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466 ROUT OF THE ARMY-SHERIDAN'S RETURN.

idly down the road which lay between it and the Sixth corps, turned the captured guns on the troops, and enfiladed the whole line. General Wright formed a new line of battle, and endeavored to arrest the rush of the fugitives. The rebels were now more cautious, and brought up their artillery, while many of them were engaged in plundering the camp. Wright, unaware of this, and fearing lest the communication with Winchester would be cut off, fell back toward Middletown, after repulsing a charge of the enemy. This gave him time to cover the retreat of the fugitives, who swarmed around, hotly pursued by the yelling foe, amid the crash of musketry, and the booming of artillery. The rebels kept up a murderous fire on the left flank, and Custer and Merritt engaged them in a severe conflict in a wooded field near Middletown. The artillery which had been captured, gave the enemy so much strength, that the Federal left wing, being hardly pressed, could make but a brief stand, and the army, passing through Middletown, fell back five miles toward Newtown. A dreadful fire from the heights swept the army in its retreat.

Sheridan was on his return, and had slept the night before at Winchester, twenty miles distant, little apprehending that his troops were in such imminent peril. His fine army had struggled for four hours in an unequal contest, when he rode from the city slowly with his escort. The army was falling back as he pressed on, and his surprise was great when he heard the sound of artillery. He had no fears, however, for his strong position at Cedar creek. He soon became aware that there was a severe action in progress, and that his army was falling back. Startled as the conviction flashed upon him, he spurred his charger at full speed, and met the fugi tives, who informed him that all was lost. The intelligence roused his spirit within him, and he determined to wring victory from the enemy's grasp. Swinging his cap over his head, he cried to the fugitives who swarmed around, "Face the other way, boys, face the other way; we are going back to our camps; we are going to lick them out of their boots!" The frightened crowd was arrested, and shouts from even the wounded, rent the air. Sheridan dashed up on his foaming horse, stood before his surprised troops, and stopped the retreat. The pursuit of the enemy had ceased, and the Union troops, now out of range of the hostile guns, were

HE ASSUMES THE OFFENSIVE.

467

formed in line of battle, and the fugitives of a few moments before, once more presented a firm front to the foe. During two hours, Sheridan rode to and fro along the line, inspiring the troops with his sublime courage.

"Boys, if I had been here, this never should have happened. I tell you it never should have happened. And now we are going back to our camps. We are going to get a twist on them. We are going to lick them out of their boots."

The brave troops, who had fasted since the preceding night, and had been fighting for five hours, cheered with enthusiasm, and felt invigorated by the language of the heroic Sheridan. As the enemy advanced on the Nineteenth corps, the Union commander ordered Emory to check them, which he did after a severe conflict, in which General Bidwell was killed, and General Grover wounded. When Sheridan heard of the repulse of the enemy, he laughed, and said, "That's good, that's good; thank God for that!" He ordered Emory, if they attacked him again, "to punish them severely." He brought down his right fist into his left palm at almost every word, and said emphatically: "We'll get the tightest twist on them you ever saw; we'll have all those camps and cannon back again."

The enemy now fell back, and threw up breast works, doubtless thinking to remain there till next day; but Sheridan resolved to wipe out the disgrace of his troops, then and there, and never allow the despatch to carry the news of his defeat, without a compensating victory. The army, which, but a little while since, fled in confusion before the enemy, now, at three and a-half o'clock, P. M., advanced in magnificent order against his works. The enemy's artillery, and a severe volley of musketry, rent the line as it moved up, and it fell back. Sheridan galloped up, and, restoring the shattered ranks by the utmost energy, again ordered an advance. A heavy volley, and the troops rushed on in a wild charge; with a triumphant yell, presaging victory. The breastworks were carried, and amid the shot and shell that crashed through the patriot ranks, the fearless chief rode in front, and delivered his own orders in person to division and corps commanders. Fire flashed from his eyes, his determined countenance was an index of the soul within, and his

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TOTAL DEFEAT OF EARLY.

words roused the gallant troops to deeds of heroism. They answered with shouts, and rushed through the thickets and over the ridges and walls in their path, while the astonished foe fled before them. The bugles now sounded the thrilling charge for the cavalry, and the bold squadrons of Custer and Merritt, like a tempest, swept the rebels right and left, and chased them pell-mell through the Union camp, which they had occupied, leaving behind the artillery previously captured, and also much of their own. Their arms, and all that could retard the flight, were abandoned, and the tired infantry, unable to urge the pursuit, it was kept up by the cavalry through Strasburg to Fisher's Hill and Woodstock. The exhausted troops reposed, fasting, in their pillaged camp. In the North, great rejoicing prevailed on account of this splendid victory. The Union loss in this battle was over six thousand men, that of the enemy two thousand. disparity between the losses of the Unionists and Confederates, was owing to the fact that the former were at first, completely taken by surprise in their camps, and hence great numbers were slaughtered before any check could be administered to the foe. There were some skirmishes and cavalry actions after this, but the enemy finally abandoned the Shenandoah valley, and in the space of six weeks the Sixth corps returned to General Grant, before Richmond.

