into foraging parties. In fact, to attempt escape was all that now remained to Lee.

Late in the afternoon of the 5th, General Meade, with the Second and Sixth corps of the Army of the Potomac, joined Sheridan at Jetersville, where, expecting attack, he had held his force intrenched since the previous day. Lee was still at Amelia Courthouse. Meanwhile, Sheridan had been operating with his cavalry well to his left, to watch if Lee should make any attempt to escape by that flank. On the morning of the 5th, Brigadier-General Davies, with a mounted force, advanced to Paine's Cross-roads, where he struck a train of a hundred and eighty wagons, escorted by a body of Confederate cavalry, which he defeated, destroying the wagons and capturing five pieces of artillery and a number of prisoners. Gregg's and Smith's brigades of the Second Cavalry Division were sent out to support Davies, and some heavy fighting ensued-the Confederates having sent a considerable force of infantry to cut off the latter; but the attempt was thwarted.

The night of the 5th, Lee moved from Amelia. His only hope now was to make a race to Farmville (west thirty-five miles), there cross the Appomattox once more, and, by destroying the bridges after him, escape into the mountains beyond Lynchburg. When, therefore, on the morning of the 6th, the whole Army of the Potomac, which, the night previous, had been concentrated at Jetersville, moved northward towards Amelia to give battle to the Confederates, it was found that Lee had slipped past. The direction of the corps was then changed: the Sixth Corps moved from the right to the left; the Second Corps was ordered to move by Deatonsville; and the Fifth and Sixth corps to move in parallel directions on the right and left. As Lee was retreating by the Deatonsville route, this disposition of the pursuing forces placed one column in his rear on the same road by which he was moving, a second column by a parallel route to the south, and a third column by a parallel route to the north. Meanwhile, the Army of the James, which had been pushing its

march by the line of the Lynchburg Railroad, had reached Burkesville; and on the morning of the 6th General Ord was directed towards Farmville. In order, if possible, to reach and destroy the bridges near that place, Ord sent forward a light column, consisting of two regiments of infantry and a squadron of cavalry, under Brigadier General Theodore Read. This force met the head of Lee's column near Farmville, and Read heroically attacked it in the effort to detain the Confederate column until the main force should be able to make up with it. That gallant officer sacrificed his life in the execution of this duty, and his command was overwhelmed; but the attack served the intended purpose, and so delayed the movements of the enemy, that Ord had time to arrive with the Army of the James. Upon this, the Confederate force immediately intrenched itself.

Sheridan, who had now with him only the cavalry, formed the van of the column that was marching on the southern parallel route; and he was deploying all the resources of an energy that seemed to grow hotter and hotter with the chase, to head off the hunted prey. Near Deatonsville, that same 6th, he struck in upon the Confederate wagon-train escorted by a formidable force of infantry and cavalry. To wrest this prize from its guardians Sheridan made admirable dispositions. He ordered Crook's division to attack the train, and if the covering force proved too strong, one of the divisions would, while Crook held fast to and pressed the enemy, pass him and attack a point further on; and this division was ordered to do the same, and so on alternately. This method of action would, he judged, enable him finally to strike some weak point.

This result was obtained just south of Sailor's Creek, a small tributary of the Appomattox that, running northward, empties into that stream a few miles east of Farmville. Custer's division gained the road, and the divisions of Crook and Devin coming up to its support, four hundred wagons were destroyed, and sixteen pieces of artillery and many prisoners were captured. Ewell's corps, which was following behind the train,

was thus cut off from its line of retreat. To detain this force as long as possible, so that the infantry might have time to come up, was now Sheridan's desire, and with this view he ordered a mounted charge, which was executed in a very spirited manner by one of his brigades under Colonel Stagg.

