330

BATTLE OF COOL ARBOR.

At dawn on the morning of the 3d, the National army was in battle order, Hancock's corps on the Dispatch Station road on the left, the Sixth next, Smith's command adjoining these, and Warren and Burnside on the right, extending to the Tolopatomoy Creek. Wilson's cavalry were on the right flank, and Sheridan's were holding the lower crossings of the Chickahominy, and covering the roads to White House. Orders had been given. for a general assault along the whole lines, at half-past four. A few minutes later the signal for advance was given, and then opened one of the most sanguinary battles of the war. The Confederates were equally ready, equally brave, and equally determined to gain a victory.

June 3, 1864.

Swiftly the Nationals advanced to the attack. On the right it was made by the divisions of Barlow and Gibbon, of Hancock's corps, that of Birney

low's second line reached the front, the Confederates rallied in stronger force, and retook the position from which they had been pushed. Barlow was driven back about fifty yards, when he so speedily covered his front, that he could not be dislodged. Gibbon, who charged at the same time, at the right of Barlow, was checked by a marsh of the Chickahominy, which partly separated and weakened his command. A part of them gained the Confederate works. Colonel McKeen planted the National flag on their intrenchments; but a moment afterward he fell, mortally wounded. Gibbon's troops did not hold any part of the Confederate works; yet some of them intrenched themselves so close to them, that they could not well be reached, nor could they get away, excepting under the cover of fog or thick darkness. In these assaults Hancock lost about three thousand men.

Smith's command and the Sixth Corps were heavily engaged at the same time; and on the extreme right, Wilson's cavalry had a sharp fight with Hampton's, without any decisive results. But Warren's corps was too extended to allow him to do more than to hold his line intact, while Burnside brought two divisions of the Ninth to bear upon the left of Lee's line. These were hotly engaged, and would doubtless have vanquished their adversaries on that part of the field, had not the assault quickly ceased along the front. The battle had been "quick, sharp, and decisive." The Nationals had been repulsed, at nearly every point, with great slaughter. It was estimated that within twenty minutes after the struggle began, ten

CLOSE OF THE BATTLE OF COOL ARBOR.

331

thousand Union men lay dead or wounded on the field, while the Confederates, sheltered by their works, had not lost more than one thousand.

A consciousness now pervaded the mind of every soldier that further attempts to force the Confederate lines would be useless; and upon this impression they acted with marvelous unanimity, when, some hours later, General Meade sent orders to each corps commander to again attack, without regard to the doings of other corps. The whole army, as if controlled by a single will, refused to stir! And so, at one o'clock in the afternoon, the BATTLE OF COOL ARBOR was ended in a dreadful loss of life to the Nationals, but of nothing else, for they held their position firmly, with all their munitions of war.'

Grant now resolved to transfer his army to the south side of the James River, and by this grand flank movement, to cut off the chief sources of supplies of men

and provisions for Lee's army from the south and southwest, and compel its surrender. His prime object, as we have observed, had been the destruction of that army, by capture or dispersion. He had hoped to accomplish that

1 The National loss in this engagement, and in the immediate vicinity of Cool Arbor, was reported at 13,158, of whom 1,705 were killed, 9,042 wounded, and 2,406 were missing. Among the killed were Acting BrigadierGenerals Peter A. Porter, Lewis O. Morris, and F. F. Weed, of the New York troops. Other prominent officers were severely wounded, among them General O. P. Tyler. The Confederates lost General Doles. Lawrence M. Keit, one of the most active of the South Carolina conspirators in Congress in 1861, had been killed the day before.

"This view is from the ground occupied by the troops from the Army of the James, under General W. F. Smith, at the ruins of a mansion destroyed at the time of the battle, about a quarter of a mile northeast of the road from Gaines's Mill. See map on page 423, and narrative on pages 436 and 437, volume II. The woods seen in the distance were those in which the Confederates were partially concealed, and along the edge of which they had cast up a line of intrenchments. Their rifle trenches were in the open field, between the chimney and the woods. When the writer visited the spot, in May, 1866, the thin strip of woods mentioned in the text had disappeared.

