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CH. X.]

MOVEMENT TO THE NORTH ANNA,

sick and wounded, in number about 20,000, were sent by way of Fredericks burg to Washington; the cavalry was strengthened by adding several thousand fresh horses; and every preparation was made for a vigorous continuance of the struggle.

Grant, deeming it impracticable to make any further attack upon the rebels at Spottsylvania Court House, issued orders, on the 18th of May, with.a view to a movement to the North Anna, to commence at midnight of the 19th. On the 18th, an attack on the right of the enemy's works had been made, but to no advantage; and late in the afternoon of the 19th, Ewell came out of his works against our extreme right flank; but the attack was promptly repulsed, with heavy loss.

Although the movement just ordered was delayed somewhat by Ewell's attack, yet it was begun on the night of the 21st of May. The cavalry was sent forward, and occupied the line of the Fredericksburg and Richmond Railroad at Guinney's Station and Bowling Green, followed immediately by Han

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higher up, at Jericho Ford, and although
violently attacked on the south branch
of the stream, repulsed the enemy with
heavy loss. The next day was spent
in getting over the remainder of the
army, in the face of considerable oppo-
sition. Grant now took up a
up a position
south of the river, and prepared to open
communication with Port Royal on the
Rappahannock, whither his wounded
were sent. The enemy in front held a
very strong position between the North
and South Anna, and covering the
crossing of the Fredericksburg and the
Virginia Central Railroads at Sexton's
Junction.*

Grant, finding that the position of the rebels on the North Anna was stronger than either of their previous ones, withdrew, on the night of the 26th of May, to the north bank of the North Anna, and moved by way of Hanovertown, to turn the enemy's position by his right. Torbert's and Merritt's divisions of cavalry, under Sheridan, and the 6th corps, led the advance; and the Pamunkey River was crossed on the 28th, at Hanovertown, after some sharp cock's corps, and the next day fighting. On the same day there was by Warren's and the remainder a severely contested engagement beof the army. Lee, also, at the same tween our cavalry, under Torbert and time, evacuated Spottsylvania, and be- Gregg, and a body of the enemy's horse. gan his march southward, moving on a The engagement took place at Haw's direct interior line to the North Anna, Shop or Store, and the rebels were dewhere it was expected he would make feated and driven about a mile. On a stand. There was but little opposi- | the 29th and 30th of May, the army tion encountered by our troops on the advanced, with heavy skirmishing, to route they had taken, as the several corps pushed on to the North Anna River. Hancock effected a crossing near Taylor's Bridge, after a spirited assault. Warren got his corps over

1864.

by Burnside, was assigned to the Army of the Potomac, and, from this date, was a portion of Gen. Meade's command. On the 25th, Sheridan, of whose raid we

* On the 24th of May, the 9th corps, commanded

have spoken on a previous page (p. 432), rejoined the

Army of the Potomac.

the Hanover Court House and Cold the Kanawha, numbering about 10,000
Harbor road, and developed the posi- men, and one on the Shenandoah, num-
tion of the rebels north of the Chicka- bering about 7,000 men. The latter
hominy. Late on the evening of the was to move to Cedar Creek, and
30th of May, to use Grant's language, threaten the enemy in the Shenandoah
"the enemy came out and attacked our Valley, advancing as far as possible;
left, but was repulsed with very consi- while Crook was to take possession of
derable loss. An attack was immedi- Lewisburg, with part of his force, and
ately ordered by Gen. Meade along his move down the Tennessee Railroad,
whole line, which resulted in driving doing as much damage as he could,
the enemy from a part of his entrench- destroying the New River bridge and
ed skirmish line. On the 31st of May, salt works, at Saltville, Virginia.
Gen. Wilson's division of cavalry des-
troyed the railroad bridges over the
South Anna River, after defeating the
enemy's cavalry. Gen. Sheridan, on
the same day, reached Cold Harbor, *
and held it until relieved by the 6th
corps, and Gen. Smith's command,
which had just arrived, via White
House, from Gen. Butler's army."

The movement thus directed by the
commander in chief to be made in the
Kanawha and Shenandoah Valleys, was
begun on the 1st of May. Crook, who
had the immediate command of the
Kanawha expedition, divided his forces
into two columns, giving one, composed
of cavalry, to Gen. Averill. They cross-
ed the mountains by separate routes.
It will be recollected (see p. 424) Averill succeeded in distracting the at-
that one of the co-operating movements tention of the noted rebel leaders, A.
on which Grant relied in carrying for G. Jenkins and John Morgan, and pre-
ward the present campaign, was that venting a junction of their forces against
under Sigel, who was in command in Crook and his movement. On the 7th
the department of Western Virginia. of May, Averill came up with a portion
Grant's idea was, that Sigel's force of Morgan's men, and finding him in
should act in such wise as to compel force, after a skirmish, he passed by a
the rebels to detach largely for the
protection of their supplies and lines
of communication, or lose them; and
he, accordingly, gave orders to Sigel to
organize or form his available force into
two columns, one under Gen. Crook, on

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circuitous route over Walker Mountain,
a weary march to Cove Mountain Gap,
in the immediate vicinity of Wytheville,
on the railroad, his proposed 1864.
destination. Morgan, anticipat-
ing the movement, was met at the Gap,
strongly posted with a greatly superior
body of cavalry and infantry, with four
pieces of cannon. Averill held his
ground during the day, May 10th,
against repeated assaults, and at night
extricated himself from the perilous
situation, with a loss in killed and

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CH. X.]

SIGEL'S AND BUTLER'S FAILURES.

wounded of 135 men. Crossing the Walker Mountain again, Averill proceeded to Dublin, on the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad, about thirty miles north-east of Wytheville. Here he found Crook had accomplished the destruction of the railroad, and had moved forward. Averill followed, and baving taken the northerly route over the mountains from Christianburg, he came up with Crook at Union, on the 15th of May. Beside the damage done to the road, several important bridges and depots,inluding New River bridge, were destroyed. Sigel, meanwhile, moved up the Shenandoah Valley, with a force of over 7,000 men, as far as Newmarket, a town near the Manassas Gap Railroad, and about fifty miles from Winchester. The rebel Gen. Breckenridge was sent, with all the forces he could collect for the emergency, to fall upon and beat Sigel. If the latter were to be successful, and advance upon Staunton, and then strike upon Lynchburg or Gordonsville, he would render invaluable service to Grant and his plans; but unhappily, when he met the rebels at Newmarket, on the 15th of May, he was entirely defeated, lost a portion of his train, six guns and 1,000 prisoners, and retired behind Cedar Creek. The result was, of course, that the victors returned to Lee's army and added to its strength. Grant, not at all satisfied with Sigel's operations, demanded his removal, and he was at once superseded by Gen. Hunter, who was expected to infuse

437

1864.

On a previous page (p. 424), as we have seen, Butler promised more largely than he was able to accomplish. His active and successful co-operation was more important even than Sigel's to Grant's plans. On the 12th of May, he advanced several divisions of Gillmore's and Smith's corps between the railroad and the river toward Richmond, in the direction of Fort Darling, and speedily came upon a body of the enemy, guarding the outer defences of that work. A dispatch was captured from Beauregard to Hoke, in command at Drury's Bluff, stating that he would join them as soon as the troops came up. A demonstration was made by Smith upon the rebel lines, which was followed up the next day, the 13th, by a flanking movement of Gillmore, who assaulted and took the enemy's works on their right. Smith carried the first line on their left with little loss. The enemy retired into three square redoubts, upon which the Union artillery was brought to bear, but without any advantageous result. Grant complained that the time which Butler had spent from the 6th of May onward, in the manner narrated, had lost to us the benefit of the surprise and capture of Richmond and Petersburg, enabling, as it did, Beauregard to collect his loose forces in North and South Carolina and bring them to the defence of those places.*

* "The army sent to operate against Richmond hav.

vigor into the movements in that ing hermetically sealed itself up at Bermuda Hundred,

quarter, and obtain decisive success.*

the enemy was enabled to bring the most if not all the reinforcements brought from the South by Beauregard against the Army of the Potomac. In addition to this

* See Grant's "Report," p. 20, for instructions sent reinforcement, a very considerable one, probably not to Gen. Hunter, Mav 20th and 25th.

less than 15,000 men, was obtained by calling in the scat

following, the rebels renewed the contest, in which, however, they gained no advantage and met with heavy loss. After this the enemy fell back, and as the troops at Bermuda Hundred could not be used to operate against the rebels from that point, Grant ordered all, except a small defensive force, to join the Army of the Potomac. This was accomplished under the command of Gen. W. F. Smith, and the troops were landed, on the 30th of May, at White House.*

On the 16th of May, the rebels attacked Butler in his position in front of Drury's Bluff. Under cover of a thick fog, an assault was made upon Smith's line, which was forced back in some confusion and with very consider able loss. At the same time, the enemy made an attack from Petersburg on Butler's forces, guarding the rear, and were repulsed. Thus, to use Grant's language, Butler "was forced back, or drew back, into his entrenchments between the forks of the James and Appomattox Rivers, the enemy entrenching himself in his front, thus covering his railroads, the city, and all that was valuable to him. Butler's army, therefore, though in a position of great security, was as completely shut off from modifications in carrying out the plan further operations against Richmond as if it had been in a bottle strongly corked. It required but a comparatively small force of the enemy to hold it there."

A cavalry expedition had been started, meanwhile, on the 12th of May, under Kautz, to cut the Danville Railroad near Appomattox Station, and was successful in blowing up a bridge at that place, and breaking up the road and destroying stores at several stations. Returning, our troops inflicted various damage on the Petersburg and Lynchburg Railroad, and that to Weldon at Jarrett's Station; proceeding thence to City Point, which was reached on the 18th of May. Beauregard, on the night of the 19th of May, made an assault upon Butler's lines, but was successfully repulsed. The next day, and the day

tered troops under Breckenridge from the western part of Virginia."-Grant's "Report," p. 15.

Turning our attention again to the operations of the main army under Grant, we find that these mortifying failures on the part Butler and of Sigel necessitated, as we shall see, several

of the campaign. Grant, with his usual tenacity, was loth to vary his course from his original design, and several severe struggles were had be fore he entered fully upon his new strategy in his onward progress towards Richmond. On the 1st of June, an attack was made, about five, P.M., by the 6th corps and the troops under Smith. Warren's, Burnside's, and Hancock's men were held in readiness to advance on the receipt of orders. The attack was made with spirit, continuing until

* "Grant was indeed beset, not simply by rebel armies, led by skilful and brave generals, but by Federal failures:-Sigel defeated in the West, and

Breckenridge reinforcing Lee with about 15,000 men ;

Butler defeated at the South, and Beauregard free to send Lee a great part of his troops. It was necessary for him to modify, without materially altering his plans; and he moved with the Army of the Potomac, to try an alternative thought of at the beginning

the crossing of the James, and the union of the armies under his own eye and command."-Coppée's “Grant and his Campaigns,” p. 329.

CH. X.]

THE ATTACK OF JUNE THIRD.

after dark, and resulting in our carrying the enemy's works on the right of the 6th corps, and also the first line in front of Smith. The latter, however, were commanded in the rear, which made those carried untenable. Several hundred prisoners were taken. During the night, the enemy made a number of assaults to regain what they had lost, but failed. Our loss in this engagement was estimated at 2,000 killed and wounded.

1964.

439

1864.

son, with his cavalry, fell upon the rear
of a brigade of Heth's division, which
Lee had thrown around to his
left, and after a short but sharp
conflict, drove them from their rifle-pits
in confusion, taking a number of pri-
soners. An hour later, and the enemy
suddenly attacked Gibbon's division of
Smith's command, but were repulsed.
In the dispatch of June 4th, from which
these particulars are drawn, Secretary
Stanton states our entire loss, during
these three days' operations around
Cold Harbor, as reported by the adju-
tant-general, as not exceeding 7,500.
The rebel loss, as nearly as could be
ascertained, was comparatively light.*

The next day was spent principally
in getting the troops into position for
an attack on the morrow. Very early
on the morning of Friday, June 3d,
Grant ordered a general attack to be
made on the enemy's lines, which re-
sulted in one of the severest and most
hardly contested fights of the war.
Hancock's corps was brought in the
night from the right to the extreme left,
the order of the army corps from the
right now being Burnside, Warren,
Smith, Wright, Hancock. The line
ran nearly parallel with that of the
Chickahominy, at a distance of a mile
and a-half to two miles and a-half north
of it, the enemy directly in front hold-
ing the north bank of the river. Breck-
enridge's command, it was said, occu-
pied the enemy's right, with Beaure-
gard on the right centre, Longstreet on
the left centre, Ewell on the left, and
Hill in reserve. The rebels were driven
within their entrenchments at all points,
but without our gaining in consequence
any decisive advantage. The main
fighting was done by Hancock's corps
on the left, and by Wright's and Smith's
forces at the centre. The battle was
renewed at evening. At six, P.M., Wil-"Army of the Potomac," p. 491.

Grant was at length brought reluct antly to the conviction, that the nearness of the rebels to their defences around Richmond rendered it impossible, by any flank movement, to interpose between them and the city. "I was still in a condition," he says in his report, "to either move by the enemy's left flank, and invest Richmond from the north side, or continue my move by his right flank to the south side of the James. While the former might have been better as a covering for Washington, yet a full survey of all the ground satisfied me that it would be impracticable to hold a line north

* Mr. Swinton, whose criticism is decidedly unfavor. able to the plan adopted by the commander in chief, says: "Grant's loss in the series of actions from the

Wilderness to the Chickahominy reached the enor

mous aggregate of 60,000 men put hors du combat," Lee's loss is estimated not to have exceeded 20,000. In

7,289; wounded, 37,406; missing, 9,856. To these Mr. Swinton adds the casualties in Burnside's corps,

a tabular statement subjoined, the killed aro stated at

about 5,000. The loss in officers was especially se vere, being in all 3,000, a loss truly irreparable.

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