CHAPTER XXXII.

POSITION OF THE ARMIES AROUND RICHMOND, JUNE 1, 1864.—MANŒUVRES FOR POSITION.— BATTLE OF COLD HARBOUR.-EASY REPULSE OF THE ENEMY.-GRANT DECIDES TO CROSS THE RIVER, AND ATTEMPT THE SOUTH SIDE OF RICHMOND.—WHY GEN. LEE DID NOT ATTEMPT TO ATTACK HIM IN THE MOVEMENT.—BATTLES OF PETERSBURG.-TWO ATTACKS OF THE ENEMY REPULSED.—BUTLER ADVANCES HIS POSITION, AND IS DRIVEN BACK.-GRANT TURNS HIS ATTENTION FROM THE FORTIFICATIONS TO THE RAILROADS.-DEMONSTRATIONS ON THE WELDON AND DANVILLE ROADS.-DEFEAT OF SHERIDAN'S EXPEDITION ON THE RAILROADS NORTH OF RICHMOND.-OPERATIONS WEST OF THE BLUE RIDGE.—HUNTER'S MOVEMENT.-HE CAPTURES STAUNTON.-HE ADVANCES UPON LYNCHBURG. HE IS DEFEATED, AND DRIVEN INTO WESTERN VIRGINIA.-GEN. JOHN MORGAN'S EXPEDITION INTO KENTUCKY.-ITS DISASTROUS CONCLUSION.-PARTICULARS OF THE MURDER OF GEN, MORGAN IN EAST TENNESSEE.-EARLY'S INVASION OF MARYLAND.-DARING OF GEN. LEEWHAT HE PROPOSED BY SENDING EARLY'S COLUMN INTO THE NORTH, GRANT'S PREPARATIONS AGAINST THIS MOVEMENT.-BATTLE OF MONOCACY BRIDGE.-DEFEAT OF "LEW" WALLACE'S COMMAND.-EARLY ADVANCES UPON WASHINGTON.-SKIRMISH IN FRONT OF FORT STEVENS.-EARLY DECLINES TO ATTACK THE FEDERAL CAPITAL AND RETREATS.QUESTIONS AS TO THE STRENGTH OF WASHINGTON.-RESULTS OF EARLY'S EXPEDITION.-ITS EFFECT ON THE ARMIES OPERATING AROUND RICHMOND.-THE MINE FIASCO AT PETERSBURG. THREE ELEMENTS IN THE PLAN OF ATTACK.-DESCRIPTION OF THE MINE.—THE EXPLOSION AND A FEU D'ENFER."-THE ASSAULTING COLUMN PAUSES IN THE CRATER.TERRIBLE SCENES OF CARNAGE. THE MISERABLE FAILURE. COMMENTARY OF THE NEW YORK TIMES."

THE first of June, 1864, found the position of the two armies around Richmond as follows: Grant was between the Chickahominy and the Pamunkey, with his left thrown forward to Mechanicsville, his right with drawn to White House, and his reserve massed in rear of his left, and Richmond somewhat behind his left flank. Lee was posted from Atlee's Station, extending on his left to Gaines' Mill, with outposts as far as Coal Harbour. His position conformed to that of 1862; and, indeed, the whole Confederate line of battle was on ground occupied by both the armies at that time.

On falling back to Richmond it had been the first concern of Gen. Lee to secure positions he knew, from the battles of 1862, to be good ones.

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He, accordingly, sent forward to the right Kershaw's and Hoke's divisions of Anderson's corps, with orders to occupy the eminences around Gaines' Mill and Cold Harbour. This position had been previously carried by some. Federal cavalry. But on arrival of Hoke's division, shortly afterwards reinforced by McLaws', the Confederates obtained possession of the desired posts. At the same time Breckinridge and Mahone, of Hill's corps, were equally successful in gaining certain advanced positions.