332

PREPARATIONS FOR CROSSING THE JAMES RIVER.

object north of Richmond, but had failed to do so. He was disappointed, but not disheartened, by his failure and his enormous losses, which were to Lee's as three to one;' and he proceeded to carry out, as far as possible, the remainder of his original design.' He had seriously crippled his adversary, who lacked means for recuperation, and he now determined to starve him into submission. Having considered all the contingencies incident to the bold movement of throwing his army to the south side of the James, he feared no mischief from it, but anticipated much benefit.

On the day after the battle, Grant caused slight intrenchments to be thrown up in front of his line, and that night the Confederates made a furious assault on that front, but were quickly repulsed at every point. On the following day an assault was made on the National left (Smyth's brigade of Hancock's corps), with the same result. Meanwhile the army, preparatory to its march to the James, was gradually moved toward the left by the withdrawal of corps in that direction; and on the night of June, 1864. the 6th, a sharp but unsuccessful assault was made upon the right, then held by Burnside. On the following morning there was a brief armistice, for the purpose of gathering up the dead between the two lines, which had lain there four days; and before night Grant's line was extended to the Chickahominy, and Sheridan was dispatched, with two divisions of cavalry, to more effectually destroy the railways in Lee's rear, and render Washington more secure. 3 He struck and broke the Richmond and Fredericksburg road at Chesterfield Station, and then, pushing across the upper branches of the North Anna, smote the Virginia Central railway at Tre-vilian's Station, where he expected the co-operation of General Hunter. That leader, as we have seen, was at Staunton, and Sheridan was left to deal, alone, with the gathering Confederates on the railway. At Trevilian's he encountered and routed some horsemen under Hampton, and then destroyed the road almost to Louisa Court-House, where he was attacked by a much larger force. After a contest, he was compelled to retrace his steps to Trevilian's, where he fought a sanguinary battle, and then withdrew. He swept around, by Spottsylvania Court-House and Guiney's Station, to White House, and rejoined Grant's army, having lost during his raid over seven hundred men, and captured nearly four

4

1 The entire loss of men in this campaign, from the 4th of May to the 12th of June, when the troops proceeded to cross the James River, was about 60,000, while that of the Confederates was not more than 20,000 A tabular statement by Mr. Swinton, in his Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac, page 491, tells the losses in the battles and attendant movements, as follows: Battles of the Wilderness, 29,410; of Spottsylvania Court-House, 10,331; of the North Anna, 1,607; and of Cool Arbor, 13,153. Total, 54,551. To this number must be added the losses in the Ninth Corps (Burnside's, which, until the Battle of Cool Arbor, was independent of Meade's command), estimated at 5,000, makes the grand total about 60,000. The loss in officers was about 3,000.

2 "My idea, from the start, had been to beat Lee's army north of Richmond, if possible. Then, after destroying his lines of communication north of the James River, to transfer the army to the south side, and besiege Lee in Richmond, or follow him south, if he should retreat. After the battle of The Wilderness, it was evident that the enemy deemed it of the first importance to run no risks with the army he then had. He acted purely on the defensive, behind breastworks, or feebly on the offensive immediately in front of them, and where in case of repulse, he could easily retire behind them. Without a greater sacrifice of life, then, than I was willing to make, all could not be accomplished that I had designed north of Richmond."-Report of LieutenantGeneral U. S. Grant, of the Armies of the United States-1864-'65, July 22, 1865.

3 Grant's determination to transfer his army to the south side of the James River startled the authorities at Washington with fears that Lee might suddenly turn back and seize that city. Grant had no fears on that account. He knew that the country between Lee's shattered army and Washington was thoroughly exhausted by the troops that had just passed over it; and had Lee attempted such a movement, Grant could have sent troops from the James, by way of the Potomac, for the protection of the Capital, much sooner than Lee could have marched upon it.

4 See page 315.

THE PASSAGE OF THE JAMES RIVER.

333

hundred. He inflicted a loss of men upon the Confederates quite equal to his own. Among their killed was the active General Rosser.

June, 1864.

