532

A GRAND FLANK MOVEMENT.

rott in the fort, and soon afterward passed out of reach of its guns. Then the Fredericksburg broke the obstructions at Dutch Gap, and passed through,

but the other two iron-clads, and the Drewry, in attempting to follow, grounded. The Drewry could not be floated, so she was abandoned, and at daybreak a shell from a National battery fired its maga zine, and the vessel was blown to a wreck. A monitor hurled a 300-pound bolt upon the Virginia, and killed five of her crew; and so stout was the opposition that the Confederate squadron could not go farther down the river. A fire was kept up all day, and at night all of the assailants, excepting the ruined Drewry, fled up the river.

A little later, another movement was made on the extreme left of the besieging army, the object being the seizure of the South Side railroad and a development of the strength of Lee's right, by throwing a strong flanking column far beyond the right of the Confederate works along Hatcher's Run, in a manner to take them in reverse, and then, if possible, turn north and seize the coveted railway. To be prepared for whatever the

Jan. 31, 1865.

movement might develop, the entire army in front of Petersburg received marching orders; and on Sunday morning,' four days afterward, the flanking movement began. It was led by Warren, ▲ February 5. who marched with his own corps, the Second, under General Humphreys, and Gregg's cavalry, from the left of the line. The cavalry moved down the Jerusalem plank road at an early hour, and reached Reams's Station before sunrise. The Fifth Corps moved along the Halifax road at a little later hour, with Ayres's division in the advance, Griffin's following, and Crawford's in the rear. The Second and Third Divisions of the Second Corps (Mott's and Smyth's) were on the Vaughan road, with instructions to fall upon the right of the Confederate works on Hatcher's Run, while the Fifth should move around the flank and strike the rear of the enemy. The cavalry, meanwhile, had pushed on from Reams's Station toward Dinwiddie Court-House, and on Rowanty Creek encountered a portion of Wade Hampton's cavalry, dismounted and intrenched. After a spirited skirmish, the bridge over the creek, and the works, were carried, and twenty-two of the garrison were made prisoners. Some of the cavalry pressed on to the Court-House and scouted in various directions; and that night the whole cavalry force bivouacked on Rowanty Creek.

While Gregg was making these movements, the Second and Fifth Corps were executing their part of the plan. The Confederates were not in very heavy force, and the Third Division of the Second Corps soon carried the works, and uncovered the ford of Hatcher's Run to the safe passage of the troops. In this achievement, the Ninety-ninth Pennsylvania, of De Trobriand's brigade, was most conspicuous. That brigade pressed forward, drove the Confederates rapidly to the woods, and took position and intrenched on a commanding hill. The Second Division, under General Smyth, had turned

ATTEMPT TO TURN LEE'S RIGHT.

533

off to the right, toward Armstrong's Mill, and very soon found the Confederates in a strong position. Their pickets were driven in after a sharp fight, when Smyth formed a line that connected the left of his division with the right of the Third, commanded by General Mott. Temporary earth-works were thrown up, and these, at two o'clock in the afternoon, were as sailed. Under fire of artillery the Confederates pressed through the tangled swamp, and furiously assaulted the rifle-pits covering Smyth's right. They were repulsed with considerable loss. Twice afterward they attempted to turn his flanks and were repulsed, and at twilight they gave up the attempt. Smyth lost about three hundred men, and his antagonist a few more.

February 6,

1865.

During that night the Fifth Corps was brought into connection with the Second, on the left of the latter. Gregg's cavalry had been recalled, and now covered the Fifth; and the Sixth and Ninth Corps were disposed so as to assist the Second and Fifth, if necessary. Toward noon" Crawford was sent toward Dabney's Mills, in order to reach the Boydton plank road, when he met a division of Confederates under General Pegram. After a sharp fight, about two miles from the Vaughan road, the latter were pushed back, but the advance of Crawford was checked by the division of Evans, who came to Pegram's assistance. Ayres was now sent to Crawford's assistance; and a brigade of Griffin's division was ordered to the support of Gregg, on the left, who had been heavily assailed by Confederate cavalry, which had been sent around to strike his flanks and rear. Gregg was, finally, toward evening, pressed back to Hatcher's Run. Ayres was struck on the flank soon after Gregg was assailed, and also driven back; and then a severe blow fell upon Crawford, which also made him recoil, with heavy loss. Eagerly following up these successes, the Confederates attacked Humphrey's corps, but were repulsed in much disorder. Behind the intrenchments on the Vaughan road and Hatcher's Run, thrown up the previous day, the Nationals were rallied, and stood firm. In the course of the conflict, General Pegram had been killed, and about one thousand of the Confederates were slain or wounded. The National loss was nearly two thousand men. Their gain was the permanent extension of their line to Hatcher's Run. There was some skirmishing the next day,' but no serious attempt was afterward made to recover the lost ground. The City Point railroad, which had been extended as fast as the left seized new ground, was now built to Hatcher's Run. All was quiet now, for some time, excepting along the Petersburg lines, where there were occasional artillery duels.

February 7.

