tempt was made to get some of Gibbon's troops to assist in this operation, but their commanders reported that they could not be got to advance. Hampton with his dismounted cavalry now made an attack on the left, driving General Gibbon's division from its breastworks, the division offering very little resistance. Pressing on with loud cheers, Hampton's cavalry was met by a heavy flank fire from Gregg's dismounted cavalry, which checked their advance. Then they turned upon Gregg, who was forced to fall back and form on the left of the new line which General Gibbon had established a short distance in rear of the intrenchments.

General Miles's troops, with Werner's New Jersey artillery, held the road running to the Jerusalem plank-road until dark, checking every attempt of the enemy to advance beyond the portion of the intrenchments they had captured. General Miles and General Gregg offered to retake their breastworks, but General Gibbon stated that his division could not retake theirs. As it was essential either to withdraw or to retake the lost works in order to protect the only communication open to the rear, and as no reinforcements had arrived by dark, the troops were then ordered to withdraw. Neither General Mott's detachment nor General Willcox's division reached the field. The enemy made no attempt to follow up their advantage, but returned to the Petersburg intrenchments, leaving Hampton's cavalry at the Station.

General Hancock says that if his troops had behaved as well as they had done before, he would have been able to defeat the enemy; or had a force been sent down the railroad to attack the enemy in flank, or had a small reserve been on the field at about six o'clock, it would have accomplished the same end. He attributed the bad conduct of some of his troops to their great fatigue and to their heavy losses during the campaign, especially in officers. Besides,

there were several regiments largely made up of recruits and substitutes; one, General Hancock mentions particularly, being entirely new, and some of its officers unable to speak English.

His casualties were 610 officers and enlisted men killed and wounded, the proportion of officers being unusually large; his missing, 1,762, making a total of 2,372. Nine guns were lost.

General A. P. Hill reported his loss to be 720, chiefly, if not almost entirely, killed and wounded. His captures, he stated, were 12 stands of colors, 9 guns, 10 caissons, 2,150 prisoners, 3,100 stands of small arms.

The extent of the injurious effect of the large number of raw recruits recently received had not been anticipated, or reinforcements would have been sent to General Hancock early in the morning.'

The work of intrenching the newly-added front and rear went on vigorously during September.

1 The larger part of the troops furnished by the States under the several calls made this year, and until the close of the war, were supplied by the re-enlistment of the veteran regiments whose terms of service expired. But there were many vacancies in those regiments, and in those whose terms had not expired, and those vacancies were filled and new regiments formed by volunteer, drafted, and substitute raw recruits. Owing to the absence on account of wounds and sickness of large numbers of those who had entered the service in the early part of the war, these raw recruits in some cases formed a large majority of those present for duty in old regiments of high reputation, and sometimes completely changed their character temporarily, and not only the character of regiments, but even of brigades and divisions. The large bounties paid volunteers and substitutes, amounting, in some places, to a thousand dollars or more, had a very injurious effect upon the army, for it brought to its ranks many men who were actuated by very different motives from those that had influenced the men who had voluntarily filled the ranks before, and the veterans that now re-enlisted.

All recruits were sent to the army without instruction or discipline. A good many enlisted, intending to escape from the service, and deserted to the enemy. Some of these attempted to enter our lines at the West, in the guise of Confederate deserters, but were detected, brought back to the Army of the Potomac, tried and executed.

CHAPTER XI.

MOVEMENT AGAINST RICHMOND ON THE NORTH BANK OF THE JAMES-CAPTURE OF FORT HARRISON-COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT ON THE LEFT, BY WHICH THAT FLANK IS EXTENDED TO PEEBLES'S FARMMOVEMENTS AGAINST OUR RIGHT ON THE NORTH BANK OF THE JAMES-MOVEMENT TO TURN LEE'S RIGHT FLANK AND OCCUPY THE SOUTH SIDE RAILROAD CO-OPERATIVE MOVEMENT AGAINST LEE'S

LEFT FLANK.

