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From this exposition of Grant's designs upon the Confederate capital, it appears that he calculated to fight Lee between Culpepper and Richmond, and failing to defeat him away from his base, to make a junction with Butler's army on the James River, with the prospect that the latter would be able to invest Richmond on the south side, with its left resting on the James above the city. But there was yet another part of Grant's ambitious and sweeping plan of operations in Virginia. He might take Richmond, without capturing the Government machinery, and without overthrowing Lee's army. In that view, further operations were necessary to isolate Richmond, and destroy its railroad communications. Gen. Sigel was therefore directed to organize all his available force into two expeditions, to move from Beverly to Charleston, under command of Gens. Ord and Crook, against the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad. Subsequently, Gen. Ord, having been relieved at his own request, Gen. Sigel was instructed at his own suggestion, to give up the expedition by Beverly, and to form two columns, one under Gen. Crook, on the Kanawha, numbering about ten thousand men, and one on the Shenandoah, numbering about seven thousand men; the one on the Shenandoah to assemble between Cumberland and the Shenandoah,
1866.
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