Grant considered it of the utmost importance, before a general movement of the armies operating against Richmond, that all communications with that city, north of the James River, should be cut off. At the middle of February circumstances favored an effort to that end. Lee had drawn the greater portion of the forces from the Shenandoah Valley' for service

1 The few Confederates in Northern Virginia, under Rosser, Moseby, and others, had been quite active during the winter. The former, with a mounted force, went over the mountains into Western Virginia, and at Beverly surprised a guard of horses and stores, 700 strong, and captured 400 of the men and all the property, on the 11th of January. On the 21st of February a squad of Confederate cavalry, under Lieutenant McNeil, dashed into Cumberland. between midnight and dawn, and with the assistance of disloyal residents, seized Generals Kelley and Crook, in their beds, placed them on horses, and carried them off to Richmond.

534

• Feb. 20

1865.

MOVEMENTS IN THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY.

a

at Richmond, or with Johnston, below the Roanoke. Knowing this, and desiring to move upon Lee in force, as quickly as possible, Grant instructed Sheridan to make a grand cavalry raid upon his adversary's communications generally, and specially to seize Lynchburg, if possible; and he gave him liberty, if it should seem advisable, to move southward, to the assistance of Sherman, whose cavalry was weak in numbers.'

Sheridan left Winchester on the 27th of February, on a damp and cheerless morning, with about ten thousand men, composed of the First Cavalry Division, under General W. Merritt, and the Third Cavalry Division, under General George A. Custer. To the latter division was added a brigade of the cavalry of the old Army of West Virginia, under Colonel Capeheart. Sheridan's men were all mounted. They moved rapidly up the Shenandoah Valley, passing the little villages along the quiet pike without halting, their destination being Charlottesville, by way of Staunton and the Rockfish Gap of the Blue Ridge. At Mount Crawford, on the Middle Fork of the Shenandoah River, they met Rosser, with four hundred men, disposed to dispute their passage of the stream. Colonel Capeheart dashed upon him, drove him across the river, and secured the bridge, which Rosser tried to burn behind him.

The whole column now moved on to Staunton, and thence marched for Rockfish Gap, Custer in the advance. At Waynesboro' he found Early, behind strong intrenchments, with twenty-five hundred men, ready to support his boastful declaration, that he would never permit Sheridan to pass through Rockfish Gap. Custer fell upon him' vigorously, March 2. and before the rest of the command had come up, he had routed Early, and almost annihilated the effectiveness of his force. He captured sixteen hundred of the twenty-five hundred of Early's troops, with eleven guns, seventeen battle-flags, and two hundred loaded wagons. Custer lost less than a dozen men. This finished Early as a military leader in the Rebellion. His troops not captured, attempted to escape over the Blue Ridge, by the railway. They were pursued about eleven miles. It was estimated that at least a million dollars' worth of Confederate property was destroyed at Waynesboro', and between it and the eastern side of Rockfish Gap.

Sheridan pushed across the Blue Ridge, in a drenching rain, during the night after the defeat of Early, and entered Charlottesville at two o'clock in the afternoon of the next day, when the authorities surrendered that place to him. There he remained two days, waiting for his ammunition and pontoon trains to come over the mountains. That time was employed by his troops in destroying bridges, factories, depots, and the railway in the direction of Lynchburg, for about eight miles.

1 Sheridan had sent out two raids since he sent Early "whirling up the Valley" from Fisher's Hill. One, under General W. Merritt, started from Winchester on the 28th of November, 1864, passed through Ashby's Gap, by Middleburg, to Fairfax Court-House, Centreville, and other points in Loudon Valley, and returned on the 3d of December by way of Grove Creek, Snicker's Gap, and Berryville. Another left Winchester under General A. T. A. Torbert, on the 19th of December, 1864, and went by way of Stony Point to Front Royal, and through Chester Gap, by Sperryville and Madison Court-House, to Gordonsville, which they reached on the 234. Thence, on their return, they went by Culpeper Court-House, to Warrenton. There the column divided, a part going by Salem, and the other by White Plains and Middleburg, to Paris, and thence to Winchester, where they arrived on the 28th.

RICHMOND THREATENED AND ALARMED

535

Satisfied that Lynchburg was too strong for him, Sheridan now.divided his command, and pushed for the James River. One column, under General Devin, pressed rapidly to it at Scottsville, in Albemarle County, and the other by way of Lovingston, to the same stream at New Market, in Nelson county. The right column then proceeded along the canal to Duguidsville, hoping to cross the James there, over a bridge, but the vigilant Confederates had burned it; also one at Hardwicksville. The rains had made the river so full that Sheridan's pontoons could not span it, and he was compelled to choose whether to return to Winchester, or to pass behind Lee's army to White House, and thence to the Army of the James, on Grant's right. He chose the latter course, and proceeding eastward, destroyed the James River canal, then the chief channel of supplies for Richmond, to Columbia, and making a general destruction of bridges over all that region.

• March 10, 1865.

