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failure to capture
Petersburg on the 15th of June, although, with hardly an exception, every speaker and writer upon the subject on either side has maintained that nothing but his inaction prevented it from being taken?
Had he obeyed his orders
Petersburg would have been ours that night, our forces would have been south of the
Appomattox, thereby putting that between us and
Lee, the
fall of Richmond would have immediately ensued, and no one now doubts that at least fifty thousand wounded men and dead would have been spared from suffering and death.
Very sincerely yours,
John I. Davenport, Late
Lieut. (Brevet-
Captain) and A. D. C., Ass't.
Provost-Marshal Army of the James.
[no. 68. see page 691.]
Push after the enemy and endeavor to ascertain what has become of
Grant's army.
Inform
General Hill.
[no. 69. see page 691.]
Have no information about
Grant's crossing
James River, but upon your report have ordered troops up to Chaffin's Bluff.
[no. 70. see page 691.]
General:--I am so much disturbed about our condition, but especially about our relations to
Petersburg, that you must excuse me for a suggestion.
It seems to me that there is but one way to save the country and bring the authorities to their senses, and that is to say: “I cannot guard
Bermuda Hundred and
Petersburg both, with my present forces.
I have decided that
Petersburg is the important point and will withdraw my whole command to that place to-night.”
It is arrant nonsense for
Lee to say that
Grant can't make a night march without his knowing it. Has not
Grant slipped around him four times already?
Did not
Burnside retire from
Fredericksburg, and
Hooker from the
Wilderness without his knowing it?
Grant can get ten thousand or twenty thousand men to
Westover and
Lee know nothing of it. What, then, is to become of
Petersburg?
Its loss surely involves that of
Richmond,--perhaps of the
Confederacy.
An earnest appeal is called for now, else a terrible disaster may, and I think will, befall us.
Very respectfully,
