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The last battles around Petersburg.
Gen. Grant had at first designed to await the junction of
Sherman's forces for his final operations upon
Richmond, so as to complete his assurance of victory.
But he feared that if
Sherman crossed the
Roanoke river,
Johnston would take the alarm, and move to
Lee's lines; and as the circumspect Federal commander was careful to risk nothing, even approaching to an equal match of force, he determined to dispatch his final movement upon
Richmond, and to make his experiment upon
Lee's little army with no further occasions of delay.
The area of critical operations in the
Confederacy was now within close and narrow boundaries.
Its fate was to be practically decided in operations taking place between the
Roanoke and
James Rivers in one direction, and the
Atlantic Ocean and the
Alleghany Mountains in the other.
In this circumscribed space
Richmond was the prominent figure, the critical point, and
Lee's army the chief contestant.
The usual preliminary to a great action of the
Federals--a movement of cavalry — was directed by
Gen. Grant before the time assigned for a general movement of the armies operating against
Richmond.
The immediate object was to cut off all communications with the city north of
James River; and on the 27th February,
Sheridan moved from the Shenandoah Valley with two divisions of cavalry, numbering about ten thousand sabres.
On the 1st March he secured the bridge across the middle fork of the
Shenandoah, entered
Staunton the next day, and thence pushed on towards Waynesboroa, where
Early, with less than twelve hundred men, disputed the
debouche; of the
Blue Ridge.
This force — a remnant of the Army of the
Valley — was posted on the banks of a stream, with no way open for retreat; and
Sheridan's magnificent cavalry easily ran over it, and took more than nine hundred prisoners.
Gen. Early, with two of his staff officers, escaped by taking to the woods.
The next day
Charlottesville was surrendered; and here
Sheridan paused to await the arrival of his trains, busy meanwhile in destroying the railroads towards
Richmond and
Lynchburg.
His instructions prescribed that he should gain
Lynchburg on the south bank of the
James.
From that point he was to effectually break up those main branches of
Lee's communications, the
Lynchburg railroads and James River Canal, after which he was to strike southward through
Virginia to the westward of
Danville and join
Sherman.
But moving towards the
James River, between
Richmond and
Lynchburg,
Sheridan found himself confronted by a swollen and impassable stream.
He fell back, rounded the left wing of
Lee's army, crossed the
Pamunkey River at the
White House, and on the 25th March joined
Gen. Grant in the lines before
Petersburg.
He had not completed the circuit designed
