CHAPTER XXVIII.
Wherein Captain Galligasken describes in brief Detail the Siege of Petersburg and Richmond, and attends the illustrious Soldier to the End of the Campaign at Appomattox Court House.
In my limited space, it would be impossible for me to do anything more than indicate the principal movements of the army. The details are so cumbrous and complicated that they would require a whole volume, and they are not necessary to my purpose in illustrating the character of General Grant.
Doubtless General Lee was aware of the movements of the Union army, for a body of troops, numbering over a hundred thousand, could hardly have been spirited through a hostile region without some tidings of its operations reaching him. But the transfer was made so skilfully and expeditiously that it was practically a surprise. Probably Lee expected to find Grant battering away at his intrenchments at some point between the Chickahominy and the James; but he must have been astonished when he heard of him fifty-five miles distant, menacing his lines on the south side of Richmond.
General Butler, with the army of the James, was at Bermuda Hundred, on the river. He had been directed to capture Petersburg while it was feebly defended. He had made the attempt, but it had failed. He had strongly fortified his position, and kept a rebel force in front of him, thus in part answering the ends for which he had been sent to the south side.
General Lee, finding that Grant was menacing Richmond from a new quarter, hurried his army through the city to confront him in his new position. On the arrival of Grant at Butler's encampment, he immediately sent out another force for the capture of Petersburg, which was an exceedingly important point, covering the railroad connections with the south. The rebels in the intrenchments in front of Butler hastened to the defence of the exposed city, and the vacated works were occupied by Union troops, but they were eventually driven back. The army was drawn up around Petersburg, where the enemy was very strongly intrenched in three lines of works. A vigorous and determined assault was made, but without gaining anything more than a temporary advantage. Burnside got near enough with his black brigades to throw a few shells into Petersburg, but after a bloody conflict he was forced back. The effort was faithfully made, and continued through three days; but the works were invulnerable.
At this point Grant fixed his gripe upon the two cities of Richmond and Petersburg. By his hard fighting he had secured favorable positions to commence his siege operations, which were vigorously followed up till the final event.
Phil Sheridan had been sent off on another raid to destroy the Virginia Central Railroad, and to unite with Hunter, by whom Sigel had been superseded, after his defeat by Breckinridge. He succeeded fully in the first part of his purpose, but could not find Hunter, who had been sent down through the Shenandoah Valley to strike Lynchburg. Twelve miles from Staunton, he encountered Jones's command, fought, and defeated it, taking fifteen hundred prisoners. Hunter united the expeditions of Crook and Averill with his own, and marched upon Lynchburg; but Lee had reënforced its garrison, and he was compelled to retreat, which he did by the way of West Virginia, thus placing his troops out of the field at a time when they were very much needed. This army had been relied upon by Grant to keep back a rebel approach up the Shenandoah Valley towards Washington, while he had coiled the army of the Potomac around Lee's forces south of the James, so that there was no danger of the main body again menacing the national capital.
It makes me even now groan in spirit to recall the failures of Grant's subordinates who were removed from the immediate sphere of his influence; but when I think how charitable the lieutenant general was to them, it is not meet that I should complain. These short comings were galling and vexatious to him, imperilling the mighty plans he had so laboriously built up; but he behaved like a Christian in every disappointment and trial.
Several cavalry raids were organized, which inflicted severe injuries upon the enemy's communications south of Petersburg. The celebrated mine was sprung on the 30th of July, which blew up one of the most important of the rebel forts, involving a battery and the greater part of a regiment in its destruction; but the result, which had promised so well, realized nothing but disaster. As soon as Lee discovered that Hunter was retreating through West Virginia, he sent Jubal Early, with a picked force of twenty-five thousand men, down the Shenandoah Valley, to threaten Washington, and to capture it, if practicable, hoping thus to distract the attention of Grant, and cause him to relax the "anaconda" gripe in which he held the rebel army. This army swept fiercely down the valley, and driving the small Union force in the vicinity before it, crossed the Potomac. Strong bodies of cavalry, under Mosby, rushed through Maryland, plundering Hagerstown and Frederick City, robbing the stores, and extorting money from the people to save their houses from being burned. They destroyed a portion of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and threatened Baltimore and Washington.
General Wallace gathered a force of eight thousand men, and attempted to dispute the passage of Early's army; but as the enemy were three to his one, he was compelled to fall back, though he fought a sharp battle before doing so. Washington and Baltimore were now greatly alarmed, and the citizens were called to arms. The enemy came within five miles of the capital. Grant sent the Sixth Corps, under Wright, and a portion of the Nineteenth, which had just arrived from New Orleans, for its protection. There was some heavy skirmishing near the capital, but the rebels soon retired. Wright was ordered to follow them; and, having overtaken Early, a smart engagement ensued, in which the enemy was defeated.
