The passing of the armies : an account of the final campaign of the Army of the Potomac, based upon personal reminiscences of the Fifth army corps

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The Passing of
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Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain
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The Passing of the
Armies

An Account of the Final Campaign of the

Army of the Potomac, Based upon

Personal Reminiscences of

the Fifth Army Corps

By
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain

Brevet Major-General U. S. Volunteers

With Portraits and Maps

G. P. Putnam's Sons

New York and London

Zhc ■Binicf^erDocfter presa

1915

9^1

Copyright, 1915

BY

GRACE DUPEE ALLEN

AND

HAROLD W. CHAMBERLAII

"Cbc Iftnklicrbocficr Ipvcss, Iftew J3orft

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

JOSHUA LAWRENCE CHAMBERLAIN,
who won distinction both as a soldier and as
a citizen, for the State of Maine, and for the
whole country, was born in Brewer, Maine, Sep-
tember 8, 1828. His parental lineage is traced
back to England, but on the mother's side he is
descended from Jean Dupuis, who came, in 1685,
with other Huguenots, from La Rochelle to Boston.
Young Chamberlain was brought up in the country
district of Brewer. As Greek was not included in
the curriculum of the school where he prepared
for college, with the aid of a tutor he attacked
that language at home, and in six months, at the
age of nineteen, had mastered the amount required
for entrance to Bowdoin. In his college course,
he took honors in every department. After
his graduation in 1852, he entered the Theologi-
cal Seminary at Bangor, and for several years
gave attention to the reading of theology, and
of church history in Latin and German. His
work included the study of the Hebrew, Syriac,
and Arabic languages. He earned an ample in-
come for his sojourn in the seminary by teaching
classes of young ladies the German language and
literature, while he also served as Supervisor of

iv Biographical Note

Schools in his native town of Brewer. He continued
his interest in Sunday-school work, helping to
maintain a flotirishing school some three miles
from Bangor.

In 1856, as a result of his "Master's Oration"
on "Law and Liberty," he was appointed instructor
in Bowdoin in Natural and Revealed Religion, a
post that had been vacated by Professor Stowe.
A year later, he was elected a Professor of Rhetoric
and Oratory, which place he held for four years.
In 1 86 1, he was elected Professor of Modern
Languages, and in July, 1862, was granted leave of
absence for two years for the purpose of pursuing
studies in Europe. The need at this time of the
Republic for all its able-bodied citizens caused
him, however, to give up the Eiiropean trip and to
offer his services for action in the field. In August,

1862, he went to the front as Lieutenant-Colonel
of the Twentieth Regiment of Maine Volunteers.
In May, he received commission as Colonel, the
duty of which post he had been fulfilling for some
months. His regiment was included with the Fifth
Corps, and at Gettysburg on the second of July,

1863, it held the extreme left of the Union line.
Colonel Chamberlain's conduct in the memorable
defense of Little Round Top (a position which
with admirable judgment had been seized by
General Warren) was recognized by the Govern-
ment in the bestowal of the Congressional Medal
of Honor for "conspicuous personal gallantry and
distinguished service."

After Gettysburg, Colonel Chamberlain was

Biographical Note v

placed in command of the "Light Brigade," which
he handled with marked skill in the action at Rap-
pahannock Station. The wounds received in that
battle made necessary retirement for a time to the
Georgetown Hospital, but during his convalesence
he gave valuable service as member of a Court-
Martial. He returned to the front in May, 1864,
when General Warren, at that time in command of
the Fifth Corps then stationed at Spottsylvania,
made Colonel Chamberlain the commander of a
"forlorn hope" of nine regiments which had been
selected to make a night assault on the enemy's
works. The position was gained, but Chamberlain
found his line outflanked, and was compelled to
withdraw under heavy fire. Shortly after the
action at Cold Harbor, while still holding the rank
of Colonel, he was placed in charge of six regiments,
consolidated as a veteran brigade. With this
brigade, he made a charge on the enemy's main
works at Petersburg, as a result of which action he
was promoted on the field by General Grant to the
rank of Brigadier-General "for gallant conduct in
leading his brigade against the superior force of
the enemy and for meritorious service" throughout
the campaign. Such promotion on the field was
most exceptional, and there is possibly no other
instance during the war. In this charge General
Chamberlain was seriously wounded, and his
death was in fact announced. His life was saved
through the activity of his brother Thomas, late
Colonel of the Twentieth Maine, and the skill and
tireless fidelity of the regimental surgeon. Dr. Shaw.

vi Biographical Note

During the last campaign of the war, General
Chamberlain, with two brigades, led the advance
of the infantry with Sheridan, and in the fight on
the Quaker Road he was twice wounded and his
horse was shot under him. For his "conspicuous
gallantry" in this action, he was promoted to the
brevet rank of Major-General. In the fight at
White Oak Road, March 31st, although seriously
disabled by wounds. General Chamberlain dis-
tinguished himself by recovering a lost field ; while
in the battle of Five Forks, of April ist, his prompti-
tude and skillful handling of troops received again
official commendation. In the final action near
Appomattox Court House on the ninth of April,
Chamberlain was called by General Sheridan to
replace the leading division of cavalry, and the
first flag of truce from Longstreet came to Cham-
berlain's headquarters. His Corps Commander
says in an official report: "In the final action.
General Chamberlain had the advance, and at the
time the announcement of the surrender was made
he was driving the enemy rapidly before him."

At the surrender of Lee's army. General Cham-
berlain was designated to command the parade,
and it was characteristic of his refined nature that
he received the surrendering army with a salute of
honor. At the final grand review in Washington,
Chamberlain's division was placed at the head of
the column of the Army of the Potomac. The
General was mustered out of military service on
the sixteenth of January, 1866, having decHned
the offer of a Colonelcy in the regular army. In

Biographical Note vii

his service of three-and-a-half years, he had
participated in twenty hard-fought battles and a
long series of minor engagements, and he had been
struck six times by bullet and shell.

Dxiring his campaign experience, he had shown
marked ability as a commander, but he had other
qualities as important, namely, foresight, prudence,
and a strong sense of responsibility. On his return
to Maine, he was offered the choice of several
diplomatic offices abroad, but was at once elected
Governor of Maine by the largest majority ever
given in the State. As Governor, while rendering
exceptional service to the State, he suffered criti-
cism on various grounds, and among others through
his support of the course of Senator Fessenden, of
Maine, in the impeachment of President Johnson.

In 1876, General Chamberlain was elected
President of Bowdoin College. In 1878, he was
appointed by the President of the United States to
represent the educational interests of the country
as a commissioner at the World's Exposition in
Paris, and for this service he received a medal of
honor from the Government of France.

In 1883, he resigned the presidency of Bowdoin
College, but continued for two years longer his
lectures on public law. During this time, he put
to one side urgent invitations to the presidency
of three other colleges of high standing. In 1885,
finding that the long strain of work and wounds
demanded a change of occupation, he went to
Florida as president of a railroad construction
company. In 1900, General Chamberlain was

viii Biographical Note

appointed by President McKinley Surveyor of
Customs at the port of Portland, and through the
courtesy of the Government he was enabled to
make visits to Italy and to Egypt. The General
was in great request as a speaker, and on various
occasions his utterances showed a power that was
thrilling. Among the more noteworthy of these
addresses may be mentioned the following :

"Loyalty," before the Loyal Legion in Phila-
delphia.

"The Sentiment and Sovereignty of the Coun-
try," at the Meade Memorial Service in Phila-
delphia.

"The State, the Nation, and the People," on
the dedication of the Maine monument at Gettys-
burg.

"Maine, Her Place in History," at the Centen-
nial Celebration in Philadelphia in 1876.

"The Ruling Powers in History," at the cele-
bration of the beginnings of English settlement on
the east shores.

Among his Memorial Addresses were:

"The Two Souls: Self and Other Self;" "The
Concentric Personalities. "

"The Higher Law," conditions on which it may
override the actual.

"Personal and Political Responsibility."

"The Old Flag and the New Nation"; "The
Expanding Power of Principles."

"The Destruction of the Maine''; "Salute to the
New Peace Power."

The General received from Pennsylvania Uni-

Biographical Note ix

versity in 1866, the degree of Doctor of Laws, and
from Bowdoin in 1869 the same degree.

His death came on the 24th of February, 19 14.
His life had been well rounded out and his years
were crowded with valuable service to his state and
to his country.

A gallant soldier, a great citizen, and a good man ;
the name of Joshua L. Chamberlain will through
the years to come find place in the list of dis-
tinguished Americans.

G. H. P.

New York, April, 19 15.

Note. — The narrative here presented is sub-
stantially complete, but the author's death pre-
vented it from receiving the advantage of a final
revision. The book has been prepared for the
press under the supervision of his children. It
now comes Into publication just half a century
after the period of the stirring events described.

INTRODUCTORY

HISTORY is written for the most part from
the outside. Truth often suffers distortion
by reason of the point of view of the
narrator, some pre-occupation of his judgment or
fancy not only as to relative merits but even as to
facts in their real relations. An interior view may
not be without some personal coloring. But it
must be of interest, especially in important trans-
actions, to know how things appeared to those
actually engaged in them. Action and passion
on such a scale must bear some thoughts "that
run before and after." It has been deemed a
useful observance "to see ourselves as others see
us," but it may sometimes be conducive to a just
comprehension of the truth to let others see us as
we see ourselves.

The view here presented is of things as they
appeared to us who were concerned with them
as subordinate commanders, — having knowledge,
however, of the general plan, and a share in the
responsibility for its execution. This is a chapter
of experiences, — including in this term not only
what was done, but what was known and said and
thought and felt, — not to say, suffered; and in its
darkest passages showing a steadfast purpose,

xii Introductory

patience, and spirit of obedience deserving of
record even if too often without recompense, until
the momentous consummation.

These memoirs are based on notes made nearly
at the time of the events which they describe.
They give what may be called an interior view of
occurrences on the front of the Fifth Corps, Army
of the Potomac, during the last essay in Grant's
Virginia campaign. This was so distinctive in
character, conditions, and consequences, that I
have ventured to entitle it "The Last Campaign
of the Armies."

I trust this narrative may not seem to arrogate
too much for the merits of the Fifth Corps. No
eminence is claimed for it beyond others in that
campaign. But the circumstance that this Corps
was assigned to an active part with Sheridan dur-
ing the period chiefly in view — the envelopment
and final out-flanking of Lee's army — warrants
the prominence given in this review.

It may be permitted to hope that this simple
recital may throw some light on a passage of the
history of this Corps, the record of which has
been obscured in consequence of the summary
change of commanders early in the campaign.

