ing.

Being apprehensive, however, that Lee might during the night withdraw this force and fall upon Sheridan in his isolated position, he ordered Miles' division of Humphreys' corps to his support, and commanded all the guns in the Petersburg lines to be opened in a general bombardment. This, beginning at nightfall of the 1st, was kept up till four A. M. of the 2d April.

At earliest dawn of Sunday, the 2d, the assault was opened, from the Appomattox to Hatcher's Run, by the troops of Parke, Wright, and Ord. Parke on the right, with the Ninth Corps, carried the outer line of intrenchments; but the position of that corps confronted that portion of the Confederate defences longest held and most strongly fortified, and after the outer line had been penetrated, the Confederates were found holding an inner cordon of works, from which Parke could not force them.

Wright, with the Sixth Corps, next on the left of the Ninth, assaulting at four A. M., carried every thing before him. Having attained the Boydton plankroad, he swept to the left down the Confederate intrenchments, capturing many guns and several thousand prisoners. He was closely followed by two divisions of Ord's command, and continued on until he met the other division of Ord's that had succeeded in forcing the lines near Hatcher's Run, when the united forces swung to the right and proceeded by the Boydton plankroad towards Petersburg.

When these successes were reported, Humphreys, holding the Union left to the west of Hatcher's Run, advanced with two divisions of the Second Corps (the divisions of Hays and Mott) and stormed and carried a redoubt in his front. Seeing this lost, the Confederates abandoned this position, and Humphreys moved up the Boydton plankroad and connected with the left of the Sixth Corps. The other of Humphreys' divisions, under Miles, pursued whatever debris of the enemy remained west of Hatcher's Run. This force retreated northward to Sutherland Station, on the Southside Railroad, where it was overtaken by Miles, who in a spirited charge dis

lodged and defeated it, taking two guns and six hundred prisoners.

On reaching the lines immediately around Petersburg, a part of Ord's command, under General Gibbon, began an assault with the view to break through to the city. The attack was directed against Forts Gregg and Alexander, two strong, inclosed works, the most salient and commanding south of Petersburg. The former of these redoubts was manned by Harris's Mississippi Brigade, numbering two hundred and fifty men; and this handful of skilled marksmen conducted the defence with such intrepidity, that Gibbon's forces, surging repeatedly against it, were each time thrown back. At length, at seven A. M., a renewed charge carried the work; but not till its two hundred and fifty defenders had been reduced to thirty; and it is calculated that each of these riflemen struck down at least two assailants, for Gibbon's loss was above five hundred men. The other fort found no such defenders, and readily fell. This being accomplished, the Union line of investment was drawn close around the city.

The result of these operations was, that the Confederates, having lost most of their outer system of defences, were pressed back to a chain of works immediately around Petersburg. But as they had here a short and strong line, with their left resting on the Appomattox on the east of Petersburg and their right on the same river on the west side, they still protected the city, and the Union force, weighty as it was, found it impossible to dislodge them. Lee, indeed, was even able to make, in the old style, an offensive sally or two, for about ten A. M. a slight re-enforcement came to him. Longstreet having at length discovered that the force that for many days had confronted him on the north side of the James was little more than a mask, drew therefrom several of his brigades, and at the hour named reached Petersburg, accompanied by Benning's brigade of Field's division. This increase of his force, slight though it was, together with the protracted resistance offered by Fort Gregg, enabled Lee to establish what of force remained to him in such wise as would best avail for

the defence of the city. General A. P. Hill then pushed forward the division of Heth on the Confederate left, in an effort to regain some commanding ground held by the Ninth Corps. The attack was made with such vigor and pressed so heavily on that corps, that it was with difficulty it could maintain its ground, and the garrison of the defences of City Point had to be ordered up to its support. This may be accounted the last blow struck by the Army of Northern Virginia while covering Richmond; and it is noteworthy that in its execution fell General A. P. Hill, who in all the operations that from first to last filled up the four years' defence of the Confederate capital, had borne a most distinguished part.