The Shenandoah region gave the lieutenant general a great deal of trouble. He found that Early had no intention of returning to Richmond, but had established himself in the valley; was gathering the rich harvests there, and sending large supplies to the rebel capital. He visited Hunter in person, and gave him particular instructions to follow Early, and to destroy all supplies; but finding Hunter willing to be relieved, he soon after assigned Sheridan to the Middle Military Division, which included all this section, and all the troops in Washington and its vicinity. The bold cavalryman was not only the most dashing officer in the army, but one of the best and most skilful generals. He soon brought order and harmony out of the confusion and complications which had so disturbed the general-in-chief. Grant cautioned him at first to avoid a general engagement, fearful, in case of defeat, of exposing Maryland, Pennsylvania, and the capital to new incursions.
Sheridan was full of fight, and saw his way clearly to a national victory; but he was too good a soldier to disobey his orders. Grant was willing to give the desired permission, but, not fully understanding the situation, or the views of his subordinate, he made a second visit to the Middle Division, and had an interview with Sheridan at his headquarters, near Harper's Ferry. High as his opinion had before been of the dashing soldier, the lieutenant general seems to have received a new revelation of his character and purposes on this occasion, as his enlarged sphere brought out his capacities; and he found it necessary to give him only that brief and singularly expressive order, "Go in!" Grant adds that he never found it necessary to visit Sheridan again before giving him orders.
Sheridan "went in"! He promptly attacked Early, fought him all day, and beat him thoroughly. The enemy lost five guns, fifteen battle flags, and five thousand prisoners. Not satisfied with this splendid result, he pursued the defeated foe up the valley, till the latter made a stand at Fisher's Hill. Here Sheridan "went in" again, routed Early, drove him from his position, scattering portions of his force among the mountains. Leisurely returning, he posted himself at Cedar Creek to rest his troops after their hard marching and fighting. Here, while Sheridan was absent at Winchester, his army was surprised and badly beaten. The guns were captured, portions of the force routed, and the whole compelled to retreat.
Sheridan was twenty miles from the scene of action; but hearing the distant booming of the guns, he mounted his good horse, and dashed away at a furious speed, and, in the midst of the rout, appeared upon the lost field, his charger reeking with foam. Dashing along the broken lines, then in retreat, he swung his hat in air, shouting furiously to the troops, "Face the other way, boys! We are going back." The stragglers began to rally at this startling presence on the field; and pushing to the main body, he electrified the army with his glorious spirit. "Boys, this would not have happened if I had been here," he called; "we are going back." Dashing here and there like a meteor among the troops, he re-formed the lines, and made his dispositions for a renewal of the battle. Before the arrangements were quite completed the rebels came down upon the lines again for a fresh and overwhelming assault. This time the onslaught was boldly and successfully resisted; and Sheridan, taking advantage of a momentary reeling of the enemy, charged upon them with infantry and cavalry, broke their lines, and thoroughly routed them. All that the rebels had was captured, including the guns and camp equipage which they had taken in the morning.
Sheridan, by his personal presence, by his magnetic influence, and by his unsurpassed military skill, had wrested victory from defeat. The one man had fought the battle, and had won it. For his brilliant achievement, he was made a major general in the regular army, in the place of General McClellan, who resigned to go into politics. Grant ordered one hundred guns to be fired from each of the armies around Petersburg in honor of Sheridan's victory. "Turning what bade fair to be a disaster into a glorious victory," said the lieutenant general, "stamps Sheridan—what I have always thought him—one of the ablest of generals."
Sheridan's victory also stamps Grant as the ablest of generals; for in the selection of his pet he displayed a knowledge of human character and a keen perception of the adaptation of means to ends, the want of which had caused so many other generals to fail. My friend Pollard is made especially mad by this episode in the Shenandoah Valley. He is particularly disgusted with the singular story of "the sudden apparition of General Sheridan on a black horse flecked with foam," though in the same chapter in which he alludes to the incident, he tells a story himself which would have made Baron Munchausen tremble for his reputation.
Sheridan's exploits in the valley, and his destruction of the rebel supplies, put an end to Confederate operations in that quarter. Washington was not menaced again, and the Sixth Corps was sent back to Petersburg to resume its place in the line of investment. The army of the Potomac was still battering away with its siege works at the rebel fortifications. It had extended its line around Petersburg, and destroyed twenty miles of the Weldon Railroad. There was no rest for the troops in the trenches. Every day brought its labors and its battle on a larger or a smaller scale. The sharp-shooters were picking off any man who showed his head above the breastworks. It was ceaseless toil and ceaseless vigilance. Grant was everywhere, on the watch for an opportunity to take advantage of any favoring circumstances. The winter came, and the lieutenant general did not desert the army to engage in the festivities or the excitements of the capital. He still kept his gaze firmly fixed on the prize which would end the Rebellion.
