Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 3.

[43] endanger Fortress Monroe. His first care was to conceal the facts of his own presence and his strength in numbers (then increased), and to weaken Peck's command. It was reported that he had gone to South Carolina, and D. H. Hill was sent to attack Little Washington, and menace New Berne, in North Carolina, for the purpose of drawing some of the troops at Suffolk and at Fortress Monroe in that direction, while the bulk of Longstreet's army was in readiness along the Blackwater, and on the railway between Suffolk and Petersburg, for an immediate advance.

Longstreet thought his plan was working well, when spies informed him that General Foster, the successor of Burnside,¹ had ordered Peck to send three thousand soldiers to oppose Hill. Being in readiness, Longstreet at once crossed the Blackwater on pontoon bridges, and made a forced march on Suffolk

April 1863.

with about twenty-eight thousand men in three columns, under skillful commanders,² capturing the cavalry outposts of the Nationals on the way. Peck was ready for him, and Longstreet found in that officer an antagonist as vigilant and active as himself. He had watched the Confederates with sleepless scrutiny, and had penetrated their designs. He kept his superior informed of the increasing number of foes in his front, and had been re-enforced in March by a division under General Getty, making his whole force about fourteen thousand. Now he was about to comply, reluctantly, with a summons from Foster for three thousand troops to oppose Hill, when a Confederate mail, captured by General Viele, who was in command at Norfolk, informed him of Longstreet's plans,.and the important fact that Hill's was only a co-operating movement.³ The detachment was detained. Admiral Lee was asked, by telegraph, to send gun-boats up the Nansemond, and made a prompt and practical answer; and Longstreet quickly perceived that his attempt at a surprise was a failure. Then he determined to carry the works at Suffolk by assault.

Longstreet's first care was to drive away the half-dozen armed tug and ferry boats (commanded by Captains Lee and Rowe) which lay in the way of his crossing the Nansemond, there narrow and sinuous. For this purpose batteries were erected under cover of darkness, and opened upon them in broad daylight, which seriously wounded the little warriors afloat, but did not drive them far from the scene of conflict. And right gallantly did that little detachment of the National navy perform its part, and most usefully assist the land troops in a siege which continued twenty-four days. Longstreet recalled Hill from North Carolina, and the besiegers numbered about forty thousand. Gallant achievements were almost daily performed by both parties,⁴ and the Confederates, with overwhelming numbers, tried in vain