The Fifth Corps had a certain severity of reputa-
tion quite distinctive in the comradeship of the
army. Early in its history. Porter's Division —
the nucleus of it — had drawn the especial praise of
General McClellan for its soldierly bearing and
proficiency, being unfortunately referred to in
orders as a model for the rest of the army. This

Introductory xiii

had the effect of creating on the part of others a
feeling of jealousy towards that Division or an
opposition to apparent favoritism shown its com-
mander, which was extended to the whole Corps
on its formation in the summer of 1862, when ^ the
Regulars were assigned to it as its Second Division,
and the choice Pennsylvania Reserves became its
Third Division. This feeling certainly was neither
caused nor followed by anything like boastfulness
or self-complacency on the part of the Fifth Corps ;
but, if anything, created a sense of responsibility
and willingness to "endure hardness as good
soldiers" to make good their reputation. And no
doubt the discipline of the Corps was quite severe.
Most of its commanding officers in the superior
grades were West Pointers, and experienced offi-
cers of the old army, and prided themselves on
strict observance of Army Regulations and military
habitudes. The required personal relations be-
tween officers and men were quite novel and but
slowly acquiesced in by volunteers who were first-
class citizens at home, — many of them equal to
their official "superiors." For example: my young
brother, Tom, when a private in my regiment
came sometimes to see me in my tent, but would
not think of sitting down in my presence unless
specially invited to do so. • But he went home from
Appomattox Lieutenant- Colonel of his regiment
and Brevet-Colonel of United States Volunteers —
and this on his own merits, not through any sug-
gestion of mine.

Passages in the history of the Corps had en-

xiv Introductory

deared its members to each other, and brought out
soldierly pride and manly character; but boastful
assertion and just glorification of their Corps were
remarkably less manifest among its members than
with those of every one of the other splendid Corps
of the Army of the Potomac.

It may not be improper to state here that there
was a manifest prejudice against the Fifth Corps
at Government Headquarters, — particularly at
Stanton's, — on account of the supposed attachment
for McClellan and Porter among its members.
This was believed to be the reason why no pro-
motion to the rank of General Officers was made
in this Corps for a long time, unless secured by
political influence. Brigades and even divisions
were in many cases commanded by colonels of
State regiments. This worked a great injustice in
the fact that officers of similar commands in the
different Corps were not of similar relative rank,
and some were therefore unduly subordinated to
those who were not in fact their superiors in ser-
vice. There was also a practical injustice in the
added expense of supporting headquarters above
lineal rank, which, with no extra pay or allowance,
quite cancelled the compliment.

It had not been the habit in the Fifth Corps to
encourage detailed reports on the part of sub-
ordinates, and in the rush and pressure of this
last campaign there was less opportunity or care
than ever for such matters, and the impressiveness
of its momentous close left little disposition to
multiply words upon subordinate parts or partici-

Introductory xv

pants. The fact also of an early and sudden change
in the grand tactics of the campaign confused the
significance and sometimes the identity of import-
ant movements; and the change of commanders
in the crisis of its most important battle induced
consequences which, even in official reports and
testimony afterwards called for, affected the motive
in sharply defining actions where personal concern
had come to be an embarrassing factor.

Very naturally, the immediate reports of those
days are meager in the extreme ; and very much of
what has come out since, partaking of official
character, has been under the disadvantage of
being elicited as ex parte testimony before military
tribunals where the highest military officers of the
Government were parties, and the attitudes of
plaintiff and defendant almost inevitably biased
expression.

In the strange lull after the surrender of Lee and
the sudden release from intense action and re-
sponsibility, but as yet in the field and in the active
habit not readily relinquished, it occurred to me,
impressed with the deep-wrought visions of those
tragic days, to write down, while fresh in mind and
mood, some salient facts of that last campaign,
within my personal knowledge and observation,
to serve for fireside memories in after years, and
for the satisfaction of some others who had given
of their best for the great issues in which these
scenes were involved.

It has been suggested to me of late that these
reminiscences might be of interest to a wider circle

xvi Introductory

whose hearts respond to the story of things done
and suffered for truth and honor's sake, which
they would have gladly shared in their own persons.
In preparing for this more exacting demand I have
availed myself of additional material which, in the
later consolidations in the Fifth Corps, successive
assignments brought into my hands: particularly
the office-copy of the Corps field-orders for the last
campaign, and also the invaluable original records
of the Medical Inspector of the Corps for that
period. Later, came the (now suppressed) volumes
of the records of the Warren Court of Inquiry, and
the extensive Records of the War of the Rebellion.
In revising this personal memoir, I have diligently
consulted these, but have found no occasion to
correct or modify the account given from my own
point of view, however limited. Qualifying or
corroborative testimony from these sources, when
introduced, has been clearly indicated.

I confess some embarrassments of a personal
nature in giving forth certain passages of this
record. These facts, however simply stated, cannot
but have some bearing on points which have been
drawn into controversy on the part of persons
who were dear to me as commanders and com-
panions in arms, and who have grown still dearer
in the intimacies of friendship since the war.
Alas ! that no one of them can answer my greeting
across the bar. I feel therefore under increased
responsibility in recounting these things, but
assure myself that I know of no demand of per-
sonality or partisanship which should make me

Introductory xvii

doubtful of my ability to tell the truth as I saw
and knew it, or distrust my judgment in forming
an opinion.

J. L. C.

CONTENTS

Biographical Note .
Introductory ....

CHAPTER

I. The Situation

II. The Overture

III. The White Oak Road .

IV. Five Forks

V. The Week of Flying Fights

VI. Appomattox

VII. The Return of the Army

VIII. The Encampment

IX. The Last Review .

X. Sherman's Army

XI. The Disbandment .

PAGE

iii
xi

I

36
60

113

182
230

273
318
326

364

375

XIX

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain , Frontispiece

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain ... 2

General Map Showing " Operations of the

Army of the Potomac " . . . .38

Map Showing the White Oak Road and Five
Forks ........ 98

Map of Five Forks, General Engagement of
Cavalry and Infantry . . . .124

The Passing of the Armies

CHAPTER I

THE SITUATION

IT was a dreamy camp along the lines investing
Petersburg in the winter following the "all-
stimmer ' ' campaign of 1 864, — that never-to-be-
forgotten, most dismal of years. Although shad-
owed at the very beginning by melancholy tokens
of futile endeavor and grievous losses, — consolida-
tions of commands which obliterated the place and
name of proud and beloved corps and divisions, —
flags made sacred by heroic service and sacrifice
of noble manhood now folded away with tender
reverence, or perhaps by special favor permitted
to be borne beside those of new assignments,
bearing the commanding presence of great memo-
ries, pledge and talisman of unswerving loyalty,
though striking sorrow to every heart that knew
their history, — yet this seemed not to make for
weakness but rather for settled strength. We
started out full of faith and hope under the new
dispensation, resolved at all events to be worthy
of our past and place.

2 The Passing of the Armies

Now all was over. The summer had passed, and
the harvest was but of death. New and closer
consolidations, more dreary obliterations, brought
the survivors nearer together.

For this dismal year had witnessed that ever
repeated, prolific miracle, — the invisible, ethereal
soul of man resisting and overcoming the material
forces of nature; scorning the inductions of logic,
reason, and experience, persisting in its purpose
and identity; this elusive apparition between two
worlds unknown, deemed by some to be but the
chance product of intersecting vortices of atoms
and denied to be even a force, yet outfacing the
solid facts of matter and time, defying disaster and
dissolution, and, by a most real metempsychosis,
transmitting its imperishable purpose to other
hearts with the cumulative courage of immortal
energies.

Give but the regard of a glance to the baldest
outline of what was offered and suffered, given and
taken, lost and held, in that year of tragedy. That
long-drawn, tete baissee (bull-headed), zig-zag race
from the Rapidan to the Appomattox; that des-
perate, inch-worm advance along a front of fire,
with writhing recoil at every touch ; that reiterated
dissolving view of death and resurrection: the
Wilderness, Spottsylvania, the North Anna, Cold
Harbor, Petersburg; unspoken, unspeakable his-
tory. Call back that roseate May morning, all
the springs of life athrill, that youthful army
pressing the bridges of the Rapidan, flower of
Northern homes, thousands upon thousands; tested

nmhacfrni::

''r.oT

,)arition between two
by some to be but the

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain

The Situation 3

in valor, disciplined by experience, hearts swelling
with manly courage, confident trust, and supreme
devotion, — to be plunged straightway into hell-
like horrors; the murderous maze where desperate
instinct replaced impossible tactics; men mowing
each other down almost at hand-reach, invisible
each to each till the flaming muzzles cut lurid
windows through the matted brush and bramble
walls, and underneath the darkened woods low-
lying cannon and bursting shells set the earth itself
on fire, and wrapped in winding sheets of flame
unnimibered, thick-strewn bodies of dead and
dying, never to be found or known on earth again.

Then the rushing, forced flank-movements,
known and overmatched by the ever alert enemy;
followed by reckless front attacks, where highest
valor was deepest loss ; buff etings on bloody angles ;
butcherings in slaughter pens, — all the way down
to the fateful Chickahominy once more — a cam-
paign under fire for twenty-seven days and nights
together; morning reports at last not called for,
and when we asked explanation our superiors an-
swered,— confidentially, lest it seem disloyal : ' ' Be-
cause the country would not stand it, if they knew."

What wonder that men who have passed through
such things together, — no matter on which side
arrayed, — should be wrought upon by that strange
power of a common suffering which so divinely
passes into the power of a common love.

A similar fate befell the new hope kindled by
Grant's sudden change to a new base of opera-
tions,— a movement bold if not hazardous, being

The Passing: of the Armies

'i5

practically a change of front under fire for the
whole army on a grand scale. Skillfully withdraw-
ing from the enemy's front by secret orders and
forced marches, swiftly crossing the James River
on transports and pontoons, hurrying forward to
strike a surprise on weakly-defended Petersburg,
and thus cut Lee's main communications and
turn his entire position — seemed good generalship.
But the bold plan and generous following stultified
by confusion of understandings and supine delays
of subordinates, brought all to nought once more
with terrible recoil and reckoning. Then the long
slow fever of profitless minor action and wasteful
inaction, with the strange anomaly of a mutual
siege ; crouching in trenches, skulking under bomb-
proofs and covered ways, lining parapets where to
show a head was to lure a bullet, picketing a
crowded hostile front where the only tenure of
life was the tacit understanding of a common
humanity, perpetual harassing by spasmodic raid
or futile dash, slow creepings fiankward yet never
nearer the main objective; — such was the weari-
some, wearing experience, month after month, the
new year bringing no sign nor hope that anything
better could be done on that line than had been so
dearly and vainly tried before.