While the general-in-chief had been "hammering" away at the rebel army in Virginia, Sherman, under his direction, had been striking heavy blows at the South. He had fought and flanked his way down to Atlanta, carrying dismay and desolation before his victorious banners. The series of disasters which attended the operations of Johnston caused his removal from the command, Hood taking his place. The "great flanker" punished him even worse than his predecessor, and Hood went into Tennessee, with an army of fifty thousand men, to overwhelm Thomas; but this veteran almost wiped him out, and drove him to the south, with the loss of half his force and more than half his guns and munitions. Farragut thundered into Mobile Bay with his squadron, and, having defeated or sunk the rebel fleet, captured all the forts which covered Mobile. During the winter, Fort Fisher fell, and Wilmington dropped quietly into the hands of the Union forces. To crown the disasters of the Confederacy, Sherman made his grand march to the sea, mowing a wide swath on his passage, and leaving desolation and ruin in his path.
The Confederacy was on its last legs in the spring of 1865, though Lee still held his lines at Petersburg and Richmond. Jeff. Davis was still confident, though his general declared that he was no longer able to make a good fight. Some attempts to negotiate a peace were made, but they failed because the rebels still wanted terms which a conqueror might have asked. Grant had long ago demonstrated that the Confederacy was nothing but a "shell," and it had been broken in a hundred places. Still the rebels held out wherever they had a foot of ground whereon to stand. Still they prated about the "last ditch," and looked confidently, even up to the time of the final disaster, to foreign interference, or to some miraculous interposition of circumstances.
Sherman continued his march, captured Savannah, caused the evacuation of Charleston, and occupied Columbia. Johnston was gathering an army in North Carolina for the purpose of overwhelming him.
Grant feared that Lee would desert Richmond, and seek to join the forces of Johnston. Indeed, he had been partly moved by this consideration in the selection of the south side of the James as his field of operations. Richmond, without the rebel army which for four long years had been defending it, would be a showy, but not a substantial prize.
President Lincoln went down to City Point, and visited the national army in its several positions, as well to inform himself practically of the situation as to encourage the soldiers who had so long and so valiantly struggled for the salvation of the nation. The preparations for the final campaign were completed, and the army was to move on the 29th of March; but four days before this time arrived, Lee made his last struggle to escape the gripe of Grant's anaconda, and to realize the indefinite circumstance which was to clear up the horizon of Southern prospects. He massed his troops, and made an impetuous assault on Fort Steadman. The attack was so sudden and violent, that for the moment it was a success, and the rebels were in full possession of the redoubt. But the Union guns were immediately pointed at the work, and a terrible fire poured in upon the enemy. The infantry charged upon the rebels in the fort, now cut off from their retreat, and two thousand of them were compelled to surrender. President Lincoln had been invited to review the troops; but from a hill he was permitted to behold the recapture of the fort, which suited him better, as a spectacle. A general attack was ordered, and the Union line dashed gallantly forward, capturing the enemy's picket line, which they were unable to recover.
About this time Sherman, whose army was at Goldsboro', made a hasty visit to City Point, where he had a consultation with the president, Grant, Meade, and Sheridan, and plans were matured to prevent a junction between Lee and Johnston. The lieutenant general's "hammering" process was now bringing forth its proper fruit in the rebel ranks. Deserters and stragglers from them were thicker than snow-flakes at Christmas. They had learned what Grant was. They had found that he was a fighting general, and they were not willing to be sacrificed to the Moloch of the South, battling for what was already a "Lost Cause." It was confidently believed that Lee was more intent upon the problem of retiring with his army than on that of longer protecting Richmond. His movement upon Fort Steadman was doubtless intended to facilitate his escape.
Grant had no idea of permitting his wily foe to "retire." He was more desirous of capturing the rebel army than of taking Richmond. On the 29th of March—the day appointed for the grand movement—Sheridan was sent out to Dinwiddie Court House, south-west of Petersburg. The left of the main army had been advanced so that Grant's line extended from the Appomattox, below Petersburg, to Dinwiddie. Grant himself was at Gravelly Run, between Sheridan and the left of the main body, watching coolly, but with the most intense anxiety, the development of his programme. Sheridan, in spite of the heavy rains which had rendered the roads impassable for wagons, floundered through the mud with his cavalry to Five Forks, where the enemy was in force. Warren, with the Fifth Corps, extended his lines nearly up to the same point.
