journey apart, under the burning rays of a tropical sun, and in a temperature reaching sometimes 160 de- grees, General Colston became ill. He was also thrown from his