The resultant mood of such a front was not
relieved by what reached us from the rear. The
long-suffering, and helpless grief of homes; the
sore-tried faith and patience of the whole North
almost faltering; recruiting disenchanted, supple-
mented by enormous bounties and finally by

The Situation 5

draft and conscription; newspapers jeering at the
impotence of the army; self-seeking poHticians at
the Capitol plotting against the President; hosts
of spoilsmen at all points seizing advantage of the
country's distress, enriching themselves out of the
generous, hard-earned offerings to meet her needs
and repair her losses; cabal and favoritism in
places of power, perpetrating a thousand injustices
upon officers and soldiers in the field; — through
all this, seen and known and felt, from first to last,
these men of the Army of the Potomac, — godlike,
if something short of sainthood, — this army, on
which the heaviest brunt had fallen and was to fall,
held up its heart where it could not hold up its
head; with loyalty unswerving, obedience un-
questioning, courage that asks not cheer, and
devotion out-vying all that life holds dearest or
death most terrible.

This army — but what army? Is this identity a
thing of substance, or spirit, or of name only?
Is this the army which bright as its colors thronged
the bridges of the Rapidan on that May morning
less than a year before, and vanished into the
murk of the Wilderness? Or is it scarcely the
half of them; stern-faced by realities, saddened and
perchance also strengthened by visions of the lost,
the places of these filled by fresh youth's vicarious
offering, united as one by the comradeship of arms
and strong with the contagion of soul?

But perhaps this vein of emotion is tiresome.
Let us seek relief in figures, — which some people
regard as the only reliable facts.

6 The Passing of the Armies

The number of men of all arms present for duty
equipped in the Army of the Potomac at the
opening of Grant's campaign, as shown by the
consolidated morning reports of May 4, 1864, was
97, 162. In the Annual Report of Secretary Stanton,
November 22, 1865, this total is stated as 120,384.
He evidently takes the number as borne upon
the rolls in his office, which by no means always
agrees with the field lists of those present for duty
equipped, the absent on leave or detail, or other-
wise, being usually at a high percentage of the
total. The careful compilation of Adjutant-General
Drum made from official field returns at this time
gives the number present for duty equipped at
97,273 — in remarkable agreement with the figures
taken in the field.' The number of men available
for battle in the Fifth Corps at the start was
25,695. The character of the fighting In this
campaign may be shown, however dimly, by citing
here the report of our Corps field hospital for one
day only, that of the engagement at Laurel Hill,
May 8, 1864: "Admitted to hospital, 3001; of
whom 106 were from other corps; 27 Confederates;
107 sick. Sent to the rear, 2388 ; fell Into the hands
of the enemy, 391; died in hospital, 121; left 206,
of whom 126 were able to walk In the morning."

Or take the totals treated In the field hospital
alone for the first nine days of the campaign.
Number admitted, 5257; sent to the rear, 4190;
died in hospital, 1 79 ; fell Into hands of the enemy,

• Compare the admirable showing of that clear-headed officer, Gen-
eral A. A. Humphreys, Virginia Campaign, Appendix, p. 409.

The Situation 7

787. Adding to this the number killed outright,
not less than 1200, and the "missing," a list we
do not like to analyze, not less than 1555, makes a
total loss in the Corps of more than 7000 men. And
the casualties of the six weeks from the Rapidan
to the James bring the total to 16,245. This is
3398 more than half the present for duty at the
start.

The records of the Medical Inspector of the
Fifth Corps show the number admitted to the
field hospitals alone from May 5th to June 19th
to have been 11,105 of the Corps, besides many
from other corps and not a few Confederates.
Reckoning the killed outright as 2200, and the
missing as 4000, — which is quite within the fact, —
makes a total of casualties for this period 17,305.

Taking another source of information, we find in
the Adjutant-General's Report of losses in the
Corps as given in the official returns of regiments
for the same period, the killed as 1670; the wounded
10,150; the missing, 4416, — a total of 16,235.
Taking the additional wounded given in the field
hospital records, 955, — who would not appear on
the regimental morning reports, — we reach the
total of 17,190. The difference in these figures is
remarkably slight considering that they come from
sources so distinct.

And the restless, fruitless fighting before Peters-
burg during the remainder of that year brought the
total loss in the Corps up to 18,000, — this being
almost a thousand more than two thirds of the
bright faces that crossed the Rapidan in the star-

8 The Passing of the Armies

light of that May morning, now gone down to
earth, or beneath it, — and yet no end!

Colonel W. H. Powell in his History of the Fifth
Corps, published since the above was written,
gives this total loss as 17,861. It does not appear
whether he takes into account the losses of the
Corps in the assault of June i8th on the salient
covering the Norfolk Railroad and the Jerusalem
Plank Road. Owing to the casualties among
commanders, the action of that day has never been
adequately reported. Colonel Powell had no data
on which to base a just account of the overture of
Forts Sedgwick and Mahone, — surnamed by the
performers Fort Hell and Fort Damnation.

Glance now at the record of the whole army.
Those treated in the field hospitals up to the end
of October were officially reported as numbering
57,498, and to the end of December, 68,840.^ Some
of these, no doubt were cases of sickness, a no less
real casualty; but taking the ratio of one fifth the
wounded as indicating the number of the killed
outright, we reach a total of 59,000 men killed
and wounded in this campaign up to October 3 1 ,
1864. This is to take no account of the "missing, "
— a list governed by no law of ratios, but de-
termined by the peculiar circumstances of each
battle; always a list sad to contemplate, made
up by no means of skulkers and deserters, but
mostly of those who had been placed by the in-
competence of commanders or thrown by the

' Report of Surgeon McParlin, Medical Director of the Army of the
Potomac.

The Situation 9

vicissitudes of battle into positions where they
were helpless, and fell into the hands of the enemy
as prisoners, or some too brave spirits that had cut
their way through the enemy's lines, or others still
who had been left wounded and had crawled away
to die. But adding here to the 59,000 killed and
wounded given above the 6000 more lost in the
various operations around Petersburg up to March
28, 1865, and counting the missing at the moderate
number of 10,000 for this period, we have the
aggregate of 75,000 men cut down in the Army of
the Potomac to mark the character of the service
and the cost of the campaign thus far.

If any minds demanding exactitude are troubled
at the slight discrepancies in these reports, they
may find relief in a passage in the Report of Surgeon
Dalton, Chief Medical Officer of Field Hospitals
for this campaign. He says of his experience with
the treatment of disabled men in the field :

It is impossible to convey an accurate idea of the num-
ber of sick and wounded who have received attention in
this hospital, — that following the army. Hundreds passed
through under circumstances which rendered it impossible
to register their names or even accurately estimate their
numbers. So unremitting were the calls for professional
duty during the first fortnight that it was impossible to
prepare morning reports, and it was not until the loth of
May that even a numerical report was attempted. From
that date the daily reports show that from the i6th of May
to the 31st of October, 1864, there have been received into
this hospital and treated for at least forty-eight hours,
68,540 sick and wounded officers and men.^

' Rebellion Records, Serial 60, p. 271, and Serial 67, p. 269.

10 The Passine of the Armies

t>

I have often thought it would be profitable
reading for some if a competent observer would
recount the scenes at the rear of a fighting army-
removing from the field after a great battle. A
glimpse of this was given at Fredericksburg in '62.

But to throw light on our present topic by one
more comparison, let us turn to the records of the
Confederates for this campaign. According to
the careful investigations of General Humphreys,
the number of effective men in Lee's army, including
cavalry, at the opening of Grant's campaign, was
not less than 62,000; and at the opening of the
spring campaign of '65, not less than 57,000. The
accxiracy of this is undoubted.

The striking fact is thus established that we had
more men killed and wounded in the first six
months of Grant's campaign, than Lee had at any
one period of it in his whole army. The hammering
business had been hard on the hammer.

If these conclusions seem to rest too much on
estimates (although in every case inductions from
unquestioned fact) , let me offer the solid testimony
of General Grant in his official report of November
I, 1864. He gives the casualties in the Army of the
Potomac from May 5th to October 30th as: killed
10,572; wounded, 53,975; missing, 23,858;— an
aggregate of 88,405, a result far more striking than
those adduced, and more than confirming the
statement of our losses as by far exceeding the
whole number of men in Lee's army at any time
in this last campaign.^

' Rebellion Records, Serial 67, p. 193.

The Situation ii

I offer no apology for this long stirvey of figures.
There is abundant reason for it for the sake of
fact, as well as occasion in existing sentiment.
Among other interesting reflections, these facts
and figures afford useful suggestions to those easily
persuaded persons of the South or elsewhere, who
please themselves with asserting that our Western
armies "did all the fighting." Lorgnettes will get
out of order — especially to the cross-eyed.

The aspect in which the men of our army have
been presented has been mainly that of their
elementary manhood, the antique virtues that
made up valor: courage, fortitude, self-command.
It is not possible to separate these from other per-
sonal activities of perhaps higher range than the
physical; because, in truth, these enter largely
into the exercise and administration of manhood.
It seems now to be an accepted maxim of war that
the "moral" forces — meaning by that term what
we call the spiritual, pertaining specially to the
mind or soul — far outweigh the material. Few
would now claim that "victory is always with the
heaviest battalions." All great contests are in-
spired by sentiments, such as justice, pity, faith,
loyalty, love, or perhaps some stirring ideal of the
rightful and possible good. Even the commoner
instincts partake of this nature: self-respect,
sanctity of the person, duty and affection towards
others, obedience to law, the impulse to the redress
of injury, vengeance for outrage. Something of
this entered into our motive at first. But deeper
tests brought deeper thought. In the strange

12 . The Passing of the Armies

succession of reverses greater reaches were dis-
closed; sentiments took on their highest sanction.
Our place in hiiman brotherhood, our responsibility
not only in duty for Country, but as part in its
very being, came impressively into view. Our
volunteer soldiers felt that they were part of the
very people whose honor and life they were to
maintain; they recognized that they were entitled
to participate so far as they Vv^ere able, in the
thought and conscience and will of that supreme
"people" whose agents and instruments they were
in the field of arms.

This recognition was emphasized by the fact
that the men in the field were authorized to vote
in the general election of President of the United
States, and so to participate directly in the ad-
ministration of the government and the deter-
mination of public policy. The result of this vote
showed how much stronger was their allegiance to
principle than even their attachment to McClellan,
whose personal popularity in the army was some-
thing marvelous. The men voted overwhelmingly
for Lincoln. They were unwilling that their long
fight should be set down as a failure, even though
thus far it seemed so. The fact that this war was
in its reach of meaning and consequent effect so
much more than what are commonly called "civil
wars," — this being a war to test and finally deter-
mine the character of the interior constitution and
real organic life of this great people, — brought into
the field an amount of thoughtfulness and moral
reflection not usual in armies. The Roman army

The Situation 13

could make emperors of generals, but thoughtful
minds and generous hearts were wanting to save
Rome from the on-coming, invisible doom.

