vanced to the assault"--Terry's division having meantime been moved to the left of Barlow-though Terry at first carried the Rebel intrenchment, taking over 200 prisoners-he was soon driven out of it, and the enemy was seen to be in such force that a further assault was deemed impracticable. 74 Meantime, Gen. Gregg's cavalry, supported by Miles's infantry brigade, advanced on the Charles City road, driving the enemy before him with considerable loss on their part -Gen. Chambliss being among their killed. Still, the movement, on the whole, had no decided success; and an attempt to draw out the enemy, to leave his lines and attack ours, by the ruse of seeming to send off most of our men on steamboats, proved wholly abortive. A night attack by the Rebels on the 18th was repulsed. Hancock was soon withdrawn in earnest our total losses in the movement having been about 5,000; that of the enemy probably less, but still heavy: Gen. Gherardie being killed. Lee was probably aware that this demonstration on Richmond covered an advance on the other end of his attenuated line; but he was obliged to strengthen his lieutenant north of the James or risk the fall of Richmond. No sooner had he done this, however, than Warren struck out" from our left at the long coveted Weldon railroad, barely three miles distant from our flank; reaching it unresisted before noon. Leaving here Griffin's division, he advanced, with Crawford's and Ayres's, a mile toward Petersburg, where he found the enemy awaiting him. After a pause, he moved on; and was soon struck " Aug. 16. 74 Aug. 20. | on his left flank-the enemy advancing by a road wholly unknown to our officers--and 200 of the Maryland brigade captured. The brigade falling back under the wing of the 15th N. Y. Heavy Artillery (now serving as infantry), that regiment stood its ground, and, by rapid and deadly volleys, repelled the enemy. Our movement was here arrestedour loss during the day having been 1,000-but Warren held his ground, fortified it; and the Weldon road was lost to the enemy. Yet, though Warren's position was good, it was unconnected with our lines, still on the Jerusalem plankroad; Brig.-Gen. Bragg, who had been ordered to fill the gap, having neglected promptly to do so. Warren, perceiving the fault, reiterated his order; but, before it could now be executed, Hill pushed a considerable force into the vacant space, and, striking Crawford's division impetuously in flank and rear, rolled it up; taking 2,500 prisoners, including Brig.-Gen. Hays. But now, the brigades of Wilcox and White, of Burnside's corps, came up, and the enemy made off in a hurry with his spoils; enabling Warren to recover the lost ground and reestablish his lines. Warren was well aware that his position astride the Weldon road was not adapted to tranquillity, and governed himself accordingly. Hardly three days had elapsed, when he was suddenly saluted" by 30 Rebel guns; and, after an hour's lively practice, an assaulting column advanced on his front, while another attempted to reach and turn his left flank. But Warren was prepared for this maAug. 21. 75 Aug. 18. 76 HANCOCK'S FIGHT AT REAMS'S STATION. 593 noeuver, and easily baffled it, flank- | 8,000) men, and 5 guns. Hill's loss ing the flanking column and routing was also heavy, but considerably it, with a net loss of 302 on our part, smaller. and at least 1,200 to the enemy, of whose dead he buried 211, while he took 500 prisoners. He had lost in this entire movement 4,455 menmost of them prisoners--while the enemy had lost scarcely half that number; but he had lost and we had gained the Weldon road. Hancock, returned from the north of the James, had moved rapidly to the Weldon road in the rear of Warren. Striking" it at Reams's station, he had been busily tearing it up for two or three days; when his cavalry gave warning that the enemy in force were at hand. Their first blow fell on Miles's division, on our right, and was promptly repulsed; but Hill ordered Heth, under a heavy fire of artillery, to try again, and at all events carry the position; which he ultimately did at the fourth charge, capturing three batteries. Hancock ordered Gibbon's division to retake it; but they failed to do so. Miles, rallying a part of his scattered division, and fighting it admirably, recovered part of his lost ground and one of his captured batteries. Gibbon's division, assailed by a force of dismounted cavalry, was easily driven from its breastworks; but the enemy, attempting to follow up his success, was checked and repelled by a heavy flank fire from our dismounted cavalry, posted on the left. Though but four miles from Warren's position, no rëenforcements, owing to various blunders, reached Hancock till after he had been forced to retreat, abandoning Reams's station, after a total loss of 2,400 (out 77 Aug. 21. VOL. II.-38 of Warren's hold on the road had become too strong to be shaken, and there ensued a pause of over a month; during which the Rebels planned and executed a smart raid on our cattleyard at Coggin's Point on the James; running off 2,500 beeves at no cost but that of fatigue. The calm was broken at last by Grant, who ordered an advance by Warren on the left, to cover one more determined by Butler on the right. Gen. Warren pushed westward " with two divisions of his own corps and two of the 9th, under Parke, with Gregg's cavalry in advance; reaching the Squirrel Level road, and carrying two or three small works at different points. There was fighting along our new front throughout this and the following day; we holding the newly gained ground and intrenching on it; our losses in the movement having been 2,500; those of the enemy probably less, including Gen. Dunnovan, killed. The ground thus taken was promptly joined by proper works to Warren's former position across the railroad. Gen. Butler, in his turn, crossing the James, advanced with the 10th corps, now commanded by Birney, and the 18th, now under Ord, and struck" the enemy's outpost below Chapin's farm, known as Fort Harrison, which he assaulted and took, with 15 guns, and a considerable portion of the enemy's intrenchments. He attempted to follow up his blow with the capture of Fort Gilmer, which was next in order; but was repulsed by Maj.-Gen. Field, 79 Sept. 29. 