This

CHAPTER XLV.

OCTOBER, 1864-JANUARY, 1865.

ANOTHER ATTEMPT ON RICHMOND-HATCHER'S RUN-FAILURE TO TURN THE REBEL RIGHT-OPERATIONS NORTH OF THE JAMES-THE RAM ALBEMARLE DESTROYED-REBEL RAID ON ST. ALBANS, VERMONT-OPERATIONS IN ARKANSAS, KANSAS, AND MISSOURI-PRICE-STEELE-ROSECRANS-FORREST CAPTURES ATHENS-GENERAL BURBRIDGE SENT TO DESTROY THE ENEMY'S SALT-WORKS AT SALTVILLE-EXPEDITION FROM VICKSBURG— GRIERSON'S EXPEDITION-BRECKINRIDGE IN EAST TENNESSEE-STONEMAN SENT AGAINST HIM-PLOT TO BURN NEW YORK-WARREN'S EXPE DITION-CAPTURE OF FORT FISHER-GUERILLAS-PERILOUS SITUATION OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC-PEACE COMMISSIONERS-THEIR INTERVIEW WITH THE PRESIDENT-THE SOUTHERN PRISONS-ANDERSONVILLE

WIRTZ TRIED, CONVICTED, AND EXECUTED-SHERMAN'S PREPARATIONS TO INVADE THE CAROLINAS.

GENERAL GRANT was indefatigable in his attempts at the reduction of Richmond, and no sooner did one fail than he immediately made another. He now determined to move more heavily on the enemy's right flank than heretofore, and made his preparations with profound secrecy. All the baggage was sent to City Point; the infantry troops were supplied with four days' rations, and the cavalry with enough for three days' rations, besides forage. The army left its intrenchments for Hatcher's Run, at which the enemy were strongly posted on the extreme right. The rebel force on the north side of the James was to be drawn off by a demonstration by General Butler. The results of the movement are well described by General Grant, as follows: "On the 27th (of October) the Army of the Potomac, leaving only sufficient to hold its fortified line, moved by the enemy's right flank. The Second corps, followed by two divisions of the Fifth corps, with the cavalry in advance, and covering our left flank, forced a passage of Hatcher's Run, and moved up the south side of it toward the Southside railroad, until the Second corps and part of the cavalry reached the Boydtown plank road, where it crosses Hatcher's Run. At this point we were six miles distant from the Southside railroad, which I had hoped by this movement to reach and hold. But, finding that we had not reached the end of the enemy's (469)

40

470

GALLANTRY OF LIEUTENANT CUSHING.

fortifications, and no place presenting itself for a successful assault, by which he might be doubled up and shortened, I determined to withdraw within our fortified line. Immediately upon receiving a report that General Warren had connected with General Hancock, I returned to my head-quarters. Soon after I left, the enemy moved out across Hatcher's Run, in the gap between Generals Hancock and Warren, which was not closed, as reported, and made a desperate attack on General Hancock's right and rear. General Hancock immediately faced his corps to meet it, and after a bloody combat drove the enemy within his works, and withdrew that night to his old position. In support of this movement, General Butler made a demonstration on the north side of the James, and attacked the enemy on the Williamsburg road, and also on the York river railroad. In the former he was unsuccessful. In the latter, he succeeded in carrying a work which was afterward abandoned, and his forces withdrawn to their former positions. From this time forward the operations in front of Petersburg and Richmond, until the spring campaign of 1865, were confined to the defence and extension of our lines, and to offensive movements for crippling the enemy's lines of communication, and to prevent his detaching any considerable force to send south."

The Navy Department, desiring to effect the destruction of the rebel ram Albemarle, which lay at Plymouth, sent Lieutenant Cushing to New York city in the summer to prepare for this enterprise. Having constructed a torpedo boat, he returned with it to the sound, and on the night of the 27th of October, with a steam launch and thirteen officers and men, proceeded up the river on his perilous enterprise. The ram lay eight miles from the mouth of the river, which was narrow and lined with rebel pickets; a mile beyond the ram lay the wreck of the Southfield. The launch now pressed with a full head of steam upon the ram. She was surrounded by a pen of logs, against which the bows of the launch were now directed, while bullets from the enemy fell thick. The torpedo boom was lowered, and by a vigorous pull, Cushing drove the torpedo under the overhang and exploded it. Just then the monster fired a gun, a shot crashed through the boat, and the water rushing in, she was in a sinking condition. The boat was only fifteen

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