Warren promptly dispatched Ayres' division, as the one that could get under way most expeditiously; and proceeded to make arrangements to move with the other two divisions as soon as practicable. Had the roads been unobstructed, the march to Dinwiddie would not have occupied above four or five hours. When, however, the project was formed of sending Warren to succor Sheridan, there was one very important fact which was not known at headquarters, but which was of a nature to prevent any possibility of a force reaching Sheridan that night. This was the fact that the bridge over Gravelly Run, by the Boydton plankroad, was destroyed. It was, by consequence, necessary for General Ayres to halt at the run until an infantry bridge was built. This consumed till near two A. M. of April 1st, when Ayres crossed his division and hastened towards Dinwiddie.

When the condition of the crossing of Gravelly Run became known to General Meade, that commander, believing that Sheridan "could not maintain himself at Dinwiddie without re-enforcements," suggested (in a dispatch received by General Warren at one A. M.) other methods by which the desired end

"At 8.40 P. M. I received by telegraph the following, marked 'Confidential,' from General Webb, chief of staff, written 8.30 P. M.: 'The probability is, that we will have to contract our lines to-night. You will be required to hold, if possible, the Boydton plank road and to Gravelly Run. Humphreys and Ord along the run. Be prepared to do this at short notice.'

'I regretted exceedingly to see this step foreshadowed; for I feared it would have the morale of giving a failure to our whole movement, as similar orders had done on previous occasions. It would, besides, relieve the enemy in front of Sheridan from the threatening attitude my position gave me. I therefore sent the following by telegraph, at 8.40 P. M., to General Webb: The line along the plank road is very strong. One division, with my artillery, I think, can hold it, if we are not threatened, south of Gravelly Run, east of the plankroad. General Humphreys and my batteries, I think, could hold this securely, and let me move down and attack the enemy at Dinwiddie Courthouse on one side, and Sheridan on the other. On account of Bartlett's position, they (the enemy) will have to make a considerable detour to re-enforce their troops at that point from the north. Unless General Sheridan has been too badly handled, I think we have a chance for an open field-fight that should be made use of.'"-Warren: Report of Operations of March 29, 30, and 31.

might be accomplished. They did not, however, meet the real state of facts. He suggested that Warren should send troops both by the Boydton plankroad and by the Quaker road, further to the east, even if he should give up the meditated rear attack. But the distance to Dinwiddie by the Quaker road was above ten miles, and, at the advanced hour of the night at which the dispatch was received, it would have been impossible for the troops by that road to have reached Dinwiddie before eight A. M., by which time they could be of no use in holding that place. In this case the most direct route for the rear attack would be down the plankroad, by which Ayres' division was marching. Solicitous as General Warren was, therefore, of arriving for Sheridan's succor at the earliest possible moment, he justly judged that the desired end could be best attained by abiding the movements already begun, holding, meantime, the two divisions of Griffin and Crawford where they were, until he should hear that Ayres' division had reached Dinwiddie.

In the midst of this general anxiety for Sheridan, that officer himself had ceased to feel any solicitude touching his situation; for before midnight he knew that the enemy had withdrawn all but a mask of force from his front. Lee, in fact, could not afford to retain so considerable a body at Dinwiddie, both because it was very much out of position for the defence of the Confederate line on the White Oak road, and because the force thus isolated was directly menaced by Warren. It was, therefore, retired by Lee as soon as he could communicate with it, which was about ten P. M. of the 31st, and it fell back and took position at Five Forks, leaving only a cavalry picket, which also withdrew as soon as assailed at dawn. It was, in fact, seen hastily decamping by Ayres, when, at daylight of April 1st, he joined the cavalry. Sheridan followed up vigorously, putting his whole force in motion northward towards Five Forks. Meantime, Warren withdrew his two other divisions, which, marching directly across the country, joined the cavalry midway between Dinwiddie Courthouse and Five Forks at seven A. M., April 1st.

Full of doubts and fears as the night had been, morning dispelled these noxious vapors. The event proved a happy illustration of "All's well that ends well;" for, thanks to the good judgment of Warren in keeping his corps together, it was now in position where it could best be applied conjointly with the cavalry in a renewed effort against the Confederate position at Five Forks. Towards that position Sheridan was resolved to move, and in the operations that followed, Warren, with the Fifth Corps, came under his orders.

IV.

