considerable fighting, this force succeeded in destroying a railroad-bridge about seven miles north of Petersburg, and tearing up a portion of the track; but the enemy, sagacious and rapid, and now thoroughly alive to the condition of things, sent a heavy force, and our troops were compelled to retire. Little had been gained. Again a day intervened, and on the 9th, Butler dispatched three divisions of the Tenth Army Corps, and two of the Eighteenth, for a more thorough destruction of the railroad. This force was successful in destroying the track; but after a night battle, in which they suffered terribly, they were compelled to fall back to their original position. General Butler's dispatch to Secretary Stanton, on the 9th, epitomizes his successes in far too decided and hopeful a vein. We give some of the paragraphs:

"General Kautz, with three thousand cavalry from Suffolk, on the same day with our movements up the James River, forced the Blackwater, burnt the railroad-bridge at Stony Creek, below Petersburg, cutting in two Beauregard's force at that point.

"We have landed here, intrenched ourselves, destroyed many miles of railroad, and got a position which, with proper supplies, we can hold against the whole of Lee's army. I have ordered up the supplies.

"Beauregard, with a large portion of his force, was left south by the cutting of the railroads by Kautz.

"That portion which reached Petersburg, under Hill, I have whipped to-day, killing and wounding many, and taking many prisoners, after a severe and well-contested fight.

"General Grant will not be troubled with any further reenforcements to Lee from Beauregard's force."

This dispatch needs no comment. Those who follow the narrative will be astonished to find how much General Butler was deceived at this time. But the fighting was not over. These troops of Beauregard were to trouble both Butler and Grant. Indeed, the evening of the very day upon which this dispatch was written must have opened his eyes. More time

was lost in resting the troops which were driven back on the night of the 9th; and on the morning of Thursday, the 12th, Smith and Gillmore again moved forward, advancing their corps to the railroad and northward-Gillmore towards Chester Station, and Smith by the right, along the river-bank, towards Drury's Bluff and Fort Darling. This movement, vigorously conducted, promised to make all right again. Crossing the railroad, Gillmore advanced towards Chesterfield Courthouse, and then diverging to the right, joined Smith, against whom, it was evident, the enemy was now massing his troops. Still advancing, they encountered an outer line of intrenchments, running across the railroad to the river.

On the evening of the 13th, and the morning of the 14th, Gillmore carried the first line in his front with comparatively small loss, and General Smith the first line on the right; and the enemy retired to his second and stronger line.

While manoeuvring to attack the interior redoubts, which commanded the outer line, Butler received, in battle form, the true story of Beauregard's appearance. That general had collected the loose forces in North and South Carolina, and, but little impeded by Kautz's gallant raid, had come up to take command of the forces and country south and east of Richmond, against Butler.

BEAUREGARD'S ATTACK.

On the morning of the 16th, under cover of a thick fog, he made a violent onslaught on our advanced troops. First attacking the extreme right, held by Heckman's brigade, Weitzel's division, Eighteenth Corps, he drives it back, and captures its commander. Moving by the turnpike, another force drives Ashley's battery from the field, but he saves his guns. Smith's troops behave with the greatest gallantry; but the rebels attack his line at all points, only making feints upon Gillmore, who forms the left. Smith's corps is pressed back. Gillmore sustains the charges now directed upon him, and even moves to flank the rebel attack upon Smith, when

orders come up from General Butler to fall back. He has lost three thousand men; and in spite of great gallantry on the part of generals and men, he finds his army hermetically sealed in Bermuda Hundred, by intrenchments of the enemy close and parallel to our own. He can hold it with a corporal's guard; but troops there are of no earthly use to Grant: they must be withdrawn and employed elsewhere.

KAUTZ'S RAID.

Kautz makes another splendid raid; but it is now, as the French have it, àpropos de rien: it has no bearing on Butler's plans. In itself, however, it deserves special commendation. Starting again on the 12th (he had only returned from the former raid on the 8th), he moved against the Danville Railroad. He first struck it, not far from Richmond, at Coalfield Station; thence following the track, he reached Powhatan, and, crossing the Appomattox, he came to Chola. At these points he burned the depots, tore up the track, and destroyed two freight-trains, one locomotive, and a quantity of stores. Losing no time, he then pushed down the river by Goodes' Bridge and Devil's Bridge, and then southward to Wilson's Station, on the Southside road. This station, as well as those at Welville and Black-and-White, he destroyed; and then he 'made his way through Laurenceville and Jonesboro' to Jarrett's Station, on the Weldon road, and thence to City Point, which he reached on the 17th.