78 Oct. 1. HANCOCK ADVANCES TO HATCHER'S RUN. 80 595 with a loss of 300. On our side, Gen. | Charles City and Williamsburg roads Ord was wounded, and Brig.-Gen. on our left, the Army of the PoBurnham killed. tomac, leaving only men enough to Fort Harrison was so important to hold its works before Petersburg, and Richmond, that Field resolved to re-taking three days' rations, marched " take it, but deferred the assault till suddenly by the left against the enenext morning, when he hurled three my's works covering Hatcher's run brigades against it on one side, while and the Boydton plank-road. In Gen. Hoke charged on the other. other words, Meade's army was here These assaults failed to be made pushed forward to find and turn the simultaneously, and of course were right flank of the enemy. both repulsed with slaughter; as they probably would have been at any rate. But, a few days thereafter, the Rebels surprised at dawn our right, held by Kautz's cavalry, which had been pushed up the Charles City road, to within 4 or 5 miles of Richmond, and drove it; capturing 9 guns and perhaps 500 prisoners. A desperate fight ensued, in which the Rebel Gen. Gregg, of Texas, was killed. Both sides claimed a clear advantage, but neither obtained much, save in the capture of Fort Harrison; while the losses of each had been quite heavy. Butler pushed forward a strong reconnoissance on the 13th, and assaulted some new works that the enemy had constructed on a part of their front; but they were firmly held, and the attack was not long persisted in. After a considerable pause, spiced only by cannonading and picketfiring along the intrenched front of both armies, and some sanguinary encounters around Fort Sedgwick (nicknamed by our soldiers Fort Hell') covering the Jerusalem plankroad, Gen. Grant again sounded a general advance. While Gen. Butler demonstrated in force on our extreme right-the 18th corps moving on the Richmond defenses by both the Starting before dawn, the 9th corps, under Parke, on the right, with the 5th, under Warren, on its left, struck, at 9 A. M., the right of the Rebel intrenchments, which rested on the east bank of Hatcher's run; assaulting, but failing to carry them. Warren thereupon undertook, as had been arranged, to come in on its flank by a turning movement; while Hancock, who had simultaneously advanced still farther to our left, and had found but a small force to dispute his passage of Hatcher's run where he struck it, moved north-westward by Dabney's mill, gained the Boydton plankroad, and pushed up to strike the Lynchburg railroad in the enemy's rear. Gregg, with his cavalry division, was thrown out on Hancock's left. Hancock had reached, with little opposition, the Boydton plank-road, and was pushing farther, when, at 1 P. M., he was halted by an order from Meade. Warren, upon the failure of Parke to carry the intrenchment in his front, had pushed Crawford's division, strengthened by Ayres's brigade, across the run, with orders to move down the north bank of that stream, so as to turn the Rebel defenses. Hancock, hitherto several miles distant, it was intended to connect with by this movement. ¿ Oct. 27. Crawford, with great difficulty, ad- | guns; and, as the enemy, emerging vanced as ordered, through woods into the cleared space along the ånd swamps all but impenetrable, Boydton road, pushed across that road and in which many of his men were in pursuit of Mott's fugitives, firing lost, while regiments were hopelessly and yelling, Egan struck them in separated from their division, until flank with two brigades, sweeping he was directly on the flank of the down the road, retaking the lost guns, Rebel intrenchments; when he, too, and making over 1,000 prisoners. was halted by Warren to give time The disconcerted Rebels retreated as for consultation with Meade the rapidly as they had advanced; but, country having proved entirely dif. over 200 of them, fleeing in utter ferent from what was expected. Han- confusion toward the run, fell into cock was now but a mile from Craw- Crawford's lines, and were captured. ford's left; but the dense woods left Could Crawford have instantly comthem in entire ignorance of each prehended the situation and adother's position. And now, of course, vanced, their loss must have been far as Hancock was extending his right | greater. (Gibbon's division, now under Egan) to find Crawford's left, and receiving a mistaken report that the connection had been made, though a space of 1,200 yards still intervened, Lee threw forward Hill to strike Hancock's right and roll it up after the established fashion. Hill's leading division, under Heth, crossed the run, making for Hancock, and, following a forest path, swept across in front of Crawford's skirmishers and across the interval between Crawford and Hancock, without clearly knowing where it was. Arriving opposite Hancock's position, Hill, seeing but unseen, silently deployed in the woods, and, at 4 P. M., charged; striking Mott's division, whose first notice of an enemy's approach was a volley of musketry. The brigade (Pierce's) thus charged gave way; a battery was lost; and, for a moment, there was a prospect of another Reams's station disaster. Hancock of course instantly sent word to Egan to change front and hurry to the rescue; but Egan had already done that at the first sound of Hill's Warren was with Meade in the rear of Crawford's line, when Hill's blow was struck, and at once ordered up Ayres to the support of Hancock; but night fell before Ayres could get up. Simultaneously with the charge on Hancock's front, Wade Hampton, with five brigades of cavalry, charged his left and rear, guarded by Gregg's cavalry; and Hancock was required to send all his available force to Gregg's support. Hampton persisted till after dark, but gained no ground, and was ultimately beaten off. Hancock's total loss by the day's operations was 1,500; that of the enemy was greater. Hancock was now authorized by Meade either to withdraw or to hold on and attack next morning, if he could do so safely with the aid of Ayres and Crawford. Being short of ammunition, with no certainty that any more would reach him, or that Ayres and Crawford could bring up their divisions in season for the attack that would naturally be made on him at daybreak, Hancock pru |