Brave defence of the Cockade City.
Fight at Rives' Farm, in Prince Edward County, with the sufferings in the Northern prison of those who fell into the hands of the enemy.
Mr. John F. Glenn delivered the following address before
R. E. Lee Camp, Confederate Veterans, on the 9th of June, 1906, and subsequently before
A. P. Hill Camp,
Petersburg, Va., on the defence of
Petersburg in 1864, and is full of interest.
It is now printed from a revised copy furnished by the author.
In essaying to give an account of some personal recollections of the affair of the 9th of June, 1864, between the small force of militia and second-class reserves, under
Colonel Fletcher H. Arthur, and an overwhelming force of cavalry and artillery under the
Federal General August V. Kautz, at the
Rives Farm, in
Prince George county, and some reminiscences of prison life, it is foreign to my purpose to give anything more than a skeleton outline of conditions existing and leading up to the events of that day, which marked an epoch never to be forgotten in the annals of the city of
Petersburg.
To do more would be a work of supererogation, as the subject has been fully and exhaustively treated by
Colonel Archer, in an address delivered before the
A. P. Hill Camp of Confederate Veterans on the 6th of June, 1889, and published in
Mr. George S. Bernard's book of ‘War Talks of Confederate Veterans.’
To
Mr. Bernard's industrious researches I am also indebted for some extracts I have made use of from the published ‘Records of the
Rebellion.’
[
2]
When, on the 5th of May, 1864, the disturbing news was brought to the city of
Petersburg that a formidable army, with
General Benjamin F. Butler as its commander, had landed at
City Point and
Bermuda Hundred, within a few hours' easy march of the town, the greatest consternation prevailed.
The practically defenceless situation of the town, guarded, as it was, by a few hundred regular soldiers, and about the same number of untried and raw militia, was well calculated to excite the worst apprehensions.
The reputation and character of the
Federal general enhanced the universal feeling of alarm.