On the same day, General Butler telegraphed to Washington the success of Kautz's expedition; but either he was not communicative in regard to the condition of affairs within his own lines, or Mr. Secretary Stanton thought it prudent to withhold the information. The dispatch to which we refer is as follows:

MAJOR-GENERAL DIX:

WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, May 17-9 P. M.

Dispatches from General Butler, just received, report the success of his expedition under General Kautz, to cut the Danville road, and destroy the iron bridge across the Appomattox.

On Monday morning, the enemy in force, under cover of a thick fog, made an attack upon Smith's line, and forced it back in some confusion, and with considerable loss. But as soon as the fog lifted, General Smith re-established his lines, and the enemy was driven back to his original lines.

At the same time, the enemy made an attack, from Petersburg, on General Butler's forces guarding the rear, but were handsomely repulsed.

The troops having been on incessant duty for five days, three of which were in a rain-storm, General Butler retired leisurely within his own lines. We hold the railroad between Petersburg and Richmond.

Persons state that Bragg and Davis were present on the field.

EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War.

No amount of elegant euphemism can conceal the fact, that whatever the causes, the movements south of Richmond had ended in lamentable failure-a failure not due to want of good intentions, nor to lack of energy, but apparently to a want of military savoir faire. According to that simple definition of strategy, "the art of directing masses against decisive points," or "masses against fragments," he had failed at the outset of the campaign, by dividing and detaching forces, instead of moving his whole force. Instead of moving at once, valuable time was lost in these detached movements. His army was badly handled. He assumed a weak offensive, indicating a want of military knowledge and experience; and a bitter, brave, and exasperated enemy, who was deficient in neither, turned the tables upon him by taking a strong offensive, beat him, followed him to his intrenchments, and hemmed him in so closely, that he was fain, while protected by the gunboats, to hurry his own defences to completion.

Grant was indeed beset, not simply by rebel armies, led by skilful and brave generals, but by Federal failures;-Sigel defeated in the west, and Breckinridge re-enforcing Lee with about fifteen thousand men; Butler defeated at the south, and Beauregard free to send Lee a great part of his troops. It was necessary for him to modify, without materially altering, his plans; and he moved with the Army of the Potomac, to try an alternative thought of at the beginning the crossing of the James, and the union of the armies under his own eye and command.

CHAPTER XXXI.

FROM SPOTTSYLVANIA TO THE CHICKAHOMINY.

THE CORPS MOVE.-RE-ENFORCEMENTS.-LOSSES FROM MAY 12 TO 21.-ON THE NORTH ANNA. WITHDRAWN. - -SHERIDAN'S RETURN.-CROSSING OF THE PAMUNKEY.— CHANGE OF BASE.-SHERIDAN HOLDS COLD HARBOR.-LOSSES FROM MAY 21 ro 81.-W. F. SMITH DETACHED FROM BUTLER.-THE BATTLES OF COLD HARBOR. -THE CROSSING OF THE CHICKAHOMINY.

LET us now return to the Army of the Potomac, with which Grant had his headquarters, and which, when we left it, was preparing to follow its cavalry advance, under Torbert, marching by the left flank to its new destination, and to carry out plans modified for the reasons presented above. Hancock's (Second) corps moved silently, at midnight of the 20th, from its position on the Ny, near the courthouse, and marching by the left, in the track of the cavalry, to Bowling Green, crossed the Mattapony at Milford Bridge, which Torbert had wrested from the enemy, capturing one hundred prisoners. The enemy presenting himself closely upon his right and rear, Hancock formed in line of battle, about one mile south of the river.

At daylight on the morning of the 21st, Warren, with the Fifth Corps, pushed after Hancock, in connecting distance, driving away that portion of the enemy's force which was again clustering around Milford Bridge. In this new order of movement from right to left, the whole army was put in motion during the day. But to cover the operation, Burnside, before he moved with the Ninth Corps, threw out Ledlie's brigade in a strong skirmish line, thus making a demonstra