On the 2d June, as Grant continued to develop his left flank, the Confederates were put in motion on a parallel line, while Early, commanding Ewell's corps, swung round, late in the afternoon, and took the enemy in flank, drove him from two lines of entrenchments, and inflicted great loss. Meanwhile Breckinridge, supported by Wilcox, proceeded, under orders from Lee, to attack the advanced Federals, now on the extreme right at Turkey Hill, and there succeeded in driving them away. Thus another important position was obtained by Lee; this hill commanding the approaches from the north and east to the line of the Chickahominy. Meanwhile Grant was getting his troops into position for a decisive action. Early in the morning of June the 3d, his army, now extending from Tolopatomy Creek, across the road from Cold Harbour to the Chickahominy, advanced in full line of battle, upon the Confederates.

BATTLE OF COLD HARBOUR.

The Federal line of battle ran in the following order, from right to left: Burnside, Warren, Smith, Wright, and Hancock. The latter was opposed by Breckinridge's command on Lee's extreme right; Ewell's corps held the extreme left opposite Burnside; and Hill's corps was in reserve. The attack was led by Hancock, who momentarily carried the position held by Breckinridge's troops, but was severely repulsed, as this part of the line was reinforced by Milligan's Florida brigade, and the Maryland battalion. This was the only corps of the enemy that came in contact with the Confederate works. The two corps on the right of Hancock were repulsed; and Warren and Burnside staggered on the line of the rifle-pits. The fact was that Grant, in testing the question, whether Lee's army had or had not been demoralized by its experience from the Rapidan to the James, found his own army so incapable, that he was compelled to withdraw it in sheer despair. He "mounted his horse and rode along the lines to ascertain from the different commanders the actual state of things in their immediate front. He returned leisurely, absorbed in thought, and it was evident that the attempt would not be renewed." Of the results of the day, he wrote: "Our loss was heavy, while that of the enemy, I have reason to believe, was comparatively light." The fact was that the report of

the adjutant-general at Washington showed a loss of seven thousand five hundred men in three days' operations on the Chickahominy, the greater portion of which occurred, of course, in the general action of the 3d of June.

For several days after the battle of Cold Harbour there was comparative quiet, and some unimportant skirmishes. During the night of the 5th Grant withdrew his right wing about two miles, and placed it behind a swamp, which protected both the flank and front of that portion of his army. The severe experience of the 3d satisfied him that Richmond could not be carried by a coup de main, and could no longer be approached with advantage from the north. On this side lay a difficult river and five miles of earthworks, stretched to the Confederate capital. Here, too, the enemy had to hold the Fredericksburg railroad, a long, vulnerable line, which would exhaust much of his strength to guard, and which would have to be protected to supply his army-a situation which would have left open to the Confederates all their lines of communication on the south side of the James. A full survey of all the ground satisfied Grant that he could not operate with advantage north and east of Richmond; he determined to make another movement by Lee's left flank, throw his army over James River, and seize Petersburg, hoping thus to cut off all the Confederate supplies, except by the canal; while his cavalry could be sent to Charlottesville and Gordonsville, to break up the railroad connection between Richmond and the Shenandoah Valley and Lynchburg.

On the 12th June, Grant completed his preparations to abandon the late field of operations about the Chickahominy, cross the James River, and occupy the south side towards Petersburg. To do this he had to make another movement round Lee's right, extending as far as Bottom's Bridge, and march down the Chickahominy as far as the next crossings at Long's and Jones' bridges. The movement was effected with skill. On June 13, the advance had reached Wilcox's landing on the James, near Charles' City Court-house, and the next day Grant's whole army was safely transferred to the opposite shore.

Gen. Lee did not attack Grant on his movement to the James. He was probably unable to do so. Richmond and Petersburg had both to be guarded, not only against the Army of the Potomac, but also that of Butler, who had come up the river in heavy force to co-operate with Grant; while an important detachment of Confederate force, as we shall see, had to be ready to move towards Lynchburg to meet the advance of a third army in that direction. It had been the expectation of Grant to make an easy capture of Petersburg, which Butler had previously failed to take, laying the blame of defeat on his subordinate, Gillmore. But he found that Lee had anticipated him in this new plan of operations; that Petersburg was well able to withstand a siege; that additional fortifications had

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been promptly erected around it and on the banks of the Appomattox, while Drewry's Bluff, also, afforded a good and strong point of defence.

BATTLES OF PETERSBURG.