But volunteers like ours were held by a con-
sciousness not only rooted in instinctive love and
habitual reverence but also involving spiritual and
moral considerations of the highest order. The
motive under which they first sprung to the front
was an impulse of sentiment, — the honor of the
old flag and love of Country. All that the former
stood for, and all that the latter held undetermined,
they did not stop to question. They would settle
the fact that they had a country and then consider
the reasons and rights of it. There was, indeed, an
instinctive apprehension of what was involved in
this; but only slowly as the struggle thickened,
and they found their antagonists claiming to rest
their cause on principles similar to their own, they
were led to think more deeply, to analyze their
concrete ideals, to question, to debate, to test
loyalty by thoughts of right and reason. We had
opportunity to observe the relative merits of
Regulars and Volunteers. Two rather divergent
opinions had been common as to the professional
soldiers of the rank and file. One was that they
were of inferior grade as men; the other that they
were vastly superior as soldiers to any volunteers.
It must be allowed that the trained soldier has
the merit of habitual submission to discipline, obed-
ience to orders, a certain professional pride, and
at least a temporary loyalty to the cause in which
he is engaged. The superior efficiency of the regu-

14 The Passing of the Armies

lar over the volunteer is generally asserted. But
this is founded more on conditions than on charac-
ter. It derives its acceptance from the fact that
volunteers are called out in an exigency, and take
the field in haste, without experience or prepara-
tion, or even knowledge of the conditions pertain-
ing to the art of war. They answer some call of
the heart, or constraining moral obligation. But
these volunteers may in due time become skilled
in all these requisites: discipline, obedience, and
even practical knowledge of the many technicali-
ties of the art of war. Such veterans may become
quite the equals of regulars in the scale of military
merit.

So, on the other hand, the regular may be as
intelligent as the citizen soldier, and animated by
motives as high. As to the regular officers, there
can be no question of their superior qualifications.
They are educated for this profession, and specially
in all that serves as basis for loyalty to country.
As to the rank and file of regular troops, history
sometimes refers to them as mercenaries, workers
for pay, and they have been stigmatized as "hire-
lings." But this is abuse, even of history. The
word soldier does indeed mean the man paid for his
service instead of being bound to serve by feudal
obligation.^ But no one can despise such soldiers
who remember the conduct of the Swiss Guard of
Louis XVI. of France, cowardly forsaken by his

' This pay was in the form ot the "soldi" (from the Latin "solidus"),
the real money, the piece of soHd metal, represented to-day in the
French "sou."

The Situation 15

own; but these loyal spirits, for the manhood that
was in them and not for pay, stood by him to the
last living man of them, whose heroism the proud
citizens of their native home have fittingly com-
memorated in Thorwaldson's Lion of Lucerne.

And we certainly held our regulars dear, from
long association, and could only speak their name
with honor when we thought of the desperate
charge down from the Round Tops of Gettysburg
into the maelstrom of death swirling around the
"Devil's Den," from which but half their numbers
emerged, and these so wrought upon that they
were soon after released from service in the field
to recover strength.

These veterans of ours were the equals of regulars
even if they received a nominal pay ; equals in dis-
cipline, in knowledge, skill, and valor. They were
superior in that they represented the homes and
ideals of the country, and not only knew what they
were fighting for but also held it dear.

The same tendency of thought and feeling was,
no doubt, in the hearts of our adversaries, although
their loyalty seems to have been held longer by
the primal instincts. This appeared not merely in
the fervid exhortations of commanders and officials,
but in the prevailing spirit of the men in the ranks,
with whom we had occasional conference across the
picket lines, or in brief interviews with prisoners.
The prime motive with these men was no doubt,
like ours, grounded in the instincts of manhood.
They sprang to arms for the vindication of what
they had been accustomed to regard as their rights

i6 The Passinof of the Armies

£>

by nature and law. By struggling and suffering
for the cause this thought was rather intensified
than broadened. But in these lulls reflection
began to enlarge vision. This matter of rights and
duties presents itself, as it were, in concentric
spheres, within which polarities are reversed as
values rise. The right to property must yield
to the right to life; individual happiness must be
subordinated to the general well-being; duty to
country must outweigh all the narrower demands
of self-interest. So the sight of "the old flag,"
which stood for the guaranty of highest human
rights, and which they were now striving to beat
down in defeat and dishonor, must have affected
their sober thoughts. There was no little evidence
of this as the winter and the weary siege wore on.
It came to our knowledge in the early months of
the new year that heavy desertions were going on
every day in Lee's army, — especially among the
Virginians. We had reason to believe that it was
the personal magnetism of their great commander
that kept alive the spirit of that brave army. The
chivalrous sense of personal loyalty was strong with
those men.

Our acquaintance had been peculiarly intimate
and deep, and we had for them a strong personal
regard. The "causes" were wide apart, but the
manhood was the same. We had occasion to ob-
serve their religious character. More free thought
and wider range of code no doubt prevailed in our
Northern army; but what we are accustomed to
call simple, personal piety was more manifest in

The Situation 17

the Confederate ranks than in ours. Not pre-
suming to estimate the influence of particular cases
of higher officers, like Stonewall Jackson or Gen-
eral Howard, making prominent their religious
principles and proclivities, but fully recognizing
the general religious character of most of the
officers and men from our Northern homes, it must
be admitted that the expression of religious senti-
ment and habit was more common and more earn-
est in the Confederate camp than in ours.

In one thing we took "the touch of elbow." It
was no uncommon incident that from close oppos-
ing bivouacs and across hushed breastworks at
evening voices of prayer from over the way would
stir our hearts, and floating songs of love and
praise be caught up and broadened into a mighty
and thrilling chorus by our men softening down in
cadences like enfolding wings. Such moments
were surely a "Truce of God."

I have said the men kept up heart. So they did,
— exactly that. It was a certain loyalty of soul,
rather than persistence of vital energies. The
experiences which had hardened the spiritual nerve,
had relaxed the physical fiber. The direct effects
of bodily over-strain reach to the nervous centers
and the boimdaries of spirit. Exhausting forced
marches, through choking dust, btirning suns, sti-
fling heat even in the shade, swampy bivouacs, ma-
larious airs laden with the off-castings of rotting
vegetation, or worse at times, from innum.erable
bodies of men and animals dead or living ; strange
forms of sickness, unexampled and irremediable,

i8 The Passing of the Armies

experiences borne only by stubborn patience or
heroic pride, — such things tell at last. Then the
battles, horrible scenes, shocking the senses, bur-
rowing in memory to live again in dreams and
haunting visions, all these things together work
upon the inner, vital, or spiritual forces which re-
late us to the real persistent substance — ^whether
ethereal or of some yet finer form not yet dreamed
of in our philosophy.

But men are made of mind and soul as well as
body. We deal not only with exercises of the
senses, but with deeper consciousness; affections,
beliefs, ideals, conceptions of causes and effects,
relations and analogies, and even conjectures of a
possible order and organization different from what
we experience in the present world of sense. All
these powers and workings have part in the make-
up of manhood. Men are not machines; although
it is said the discipline of army life tends to make
them such, and that this is essential to their ef-
ficiency. A remark which needs to be set in larger
light.

The men of the rank and file in our army of
volunteers before Petersburg besides being seasoned
soldiers were endowed and susceptible according to
their spiritual measure. Their life was not merely
in their own experiences but in larger sympathies.
Their environment, which is thought to determine
character so largely, consisted for them not only in
material things but also much in memories and
shadowings. Things were remnants and reminders.
Lines stood thinner; circles ever narrowing. Corps

The Situation 19

fought down to divisions; divisions to brigades;
these again broken and the shattered regiments
consoHdated under the token and auspices of their
States, — as if reverting to their birthright, and
being "gathered to their fathers." Old flags, — yes,
but crowded together not by on-rush to battle,
but by thinning ranks bringing the dear more near.
Then the vacant places of lost comrades, seen as
"an aching void" both as to fact and suggestion.
And even the coming in of new, fresh faces was
not without its cast of shadow. The officers, too,
who had gone down were of the best known*
trusted, and beloved. What has gone takes some-
thing with it, and when this is of the dear, nothing
can fill the place. All the changes touched the
border of sorrows.

The strength of great memories, pride of historic
continuity, unfailing loyalty of purpose and resolve
held these men together in unity of form and spirit.
But there seemed some slackening of the old nerve
and verve; and service was sustained more from
the habit of obedience and instinct of duty, than
with that sympathetic intuition which inspires
men to exceed the literal of orders or of obligations.

Curious people often ask the question whether
in battle we are not affected by fear, so that our
actions are influenced by it; and some are prompt
to answer, "Yes, surely we are, and anybody who
denies it is a braggart or a liar." I say to such,
"Speak for yourselves." A soldier has something
else to think about. Most men at the first, or at
some tragic moment, are aware of the present peril.

20 The Passing of the Armies

and perhaps flinch a Httle by an instinct of nature
and sometimes accept the foregoing confession, — •
as when I have seen men pin their names to their
breasts that they may not be buried unknown.
But any action following the motive of fear is rare,
— for sometimes I have seen men rushing to the
front in a terrific fire, "to have it over with."

But, as a rule, men stand up from one motive
or another — simple manhood, force of discipline,
pride, love, or bond of comradeship — "Here is
Bill; I will go or stay where he does." And an
officer is so absorbed by the sense of responsibility
for his men, for his cause, or for the fight that
the thought of personal peril has no place what-
ever in governing his actions. The instinct to
seek safety is overcome by the instinct of honor.

There are exceptions. This is the rule and law of
manhood: fearlessness in the face of all lesser
issues because he has faced the greater — the
commanding one.

This exposition of the state of mind and body
among our officers and men in the later operations
along the Petersburg lines may help to find a
reason for their failure. For instance, the fiasco
of the mine explosion of July 30th, where well-
laid plans and costly and toilsome labors were
brought to shameful disaster through lack of
earnest co-operation, and strange lethargy of
participants. For another instance, the unex-
ampled reverses of our renowned Second Corps at
Ream's Station, August 24th, where, after every
purpose and prospect of success, these veterans

The Situation 21

were qiiickly driven from their entrenchments,
even abandoning their guns, — conduct contrary
to their habit and contradictory of their character.

But these were exceptional even if illustrative
cases. Along our lines reigned a patient fortitude,
a waiting expectation, unswerving loyalty, that
kind of faith which is the "evidence of things
unseen."

Among these men were some doubly deserving —
comrades whom we thought lost, bravely returning.
Many of those earlier wounded, or sickened, and
sent to general hospital, proving to be not utterly
disabled, and scorning the plea of the poltroon,
came back to their appointed place. So others, too,
with like spirit, from the starving, wasting, and
wearing experience of prisons, passing though the
valley of the shadow of death, came to answer
again the names that honored our roll-call, — those
who could stand up to do it.