When the head of column of the Sixth Corps came in sight the Confederates began retiring, whereupon Seymour's division was directed to carry the road. This being done, the Confederates fell back slowly, skirmishing and turning with such sharp and sudden sallies of resistance, that a halt had to be called to get up Wheaton's division of the Sixth Corps. This took position on the left of Seymour, whereupon a renewed advance was made, and the Confederates were driven until the lines of the Sixth Corps reached Sailor's Creek. Then from the north bank could be descried the cavalry on the high ground above the creek and south of it, and the long lines of smoke from the burning wagons beyond. But even while thus environed, these men showed they could still exact a price before yielding; and when an advance was made by a part of the Sixth Corps, they delivered so deadly a fire that a portion of that veteran line bent and broke under it. But the numbers were too unequal, too overwhelming; and when a simultaneous assault was made by the Sixth Corps in front and the cavalry in flank and rear, Ewell's troops, finding themselves surrounded, threw down their arms in token of surrender. The captures included nearly all that remained of the corps of that officer, with LieutenantGeneral Ewell himself and four other general officers.

The decisive character of this result was largely due to the energetic movements of the Second Corps, which, moving to the right, had pressed the Confederates closely in a rear-guard fight all day till night, when it had attained a position near the mouth of Sailor's Creek. Here the Confederates were so crowded upon, that a large train was captured and many hundreds were taken prisoners. The trophies of the Second Corps included, in addition several pieces, of artillery and thirteen flags.

Lee, meanwhile, with the relics of his army, continued the retreat during the night, and passed to the north bank of the Appomattox by bridges near Farmville.

Such are the mere bald facts that, thus far, marked the retreat and pursuit. But it would need other colors in which truly to paint that terrible race for life; and one would have to seek its like in what befell upon the snowy wastes of Muscovy in the winter of 1812.

The Confederates began the retreat with but one ration, and when no supplies were met at Amelia Courthouse, they were reduced to such scant store as could be collected from the poor and almost exhausted region through which they passed. This resource, moreover, grew more and more precarious, for the area of the foragers was so restricted by the clouds of enterprising Union cavalry, that they could collect less and less. Those men were fortunate who had in their pockets a few handfuls of corn which they might parch by the wayside; but many had naught wherewithal to assuage the pangs of hunger save the buds and twigs of spring that, with its exuberant bourgeon, seemed to mock the sere and desolate winter of their fortunes. The misery of the famished troops during the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th of April, passes all experience of military anguish since the retreat from the banks of the Beresina. "Towards evening of the 5th," says an eye-witness, "and all day long upon the 6th, hundreds of men dropped from exhaustion, and thousands let fall their muskets from inability to carry them any further. The scenes of the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th were of a nature which can be apprehended in its vivid reality only by men who are thoroughly familiar with the harrowing details of war.'

While the sufferings of the men were thus severe, those of the horses and mules were even keener; for of forage there was none, and the grass had not yet sprouted. Of course, in this condition of the draught-animals the locomotion of the trains and artillery could be but slow. Moreover, the long lines of wagons, filling miles of the road, frequently cut in

upon the route of the infantry columns, delaying them for half a day at a time: so that, from this and other reasons, the march had to be mainly conducted by night, which added the want of rest to the sum of miseries accumulating fast and faster on the hapless host of fugitives. Dark divisions, sinking in the woods for a few hours' repose, would hear suddenly the boom of hostile guns and the clatter of the hoofs of the ubiquitous cavalry, and they had to up and hasten off as fast as their wearied limbs would carry them. Thus pressed upon on all sides, driven like sheep before prowling wolves, with blazing wagons in front and rear, amid hunger, fatigue, and sleeplessness, continuing day after day, they fared towards the setting sun

"Such resting found the soles of unblest feet!"

VI.

CLOSING SCENES.

When, on the night of the 6th, the Army of Northern Virginia had put the Appomattox between it and its pursuers, a group of the chief officers met around the bivouac-fire to take counsel together touching their fortunes. General Lee alone was not of the number.

The result of the interchange of views was to reduce the possibilities of the situation to three lines of conduct. 1. To disband, allowing the troops to make their way as best they might to some fixed rallying point. 2. To abandon the trains and cut their way through the opposing lines. 3. To surrender.

But it was soon seen that, in reality, two of these courses were excluded. To disband would be to give up all; for there was little likelihood that the troops could ever be rallied, while their dispersion over the country would necessarily entail unnumbered ills upon the inhabitants. To cut their way through was more easy to talk about than to do;