Sheridan "went in" with his usual impetuosity, and seized Five Forks. The enemy made a desperate attack upon Warren, and forced him back for a time, though he soon recovered from the shock and held his own. The enemy then turned upon Sheridan, occupying an isolated position, and compelled him slowly to fall back; and he retreated upon Dinwiddie, instead of upon the main line, thus compelling the rebels in their pursuit to extend their line—a piece of strategy which called forth the warmest commendations of his commander. Grant, solicitous for his safety, sent two divisions of the Fifth Corps to Sheridan, who with this aid attacked the rebels on his front, and drove them back to Five Forks again.
At this point the Confederates were in heavy force; but Sheridan made his dispositions with remarkable skill, hurried up the Fifth Corps, and with his cavalry executed a brilliant manœuvre, by which the battle was won, the rebels routed, and six thousand prisoners captured. By this bold and skilful movement, so admirably executed by Sheridan, the right of the rebel line was turned. In support of this operation on the left, Grant ordered a heavy bombardment to be kept up during the entire night of April 1, the day on which Sheridan had fought this decisive action, and at four o'clock the next morning (Sunday) a combined assault was made with perfect success, which was followed up till the enemy broke from his lines, and fled from the lost field, following the road along the south bank of the Appomattox.
Richmond and Petersburg were lost to the rebels!
No tidings of these terrific conflicts had reached Richmond. The people still believed, as Jeff. Davis had taught them, that Richmond could hold out for twenty years before any force operating against it. Lee sent a message to the obstinate "president" of the Confederacy that the battle was lost, and that the army must flee from its strongholds. The despatch was handed to Davis while he was at church. He read it, hastily rose, and went out. He was ghastly pale, and his face revealed the disaster to all who saw it. He was alarmed for his personal safety, and perhaps trembled in view of the halter that hung to the allegorical "sour apple tree," which had been celebrated in song all over the loyal land. Taking a train to the south, he left Richmond, which he was to enter again only as an indicted traitor. That night the city was evacuated in hot haste and set on fire by its late defenders, disappointed and desperate at the grand finale of Rebellion. General Weitzel entered and took possession the next morning. The flag of the redeemed Union waved triumphantly over the capital of Virginia.
Grant was not looking after Richmond just now. I do not know that he made any mention of the place in his documents, but in his despatch to Sherman, on the 5th of April, he says, "Rebel armies are now the only strategic points to strike at." Acting on this view, he ordered the most vigorous pursuit of Lee. Sheridan was sent forward with his cavalry, and the Sixth Corps, now temporarily under his command. He continued to "hammer" whenever an opportunity offered. At Sailor's Creek he struck the enemy a heavy blow, which resulted in the capture of sixteen guns, four hundred wagons, and seven thousand prisoners.
The pursuit then became a hunt. Lee had lost his supplies, or had been cut off from them. On his arrival at Amelia Court House, he was compelled to halt, to rest his men, and gather up food for their support from the country. This delay afforded the Union cavalry time to get ahead of him and destroy the Danville Railroad, his chosen means of retreat to effect a junction with Johnston.
The whole army of the Potomac was concentrated at Jettersville to attack Lee at Amelia, but he had fled, now bent upon reaching the mountains beyond Lynchburg. The pursuit was hurried up, Confederate supply trains captured, and the enemy reduced to desperate straits. Their sufferings were intensely severe, hundreds of them dropping with sheer exhaustion, for the want of rest and food, while the majority were no longer able to carry their muskets. Crossing the river, Lee had dragged his weary way to Appomattox Court House. On the night of April 6, a number of his officers informally met, and agreed that surrender was all that was left to the miserable army, worn out, starved, and thinned by wholesale desertion. One of them informed Lee of their conclusion; but whatever he thought, he did not adopt their suggestion.
The excellent Pollard does not hesitate to hint that Grant was a "butcher;" but it is acknowledged that Lee had no hope of the campaign in which he had engaged a week before, and had only persisted in fighting to please Davis. He waived his own opinion, and fought those bloody battles from Petersburg to Sailor's Creek, when he was satisfied there was no hope. What was he but a "butcher"? Is he not responsible for every life sacrificed at his order after he knew that the strife was hopeless? Lee was a skilful soldier, and if we could wipe out the fact that he was a traitor, that he fought against the government which had educated him to support it, and which he had sworn to defend; if we could forget that his influence might have removed the stains of Andersonville, Belle Island, and other rebel prisons from the annals of the miserable Confederacy; if he had ceased to shed blood when his conscience assured him treason could no longer flourish upon the sacrifice,—we might hold him up as a hero. As it is, he deserves the infamy he has won.
It was left for Grant to obey the promptings of humanity—for the "butcher" to make the overtures to stay the further useless flow of blood.