Such were the remnants of that great company
of heroic souls named the Army of the Potomac.
Knowing full well the meaning of such words as
hardship and suffering, facing unknown fields of
sorrows yet to come, they stood fast by their
consecration, offering all there is in manhood for the
sake of what is best in man. If sometimes a
shadow passes over such spirits, it needs neither
confession nor apology.

Within a short time now the term of enlistment
of not a few regiments had expired, and they were
mustered out of service with honor. It was a time
when they were sorely needed ; but we can scarcely

22 The Passing of the Armies

blame those who thought duty did not call them
to prolong their experiences. Many, however,
straightway enlisted in other regiments, new or old,
and thus rendered a double service — material
force and inspiring example.

In some instances whole regiments had re-
enlisted, under the old name or a new one. Such
were five noble Pennsylvania regiments of m.y
own brigade of June, 1 864. Remnants of regiments
also, left from casualties of the field or by term of
enlistment, were consolidated into one, named and
numbered by its State order. Such were the ist
Maine Veterans, made up of the 5th, 6th, and 7th,
of glorious record.

Others, too, had come in to replace and reinforce,
with like brave spirit, and perhaps with severer
test,^heavy artillery regiments, full to the maxi-
mum in numbers, from important positions in the
rear, as the defenses of Washington, and not ex-
pecting to be called to the front. With the ad-
vantage of military discipline and acclimatization,
their ponderous lines rolled on the astonished foe,
with swift passages to glorious death and undying
fame. Witness the action of the ist Maine Heavy
Artillery, losing in one fight at Spottsylvania 264
men, and again more than 600 in stern obedience to
orders which should not have been given in the first
futile charge on the lines of Petersburg.

New regiments of infantry also came in, neces-
sarily assigned to duty at the front, — high hearts,
brave spirits; some of them rushed into the field
without instruction in arms or training in practice

The Situation 23

of endiirance, the fiber of their bodies for a time
not equal to the sincerity of their resolution. But
with the quickening of sharp demand and com-
pelling need, spirit soon transformed body to its
likeness, and meantime cheered and braced other
hearts beating their old rhythm beneath the iron
breasts of veterans.

No jeering now for newness and niceness; but
silent welcome, of respect and almost reverence,
seeing that the young men had come willingly at
such a time to such a front. The last two years had
brought prismatic colors down to plain monotone.
Names of things were charged with deeper defini-
tions. War was no longer a holiday excursion; it
was "hard-shelled" business; not maturing in three
months, nor nine, nor twelve, nor twenty-four.
And the way of it was more bitter than the end.
The regiments passing to the front marched not
between festoons of ladies' smiles and waving
handkerchiefs, thrown kisses and banner presenta-
tions. They were looked upon sadly and in a certain
awe, as those that had taken on themselves a doom.
The muster rolls on which the name and oath
were written were pledges of honor, — ^redeemable
at the gates of death. And they who went up to
them, knowing this, are on the lists of heroes.

It is true not all who came in now were strictly
"volunteers." Some may have enlisted from
shame of staying comfortably at home while manly
men were at the front. Some may have preferred
this to standing "draft" under terrors of the lot;
for so the free will is sometimes bound. And others

24 The Passing of the Armies

may have been persuaded by the large local boun-
ties, which the stern realities adverted to above
induced many loud loyalists to offer to "substi-
tutes," to whom life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness were not quite so dear. Glory had come
to exemplify the altruistic virtues, and in such
honor as "dying for your country," self -regarding
men scripturally "preferred one another"!

But there were those coming last who represented
the heroism of homes. For wives, who had early
offered the fathers of their children, house-bonds of
human well-being, as sacrifices for their country's
redemption, sent now their sons, to share their
father's honor and perchance his grave. Mothers,
who had given their first-born, held not back their
youngest now; the strongest first, and then the
dearest. And the converse of this, the father fol-
lowing the son. Well might the lip of veteran quiver
as his quick eye, scanning a squad of newcomers,
caught the figure of some father, gray and grim,
still so erect and eagle-eyed, straining for every
semblance of youth, that he might be permitted
to stand beside his boy whom he could not let
come alone. Nor is this sympathy unmarked in
higher grades. What has come over the spirit of
that stern officer, pushing his column with relent-
less energy on the terrible forced march, that with
furtive side-look as if half -ashamed, he draws the
back of his sword-hand across his compressed eye-
lids, like the swift sign of the cross over the face of
a prayer? He has turned in his saddle to order the
ambulance, or his own headquarters' wagon to

The Situation 25

pick up from the trodden wayside some fallen,
fainting boy, overweighted by the heavy armor of
his country's defense, whose soul has carried him
already far beyond his body's strength. Some
home-loved boy; and so soon, so nearly lost! God
help us all!

The exercise of thought that had been invited
and sanctioned naturally fostered indulgence in
some "free thinking." Some liberties were taken
in canvassing the merits not only of commanders
but rather more freely of campaigns, — particu-
larly this reductio ad absurdum of the siege of
Petersburg. And they would have been something
less than rational human beings if they did not
indulge in some criticisms. Too free expression of
unfavorable opinion, it is true, might render one
liable to the counter charge of conduct to "the
prejudice of good order and military discipline."
But wisdom was also brought to use. Our soldiers
had well learned the lesson that it is sometimes
necessary to reverse the maxim of public law, and
subordinate civil rights to military rules.

Evil-minded people were trying to make our
men believe that Grant and Lincoln were making
this long delay in front of Petersburg in order to
secure their continuance in office. But this was
an outrage upon those noble characters, and an
insult to the common sense of every man among us.
We knew that the surest way for our high officials
to hold their place was by no means to court delay,
but to strike a quick, bold blow at the enemy.

Grant's change of base from the Rappahannock

26 The Passing of the Armies

to the James, and his immediate objective from
the front of Richmond to its rear by way of Peters-
burg, called for no adverse criticism. There were
deep-felt reasons for acquiescence. Nor could it
be fairly criticized on purely military grounds.
Although technically a change of base, it was not a
change in his grand purpose, — "to fight it out on
this line if it takes all summer." That meant
there was to be no retreating. And this might
justly be considered a master stroke of grand tactics
in the continuous movement to turn Lee's right,
and also cut his communications. When we under-
stood the purpose of this move we believed it to be
good tactics, and we took it up with hope and
cheer. Sober second thought justified the first
impression. It was a well-planned and well-exe-
cuted movement. Our army was skilfully with-
drawn from the front of a watchful and active
enemy, and the main body of our army was before
Petersburg before Lee knew it had crossed the
James. The first blow was well delivered; but a
series of shortcomings, for which it must be said
neither the men nor their immediate commanders
were responsible, brought all to nought. Succes-
sive assaults on the enemy's lines were made as
corps after corps extended leftward; but gallant
fighting left Httle to show but its cost. Especially
did we hold in mind the last of these made by the
Fifth Corps on the second day, when an assault
was ordered, by my fine veteran Brigade on the
strong entrenchments at Rives' Salient command-
ing the important avenue of communication, the

The Situation 2^

Norfolk Railroad and Jerusalem Plank Road.
By this time it was too late; all Lee's army were
up and entrenched. We encountered a far out-
numbering force of veteran troops well entrenched
and a cross-fire of twenty guns in earthworks
planted with forethought and skill. Desperate
valor could accomplish nothing but its own demon-
stration. Our veterans were hurled back over the
stricken field, or left upon it — I, too, proud witness
and sharer of their fate. I am not of Virginia
blood; she is of mine. So ended the evening of
the second day. And the army sat down to that
ten months' symposium, from which twenty
thousand men never rose.

The development of this campaign led many to
compare Grant with McClellan. They marched
their armies over much the same ground, with
much the same result. Only McClellan was
brought to Washington; Grant was permitted to
remain at City Point and the Appomattox. The
rumor ran that McClellan had also proposed to cut
across the James and around Lee's flank. Many
still believed in his soldiership, but broader ele-
ments now entered into the estimate. Something
in the nature of the man and something in his
environment caused his failure. With great or-
ganizing power, he failed in practical application.
The realities of war seemed to daze him. He
lacked dash, resolution; he hesitated to seize the
golden moment, to profit by his own openings, to
press his advantage, to solve doubt by daring.
With all that marvelous magnetism which won the

28 The Passing of the Armies

love and enthusiasm of his subordinates, he lacked
the skill, or the will, to gain the sympathy of his
superiors. It is as much the requisite in general-
ship to secure the confidence and co-operation of
the Government as to command armies and over
come opposing force. It was unfortunate for him,
also, that he allowed himself to be drawn into
politics, which paid him in its own kind. The fore-
shadowing thought of this created in his mind a
"double objective," which confused his purpose
and benumbed his fighting energy as against
possible fellow citizens.

But many circumstances were against him.
Few seemed to realize that this was war. And
many who influenced his surroundings thought
they knew as much of war as he. At that time the
North was in a craze; nobody would accept the
suggestion that it would be a long and costly task
to put down the rebellion, or even to break up the
Southern army. The North was as arbitrary as
the South was arrogant. Strong in its conviction
of right, proud of its sponsorship for the old flag;
stung, too, by the sharp rebuff to its assumption
and its authority, the North did not count patience
as the chief of virtues. Its cry was "On to Rich-
mond!" to capture the rebel capital so impudently
set up in face of our own, and thus wipe out that
pretended token of independence and sovereignty
which gave pretext for foreign recognition. For
this had become an element in the contest, — the
hostility of the French Emperor, and the "nobility "
of England with difficulty held back from recogniz-

The Situation 29

ing the Southern Confederacy through the moral
courage of John Bright and the royal wisdom of the
Queen and Prince Consort of England.

The impatience of the North is perhaps to be
pardoned for the reason of its impelling motive;
but it demanded of General McClellan impossibili-
ties. And these were created quite as much by
forces in his rear as by those in his front.

As for Grant, he was like Thor, the hammerer;
striking blow after blow, intent on his purpose to
beat his way through, somewhat reckless of the
cost. Yet he was the first one of our commanders
who dared to pursue his policy of delay without
apology or fear of overruling. He made it a con-
dition of his acceptancy of the chief command that
he should not be interfered with from Washington.
That gave him more freedom and "discretion"
than any of his predecessors. He had somehow,
with all his modesty, the rare faculty of controlling
his superiors as well as his subordinates. He out-
faced Stanton, captivated the President, and even
compelled acquiescence or silence from that dread
source of paralyzing power, — the Congressional
Committee on the conduct of the war.

The Government and the country had to exer-
cise patience, — with us no doubt, and even with
General Grant. He had to exercise it also, with
himself. It must have been a sore trial to his
pride, and a measure very foreign to his tempera-
ment to have to sit down so long before Petersburg ;
to abandon the tactics of main force and commence
a series of sporadic harassment s on the enemy's

30 The Passing of the Armies

weak spots, and adopt for his main strategic plan
the attempt to tire and starve him out. That was
what things looked like now. There was all the
while the ever increasing risk that, with this seeming
long irresolution, influences from within might
induce the country to concession and compromise
at cost of the vital point of the whole contention,
the supremacy of its proclaimed ideal, — the guar-
anty of human rights.