Grant continued moving slowly to the left, and keeping up the appearance of an intention to cross the Chickahominy and march on Richmond, until the evening of the 12th, when every thing was in readiness for the army to move to the James. White House was abandoned as a base of supplies; the rails and ties of the York River railway leading from it to Richmond were taken up and sent in barges to City Point, and the command of General Smith was re-embarked at the head of the York, and sent back by water to Bermuda Hundred. Then the Army of the Potomac moved. Warren's corps, preceded by Wilson's cavalry, forced the passage of the Chickahominy at Long Bridge with very little trouble, and made demonstrations in the direction of Richmond, to mask the real movements of the army. Hancock followed Warren across the stream, and marched directly to Wilcox's Wharf, on the James, below Harrison's Landing, between Charles City Court-House and Westover,' where he was ferried across. Wright and Burnside crossed the Chickahominy at Jones's bridge, lower down; while the trains, for greater safety, took a route still further east, and crossed at Coles's Ferry.

Lee discovered the withdrawal of his antagonist from his front on the morning of the 13th; but finding Warren across the Chickahominy, and on the road leading through White Oak Swamp to Richmond, he concluded. that Grant was about to march by that route upon the Confederate capital. With this impression, he retired to the fortifications of that city, while Grant's army was making a rapid journey in another direction. Warren quickly followed the Nationals, and on the night of the 14th,' June. a pontoon bridge, more than two thousand feet in length,

was thrown across the James River, at Douthard's,' a little below Wilcox's, over which the entire remainder of the army had passed before noon of the 16th, with very little molestation by the enemy, and was moving in the direction of Petersburg. Grant, meanwhile, had gone up to City Point, and there, upon the beautiful elevated grounds of

Dr. Eppes, near the junction of the Appomatox and the James, he established his head-quarters.

1 See page 435, volume II.

2 This bridge was laid in the space of about fifteen hours, under the immediate supervision of General Benham Its site was selected and the general directions for its construction were given by General Weitzel, chief engineer of Butler's Department of Virginia and North Carolina.

This was the appearance of Grant's head-quarters when the writer visited City Point, at the close of 1864. The building seen in the center was the General's quarters. It was very neatly built of small hewn logs, excepting the front, which was of planed pine timber, the bark left on the edges, and the whole well "chinked" with cement. It had two wings, making the whole quite spacious. A building at the left of it, was occupied by

334

THE DEFENSES OF BERMUDA HUNDRED.

When Grant determined to throw Meade's army to the south side of the James, he hastened to Butler's head-quarters for the purpose of arranging a plan of co-operation from Bermuda Hundred, against Petersburg, the possession of which would be of vast importance as a point d'appui, or fixed place for the forming of troops for chief operations against Richmond. Butler's line of works, erected under the direction of General Weitzel, were then perfected, and were not surpassed, in complete

ness for defensive operations by any made during the war. His position was almost impregnable; yet, while Smith was absent with a greater portion of the Army of the James, he was too weak to attempt formidable offensive movements. It was for this reason that Smith was so quickly sent back to Bermuda Hundred, as we have observed. 3

General Rawlins, Grant's chief of staff; and one on the right was the quarters of General Barnard, the engineer in-chief. Grant's house was presented by the Lieutenant-General, at the close of the war, to George H. Stuart, President of the U. S. Christian Commission, who caused it to be taken to Philadelphia. By permission of the city authorities he re-erected it in Fairmount Park, where it yet (1868) remains.

1 Petersburg is situated on the south bank of the Appomattox River, about ten miles from its mouth at City Point. That river is navigable to Petersburg for vessels of one hundred tons burden; but larger ones ascend only to Port Walthall, six miles below it, near the high eminence on the north side, known as Point of Rocks. Through Petersburg passed the railway that connected Richmond with the Carolinas. Another, called the Southside road, extended westward to Lynchburg; another, running in a southeasterly direction,, connected Petersburg and Norfolk, and a short one also connected Petersburg with City Point.

2 This shows a portion of the line of works constructed by General Weitzel. First, there was a strong line of earthworks, consisting of redoubts and intrenchments, with embrasures made more efficient by bags of sand.

*

CHEVAUX-DE-FRISE

Outside of this was a ditch, with abatis in front, and outside of all a row of pointed palisades of timber, inclining toward the approaches of assailants. The Confederate engineers also constructed admirable defensive works around Petersburg, in which they extensively employed a species of movable chevaux-de-frise, delineated in the annexed engraving. These were made of saplings, through which passed strong spikes of wood, sharpened at each end, and presenting four or six radiating arms. The sapling forming the center of

each was connected by wires or chains with another and so continuous lines of chevaux-de-frise were formed to any required extent.

See page 833.