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was sorrow in turning away and leaving to their fate the noble women, children, and old men of the two cities, whose hearths and homes he had been so long defending.
The question of withdrawal was discussed with Mr. Davis, who consented to it, the line of retreat was decided, and Danville, in Virginia, selected as the point to retire upon.
It was determined to collect supplies at that point, so that Lee, rapidly moving from his lines, could form a junction with General Joseph E. Johnston, who on February 23d had been instructed to assume the command of the Army of the Tennessee, and all troops in the Department of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.
Lee and Johnston were then to assail Sherman before Grant could get to his relief, as the question of supplying his enormous army, moving from its base to the interior, would retard him after the first few days' march.
Sherman, after his junction with Schofield at Goldsborough, had nearly ninety thousand men of the three arms.
Johnston, having only eighteen thousand seven hundred and sixty-one, telegraphed Lee that with his small force he could only annoy Sherman, not stop him, adding: “You have only to decide where to meet Sherman; I will be near him.”
It is possible Lee, with his army out of the trenches, gaining strength from other quarters as he marched to Danville, and with absentees returning, as in that event many would, could have carried to Johnston fifty or sixty thousand fighting menmaking their combined force over seventy thousand effectives, as against Sherman's ninety thousand.
The South would have gladly staked its fortunes upon a battle, when Lee and Johnston rode boot to boot and directed the tactical details.
Sherman by water visited Grant on March 27th, told him he would be ready to move from Goldsborough by April 10th, would threaten Raleigh and march for Weldon, sixty miles south of Petersburg, and to General Grant in the direction deemed best.
Grant, apprehensive that Lee would certainly abandon his intrenchments as soon as he heard Sherman had crossed the Roanoke, determined to take the initiative.
He could easily do it, for he had an army
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