We all had to learn the bitter but salutary lesson,
taught by adversity and humiliation, — that instant
advantage is not always lasting achievement; that
mere good intentions will not win victories, and
that the conditions and cost of undertakings
must be considered and prepared for body and
spirit. We had the discipline of adversity. We
found patience an active force and not merely an
endurance of suffering. The brave Saint Paul
declares that "tribulation worketh patience; and
patience experience ; and experience hope. ' ' But we
found things turned a little otherwise; experience
demanded patience, and both sorely tried hope.
Those who believe there is a divine appointment or
mysterious overruling purpose in the prolonged
struggles of human history might see in these
repeated reverses of ours an intimation that greater
things were in issue here than the taking of Peters-
burg or Richmond, or the destruction of Lee's
army, or even the quick overthrow of the rebel-
lion. Should our success come according to our
hopes there might be danger of too ready a com-
promise with the forces that had brought on the

The Situation 31

war, and so the winnowings of life and death
must go on till the troubles be sifted to the
core. Lincoln's proclamation, though looked
upon by our old-school officers as unadvised
and unwarranted by the Constitution, had sent
thoughts wider and higher than the range of
army regulations or text -books of the law. It
was a time of travail with the new birth of the
nation. Time and tide wait for no man ; but man
must wait for them.

With all Grant's reticence, we felt sure that he
was preparing some great movement, and this
must be still to the left, to cut Lee's communica-
tions and envelop his existing lines, or as the
wiseacres said, to take Richmond in something
like Joshua's way with Jericho, — sounding trum-
pets all around its walls. We had, indeed, been
rehearsing for this performance from time to time
all winter, and had already cut several of Lee's
best communications. Our established line now
extended some sixteen miles. Occasional dashes
had broken in upon them for some four or five
miles farther westward, to near Burgess' Mill on
Hatcher's Run, at the junction of the Boydton
Plank Road and the White Oak Road; but these
points could not be strongly held by us, and were
more strongly guarded by the enemy, as almost
their last avenue of sea-coast communication. Lee
had two railroads: the Richmond and Danville,
leading to important connections in North Caro-
lina ; and the Petersburg and Lynchburg, known to
us as the "Southside," making a junction with the

32 The Passin<j^ of the Armies

former at Burkeville, about fifty miles from Peters-
btirg, as also from Richmond.

On our part, as we gained ground we had un-
rolled a military railroad, up hill and down, with-
out much grading, and hence exhibiting some
remarkable exploits in momentum of mind and
machinery. This terminated at the Vaughan Road
on the north branch of Rowanty Creek.

Meantime Sherman had made his masterly
march from the Great River to the Sea, and the
even more masterly movement north to Goulds-
boro. North Carolina, where with his alert and
dashing army he threatened Lee's sea communica-
tion and also the flank and rear of his position. It
was a curious element in the situation that the
astute Confederate General "Joe Johnston" should
come in north of Sherman and interpose his army
between Sherman's and ours. This sort of ''vol-
taic pile" generated some queer currents of
conjecture and apprehension. Disquieting riunors
came across the picket lines that Johnston was
coming up to strike our flank and rear, and thus
between his army and Lee's we should be caught
in the jaws of a leviathan. But we believed
Sherman would give Johnston something else to do.
We were more troubled by the rumor that Lee,
presuming on our inertness, was preparing to make
a master movement; to occupy our attention by
feints in front while he should withdraw his main
army, pass around our left and join Johnston,
knock Sherman out, then turn back and attend to
the "sick lion" of the Army of the Potomac.

The Situation 33

Grant was evidently anxious lest Lee should
manage to get away from our front and effect a
junction with Johnston for some bold stroke.
That would be a shame for us. We would far
rather fight, even if unsuccessful as usual. Then
we were much annoyed by rumors coming around
from Washington, that Sherman was coming up
with his power and prestige to take our business
out of our hands and the glory of success to his
army. But in the depth of our doubts and appre-
hension word came that Grant had brought Sher-
man to a conference at his headquarters, and had
invited Sheridan as a participant, on the evening of
March 27th, and we knew now that something was
to be done on a grand scale.

Soon came the thrilling General Order. It
announced one more leftward movement, but it
woke new courage and inspired confidence. Its
very style and manner was new. It seemed to
take us all into confidential relations with the
commander; the whole object and plan set forth
in a manner clear, circumstantial, and complete,
so that each subordinate knew the part he was
expected to take. The colonels, on whom the
brunt of battle so heavily falls, felt that they were
appreciated, and they were quickened in soldierly
pride and manly resolution. And the younger
generals, who had become veterans in experience,
especially in the practical working of the felicitous
provision in the Army Regulations that, while their
proper position is habitually a hundred and fifty
yards in rear of the center of their commands, they

34 The Passing of the Armies

may, nevertheless, in time of action, "go to any
place where they deem their presence necessary,"
and had found that was anywhere but in the rear,
took new assurance now that permission was
expressly given that when they got the enemy
to "going" they might "push things" at their
discretion.

So when on the last evening of the old dispensa-
tion we prepared to break camp before the dawn,
silently and unseen, without blast of bugle or
blow of axe, or sight of fire to betray unusual move-
ments to the ever watchful foe so near, and each
one who could dashed off his little farewell message
home, there was in his heart a strange mingling of
emotion, the vision of a great joy, in which, per-
haps, he was to lie silent and apart, a little shadow
on the earth, but overhead a great light filling the
sky. This lifted him to the surpassing joy that,
however it should be with him, his work and worth
had entered into the country's life and honor.

Now the solemn notes of the last tattoo rang
"Lights out!" through the deepening shades,
echoed from point to point of wooded hill and
earth-piled parapet, floating away northward over
the awful powers lying hushed beneath the twi-
light semblance of peace, — northward, toward the
homes our hearts reached after, the lingering echoes
sweeping the heartstrings as they died away. But
the same heart told that the evening bugle would
not sound "Lights out!" again till the nights of
the tremendous tragedy were over ; that whatever
of him or his should be of the returning, never

The Situation 35

would retiirn that awful, long repeated scene : two
armies, battered, broken, blood-bathed from brow
to foot, but still face to face in unconquerable re-
solve. No, but in the far sky another vision: calm
in triumph, thinking not of mastery over man, but
of right for all; and in God's heaven the old flag
redeemed from shame and scorn, standing for a re-
generated people and a new covenant of brotherly
love for the world's hereafter.

CHAPTER II

THE OVERTURE

GRANT'S general plan involved an alterna-
tive : to cut Lee's communications or turn
the right flank of his entrenched line, and
in case of the success of either, to take Petersburg
by direct front attack. To carry out this plan he
appointed Sheridan with the cavalry of the Army
of the Shenandoah, two divisions, under General
Merritt, and the cavalry division now commanded
by General Crook, formerly belonging to the
Army of the Potomac. He was to have the
Fifth Corps as infantry support, to be followed, if
necessary, by the Second Corps. General Meade,
commanding the Army of the Potomac, was to
accompany the movement. The former places
of these corps on the left of our entrenchments
before Petersburg, were to be taken by troops of
the Army of the James. On the right of these, our
Sixth and Ninth Corps were to hold their old posi-
tions in front of Petersbtu-g, ready to break through
the enemy's works if they should be stripped some-
what of troops by the necessity of meeting our
assault on their right.

36

The Overture 37

The scope of Grant's intentions may be under-
stood from an extract from his orders to Sheridan,
March 28, 1865:

The Fifth Army Corps will move by the Vaughan
Road at three a.m. to-morrow morning. The Second
moves at about nine a.m. . . . Move your cavalry at as
early an hour as you can, . . . and passing to or through
Dinwiddle, reach the right and rear of the enemy as soon
as you can. It is not the intention to attack the enemy
in his entrenched position, but to force him out, if possible.
Should he come out and attack us, or get himself where he
can be attacked, move in with your entire force in your
own way, and with full reliance that the army will engage
or follow the enemy as circumstances will dictate. I shall
be on the field, and will probably be able to communicate
with you. Should I not do so, and you find that the ene-
my keeps within his main entrenched line, you may cut loose
and push for the Danville Road. If you find it practicable,
I would like you to cross the Southside Road between
Petersburg and Burkesville, and destroy it to some ex-
tent. . . . After having accomplished the destruction of
the two railroads, which are now the only avenues of sup-
ply to Lee's army, you may return to this army or go on
into North Carolina and join General Sherman. . . .

General Grant evidently intended to rely more
on tactics than strategy in this opening. In his
personal letter to General Sherman, of March 226.,
giving the details of his plans for Sheridan's move-
ment, he adds: "I shall start out with no distinct
view, further than holding Lee's forces from follow-
ing Sheridan. But I shall be along myself, and
will take advantage of anything that turns up. "

The general plan was that Sherman should work

3^ The Passing of the Armies

his way up to Burkesville, and thus cut off Lee's
communications, and force him to come out of his
entrenchments and fight on equal terms. Sher-
man says he and General Grant expected that one
of them would have to fight one more bloody battle.
He also makes the characteristic remark that his
army at Goldsboro was strong enough to fight Lee's
army and Johnston's combined, if Grant would
come up within a day or two.'

It will be observed that we had abundance of
commanders independent among each other, —
Sheridan, Meade, and Ord commanding the Army
of the James, subordinate only to Grant who was
present in the field. The result of this the sequel
will show.

We were all good friends, — those who were to
constitute the turning column. Warren of our
Fifth Corps had once commanded the Second;
Humphreys of the Second had formerly com-
manded a division in the Fifth; Miles, division
commander in the Second, had won his spurs in the
Fifth; Meade, commanding the army, had been
corps commander of the Fifth. Crook's cavalry
division of our army, now about to go to Sheridan,
had been our pet and pride ; Sheridan was an object
of admiration and awe.

' Sherman's Memoirs, vol. ii., p. 325, This seems to imply a reflection
on the fighting qualities of the Army of the Potomac, as at that time
Sherman's army did not exceed in number the Army of the Potomac
but by six thousand men. But it must be remembered that the Army
of the Potomac confronted an enemy covered by entrenched works for
sixteen miles, — a circumstance which gave the Confederates the great
advantage of three to one in effective numbers.

MAP

SHOWING THE OPERATIONS OF THE

ARMY OF THE POTOMAC

UNDER COMMAND OP

MAJ. GEN. GEORGE C.MEADEl

FROM MARCH £9'" TO APRIL 9™

1865

HEORAWN FROM THE OFFICIAL MAP

,, AfPOfSATTOxX VsIp

-^UROSVIULE

/■ \U"

CVCRCRECN

PROSPECT STA.(

AMPLINS STA.