Grant found it now necessary to "hammer at Petersburg, which, properly regarded, was then a mere outpost of the Confederate capital, for even if he took the first, or rather the line of works that commanded it, similar works, around Richmond, twenty miles off, confronted him. Smith's corps, of Butler's command, having disembarked at Bermuda Hundred on the 14th June, moved rapidly upon Petersburg, and made an assault on the batteries covering the approaches to the town on the north

He got possession of this line of works, but was too timid to push his advantage, and waited the coming up of the Second Corps, under Hancock, two divisions of which arrived during the night, and relieved a part of Smith's line in the captured works. An attack was ordered in the evening of the next day, Burnside's corps having also come up and gone into position on the left. Three assaults were made with disastrous result; the Confederates assuming the aggressive, driving the enemy from his breastworks at Howlett's House, and opening upon him an enfilading fire, in which a large portion of a brigade that had sought shelter in a ravine was captured by a Georgia regiment.

The next day the Fifth Corps was got up, and a third attack was made by the enemy four corps strong. It was repulsed at all parts of the line; and, again assuming the offensive, the Confederates made an attack on Burnside's line of advanced rifle-pits, drove the enemy back upon his supports, and remained in possession until day-light, when they retired to their own works.

Lee

Meanwhile Butler, taking advantage of the Confederates in his front having been withdrawn to Petersburg, sallied from behind his entrenchments and advanced towards the railroad, intending to tear it up. promptly prepared for him. The lines necessarily vacated by Beauregard, when he had to fall back and defend Petersburg, had already been taken possession of by the Federals; but directly Butler made his attempt, Anderson was despatched with his corps from Richmond to repulse him. This was done most effectively-Pickett's division, the heroes of Gettysburg, again making here an impetuous charge, capturing the breastworks of the enemy. We may imagine how unfortunate Butler was in his official announcement of great victories, for on the very day that he despatched that he had destroyed the communication with Richmond, Gen. Lee was sending, by the railroad, troops from the capital for the defence of Petersburg.

The result of all these engagements, which had cost Grant, by an official calculation, 9,665 men, was that the Confederates were still in firm possession of their works covering Petersburg, and that Grant was left no other resource than to proceed to envelop the town as far as possible without attacking fortifications.

The immediate operations of his army appear now to have degenerated to an attempt upon the railroads. On the 22d an attempt was made by two divisions of cavalry to get possession of the Weldon railroad; but when a portion of the command had reached the Jerusalem plank-road, A. P. Hill's corps and Anderson's successfully encountered them, and drove them back with severe loss. Gen. Wilson, however, succeeded in reaching the railroad at Ream's station, below where the combatants were engaged, and tore up some of the track. Wilson, joined by Kautz, then struck across to the Southside railroad, doing some damage, and finally came upon the Danville track, having had a sharp engagement with a small Confederate force near Nottoway Court-house. Continuing along the Danville railroad to the southwest, they arrived at the covered bridge over the Staunton river, in the evening of the 24th. Here a body of Virginia and North Carolina militia met them, and after a brisk encounter Wilson and Kautz had to retire. This was the limit of their raid. They returned as rapidly as they could, but at Ream's station one thousand pris oners and all the enemy's artillery and trains were captured by a Confederate force under Hampton and Fitzhugh Lee. Kautz's knowledge of the country enabled him to escape. He, with his shattered command, reached camp on the 30th June, while Wilson, with his men in wretched condition, did not arrive till next day.

North of Richmond, Grant's designs on the railroads were no more suecessful, and the expedition of Sheridan already noticed as sent out to destroy the railroads between Richmond and the Shenandoah Valley and Lynchburg, had met with disaster, without accomplishing a single important result. He had been intercepted at Trevillian station while moving on the Gordonsville road; and reaching the latter place by a circuit, was twice repulsed by the infantry in the rifle-pits there, and pleading the "want of ammunition" was compelled to withdraw his command across the North Anna and retreat to the White House.

The month of June thus closed with Lee master of the situation around Richmond and Petersburg. In the same month there were other notable successes to strengthen the capital, and public attention was turned to events occurring in other parts of Virginia, the result of which was to open the Shenandoah Valley, that famous avenue into the territory of the North, and to afford Gen. Lee the opportunity of an important diversion. We shall see, indeed, that this ready and resourceful commander, with Grant fully occupied in the south of Virginia, was yet enabled quietly