In thus maintaining a stubborn attitude of resistance at the threshold of Petersburg, Lee had now but one thought, which was to hold his ground until the oncoming of night should enable him to put into execution the ulterior design he had formed. This design was communicated to the Richmond authorities in a message sent by Lee about eleven o'clock of the forenoon of that same Sunday. It was received by Mr. Davis while worshipping at the church of Saint Paul's; and those who, as he passed out, marked his countenance (on which it seemed the burden of an additional score of years had in a moment fallen), knew that message could bear nothing but tidings of direful import.

It announced Lee's purpose of that night abandoning Petersburg and Richmond.

V.

THE RETREAT AND PURSUIT.

It may well be supposed that the purpose of the hardy captain who designed to "make an end of it before going back," was not relaxed, but rather intensified by the events of the past two days; and forecasting what must be the next

move of his antagonist, Grant, on the night of the 2d, had already begun his dispositions to checkmate him.

To Lee there was but one line of retreat that led anywhere but to destruction. This was up the Appomattox, parallel with the Southside Railroad, and westward to the Danville line. But the Fifth Union Corps was already at Sutherland's Station on the Southside Railroad, ten miles west of Petersburg, and Sheridan, with the cavalry, on the night of the 2d bivouacked at Ford's, ten miles still further to the west. These moves compelled Lee, at the outset, to make his retreat by the north bank of the Appomattox, and threw him upon the exterior line.

To the Union force set free for pursuit, in case that should be the order, was added, on the night of the 2d, the Second Corps under Humphreys, to whom was at the same time sent a ponton-train. The Sixth and Ninth corps and Ord's command, meantime, held their close-drawn lines of investment around Petersburg, while from the north side of the James Weitzel watched Richmond.

But not all the wary eyes of peering pickets served to discover what was that night passing in the Confederate camp. When the long twilight of that May-day Sunday had faded out in the west, and deep darkness had settled down over the sleeping Union host, a silent withdrawal was begun from the whole Confederate front. The Petersburg force, retiring noiselessly through the town, filed over to the north bank of the Appomattox. Thence marching northward to Chesterfield Courthouse, midway between Petersburg and Richmond, it was joined by the division holding the front of Bermuda Hundred. At the same time whatever force remained on the Richmond side was drawn in, and moved southward to Chesterfield Courthouse, when the whole Confederate army headed westward. The evacuation was conducted with wonderful address; and the march being pushed vigorously all night, the Army of Northern Virginia, now reduced to twenty-five thousand men, had by dawn put sixteen miles between it and Petersburg.

It is said by those who were with the Confederate commander, that his spirits were unusually light and cheerful on the morning of the 3d. "I have got my army safe out of its breastworks," said he, "and, in order to follow me, my enemy must abandon his lines, and can derive no further benefit from his railroads or the James River." What then might he now reasonably hope for? He could certainly not dream of the triumph of his cause. That is not to be supposed. But he might hope so to conduct affairs as to obtain advantageous terms of peace for the Confederacy. And it is certain that he did expect to effect a successful retreat-to escape entirely from the toils of his antagonist-to unite with the army under Johnston, and then so to act as to elicit good overtures not only for the capitulation of his army, but for the settlement of a basis of peace, which, the Confederate government being fugitive, he took it upon himself to negotiate should opportunity be afforded. How this hope was dashed to the ground, as well by unforeseen misfortunes that befell Lee as by the prodigious vigor with which Grant pushed the pursuit, will appear in the course of this narrative. It is now necessary to look to the dispositions and movements of the Union columns.

When in the gray dawn of Monday, April 3d, the skirmishers advanced from the lines before Petersburg, the city was found to be evacuated. At the same time the Union force on the lines confronting Richmond from the north side of the James was startled by a clamorous uproar, and the sky was seen to be lit up with a lurid glare. Surmising the meaning of this direful blazon, General Weitzel threw forward a cavalry party that, entering the city without let, planted its guidons on the Capitol.

Thus Richmond fell! Marvellous as had been the one year's defence of the Confederate capital, its fall was not less strange. Occupied, not captured, Richmond, to gain which such hecatombs of lives had been sacrificed, was at length given up by the civil authorities to a body of forty troopers!