hostile force thence issuing. Attacking it boldly and skillfully, he drove it towards Petersburg. The Fifth corps was now formed, and eager to advance and strike. Crawford was on the right, Ayres on the left, and Griffin massed in column of regiments behind Crawford; Ayres and Crawford were each formed with two brigades in front and the third in rear, each brigade being in two lines. Then Warren pushed straight on to the White Oak road, which was speedily reached, being about half a mile distant, and changed front forward, so that in place of being parallel to the road his line crossed it at right angles, and faced westward. This manœuvre was a left wheel, in which Ayres was the pivot and Crawford with Griffin behind the wheeling flank. The Fifth corps was now directly upon the left of the Confederate position, overlapping it for a long distance, and McKenzie, having countermarched and returned on the White Oak road, as Warren advanced to attack, was sent by Sheridan round to the latter's right. The breast works at Five Forks were of the usual character -a strong parapet of logs and earth, with redoubts at intervals, and heavy slashings thrown down in front; a thick pine undergrowth covered its approaches. The main line ran along the White Oak road upwards of a mile on each side of the road from Dinwiddie; and the breastwork was retired northerly on its left flank about one hundred yards, in a crochet; the interval thence to Hatcher's Run was guarded only by a skirmish line. It happened, therefore, that when the Fifth corps wheeled into position across the White Oak road, close upon the Confederate left, Ayres's division covered the ground fronting the reformed line of breastworks, while Crawford and Griffin overlapped it. Before the two latter divisions had completed their change of front, Ayres became sharply engaged with the Confederate skirmishers, and driving them back, worked his men well up to the breastworks. There, however, the enemy opened a hot fire, which reached not only Ayres, but the left of Crawford. The latter officer, in order to get by the enemy's flank, as he had been directed, in order to seize the Ford road, obliqued to the right, so as to draw his other flank from the severe fire it was receiving across open ground. But this manœuvre uncovered the right of Ayres, which staggered and finally broke under a flank fire. In this crisis, Warren promptly repaired the line by throwing Griffin into the interval between Ayres and Crawford, and this disposition had a second good effect in allowing Crawford to swing out with confidence upon the enemy's rear. Ayres now charged the entrenchments with his whole division, Gwin's brigade on the right, the Marylanders in the centre, and Winthrop's brigade on the left. The troops dashed in with splendid impetuosity and captured the works, over a thousand prisoners, and several flags. Griffin, on the right of Ayres, falling upon the enemy's left and rear, carried the works there and fifteen hundred prisoners. Meanwhile, Crawford had struck and crossed the all-important Ford road, in the enemy's rear. This latter success rendered of course the whole position of the enemy untenable, and, to make assurance doubly sure, Warren directed Crawford to change front, and move briskly down the Ford road. Coulter's brigade led, with Kellogg's on its right and rear and Baxter's beyond, and, encountering a four-gun battery posted to command the road, charged and captured it, Coulter suffering severely in the gallant exploit. At this juncture the Confederate position was almost entirely surrounded; for, while Warren was attacking from the east, Merritt, who took the cue for assault from the roll of the infantry fire, was charging from the south. But one avenue of escape remained open, that to the west, along the White Oak road. But before this could be gained, the exultant Union columns had broken in upon all sides, and most of the Confederates were forced to surrender. The Forks having been carried, Warren directed Crawford to change front again to the right, and to pursue southwesterly so as to take the enemy a second time in flank and rear; and thither also he sent a mounted cavalry brigade, which had approached on the Ford road. About a mile west of the Forks, and two miles west of the entrenchments which he had first carried, Warren found a similar line, designed to protect the left flank of what remained of the enemy, while the latter held the western extremity of his intrenched front against the Union cavalry on the south. Sheridan's orders had been, that if the enemy was routed, there should be no halt to reform broken lines; but the infantry, although full of spirit and enthusiasm, had become disorganized somewhat by their own victory, and by marching and fighting in the woods; and pausing before the enemy's new line, they were losing the momentum of pursuit in a straggling skirmish fire. At that moment Warren rode through to the front, and called those near him to follow. The officers and color-bearers sprang out, the straggling fire ceased, and in an enthusiastic charge the last position was captured, with such of the enemy as had remained to defend it. In this charge Warren's horse was shot within a few paces of the enemy's line, an orderly killed by his side, and Colonel Richardson of the 7th Wisconsin, who had heroically sprung forward to shield Warren, was grievously wounded. The day was now done and the battle ended. But for a distance of six miles along the White Oak road, Merritt and McKenzie chased the fugitives, until night protected them. Pickett's loss is not recorded, but he left over five thousand prisoners, with four guns, and many colors, in the hands of the impetuous Sheridan. The lightness of the Union loss formed a novel sensation to the Army of the Potomac, compared to the inestimable value of the victory; for it was not above one thousand in all. So ended Five Forks-a battle which may be pronounced the finest in point of tactical execution, on the Union side, of any ever delivered in Virginia, and in which, nevertheless, brilliancy of execution is eclipsed by the magnificence of its issue. It was a fit climax to that Shenandoah career which had already made illustrious the name of Sheridan.-W. SWINTON. SHERIDAN'S RIDE. Up from the South at break of day, Like a herald in haste to the chieftain's door, The terrible grumble, and rumble, and roar, And wider still those billows of war But there is a road from Winchester town, A good, broad highway leading down; And there, through the flush of the morning light, He stretched away with his utmost speed; Still sprung from those swift hoofs, thundering South, The heart of the steed and the heart of the master Every nerve of the charger was strained to full play, Under his spurning feet the road Like an arrowy Alpine river flowed, And the landscape sped away behind Like an ocean flying before the wind; And the steed, like a bark fed with furnace ire, But lo! he is nearing his heart's desire; He is snuffing the smoke of the roaring fray, The first that the General saw were the groups With foam and with dust the black charger was gray; By the flash of his eye, and the red nostril's play, He seemed to the whole great army to say, "I have brought you Sheridan all the way From Winchester down to save the day." Hurrah! hurrah for Sheridan! Hurrah! hurrah for horse and man! |