THE two brigades of Field's division, Anderson's and Bratton's, sent to Petersburg in the latter part of August, still remained there in the latter part of September, and the only troops in the Confederate intrenchments on the north side of the James besides the heavy artillery, the two brigades of the local defence, and Garey's cavalry brigade, were Field's three brigades, commanded by Benning, Law, and Gregg, and Colonel Fulton's brigade of Johnson's division.

On the 28th of September General Ord, commanding the Eighteenth, and General Birney, commanding the Tenth Corps, were directed to cross the James in the night and advance upon Richmond, the former by the Varina road, near the river, the latter by the New Market and Darby roads, Kautz with his cavalry on the Darby road. General Ord was near the river at

to engage the enemy in his works at and Chapin's Bluff, and prevent reinforcements being sent from the south side against Birney's column. He was to cross the James by a ponton bridge to be established during the early

part of the night at Aiken's, two miles below Dutch Gap, where the Varina road abutted on the river. General Birney was to cross at Deep Bottom by the upper ponton bridge; General Kautz was to follow him.

man.

General Ord selected for the purpose 2,000 men from each of his First and Second divisions, one commanded by Brigadier-General Stannard, the other by Brigadier-General HeckHis Third Division (colored), commanded by Brigadier-General Paine, reported to Major-General Birney, whose column, composed of his First and Second divisions, under Generals Terry and Ames and General William Birney's brigade of colored troops, was, with Paine's addition, about 10,000 strong. General Ord from the Bermuda front, and General Birney from the Petersburg front, each left sufficient force in the intrenchments to maintain them.

Both columns were over the river and moving on the routes designated by daylight, driving before them the enemy's skirmishers and advance troops. Every precaution had been taken to keep the knowledge of the movement from the enemy and make the attack a surprise.

By half-past seven General Ord had reached the open ground around Fort Harrison on Chapin's farm, the strongest work on the main line of intrenchments, about a mile and a quarter from the works on the river at Chapin's Bluff, with which it was connected by more than one line of intrenchments. While one line of advanced intrenchments held by the Confederate pickets or skirmishers ran from Fort Harrison in a northeast direction, the main line, soon after leaving the fort ran north about three-fourths of a mile to Fort Gilmer, which was also connected with the works on the river at Chapin's Bluff by two intrenched lines. The main advanced line of Richmond intrenchments continued north from Fort Gilmer about three-fourths of a mile, then ran northeast to the Chickahominy at New Bridge. The pos

session of Fort Harrison did not give possession of the defences at Chapin's Bluff, but the possession of Fort Gilmer would give it.

Ord having arrived upon the ground, the artillery of the fort and adjacent works opened upon him. The disposition for attack was quickly made by him. Stannard's division, General Burnham's brigade leading, was to push forward on the left of the Varina road, in column of divisions, over the open ground in front of the works, preceded by skirmishers. The distance it had to traverse was about fourteen hundred yards. General Heckman was to move his division, as soon as it came up, along the edge of the wood that skirted the Varina road on the right, until opposite Fort Harrison, and then to attack it on the front toward the wood-the east front. This would envelop the work on the south and east. Reinforcements were now seen entering Fort Harrison from the enemy's left. Stannard's division advanced in quick time, and when they reached the foot of the hill which the work crowned, Burnham's brigade ran up it under a severe fire of artillery and musketry, and after a very sharp encounter captured the work with sixteen guns and a number of prisoners, including the Lieutenant-Colonel in command of it. General Burnham was killed in the assault. Colonel Stevens, the officer who succeeded to the command of the brigade, was severely wounded, and his successor also. The division lost 594 killed and wounded during the day.

The enemy was next driven from the intrenchments on the right and left of the Fort, including two lunettes six hundred yards apart, which were captured with their artillery, six guns. General Ord now endeavored to sweep down the captured intrenchments to the remaining redan, which was on the river bank, so as to secure the enemy's ponton bridge, but this redan was covered by the Confederate gunboats, and by a battery in the rear, and the attempt was unsuccessful. In