The necessities and casualties of war called
Longstreet and
Ewell away from the great chieftain, but
Hill was always at his right hand in council and in action.
To this larger command
General Hill
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brought the experience and the prestige of success gained as a division commander.
From this time forward the life of
A. P. Hill is written in the history of that famous corps, and is too well known to be detailed here.
From
Gettysburg, in July, 1863, to
Five Forks, in March, 1865, it is a record of unceasing activity, sleepless vigilance, and of great battles.
At
Gettysburg he met and repulsed the corps of
Reynolds and
Howard, and captured the town.
On the retreat from that disastrous field his corps held the post of honor and danger, in rear and nearest the enemy.
No task which falls to a soldier's lot is more difficult to fill than to cover the retreat of a large army, with its trains and artillery.
It requires the most sleepless and untiring vigilance to avoid surprise, the coolest courage to face sudden and unlooked for emergencies, and the faculty of inspiring dispirited, disheartened, and overtaxed soldiers with confidence and courage.
How well
General Hill was fitted to perform this difficult task the result proves.
The entire army, with all its baggage-trains and artillery, was brought safely across the
Potomac, and the pursuing army was not able to deliver one single telling blow to the retreating Confederates.
General Hill's corps, like his old division, was ever in motion, always ready to march at a moment's notice, always in the fight, and always giving a good account of itself.
Gettysburg,
Wilderness, Spotsylvania Courthouse, Cold Harbor, Jerusalem,
Plank-Road, Ream's Station, the Crater,
Weldon,
Hatcher's Run,
Petersburg, and many other combats and affairs speak the deeds of
Hill and his brave men.
During the seige of
Petersburg,
Hill's corps was on the right of the army, which was the exposed flank, and which it was
General Grant's constant aim and object to turn in order to cut
General Lee's communication with the
South, and force him to retreat.
To avert repeated efforts to accomplish this cherished design, kept the Third corps in constant motion, while the rest of the army was left in comparative quiet.
From July to March, every effort in that direction was met and defeated by
General Hill with promptness and without heavy loss on his part.
During the campaign of 1864, the Third corps captured from the enemy thirty pieces of artillery, large quantities of small arms and military stores, and more prisoners than it numbered, without the loss of a single gun, and with the loss of but few prisoners.
The early spring of 1865 found the Army of Northern
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Virginia reduced to an attenuated skirmish-line, extending from the Chesapeake and Ohio railway on the north of
Richmond to the
Norfolk and Western railroad on the south of
Petersburg, a distance of over thirty miles, and confronted by an enemy more than three times its own numbers.
The odds were too great to hope for successful resistance, and when
General Grant massed his well-equipped veterans on
General Lee's right, in front of
Hill's corps, the ‘beginning of the end’ had been reached.