surrender.
artillery.
, having concentrated his cavalry corps at Dinwiddie Courthouse after some skirmishing, on the 31st of March, moved against
had called for some infantry to equalize, as far as possible, his strength with that of
, perceiving the conditions, fell back at light the next morning (April 1st), and arranged their commands in line of battle at
' small command.
with his corps, that had been placed under his command, advanced, and, by 3 P. M., had uncovered Fitz Lee's line.
Having ascertained the extent of the line,
was directed to move around its left flank, between it and Burgess' Mill, and thus to completely sever it from the body of the army, and cut off its retreat or any reinforcements to it; and then he was to press in upon it, whilst the cavalry, dismounted, engaged
's attention in front.
, with his two small brigades of cavalry, that he drove back until he had room to deploy in the line upon the flank and rear of
's division.
He then quickly moved upon it, doubled it up, and drove it from the field in the utmost confusion towards the west, and captured the greater part of the artillery and many prisoners.
then arranged his corps so as to preclude the possibility of these forces reuniting with the body of the army.
It had happened that
, now with overwhelming force, was pressing upon him.
had been routed, and without affording any assistance whatever added those brigades to the routed and disorganized, and left the right wing of
's army with almost no infantry and without any cavalry.
had played so important and conspicuous a part, and his corps had done the work, that evening he received the following orders:
Warren at once reported to
Grant and was assigned to the command of the Department of Mississippi, where there was no army and where fighting had long since ceased.
In his report
Sheridan gives as his reason for relieving
Warren his want of promptness in executing his orders, and
Warren in his report claims that as far as practicable he was prompt in executing them.
The fighting around Petersburg.
After the rout of the right wing of
Lee's army, it appeared possible to destroy or capture the whole of
Lee's army before it could move from position, and with that in view,
Grant ordered that as early as possible on the morning of the 2d, assaults should be made along the whole line—by
Parke, from the
Appomattox
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to the
Jerusalem Plank Road; by
Wright from the
Plank Road as far as his command extended; by
Ord, with the Army of the James, between him and
Humphreys, and by
Humphreys, upon the intrenchments about Burgess' Mill, whilst
Sheridan, with the cavalry and the Fifth Corps, was to sweep around and clear out everything to the
Appomattox River.
Longstreet, not having found out that ‘the Army of the James’ had been withdrawn from his front, though it had been withdrawn on the evening of March 27th, the seventh day before, remained on the
Richmond and Bermuda lines, under the impression that he was confronting that army, so that the protection of the whole line from the
Appomattox to Burgess' Mill, from twelve to fifteen miles in length, when assaulted by the concentrated strength of
Grant's army, devolved upon
Gordon's and
A. P. Hill's Corps, the greater part of which had, therefore, to be entrusted to the artillery, unsupported.
The Confederate lines broken.
Fall of A. P. Hill.
Before it was light on the morning of the 2d of April,
Parke broke through the line near the
Appomattox, but was soon driven back at that point.
Later he broke through the line near the
Plank Road, and after a severe engagement, lasting throughout the day, in which every available man of
Gordon's and
A. P. Hill's command were used to re-establish the line,
Parke, reinforced by the seserves from
City Point and troops from
Wright and
Ord, succeeded in holding on to a small part of the works captured in the morning.
In this engagement the brilliant corps commander,
General A. P. Hill, was killed, who, during the campaign of ‘64, commanded the right wing of
Lee's army and was so successful in defeating all of
Grant's efforts.
Wright was resisted by but few troops in his assaults upon the rest of the line, and soon swept the line until he connected with
Ord, who, likewise meeting with but little resistance, had passed through the lines, faced his army towards
Petersburg, and was advancing towards the inner line of redoubts immediately surrounding the city.
Humphreys, as soon as he could get his corps together (
Miles' division having been ordered by
Sheridan to him), captured all the works around Burgess' Mill, as the
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few troops holding them were in the act of being withdrawn, after
Ord had gone in between them and
Petersburg, and swept around to Sutherland Depot, on the Southside Railroad.
Ord during the evening succeeded in capturing several redoubts to the northwest of the city, when, at last,
Longstreet arrived with his two divisions and held a line protecting the city in that direction until night closed the engagement.
