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and now, after a loss of nearly ten thousand men, further attempts to take the
Confederate lines by storm were abandoned for awhile.
It was evident to the
Lieutenant-General that the bulk of
Lee's Army was behind them, and he prepared for a regular siege of them.
He at once began intrenching, and to extend his left in the direction of the Petersburg and Weldon railway, which he desired to seize, and thus envelop
Petersburg with his Army.
The Corps of
Hancock1 and
Wright were moved
stealthily to the left, for the purpose of turning the
Confederate right; but when the former, moving in the advance, reached the Jerusalem plank road, between the
Norfolk and
Weldon railways, it was met by a Confederate force, and pushed back to a position where it connected with the Fifth Corps.
On the following morning
both Corps (Second and Sixth) advanced together, and were maneuvering to turn the works, when a division of the command of
A. P. Hill, who had been keenly watching the movements of the Nationals, suddenly projected itself between
Wright and
Birney's commands, and in rapid succession struck the flanks of the divisions of
Barlow,
Mott, and
Gibbon, rolling them up and driving them back with heavy loss.
Wright's Corps was considerably shocked by a blow, at the same time, by another of
Hill's divisions.
Both Corps soon recovered and re-formed, and a fierce attack on the brigade of the ever-gallant General miles, of the Second, was repulsed.
Meade came up at about that time, and just at sunset he ordered both Corps to advance and retake what they had lost.
Hill, unsupported, suddenly withdrew, carrying with him Twenty-five hundred prisoners. Nearly all the lost ground was recovered.
on the following morning the Second and Sixth Corps again advanced, and reached the
Weldon road without much opposition; but three regiments in the van had scarcely begun the destruction of the track, when they were suddenly attacked by a part of
Hill's Corps, and were driven back upon the main line with the loss of many of their number made prisoners.
The
Weldon road had now been reached; but the result of the movements thus far was little more than an extension of the
Union line to the left, at a cost of about four thousand men, chiefly made captives.
meanwhile, a cavalry expedition, eight thousand strong, under
Generals Kautz and
Wilson, had been sent out to operate upon the railways leading southward from
Petersburg.
The latter was in chief command.
They destroyed the railway buildings at Reams's Station, ten miles south of
Petersburg, and the track for a long distance, and then pushed on to the Southside railway at Ford's Station, fifteen miles from
Petersburg, and destroyed it to Nottaway Station, over a space of Twenty-two miles. There they fought and defeated a brigade of
Virginia and North Carolina cavalry, under
Fitzhugh Lee.
Kautz then pushed on to Burke's Station, at the junction of the
Southside and
Danville railways, tore up both roads, and, pushing southward along the latter, was joined by
Wilson at Meherrin Station.
the united forces then destroyed the road to the
Staunton River, when the rapid gathering of the armed and mounted men in that region caused them to turn back.
They were compelled