FIVE FORKS AND PETERSBURG

The situation of the opposing forces on the morning of the 1st of April was somewhat peculiar. From the Appomattox to Hatcher's Run the Confederate line was so meagerly garnished with troops that there was but one man to every five yards of front. Confronting this line were the Union corps of Parke, Wright, Ord, and Humphreys. But the point of dispute was nowhere along these locked lines; and as, by times, in olden battles, the whole array of two opposing armies would stand still while one knight from each side engaged in single combat, so it seemed to be now tacitly agreed that the gage of battle was for the possession of the Five Forks-an isolated position four miles to the west of the Federal left and Confederate right. Hither Sheridan was moving, and here, as for the defence of a point of vital value, Lee had accumulated all the force he could spare.

In thus massing upon his right, Lee ran a great risk; for the Petersburg defences were left so inadequately defended, that they were incapable of withstanding a serious attack. But necessity left no alternative. It is worthy of note that there was no imperative need of delivering battle at Five Forks, for Sheridan's manœuvres by the left, together with the pressure of the Second and Fifth corps, had had so fully

the effect of drawing the Confederate strength to a head at that flank, that it was open to the Union force to break directly through the Petersburg defences. Indeed, both Wright and Ord, ascertaining from their reconnoissances the comparative nakedness of the Confederate works, reported favorably to assault on the 1st. But it was otherwise determined. There is, however, no occasion to note, otherwise than as a contingency of the situation, that the battle of Five Forks need not necessarily have been fought in order to have gained the capture of Petersburg. That, nevertheless, it was fortunate it was fought, will not be doubtful after the recital of the events of that brilliant action.

Pressing forward his cavalry, Sheridan, by spirited charges, drove the Confederates from two temporary lines, until, at two P. M., April 1st, he had confined them within their works at the Five Forks. The admirable method in which Sheridan combined the operations of cavalry and infantry-using the former as an impenetrable mask behind which he manœuvred with the latter-has already been seen in the history of the Valley campaign. This combination was now to receive a new and splendid illustration.

In pressing back the enemy into his works Sheridan had employed only his powerful body of horse, leaving the Fifth Corps behind, at the point where it had joined the cavalry in the morning. Now, however, that the Confederates were confined within the defences on the White Oak road, where they were closely enveloped by his numerous squadrons, he directed General Warren to bring forward the Fifth Corps, for the employment of which he devised a beautiful tactical manoeuvre. He ordered General Merritt, while holding the enemy in front with the cavalry, to demonstrate as though he aimed to turn the Confederate right, and he directed Warren to form the infantry so that its full pressure would fall directly on the enemy's left flank. At the same time he sent McKenzie's division of cavalry, which had joined him that day, to the White Oak road to cover the right flank from anv hostile force moving westward from the di

rection of Petersburg. McKenzie executed his orders with skill and vigor, attacking a body of the enemy and driving it towards Petersburg, after which he countermarched and rejoined Sheridan in time to participate in the action.

Warren formed his corps before moving forward. He disposed Ayres' division on the left and Crawford's on the right, with Griffin's in reserve behind the right. Each of the two front divisions placed two brigades in front, each brigade in two lines of battle; and the third brigade in two lines of battle behind the centre of the two front lines. Griffin's division was posted in column of battalions in mass behind the right. In moving, the lines were instructed to keep closed to the left, and to preserve their direction in the woods by keeping the sun, which was shining brightly, in the same position over their left shoulders. The movement was to be forward to the White Oak road, at a point beyond the enemy's left flank, when the line was to swing round, pivoting on the left, and having formed itself perpendicular to the White Oak road, it was then to advance and fall upon the Confederate left flank.

Warren's dispositions being promptly completed by four P. M., he immediately then advanced. A few minutes brought the line to the White Oak road, distant about a thousand yards, when it changed front so as to face westward instead of northward. The Fifth Corps was now directly on the left flank and rear of the Confederates, with a line of battle formed perpendicular to their position. The enemy had, however, refused his left in a crotchet about a hundred yards in length turned northward at right angles to his main line, and covered by a strong breastwork screened behind a dense undergrowth of pines. Thence northward to Hatcher's Run, the Confederates pieced out the line by a slim picket. Ayres' division being the pivot on which Crawford's and Griffin's wheeled, effected its change of front first, and encountered the enemy's skirmishers in front of the position at the crotchet. That division covered nearly the whole of this refused line, so that Crawford and Ayres outflanked it to the north. Or nearly so: Crawford's division,