Retreat.
During the night
General Lee evacuated his lines around the city, crossed over to the north side of the river and commenced his march to Amelia Courthouse, where he ordered all the detachments of his army to assemble, and where he had ordered that provisions should be sent by rail from
Richmond.
In the same night all the lines around
Richmond were evacuated, and the troops from them moved also to Amelia Courthouse.
All the columns were assembled at that place in due time, but the rations had been carried on towards
Danville, and the army was without any food.
That necessitated a day's delay in order to feed the men, and
Grant got ahead on the line of the railroad to
Danville, and
Lee had to turn off in the direction of
Lynchburg, which took him back across the
Appomattox at the
High Bridge, near
Farmville.
Just before the column reached the river it was struck in flank and rear at
Sailor's Creek, where the trains were blocked at the ford, and the rear part of the army halted to protect them; and nearly half the army was broken up and the greater part of it captured.
On the 8th,
General Lee, with the remainder of the army, resumed his march towards
Lynchburg and reached Appomattox Courthouse; but during the evening of that day
Sheridan, supported by
Ord, cut across his line of march just beyond the courthouse, and in doing so, cut off from the rest of the army the artillery of
A. P. Hill's corps, under the command of
Brigadier-General R. Lindsay Walker, and the artillery of
R. H. Anderson's corps, under the command of
Colonel H. P. Jones.
Sheridan evidently did not understand the situation, for this
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artillery—about one-half the artillery of
Lee's army, without any infantry or cavalry with it—would have fallen an easy prey to his ambitious cavalry.
After spending nearly the whole night of the 8th in marching around
Sheridan, in the attempt to reunite the army, when it was light, finding that was impossible,
Jones' artillery moved on to
Lynchburg and reported to
General L. L. Lomax, in command there, and
Walker buried his guns near an old church and disbanded his command.
On the 9th
General Lee ordered
Gordon and
Fitz Lee to drive
Sheridan away, that the army might resume its march, which they did very promptly, but found that
Ord was there also and further efforts must be vain.
The surrender of the army was then arranged for and the officers and men paroled.
This ended the career of the Army of Northern Virginia, and the downfall of the
Confederate States quickly followed.
There were paroled 28,231 officers and men. But of that number only about 11,000 bearing arms, the rest, in the main, belonged to the class of ‘Impedimenta.’
Conclusion.
From their organization, ‘The Army of the Potomac,’ and ‘The Army of Northern Virginia,’ had confronted each other, had manoeuvered and fought with skill and valor, if ever, but seldom equaled, and had elevated warfare to an ethical plane never contemplated before.
How rapidly the names that were conspicuous in the history of ‘The Army of the Potomac,’ has disappeared from its rolls in succession.
In November, 1864,
Hancock, the hero of its one acknowledged victory, ‘The
battle of Gettysburg,’ took his leave, and
Warren, in the moment of triumph, was retired from command.
Meade's was almost the only conspicuous name left on the rolls when the crowning victory came.
None of those who had been its most conspicuous figures were to be participants in the final triumph.
None of them possessed the special qualifications that the administration required, or else they possessed qualities not conformable to its purposes.
Of them,
Meade, almost alone, appeared in the
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closing scene of the drama.
And, with the disappearance of the distinguished names from its rolls, the distinguishing characteristics of the army had gone also.
It had ceased to be ‘The Army of the Potomac;’ it was a component part of ‘
Grant's army,’ and scarcely lived in name.
In ‘The Army of Northern Virginia’ all answered to its last roll call that had not already made final answer at the summons of the
Master.
Each of these two great armies had found in the other, a foreman worthy of its steel, and each, in a manner, lies buried in a common grave, overwhelmed by a tidal wave.
With the surrender of ‘The Army of Northern Virginia’ ended the life of ‘The
Confederate States,’ whose birth-throes shook a continent.
“The
Confederate States” died a—borning, and upon its
‘in Memoriam,’
With spirit pointing to heaven this inscription:
No nation rose so white and fair,
None fell so pure of crime,
Will survive the effacements of time; and two figures will always stand out upon it in bold relief—
Jefferson Davis and
Robert E. Lee.
Around them, the others will be grouped.
Near to them, perhaps, nearest, will be:
