DOCUMENTS. blessing, in a short time the object of our labors will be accomplished. S. WILLIAMS, A. A. G. GEO. G. MEAde. Major-General Commanding. GENERAL LEE'S ADDRESS. HRADQUARTERS ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA First-The general commanding takes great pleasure in announcing to the army the series of successes that, by the favor of God, have recently been achieved by our arms. Second-A part of the enemy's force threatening the valley of Virginia has been routed by General Imboden, and driven back to the Potomac, with the loss of their train and a number of prisoners. Third-Another body of the enemy, under General Averell, penetrated to the Virginia and Tennessee railroad at Dublin depot. A portion of his force has been dispersed by Generals Morgan and W. E. Jones, who are in pursuit of the remainder. Fourth-The army of General Banks sustained a severe defeat in Western Louisiana by the forces of General Kirby Smith, and retreated to Alexandria, losing several thousand prisoners, thirty-five pieces of artillery, and a large number of wagons. Some of the most formidable gunboats that accompanied the expedition were destroyed to save them from capture. Fifth-The expedition of General Steele into Western Arkansas has ended in a complete disaster. Northern journals of the tenth instant announce his surrender, with an army of nine thousand men, to General Price. Every Sixth-The cavalry force sent by General Grant to attack Richmond has been repulsed, and retired toward the Peninsula. demonstration of the enemy south of James river has, up to this time, been successfully repelled. Seventh-The heroic valor of this army, with the blessing of Almighty God, has thus far checked the principal army of the enemy, and inflicted upon it heavy losses. The eyes and hearts of your countrymen are turned to you with confidence, and their prayers attend you in your gallant struggle. Encouraged by the success that has been vouchsafed to us, and stimulated by the great interests that depend upon the issue, let every man resolve to endure all and brave all, until, by the assistance of a just and merciful God, the enemy shall be driven back, and peace secured to our country. Continue to emulate the valor of your comrades who have fallen; and remember that it depends upon you whether they shall have died in vain. It is in your power, under God, to defeat the last great effort of the enemy, establish the inindependence of your native land, and earn the lasting love and gratitude of your countrymen and the admiration of mankind. R. E. LEE, General. A NATIONAL ACCOUNT. HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, The rebels, at five o'clock this evening, made The assault on the part of the enemy was boldly conceived and executed, and was probably prompted by the fact that General Meade has to-day been withdrawing the forces from the right of our line and massing them on the left. The object of the rebels, therefore, was doubtless to discover where our right rested, and to seize such booty as might fall in their way. The purpose, as will be seen, was completely produced a temporary flurry, Generals Grant foiled, and though the suddenness of the attack and Meade seem now in perfect good humor with the result. A SOUTHERN ACCOUNT. ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA, NEAR SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT-HOUSE, May 20, 1864. them the gallant Colonel Boyd, of Daniels' North Carolina brigade, who was killed. The conduct of most of the troops is highly commended, especially Pegram's Virginia brigade, of whom General Ewell spoke in regard to their bearing on this occasion in terms of most exalted praise. Jones' Virginia and the Stonewall brigade, in Johnson's division, or rather the remnants thereof, are said not to have done so well. About three o'clock yesterday evening Lieutenant-General Ewell, with the whole of the Second corps, moved forward on a reconnoissance in force, leaving our intrenchments about three P. M. This move was intended to strike the enemy on their extreme right flank. The country through which the move was made is To-day I have ridden around the lines, and diversified by woods and fields, and so much of there is a quiet most profound. The pickets forest that it was quite possible so to move as to have ceased firing at each other. The enemy's escape the observation of the enemy. Lieuten- large wagon-train can be plainly seen parked ant-General Ewell moved by a circuitous route, in front of the Court-house. Our boys are "gay striking the enemy's line of skirmishers at a and happy," still "ripe and ready" to meet the point a little north and west of the road lead- foe. Spottsylvania Court-house, the hotel, the ing from Fredericksburg to Spottsylvania Court-jail, and the few private buildings, have all house, and about eight miles from the former come in for a good share of the enemy's shot place. and shell, which were poured upon that part About five P. M. our skirmishers came upon of the line in the cannonading on Wednesday. the enemy's line of skirmishers, and a sharp en- Grant seems to be gradually shifting around gagement ensued between them. Our column to our right, and will doubtless await reinforcestarted with artillery, but owing to the condiments before renewing the fight. tion of the roads, were compelled to move without it. The enemy, during the action, brought two pieces into position. The force of the enemy which we encountered consisted of Hancock's Second, a part of the Ninth, and some of the A hasty despatch, scrawled upon the sward heavy artillery troops under Augur, who were before the house at 4% P. M., and sent off the brought here on Sunday last, armed as infantry- moment after, has announced to you the great Our skirmishers attacked their skirmish march of the day. Look at the map, note the line most furiously, and drove them back some relative positions of Spottsylvania Court-house half a mile, when we came in contact with their and of Guinea and Bowling Green, and the immense lines of battle, and we were compelled mind can at once perceive the wonderful milito give back, they assaulting us. Not satisfied tary genius that has flanked the rebel army, and at our temporarily giving back, the enemy, re-advanced far to the rear of its position in the inforced by a second line, attempted to press, when we in turn repulsed them most handsomely. After this, for four or five times, they assaulted, with great noise, our line of skirmishers, but in every instance were successfully repelled. men. NATIONAL ACCOUNTS. MOTLEY HOUSE, NEAR GUINEA'S STATION, } May 21-9 P. M. little space of twenty-four hours. At daylight this morning no one not in the secret of headquarters had the least idea of the events impending. Our lines had been curiously and suggestively run, and the Second corps was lying around loose, but still we supposed a push for the telegraph road to be the only thing on the programme. Headquarters of the armies, both Grant's and Meade's, were astir at an early hour, and the trains sent off to the left, and the boys, used to it by this time, and admiring the immovable tenacity of Grant, when they noticed the direction taken, said, ap provingly, "by the left flank, march." Long after their trains had gone, Grant and Meade, with their staff, remained on the old ground, neither of them, apparently, with any greater care on his mind than how to while away an hour or two. At last Meade rode slowly away, and a half hour after Grant followed him. Two miles brought him to the Massaponax Church, on the telegraph road, where Meade was found. Here the nature of the events transpiring began to appear to the outside minds. It was known that the Second corps was far to the left, and Bowling Green was mentioned as its probable The object of this move is said to have been destination. While we lay at the church, the a reconnoissance in force, to determine the transportation of the Fifth corps began moving enemy's position. We certainly accomplished past, and the information being positive that very little, while we lost some good men, among | Burnside, with the Ninth, and Wright, with the During the engagement, which lasted from about five until nine o'clock, our skirmishers reached the main road running from Fredericksburg to Spottsylvania Court-house. On this road the enemy's train was moving. Into it our skirmishers dashed, cutting loose some and shooting others of their mules, and capturing a quartermaster. About nine o'clock at night the fighting ceased, and our men retired to their original position behind the intrenchments, with a loss of about one hundred and fifty wounded, some thirty killed, and some few stragglers who were "gobbled up" by the enemy. We captured and brought off about a hundred prisoners, who represent their loss quite heavy. During the action, Lieutenant-General Ewell's horse was shot under him. The General received a severe fall, which jarred him considerably. He is to-day, however, again in the Baddle. of the telegraph road, and a mile southward of Anderson's house. As I write everything is quiet; the trains have ceased moving; the camp-fires of the Fifth corps are belting the hills beyond the valley with a wide circle of light. What next? Lee cannot fight us here. His next chance is at Hanover Court-house, on the line of the North Anna, which has always been considered formidable. But let Lee beware. It is now diamond cut diamond. Grant, aided by such subalterns as Meade, Hancock, and Burnside, has been more than his match so far, and will be to the end. A word as to the country. The scenery around Guinea is beautielevation half a mile from the station, the whole valley of the Upper Mattapony is as a map unrolled at our feet. Far off on its outskirts is a belt of timber skirting the sluggish Mattapony, and beyond it again rises the circle of hills, on which the sturdy boys of the Fifth corps lie dreaming of home. But beyond us is another kind of country; and unless we tumble against the indomitable Lee this side of the North Anna we will reach its confines tomorrow. The low flats and often marshes of the slow streams emptying in the ocean on the Virginia coast are just before us, and must be encountered; but what of it. The Mattapony and its swamps first, and the Pamunkey and its morasses next, will be impassable defences to our right flank; and there is determination and vim enough in this army to wade and corduroy through the Great Dismal Swamp itself, if it lies on the road to Richmond. Sixth corps, would be in position to the left of the telegraph road, it became evident that the race for Richmond had commenced. Again the headquarters train was started off, and the Generals remained behind chatting leisurely under the shade of the old beeches. I rode off toward the middle of the afternoon, and soon overtook the train of wagons, and enjoyed the unusual spectacle of a headquarters transportation moving along a road from which the cavalry pickets of the army were coming, a circumstance resulting from our extremely lengthened swing around the flank of the enemy. Nor were these pickets useless, as the event proved. Just as the head of the train was cross-ful. From Motley's house, which stands on an ing the railroad about a mile and a half above Guinea, up the valley came three hundred rebel horse. It was a gay sight; a wide, magnificent open valley, devoid of fences, and in full view for a mile came the rebels to seize their prey. They counted without their host. Major Poe, with three hundred cavalry, started to meet them, when the wary rebels stood not upon the order of going, but went at once. It was an exciting chase, but the rebels gained the shelter of the timber bordering the Mattapony river, when they turned and stood at bay. Here it was discovered that a brigade of the rebels, under Fitz Hugh Lee, was defending Guinea bridge, over the Mattapony river, or rather endeavoring to burn it. Major Poe was able to prevent Lee from doing this, but was not competent to draw Lee from his position. At this juncture up rode Grant and Meade. It was a curious predicament for headquarters. The Second corps was seven miles away from the front, the head of the Fifth corps was still four miles in the rear, and the Sixth and Ninth behind them yet, and there was a brigade of rebel horse within three quarters of a mile of army headquarters. The Provisional brigade, the Sixtyeighth and One Hundred and Fourteenth Pennsylvania infantry and Third Pennsylvania cavalry, commanded by Colonel Collis, were at hand, and proved equal to the emergency. Colonel Collis first endeavored to charge over the bridge, but found it barricaded on the further side, and the force and wading the stream, breast deep, planks in the centre taken up; so dividing his above and below, drove the rebels from their position, and to Catlett's house, a mile and a half beyond, inflicting severe losss on the enemy. This little episode was scarcely over, and headquarters established for the night, when just at sundown the roar of artillery was heard far in the rear. Its full import and particulars have not yet reached us; but generally it is known that the sturdy Burnside is holding a post of honor as rear guard, and making vigorous demonstrations against the enemy. At this hour, then, the position is thus: Hancock is at Bowling Green; Warren at Catlett's, a mile beyond the Mattapony, and two miles advanced from here; the Sixth corps between here and Burnside, who is holding our extreme rear, on admirable ground a mile and a half to the right MOTLEY HOUSE, May 22 established here at daylight. The corps is about we will have no battle this side of the line HEADQUARTERS SECOND CORPS, May 22—6 A. M. Up to this hour all is quiet. Warren has crossed the Po river at Guinea's bridge, on his way to form connection on our right. If Lee has not already fallen back from Spottsylvania, we shall soon, if successful in completing our lines, be in a position to cut him off from Richmond. This corps is already within a few miles of his direct line toward Hanover Junction. We can cut off his supplies from that point at pleasure, and compel him to fight us on ground of our own selection. It is just possible, however, that he may have taken the alarm yesterday and already given us the slip, by a timely retreat with the main body of his army. HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, After three weeks of marching and fighting, here, then, is the Army of the Potomac, sixty miles from its starting point north of the Rapidan, safely planted south of the North Anna river, and within twenty-five miles of the objective point which, for three years, has been the goal of all the bloody struggles of this army. The hasty despatches which alone it has been possible to send amid the turmoil of action have acquainted you with the more salient facts at least in our later movements, and I shall confine these notes to the record of the operations of the past two or three days. They comprise the strategic operations employed in turning the fortified lines of Spottsylvania and the tactical operations of yesterday and to-day, in crossing the North Anna river, and the actions succeeding the passage. Taken together, they form, perhaps, the most substantial successes of the campaign, and have been gained with a gratifyingly small sacrifice of life. lavish supply of artillery, and place in front of all several lines of rifle-pits, and you will form a conception, though still an inadequate one, of the nature of the task imposed upon this army when it is proposed to "move on the enemy's works." Yet in several instances, as you know, and as all the world will some day learn with wonder, the illustrious valor of the Army of the Potomac has plucked victory from these jaws of hell, and bayoneted an unflinching foe in the very enceinte of his citadel. Advices from day to day have informed you of the dif ferent attempts that were made to carry the enemy's lines, successively on the right, the centre and the left; of the partial successes achieved, and of our not few repulses. Of our successes, the most complete was undoubtedly that won by Hancock on the morning of the twelfth instant, when his corps struck the famous salient on the right of the rebel line, and captured nearly the entire division holding it. Doubtless, could we have known in advance precisely what the upshot of that attack would be, our assailing force, instead of being prepared merely with the view of carrying the position, would have been formed so as to push the suc cess to its consequences, and the whole rebel army might then and there have been doubled up, routed and destroyed. No such golden op portunity again presented itself, and after seeking it in blood-bought reconnoissances on our right and centre, and after a sacrifice of some fifteen thousand killed and maimed men had attested the thoroughness of the effort to secure a decisive victory, the head of the army resolved to force the enemy's abandonment of his lines, with the determination of seeking elsewhere the arena for a new trial of battle. The experience of the two weeks we spent before the lines of Spottsylvania brought the conviction that that position could not be carried save by an expenditure of blood out of all proportion to the results of any possible victory that could be achieved there. To have been able to bring on a decisive engagement there would undoubtedly have been greatly to our advantage, for we had there a front of operations in easy distance of our proximate base, Fredericksburg, while the enemy was at a long remove from his. In these relations, a battle that would have effectually broken Lee's army would have placed us in the most advantageous position for destroying it in the retreat that With this view, it was needful, first of all, would have followed. I think it was with some that the army should accumulate such supplies regret that General Grant was eventually com- as would allow it to cut loose from its old base, pelled to abandon the hope of delivering such a and enable it to advance far enough to open a battle. Day by day the Commanding General new and more accessible one. This done, it continued to throw out toward the left, with was very certain that by simply massing on the hope of overlapping and breaking in the the left of our front we would so threaten Lee's rebel right wing ; and from occupying, as we did communications as to compel him to evacuate at first, a line two or three miles north, and his fortified line; in other words, we would extending five or six miles west of Spottsyl-effect a turning movement on the rebel right vania Court-house, we finally came to hold a line running almost due east from that point and about four miles in extent, our left resting at Massaponax Church. But just in proportion as we stretched to the left, Lee extended his right to conform to our line, and intrenched himself, till finally he came to have a front practically impregnable. Nothing, in fact, can be imagined more formidable than the improvised works which each army has learnt to construct, to cover itself withal. A layer of stout logs, breast high, forms the framework on which a thick parapet of earth is thrown up; in front of this line the timber for several hundred yards is felled, making an elaborately interlaced abattis. Imagine, one, two or three such lines along the enemy's front; plant behind each a line of battle, rake the obstructed approaches with a flank. True to the expectation, when the rebels on Friday discovered the corps of Hancock, which, the day before, had been feeling their extreme left, shifted over to their extreme right, Lee began to look out for his lines of retreat. On Friday night, May twenty, Hancock took up his march, advanced due east to Massaponax Church, there diverged on one of the main roads leading due southward from Fredericksburg, continued on during the night and the following day, and on Saturday evening, May twenty-first, occupied Bowling Green, with the head of his column at Milford, distant from the point of starting seventeen miles. He met no enemy. On the very same night in which Hancock started, Lee began to withdraw. In the dead of night (one o'clock A. M. of Friday-Saturday), the rebel reveille was heard to beat, and the head of Longstreet's column, which was as signed the advance in the retreat, filed southward. Here, then, begins a grand race of the two armies, similar to that they ran from the Wilderness to Spottsylvania. A glance at the map will show us which has the better chance. It will be observed, if the examination be made with an adequate topographical map in hand, that the rebel front at Spottsylvania covers the direct and best route leading southward, namely, the telegraph road, with the roads converging on and radiating from this main line. On the other hand, it was a necessity of the proposed operation that we should bear well to the eastward. It is a recognized maxim that the party executing a flanking movement exposes his own flank. Such a manoeuvre in face of a vigilant and vigorous opponent is always a dangerous one. It had, therefore, to be done both cautiously and by a route somewhat circuitous. Lee, as we know by experience, is both vigilant and vigorous. The former quality was proved by the promptitude with which he met the advance of our flanking column by a corresponding movement to the rear; the latter was made manifest in another way the next day. Hancock (Second corps), as we have seen, had withdrawn during the night of Friday. Warren, (Fifth corps), set out early on Saturday morning, following for some distance over the same route as that pursued by Hancock. About the same time Ewell's corps of the rebel army appears to have followed Longstreet. In the meantime our old position near Spottsylvania Court-house, was still held by such portions of our front as the corps of Burnside (Ninth) and Wright (Sixth) covered. At four P. M. of Saturday, Burnside, who held position on the left of the Sixth, withdrew, and the remaining force of the rebels (Hill's corps) fancying that the Sixth also was retiring, left the works, came up directly in Wright's front and attacked. They succeeded in breaking his skirmish line in one place; but Wright opened a heavy artillery fire upon them, which checked their advance. Hill committed an error in making the attack in front, for had he crossed the river a little above, he would have struck the right flank of the Sixth corps, uncovered by the withdrawal of Warren, and would have had an enfilading fire on Wright, which it would have been difficult to withstand. In addition to this the assault was not made with much persistence, and was probably designed simply to develop our actual force left. During the night Wright withdrew; Hill did the same, and the works of Spottsylvania ceased to be the objects of either attack or defence. They remain now as parts of the series of parallels that, from the Rapidan up to our present front, stand as monuments of the most desperate campaign in history. The two armies once fairly on the march, their operations belong to the domain of strategy, which deals with the movements of armies out of sight of each other. The first obvious goal is the North Anna, north of which it was not deemed at all probable Lee would attempt to make a stand. From the first, however, it was a matter of certainty that the enemy would reach it in advance of us, for having possession of the telegraph road, he moved on an interior line. On Saturday night Hancock bivouacked at Milford. The Fifth followed the Second over the same road until striking Guinea station, when it diverged to the right (that is westward), crossed the Mattapony at Guinea bridge, and at nine P. M. bivouacked near the Old Academy, having made a march of fifteen miles. The Ninth and Sixth followed over the same general lines. The next day, Sunday, the twenty-second, the march was resumed-Warrer crossing the Ta, and striking into the telegraph road, down which the rear of the columns of Longstreet and Ewell had a short time before disappeared. Here he had a skirmish with the enemy's rear guard of cavalry, consisting of Rosser's brigade, which was repulsed. Hancock advancing due westward from Milford, five miles, struck the telegraph road at Harris' store. Sunday's march brought our army forward an additional fourteen miles, and within a few miles of the North Anna. The region between Spottsylvania and the North Anna, through which the advance of Saturday and Sunday carried us, is both fair and fertile. The face of the country is beautifully undulating, nowhere bold, and the river bottoms have many large and fine plantations, all under cultivation. It was virgin ground over which we marched, showing none of those desolating traces of war that mark all Virginia north of the Rapidan. Here are fields sprouting wheat, and growing corn, and luxuriant clover; here are lowing herds, and the perfume of blossoms and the song of summer birds; here are homesteads of the Virginia planter, everything on a large and generous scale, and great ancestral English elms, dating back to the times before our forefathers learned to be rebels. Coming so lately from where the tread of armies for three years has made the country bare and barren as a threshing floor, the region through which we passed seemed a very Araby the Blest, and presented such a transition as is pictured by those who, having traversed the desert of Lahore, suddenly emerge upon the smiling vales of Cashmere. Resuming the advance on Monday morning, May twenty-third, a march of a few hours brought the heads of our columns so near to the North Anna, that operations passed from the domain of strategy into the tactical question of effecting the passage of the river, always a delicate and difficult one when vigorously resisted. And that it would be so resisted was natural to suppose, for the reason that if the enemy proposed making a stand on the South Anna he would wish to gain all the time possible, in order to establish himself well in his position, and also for the reason that the North Anna covers the Virginia Central railroad, which here runs |