Fitzhugh Lee, General Lee

[341] could be made, for Beauregard had locked him up and put the key in his pocket, or, as General Barnard, Grant's chief engineer, expressed it-and General Grant adopted the phrase in his report-he was in a bottle which Beauregard had corked, and with a small force could hold the cork in place. Beauregard had been brought from the Southern Department, and his command consisted of detachments from South Carolina, Georgia, and other points. His plans to defeat Butler were most skillfully arranged, and would have been crowned with great success but for the unpardonable and admitted nonaction of one of his division generals, to whom had been confided the duty of cutting off General Butler's retreat.

Sigel, the Valley co-operator, with sixty-five hundred men, was defeated by Breckinridge with five thousand troops on May 15th at New Market, the day before Beauregard beat Butler, in which he was greatly assisted by a battalion of cadets from the Virginia Military Institute at Lexington, Va. The boys were transformed by the crash of arms, roar of cannon, and shouts of combatants, into young heroes, and displayed marked heroism. The cadets of the Virginia Military Institute are responsible for the fact that many soldiers fought for the last time “mit Sigel.” Breckinridge was then called to Lee, and General David Hunter replaced Sigel in command in the Valley, with whom Crook and Averell later united.

When General Lee faced Grant at Cold Harbor, Butler was still “bottled up” ; but twelve thousand five hundred of his force under General “Baldy” Smith, as he was called, had been taken out from the bottom of the bottle, placed on transports, carried down the James and up the York, landed, and marched to Grant. Lee was also re-enforced by a division of North Carolinians. On June 1st, at 5 P. M., Smith's command and the Sixth Corps attacked, the other corps being held by Grant in readiness to advance on receipt of orders. The Confederate thick skirmish or preliminary line was carried, but the main position was immovable, of which, after the loss of two thousand men, Smith and Wright became convinced. “The 2d of June,” says Grant, “was spent ”