Adam Badeau, Military history of Ulysses S. Grant from April 1861 to April 1865. Volume 2

Sheridan's loss during the campaign did not exceed one hundred soldiers, and many of these were the men unable to bear the fatigues of the march. Incessant rain, deep and impassable streams, swamps, mud, and gloom were the impediments offered by nature to his advance. Seventeen pieces of artillery and sixteen hundred prisoners of war were captured. Forty-six canal locks, five aqueducts, forty canal and road bridges, twenty-three railroad bridges, one foundry, one machine — shop, twenty — seven warehouses, forty-one miles of railroad, fourteen mills, and immense quantities of ammunition, gray cloth, saddles, harness, grain, and other supplies were destroyed.

Sheridan's cavalry had annihilated whatever was useful to the enemy between Richmond and Lynchburg, and, having completed its work in the valley of the Shenandoah, was once more ready to join the army of the Potomac in the struggle which it had shared the year before. Hancock was placed in command of the Middle Military Division, while Sheridan resumed his old command close to Grant, an arrangement welcome to both soldiers, and destined to prove as fortunate for the reputation of the chief as of the subordinate.

The hour had now almost come for Grant himself to strike a blow. The lines were drawn so close that the imprisoned enemy might any day attempt to break the coils, rather than remain to be destroyed, and Grant began to consider what form his own action should take. On the 16th of March, he said