5'1* 6'; MANMBOBOy

yp.. 6^

HEAOQUARTCRS ARMIES U.S. p« /

ARMY or THE POTOMAC p^

" ■■ SECOND COflPS p-'

FirTH " P

siy.TH .. P

NINTH •■ fS

2°

nOUTCS OF MARCH- SECOND CORPS

FIFTH '■ ^-

SIXTH n

NINTH '<

COfjFEDERATES

FI_

9'"

sf.^

%.,e.

(\3tf^

'^

FORD'S ST*.

-^Sj^aOCORPj

NOTTOWAJf^

fe

t^/BLACKS & WHITES

The Overture 39

Of the Fifth Corps, the division commanders of
the First and Second were Griffin and Ayres of the
regular artillery, and veterans of the Mexican War,
who had served with their batteries in the Fifth
Corps early in its career; and Crawford of the
Third, who was with Anderson at Fort Sumter, was
identified with the Pennsylvania Reserves, whose
whole history was closely connected with this
Corps.

As for the First Division, the morning report
for March 29, 1865, showed 6547 men present for
duty. This number being on various duty else-
where or sick in hospital was 4000 short of its full
ranks. The remnants of the old First Division
had been consolidated into the Third Brigade,
formerly my own, consisting of about 3000 men,
commanded by the able General Joseph J. Bartlett
of the Sixth Corps. The Second Brigade, about
1750, commanded by the experienced and con-
scientious Colonel Edgar M. Gregory, of the 91st
Pennsylvania Volunteers, Brevet Brigadier- General
of Volunteers, consisted of three new regiments
from New York, the 187th, the i88th, and 189th,
new regiments but mostly old soldiers. My own
brigade, the First, consisting of like new regiments,
had about 450 short of its normal numbers, mus-
tering 1750 men for duty. These regiments were
the 198th Pennsylvania, composed of fourteen full
companies, being a special command for a veteran
and brave officer, Colonel Horatio G. Sickel, Brevet
Brigadier-General, and the 185th New York, a
noble body of men of high capability and character,

40 The Passing^ of the Armies

and a well-disciplined regiment now commanded by
Colonel Gustave Sniper, an able man and thorough
soldier.

Gregory and Sickel had both ranked me formerly
as Colonels, but accepted the new relations with
sincerity and utmost courtesy.

The ground about to be traversed by us is flat
and swampy, and cut up by sluggish streams which,
after every rain, become nearly impassable. The
soil is a mixture of clay and sand, quite apt in wet
weather to take the character of sticky mire or of
quicksands. The principal roads for heavy travel
have to be corduroyed or overlaid with plank. The
streams for the most part find their way south-
easterly into the tributaries of the Chowan River.
Some, however, flow northeasterly into the waters
of the Appomattox. Our available route was along
the divide of these waters.

The principal road leading out westerly from
Petersburg is the Boydton Plank Road, for the
first ten miles nearly parallel with the Appomattox,
and distant from it from three to six miles. The
Southside Railroad is between the Boydton Road
and the river. South of the Boydton is the
Vaughan Road; the first section lying in rear of
our main entrenchments, but from our extreme left
at Hatcher's Run inclining towards the Boydton
Road, being only two miles distant from it at
Dinwiddle Court House. Five miles east of this
place the Quaker Road, called by persons of
another mood, the "Military Road," crosses the
Vaughan and leads northerly into the Boydton

The Overture 41

Road midway between Hatcher's Run and Gravel-
ly Run, which at this junction became Rowanty
Creek.

A mile above the intersection of the Quaker Road
with the Boydton is the White Oak Road, leading
off from the Boydton at right angles westerly,
following the ridges between the small streams and
branches forming the headwaters of Hatcher's
and Gravelly Runs, through and beyond the
"Five Forks." This is a meeting-place of roads,
the principal of which, called the Ford Road,
crosses the White Oak at a right angle, leading
from a station on the Southside Railroad, three
miles north, to Dinwiddle Court House, six miles
south.

The enemy's main line of entrenchments west
from Petersburg covered the important Boydton
Plank Road, but only so far as Hatcher's Run,
where at Burgess' Mill their entrenchments leave
this and follow the White Oak Road for some two
miles, and then cross it, turning to the north and
following the Claiborne Road, which leads to
Sutherland's Station on the Southside Railroad ten
miles distant from Petersburg, covering this road
till it strikes Hatcher's Run about a mile higher up.
This "return" northerly form.s the extreme right
of the enemy's entrenched line.

When the instructions for this campaign reached
us, all were animated with confidence of quick
success. If Lee's lines before Petersburg were
held in place, it would be easy work to cut his com-
munications, turn his right, and roll him back upon

42 The Passing of the Armies

Petersburg or Richmond; if, on the other hand, his
main lines were stripped to resist our attack, our
comrades in the old lines would make short work
of Lee's entrenchments and his army.

At daylight on the twenty-ninth of March the
Fifth Corps moved out toward the enemy's right.
As the movement was intended to mask its desti-
nation by a considerable detour to the rear, our
column first moved southward to Arthur's Swamp,
crossing the Rowanty at Monk's Bridge, and thence
by way of the Old Stage Road into and down the
Vaughan. My brigade, being the advance of the
First Division, reached the Chappie House, about
two miles from Dinwiddle, early in the forenoon,
encountering only a few cavalry pickets. Sheridan
with the cavalry, moving by a still exterior route,
was pushing on towards Dinwiddle Court House.

At about noon General Griffin directed me to
return upon the Vaughan Road to the junction of
the Quaker Road, and push up this road to develop
the enemy's position in that quarter. This direc-
tion we knew led towards the very strong salient of
the enemy's works near Burgess' Mill on Hatcher's
Run: but we did not know where, nor with what
force, Lee might see fit to push out a counter
movement to thwart ours. We soon found this
road better entitled to its military than its Quaker
appellation. A spirited advanced line of the
enemy had destroyed the bridge over Gravelly
Run and were posted behind some defenses on the
north bank intending to give serious check to our
advance. Evidently there was something nearby

The Overture 43

which they deemed it important to cover; and
which accordingly we felt an interest to uncover.
I formed a plan which I communicated to General
Griffin, who approved it and directed General
Gregory to support me on the left as I should
instruct him, and also directed General Bartlett
to be ready to take part as circumstances should
require. Things being thus arranged, I placed
General Sickel with eight companies on the right
below the ruined bridge, with instructions to pour
a hot fire upon the enemy opposite when with the
rest of the brigade I would ford the stream waist-
deep above the bridge and strike the enemy's
right flank obliquely. This led to a hand-to-hand
encounter. The attack was impetuous; the mus-
ketry hot. Major Glenn with his six companies in
skirmishing order dashed through the stream and
struck the enemy's breastworks front and flank.
In a moment everything started loose. The entire
brigade forded the stream and rolled forward,
closing upon Glenn right and left, and the whole
command swept onward like a wave, carrying all
before it a mile or more up the road, to the build-
ings of the Lewis Farm. The enemy now re-en-
forced made a decided stand, and the fight became
sharp. But our enveloping line pressed them so
severely that they fell back after each struggle to
the edge of a thick wood, where a large body had
gathered behind a substantial breastwork of logs
and earth.

A withering volley breaks our line into groups.
Courage and resolution are great, but some other

44 The Passing of the Armies

sentiment mightier for the moment controls our
men; a backward movement begins, but the men
retire slowly, bearing their wounded with them, and
even some of their dead. The enemy, seeing this
recoil, pour out of their shelter and make a dash
upon our broken groups, but only to be dashed
back in turn hand to hand in eddying whirls.
And seized by our desperate fellows, so many are
dragged along as prisoners in the receding tide
that it is not easy to tell which side is the win-
ning one. Much of the enemy's aim is imsteady,
for the flame and murk of their thickening fire
in the heavy moist air are blown back into their
eyes by the freshening south wind. But reinforce-
ments are coming in, deepening and broadening
their line beyond both our flanks. Now roar and
tumult of motion for a fierce pulse of time, then
again a quivering halt. At length one vigorous
dash drives the assailants into the woods again with
heavy loss. We had cleared the field, and thought
it best to be content with that for the present.
We reform our lines each side the buildings of the
Lewis Farm, and take account of the situation.
We had about a hundred prisoners from Wise's
and Wallace's Brigades, who said nearly all Ander-
son's Division were with them, and that more were
coming, and they were bound to hold this outpost
covering the junction of two roads which are main
arteries of their vital hold, — the White Oak and
the Boydton Plank.

We found General Griflin there, and were re-
lieved to see that he did not find fault with us,

The Overture 45

although we had not done all that we expected —
perhaps not all that was expected of us. We had
been repulsed, no doubt. But there was more to
be done. I wondered why Gregory had not
attacked on the enemy's right flank when they
were driving us back, but found he had difficulty
with the streams, which were almost impassable.

But our work was still before us. I saw that
General Griffin was anxious to carry the enemy's
position, and I as anxiously formed a new line for
the assault. So we were in for it again and almost
in cavalry fashion. Giving the right of the line
to General Sickel and the left to Colonel Sniper on
each side the road, I took Major Glenn with his
six companies for a straight dash up the Quaker
Road, our objective point being a heap of saw-
dust where a portable mill had stood, now the
center of the enemy's strong advanced line. We
received a hot fire which we did not halt to return
as that would expose us to heavy loss, but advanced
at the double quick to go over the enemy's works
with the bayonet. At close quarters the sharp-
shooters in the tree-tops cut us up badly, but we
still pressed on, only now and then, here and there,
delivering fire ourselves. In the full crescendo of
this, now close to the sawdust pile, my horse, wild
for the front, all his pulses aglow, was exceeding the
possible pace of the men following and I gave him
a vigorous check on the curb. Resenting this, he
touched his fore feet to earth only to rebound head-
high to the level of my face. Just at that instant
a heavy blow struck me on the left breast just below

46 The Passing of the Armies

the heart. I fell forward on my horse's neck and
lost all consciousness. The bullet at close range
had been aimed at my breast, but the horse had
lifted his head just in time to catch it, so that,
passing through the big muscle of his neck (and
also I may say through a leather case of field
orders and a brass-mounted hand-mirror in my
breast-pocket — we didn't carry towels in this
campaign) , demolished the pistol in the belt of my
aide Lieutenant Vogel, and knocked him out of the
saddle. This, of course, I only knew afterwards.
The shock had stopped my horse, and I must have
been for some little time unconscious. The first
thing I knew an arm was around my waist and words
murmured in my ear, "My dear General, you are
gone, " the kindly voice of General Griffin who had
ridden up beside me. At that moment also a very
different strain struck my ear on the other hand, —
a wild rebel yell. As I lifted my head a glance
showed me the right of our line broken and flying
before the enemy like leaves before the wind. This
explains my answer to Griffin, "Yes, General, I
am," — that is, "gone" in another sense.