"Everybody is bewildered by our movements," Sheridan said in a dispatch from Columbia." He might have added, had he known the fact, that he had produced the greatest consternation in Richmond. The "Government" prepared to fly. The families of officials "packed" for a journey. Lee hastened up to Richmond, from his lines at Petersburg, and held earnest consultations with Davis and his "cabinet;" and his family, living in a pleas ant house on Franklin Street, not far from the Capitol, made preparations, it was said, for an early departure. Boxes were sent to the "Departments" for packing up the archives, and directions were given to do the business as secretly as possible, so as "not to alarm the people." The "Congress" were very nervous, and wanted to adjourn and fly, but Davis persuaded them that the public necessity required them to remain as long as possible.

1

LEE'S RESIDENCE.

Sheridan halted in Columbia only a day, during which a brigade destroyed the canal as far as Goochland, in the direction of Richmond. Then the whole command dashed off in a northeasterly direction, for the Virginia Central railroad, which they struck at Tolersville, and destroyed it from there to Beaver Dam Station, a distance of fifteen miles. Then Custer, in one direction, and Devin in another, made complete destruction of the railways and bridges, as well as supplies, in the rear of Lee's army, inflicting a more fatal blow upon the Confederate cause than any victories on the sea-board, or in the interior, during the last campaign. Having done the work thoroughly, which he was appointed to do, he swept around by the Pamun

1 Jones, in noting this fact in his Diary, under date of March 7, says: "A large per cent. of the population would benold the exodus with pleasure!" On the day before, he wrote: "Four days hence we have a day of fasting, &c., appointed by the President; and I understand there are but three days' rations for the armynice calculation." On the night after Sheridan's arrival at Columbia, the "Government" was so frightened by a rumor that that bold rider was at the outer fortifications of the capital, that "Secretary Mallory and Postmaster-General Reagan," Jones recorded, "were in the saddle; and rumor says," he added, "that the President, and the remainder of his Cabinet, had their horses saddled in readiness for flight."

536

THE CONFEDERACY IN PERIL.

key River and White House, and joined the besieging army on the 26th of March. He had swept out of existence the Confederate power northward of Richmond. He had disabled full two hundred miles of railway, destroyed a vast number of bridges, and great quantities of stores, and inflicted a loss. of several million dollars. His campaign was most potential in demoralizing the Confederate soldiers, and disheartening the people.

Sheridan's raid; the successful march of Sherman, through the Carolinas; the augmentation of the Union forces on the sea-board by the transfer thither of a part of Thomas's army from Tennessee, and the operations in Alabama, satisfied Lee that he could no longer hope to maintain his position, unless, by some means, his army might be vastly increased, and new and ample resources for its supply opened. For these means of salvation he could not indulge a hope. He had strongly recommended the emancipation and enlistment of the negroes, expressing a belief that they would make good soldiers; but the selfishness and the fear of the slaveholders opposed him. The wretched management of the Commissary Department, under Northrup, who was unlawfully kept at the head of it by Davis, because he was a willing instrument in his hands for every cruel work that was to be done, had not only caused immense numbers of desertions from the army,' because of inadequate and unwholesome subsistence, but the villainous way in which, by imprisonment and otherwise, the producers were robbed by the agents of that man, had caused wide-spread discontent and bitter feeling. The effect was a great decrease in production, for the producer was not certain that the fruits of his labor would not be taken from him without reward. Viewing the situation calmly, Lee saw no hope for the preservation of his army from starvation and capture, nor for the existence of the Confederacy, except in his breaking through Grant's lines and forming a junction with Johnston, in North Carolina. He knew that the attempt to do so, would be perilous, but the least of two evils. He chose it, and prepared for a retreat from the Appomattox to the Roanoke.

3

On the 24th of March, Grant issued instructions to Meade, Ord, and Sheridan, for a general movement on the 29th. Lee had been, for several days, evidently preparing for some important movement, and, on the day after Grant issued his instructions, his army made a bold stroke for existence in an attempt to break the National line at the strong point of Fort Steadman, situated in front of the Ninth Corps of the Army of the Potomac, and forming a salient not more than one hundred yards distant from the Confederate intrenchments. It was toward the extreme right of Grant's army,

1 It was officially reported at about the first of March, 1865, that the number of deserters from the Confederate armies was about 100,000. The author of The Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac (Mr. Swinton), says, on the authority of General Johnston, that “two main armies of the Confederacy showed four men on their rolls to one in their ranks."

2 Henry S. Foote, a member of the Confederate Congress, in his book on the Rebellion, speaks of Northrup as servile and fawning to his Executive Chief," and of the "heartless tyranny practiced by this monster of iniquity in all the States of the South, in connection with the system of forcible impressment of produce, established," as having never been equaled. His brutal indifference to the sufferings of the Confederate soldiery," Foote said, was notorious, yet Davis retained him in office for four years, against remonstrances, and direct charges of delinquency, and "proceedings of both Houses of Congress ;" and he "never deigned to present his name to the Senate for the sanction of that body, up to the latest moment of his own official existence."

3 These were commanders of three distinct and independent armies,-the Potomac, under Meade-the James, under Ord (who had succeeded Butler after the failure to capture Fort Fisher), and the cavalry, under Sheridan; but all acted as a unit under the general command of Grant.