who is compelled to Virginia. foreseeing the difficulties that would ensue should Lynchburg be taken, sent a strong force to its relief. Hereupon Hunter found that he must retreat (June 18). Sharply pursued, he followed the railroad westward retreat to Western to Salem, and thence through Newcastle (June 22) toward Meadows Bluff. The country was so exhausted that the sufferings of the men and loss of horses were very great. No rations could be ob tained until the 27th. This retreat into Western Virginia was a great disappointment to Grant. It opened the way, as we shall see, for Early's movement toward Washington. CHAPTER LXXXIII. INVESTMENT OF PETERSBURG, AND REPULSE OF THE CONFEDERATE SORTIE UNDER EARLY. Grant, having crossed the James River, moved against Richmond from the south side. His operations are divisible into seven periods. 1st. He attempted the capture of Petersburg by a coup de main before Lee could defend it in force. In this he did not succeed. 2d. Lee having also crossed the river, and garrisoned Petersburg as well as Richmond, Grant made attempts to break in between those cities. In this, again, he did not succeed. 3d. He now began to intrench; his general intention being to extend his left as far as possible, so as to reach the Weldon Railroad. 4th. Finding that it would be a work of time and difficulty to reach the Southside and the Danville Roads, he attempted once more to break through Lee's lines by the aid of a mine. This attempt did not succeed. 5th. With a view of compelling Grant to relax his grasp on Petersburg, Lee caused a sortie to be made under General Early, who advanced nearly to Washington, and threatened the Free States. After it had obtained some signal successes, Early's army was destroyed by Sheridan. 6th. Taking advantage of his preponderating numbers, Grant resorted to the plan of demonstrating with one wing of his army, and, on the Confederates moving their forces to resist the threatened attack, to strike their weakened point energetically with the other. In this manner he at length seized the Weldon Railroad. 7th. The envelopment of Petersburg continued unceasingly to the close of the year 1864. While Grant was thus steadily acting against the political focus of the Confederacy by developing his intrenched line to his left, he was relentlessly executing his de sign of destroying its armies. Into the defenses of Richmond troops from all parts were drawn, and there they disappeared. The Army of Northern Virginia is forced into the defenses of Richmond. THE blow which Lee received in the Wilderness, followed as it was by the advance of the national army, admonished that general to abstain from the adventurous offensive operations which not unfrequently he had engaged in previously. He fell back over ground which had already been carefully surveyed and prepared-ground with which he was thor oughly familiar. He had discovered that the object at which his antagonist was aiming was not merely the pos session of the capital of the Confederacy—it was the life of the Army of Northern Virginia. A fearful issue! Now for the first time were fairly pit ted the military resources and endurance of the North against the military resources and enthusiasm of the South. For every life he destroyed Grant could afford to lose two. At a dreadful cost to himself, he had sent the Confederate army reeling and dripping with blood from the banks of the Rapidan to Richmond. Grant prepares to works. The retreat of Lee into the fortifications of Richmond implied the siege of that city—or fortress, for force it out of those such it might now with propriety be termed. Grant had no intention of making any attempt to carry the place by direct assault, knowing well that that would be impracticable against such veteran troops as were then defending it; his object was to force Lee out of his strong works into the open country by cutting his supplying railroads, and, in so doing, to weaken his army as much as possible by making feints and attacks alternately on its right and left. He besieges After the passage of the James, Grant's base of supply was established at City Point, where were accumulated the munitions and stores necessary for an army of more than a hundred thousand men. The occupation of Petersburg-a town of 18,000 inhabitants-22 miles south of Richmond, and 9 southwest of City Point, and to which two of the supplying railroads converged, was therefore the first step in the new campaign. We are now to see that, after the crossing of the river, Grant, without the loss of a moment, attempted to seize Petersburg, but, disappointed in that, his operations necessarily assumed the form of a siege of the place, the fall of Petersburg implying the fall of Richmond. For a clear comprehension of the operations now to be The defenses of described, it is necessary to allude to the toRichmond. pography of the region, and the defenses of Richmond and Petersburg respectively. The Appomattox is a branch of the James River, coming in from the west, the James, previously to their confluence, flowing, with many curves, in a southerly direction-these streams inclosing between them Bermuda Hundred, a peninsula on which Butler's army lay. Richmond is on the north bank of the James, Petersburg on the south bank of the Appomattox (see Map, vol. iii., p. 384). There were two lines of defense covering Richmond, an exterior and an interior. The first, or exterior, encircled it on the north and east, at a distance of from four to ter miles; it terminated on the south at Chapin's Bluff; over the river, at this point, was Fort Darling; this line then ran westwardly across the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad. The second, or interior line, environed the city from the northwest to the southeast, at a distance of about two miles, both extremities resting on the river, which com pleted the line. The railroads of may Petersburg is the focus of convergence of many roads; the more important of them be enumerPetersburg. ated as follows: the Richmond Railroad enters it on the north, the City Point Railroad on the northeast, the Norfolk Railroad on the southeast; then comes the Jerusalem Plank Road, followed by the Weldon or Roanoke Railroad, which enters from the south; beyond this, in order, are the Vaughan Road, the Boydton Plank Road, the Lynchburg or Southside Railroad, coming from the west; this intersects, at Burkesville Junction, the Danville Railroad on its way to Richmond. Hatcher's Run is a creek flowing eastwardly from near the Southside Railroad across the Boydton Plank Road, and then flowing southward. The defenses of The distance from Fort Darling to Petersburg is about 15 miles. Across this front-such are the curvatures of the rivers-the only open space is at the neck of the peninsula. So strong were the Confederate defenses at this part that they were considered impregnable. On the east and south the Confederate lines encircled Petersburg until they reached the Boydton Plank |