PREFACE. In preparing this narrative I have met with great and unexpected difficulties from the incomplete condition of the files of the War Department in the matter of the official reports of Corps, Division, and Brigade commanders. So many officers of high command were killed and wounded during the campaign, the movements by day and night, the battles, actions, and close contact with the enemy were so unceasing, that there was but little time for the preparation of reports, and to this day many of them, if prepared, have not been received at the War Department. The despatches become therefore the more important, but the files of these are not complete. All the Reports, Returns, orders, despatches, and papers of every kind in the War Department, including the Confederate Archives, have been placed at my disposal by authority of the Secretary of War, and I am under many obligations to General Drum, Adjutant-General, and Colonel R. N. Scott, in charge of the preparation of the "Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies" for publication. Major-General Hancock has furnished me with a complete printed set of the reports made by him during the war. I am indebted to Colonel George Meade for placing in my hands the retained copies of all General Meade's despatches sent and received during the campaign. I have also had my own papers covering the same period. I am also indebted to Major-General de Peyster for the valuable information contained in his elaborate work, "La Royale," published at his own expense for private circulation, and for the aid I have derived from his correspondence with Confederate officers. I am also under obligations to General Fitz Lee and General E. P. Alexander for valuable information, and to the Rev. J. William Jones, D.D., Secretary of the Southern Historical Society, for a full set of the publications of that Society from January, 1876, to the present day, and for other information. The Military Historical Society of Massachusetts placed all its papers in my hands. Colonel John P. Nicholson, of Philadelphia, offered the volumes of his valuable Military Library for my use. From the gentlemen having charge of the several suboffices of the Adjutant-General's Department - Messrs. Joseph W. Kirkley, Henry. Ellerbrook, Thomas C. Bourne, A. P. Tásker, F. Jones, and Henry E. Scott-I have had constant aid. Mr. Fitz Gerald, Librarian of the War Department, has sent me all the volumes of the Library treating of the War. Indeed, wherever I have asked for assistance in any shape it has been given me in the most obliging manner. To Mr. William J. Warren, Chief Clerk of the Engineer Department, I am under very great obligations for untiring assistance throughout the whole time of the preparation of this narrative. Through him, also, I have had the use of the Journal of Colonel Roebling, of General Warren's staff. A. A. HUMPHREYS. CONTENTS. OF 1864 THE REORGANIZATION OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC-GENERAL PLAN OF OPERATIONS FOR THE CAMPAIGN-THE MOVEMENT BY THE LEFT FLANK PAGE MOVEMENT AGAINST THE WELDON AND SOUTH SIDE RAILROADS - -THE CAVALRY ENGAGEMENTS IN THE VICINITY OF TREVYLIAN STATION ON THE VIRGINIA CENTRAL RAILROAD, AND REAMS'S STATION ON THE WELDON RAILROAD-THE CASUALTIES IN THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE THE OPERATIONS OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC AGAINST THE INTRENCHMENTS OF PETERSBURG TO BE BY REG- MOVEMENT TO THE NORTH BANK OF THE JAMES TO THREATEN RICHMOND CAPTURE OF THE WELDON |