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[677] military courtesy, and I was fool enough to yield to him. I did not then think him a coward, although Grant declined to employ him because he had shown “timidity.” 1 I believed that the glory he expected from the success of the expedition would incite him to do all he could. Besides, a large portion of his command would be colored troops under General Hinks, on whom I relied to go forward, if necessary. I gave orders that the white troops should start from my pontoon bridge at daylight, and as it was a march of but some six or seven miles to the outer line of defences of Petersburg, I supposed the attack would be made quite early in the morning. It was also arranged that Kautz's cavalry, starting at the same time, should make a diversion by a feint on Petersburg along the Jerusalem Road, getting there earlier than Gillmore's and Hinks' commands would do, so that the attention of the enemy would be drawn towards Kautz.

The expedition started in time, because I stood behind them and hurried them off. Gillmore had some sixty-five hundred men under his command, besides nearly two thousand of Kautz's cavalry.

The first telegram I received after the expedition started was a complaint and grumble from Gillmore, in which he said: “My command has just crossed the river; some of it has been delayed by losing the road. I have no doubt that the enemy are fully apprised of my movement by the noise of the bridge. It is not muffled at all, and the crossing of the cavalry can be heard for miles.”

But why was not the bridge muffled, General Gillmore? You had the command of the expedition in all its parts, and it was your duty to see it properly conducted; why didn't you muffle the bridge? Was it the duty of the commanding general to lug straw and other materials with which pontoon bridges are usually muffled? Further, I have never supposed that the tramp of horses on a bridge could be heard seven miles. And why were your troops not instructed in the road across their own camps so that there should not have been delay in getting there?

From the hour of getting that despatch, heartsick I doubted the result of the expedition.

Kautz went on to the Jerusalem Road, and at ten o'clock Gillmore had approached within “twenty minutes march” of the intrenchments

1 See Appendix No. 64.

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