William Swinton, Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac

---

[470]

V. From Spottsylvania to the Chickahominy.

The experience of the twelve days before Spottsylvania brought the conviction to every man in the army that the position, as defended, was, in truth, impregnable. Of this even General Grant, anxious as he was to give Lee a crushing blow, was at length convinced. Then, as in the Wilderness, he began a movement to turn the position by a flank march. This is an operation usually accounted very hazardous in the presence of a vigilant enemy. Nevertheless, it was conducted with great precision and skill and complete success. First of all, Hancock's corps, taken from the right of the army, moved on the night of the 20th May, behind the cover of the remaining corps, eastward to Massaponax Church. Thence, heading southward, and preceded by Torbett's cavalry division, Hancock, on the following day, pushed his advance to Milford Station, on the Fredericksburg and Richmond Railroad, seventeen miles south of his point of starting. The cavalry in advance, with much address, dislodged a hostile force holding the bridge across the Mattapony near this point,¹ and Hancock threw his left over that stream at Bowling Green. In this position it bivouacked on the night of the 21st, and here also the Second Corps remained till the morning of the 23d, while other movements about to be described were under way.

This turning movement, jealously guarded as it was, did not pass unobserved by the wary enemy. Now, it is well