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We had for one of our guides when the city was reached, his gardener, who had deserted to us, and if we could have laid our hands upon Davis in the early morning he would certainly have taken a ride to Fortress Monroe to greet an old friend of his who would have taken special care to keep him there, certainly as long as the telegraph wires would not work between there and Washington so that the President's pardon could not reach him. If the city could have been reached, and the Union prisoners there added to our force, Wistar was instructed to hold on if possible, and I was ready to march with all my available command into Richmond, and once there I doubt if anybody would have desired to have the rebel capital there any longer.
In view of the possibility of my march upon Richmond with my whole force, in case it was found as unprepared for attack as it had been reported, I desired that Lee might be detained from sending any part of his army to Richmond, and asked that the Army of the Potomac lying in front of Lee might make a movement upon him as a feint.
General Meade being sick, General Sedgwick, who was in command, was ordered to co-operate with me. But after considerable correspondence he telegraphed that he could not get ready in time.
On the 4th of March I received notice that General Kilpatrick had started, with a cavalry force, on a raid to Richmond from the Army of the Potomac, and was directed to make dispositions to aid him, or cover with infantry his march to Fortress Monroe.
Accordingly I marched a column to New Kent Court-House, and there met General Kilpatrick on his return.
On the 9th of March the Confederates made a demonstration upon our lines at Suffolk.
Not knowing the force of the enemy, and Kilpatrick's men being recruiting from their march at Yorktown, I asked his aid to meet this advance, which was promptly and kindly given, and the movement of the enemy handsomely met and repulsed.
When I had reported for duty to Mr. Stanton in obedience to his order to take command, he informed me of the probable importance of my department in the campaign of the coming spring and summer, in which would be a movement upon Richmond.
Whereupon in all my spare moments I examined particularly the topography of Virginia and North Carolina and that, too, in connection with the campaigns
A. M. Thayer and Co. 1892.
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