Edward Porter Alexander, Military memoirs of a Confederate: a critical narrative

[548] intrenched to cover the passage of the other corps. All of the other corps moved at the same time. The 2d corps crossed at the same bridge and marched to Wilcox Landing on the James. The 6th and 9th corps crossed the Chickahominy at Jones's Bridge and marched to the same place; the 18th corps, under Smith, was sent back to the White House, where it took transports for City Point, and was landed there the night of the 14th. Here it was joined by Kautz's cavalry, about 2400 strong, and by Hink's colored division, 3700, making in all about 16,000 men, who were ordered to march at dawn on the 15th for Petersburg, about eight miles, which they were to attack. Here we may leave them for a while.

Hancock's 2d corps reached Wilcox's Landing at 6 P. M. on Monday, the 13th, after an all-night march of about 30 miles. The 5th corps, under Warren, held its position covering the passage of other corps until night of the 13th, when it followed Hancock and reached Wilcox's Landing the next noon. The cavalry and infantry had had some sharp skirmishing, and reported their casualties as 300 killed and wounded. The 6th and 9th corps, whose marches had been from 5 to 10 miles longer than Hancock's, arrived in the afternoon of the 14th.

During the 14th, the transports, which had brought the 18th corps around from the White House to City Point, were employed in ferrying Hancock across the James. By the morning of the 15th, his whole corps was across, with most of its artillery, and at 10.30 A. M., it set out for Petersburg, following Smith who had gone from City Point for the same destination about sunrise. Hancock had about 20,000 men, and about 16 miles to go. All the complicated movements involved in this manoeuvre, and in the capture of Petersburg at which it was aimed, had been as usual well thought out, and covered in the orders and instructions to the different commanders, with a single exception.

This exception was very serious in its results, as it postponed the capture of Petersburg for over nine months. It had its rise in the division of command and responsibility between the cooperating armies. This, in its turn, had arisen from the political necessity of placing Butler in command of the Army of the James. Smith's corps was a part of that army, and Grant,