The bullet had riddled my sleeve to the elbow
and bruised and battered my bridle arm so that it
was useless, and the obstructions it met had
slightly deflected it so that, instead of striking the
point of my heart, it had followed around two ribs
so as to come out at the back seam of my coat.
The horse was bleeding profusely and my falling on
his neck brought a blood relationship of which I was
not ashamed. Everybody around thought I was

The Overture 47

"gone" indeed, and that is why a telegram went
to the New York morning papers reporting me as
killed. In the shock my cap had fallen to the
ground, and I must have been a queer spectacle as
I rose in the saddle tattered and battered, bare-
headed and blood-smeared. I swimg the rein
against my horse's wounded neck and lightly
touching his flank with my heel, we made a dash
for the rally of our right. Pushing in among our
broken ranks or our 198th Pennsylvania, the men
might well have thought me a messenger from the
other world. That rally was sharp work — and
costly. Down at the extreme right, in the mad-
dened whirl, I found the brave Sickel, his face
aflame, rallying his men with an appeal none could
resist. In a moment after he fell by my side with a
shattered arm. With him was that heroic boy Major
McEuen who high above all thought of self was
dashing into the seething crest of battle and was
shot from his saddle within touch of my unavailing
hand; so passed a noble spirit, a sweet soul,
only son of his proud father and last of his race on
earth. By such appeal and offering this gallant
regiment, forced back by overpowering onset,
straightened up into line again, and with a thrilling,
almost appalling cheer, turned the tide of battle,
and rolled it fairly back inside the enemy's works.
Aware of some confusion near the sawdust pile
I thought it fitting to return to my place at the
center. I was astonished at the greeting of cheers
which marked my course. Strangest of all was
that when I emerged to the sight of the enemy,

48 The Passing of the Armies

they also took up the cheering. I hardly knew
what world I was in.

By the time I got back to the center the loss of
blood had exhausted the strength of my horse, and
his nose came to earth. I had to send him back
and become a foot soldier. It was a critical time
there, with much confusion. Glenn was having
a hard time at the sawdust pile, and I worked
myself forward in the crowd to get at the state of
things in front. By a sudden backset I found my-
self surrounded by Confederates, who courteously
lowered their muskets and locked their bayonets
around me to indicate a reception not easily to be
declined, and probably to last some time. The
old coat was dingy almost to gray; I was bare-
headed, and rather a doubtful character anyway.
I thought it warrantable to assume an extremely
friendly relation. To their exhortation I replied:
"Surrender? What's the matter with you? What
do you take me for? Don't you see these Yanks
right onto us? Come along with me and let us
break 'em. " I still had my right arm and my light
sword, and I gave a slight flourish indicating my
wish and their direction. They did follow me like
brave fellows, — most of them too far; for they
were a long time getting back.

There was a little lull shortly afterwards, but
quite a curious crowd around the sawdust pile.
Colonel Spear of my old 20th Maine, who charged
himself with a certain care for me, came up now
and with a mysterious and impressive look, as if
about to present a brevet commission, drew from

The Overture 49

his breast-pocket an implement or utensil some-
what resembling a flask, which he confidentially
assured me contained some very choice wine, of
which he invited me to take a swallow. Now that
word is a very indeterminate and flighty term. As
I took the instrument in hand, I perceived it to be
a Jamaica-ginger bottle frugally indented on all
sides. I elevated it at the proper angle of inci-
dence without, perhaps, sufficiently observing that
of reflection; but I thought masonic courtesy would
be observed if I stopped when the bubble indicated
* ' spirit-level. ' ' I returned the equitable remainder
to him with commendation and grateful thanks.
But the melancholy, martyr-like look on his face
as he held it up to the light, revealed his inward
thought that in appropriating his courtesy I had
availed myself to the extreme of my privilege.
My friend in later years seeks to get even with me
by recalling this story on festive occasions for the
entertainment of friends. I do not like to admit
the charge against myself, but have no hesitation
in entering the plea on behalf of my accessory,
the bottle, of extremely extenuating circumstances.
I was glad the Colonel was not on my staff then,
and I did not have to meet him at evening.

We were soon parted. A hoarse yell rose
through the tumult on the left, where the impetu-
ous Sniper had tried to carry the breastworks in
the woods, and now, badly cut up, his regiment was
slowly falling back, closely followed by the enemy
pouring out from their works. They were soon
pressed back to a line perpendicular to their proper

50 The Passing of the Armies

front, and the flight was fierce. Meantime, I
scarcely know how, nor by whom helped, I found
myself mounted on the back of a strange, dull-
looking white horse, that had been bespattered by
the trodden earth, and as I rode down among my
fine New Yorkers, I must have looked more than
ever like a figure from the Apocalypse.

There I found the calm, cold-steel face of Sniper,
who had snatched his regimental colors from the
dead hands of the third color-bearer that had gone
down under them in the last half -hour, and was
still holding his shattered ranks facing the storm;
himself tossing on the crest of every wave, rolling
and rocking like a ship laying to in the teeth of a
gale. I dispatched a staff-oflicer for Gregory to
attack where I supposed him to be, in position to
enfilade the enemy's newly gained alignment. In
response up rode Griffin, anxious and pale, his
voice ringing with a strange tone, as of mingled
command and entreaty: "If you can hold on
there ten minutes, I will give you a battery."
That was a great tonic: Griffin's confidence and
his guns. There was quite an eminence a little
to our rear, behind which I was intending to
re-form my line should it be driven from the field.
I changed my plan. Pushing through to Sniper,
I shouted in his ear in a voice the men should hear:
' ' Once more ! Try the steel ! Hell for ten minutes
and we are out of it!"

I had no idea we could carry the woods, or hold
them if we did. My real objective was that knoll in
the rear. I wanted to keep the enemy from pressing

The Overture 51

over it before we could get our guns up. A
desperate resort was necessary.

While a spirit as it were superhuman took pos-
session of minds and bodies; energies of will,
contradicting all laws of dynamics, reversed the di-
rection of the surging wave, and dashed it back
upon the woods and breastworks within them.
Having the enemy now on the defensive, I took oc-
casion to let Sniper know my purpose and plan, and
to instruct his men accordingly: to demoralize the
enemy by a smashing artillery fire, and then charge
the woods by similar bolt-like blast of men. They
took this in with calm intelligence, and braced
assent. I knew they would do all possible to man.
All the while I was straining eyes and prayers for a
sight of the guns. And now they come — B of the
4th Regulars, Mitchell leading with headlong
speed, horses smoking, battery thundering with
jolt and rattle, wheeling into action front, on the
hillock I had been saving for them, while the earth
flew beneath the wheels, — magnificent, the shining,
terrible Napoleons. I rode out to meet them,
pointing out the ground. Mitchell's answering
look had a mixed expression, suggestive of a smile.
I did not see anything in the situation to smile at,
but he evidently did. I should have remembered
my remarkable personal appearance. He did not
smile long. The colloquy was short: "Mitchell,
do you think you can put solid shot or percussion
into those woods close over the rebels' heads, with-
out hurting my men? " — "Yes, Sir ! if they will keep
where they are." — "Well then, give it to them the

52 The Passing of the Armies

best you know. But stop quick at my signal, and
fire clear of my men when they charge. "

It was splendid and terrible: the swift-served,
bellowing, leaping big guns; the thrashing of the
solid shot into the woods; the flying splinters
and branches and tree-tops coming down upon the
astonished heads; shouts changing into shrieks at
the savage work of these unaccustomed missiles;
then answering back the burst of fire oblique upon
the left front of the battery, where there was a
desperate attempt to carry it by flank attack;
repulsed by Sniper drawing to the left, and thus
also leaving clear range for closer cutting projec-
tiles, when now case shot and shell, now a blast of
canister, poured into the swarming, swirling foe.

My right wing was holding itself in the line of
woods they had carried, reversing the breast-
works there. The strain was on the left now. I
was at the guns, where danger of disaster centered,
so closely were they pressed upon at times. Mit-
chell, bravely handling his imperilled battery, — I
had just seen him mounting a gun-carriage as it
recoiled, to observe the effect of its shot, — went
down grievously wounded. It was thunder and
lightning and earthquake; but it was necessary
to hold things steady. Now, thank Heaven!
comes up Griffin, anxious and troubled. I dare
say I too looked something the worse for wear, for
Griffin's first word was: "General, you must not
leave us. We cannot spare you now." *T had
no thought of it, General," was all I had to say.
He brought up Colonel Doolittle (not named by a

The Overture 53

prophet, surely) with the 189th New York, from
Gregory's Brigade, and Colonel Partridge (a
trace of the bird of Jove on his wing), with the ist
and 1 6th Michigan, to my support. These I
placed on Sniper's right ; when up came that hand-
some Zouave regiment, the 155th Pennsylvania,
the gallant Pearson at their head, regimental colors
in hand, expecting some forward work, sweeping so
finely into line that I was proud to give them the cen-
ter, joining on the heroic Glenn, holding there alone.
It is soon over. Woods and works are cleared,
and the enemy sent flying up the road towards their
main entrenchments. The 185th New York is
drawn back and placed in support of the battery,
right and left. The 198th Pennsylvania is gathered
on the right, in front of the farm buildings.
Gregory takes the advanced line, and soon Bartlett
comes up and presses up the road to near the junc-
tion of the Boydton and White Oak, reminded of
the enemy's neighborhood by a few cannon shots
from their entrenchments near Burgess' Mill bridge-
head. At about this time word comes that the
Second Corps is on our right, not far away. By our
action a lodgment had been effected which became
the pivot of the series of undulations on the left,
which after three days resulted in turning the
right flank of Lee's army. We had been fighting
Grade's, Ransom's, Wallace's, and Wise's Brigades,
of Johnson's Division, under command of General
R. H. Anderson, numbering, as by their last morn-
ing reports, 6277 officers and men "effective" for
the field.

54 The Passing of the Armies

My own brigade in this engagement numbered
less than 1700 officers and men. Mitchell's
battery and Gregory's and Bartlett's regiments
assisting in the final advance added to this number
probably 1000 more. Their total loss in this
engagement was slight in numbers. The loss in
my brigade was a quarter of those in line.

My fight was over, but not my responsibilities.
The day and the field are ours; but what a day,
and what a field ! As for the day, behind the heavy
brooding mists the shrouded sun was drawing down
the veil which shrined it in the mausoleum of
vanished but unforgotten years. And for the
field: strown all over it were a hundred and fifty
bodies of the enemy's dead, and many of the hun-
dred and sixty-seven of my own men killed and
wounded. Both my personal aides had been
severely wounded, and every officer of my staff
unhorsed. The casualties among officers were
especially beyond the ratio in other battles.
Captain Mitchell, commanding the battery, was
lying behind it severely wounded. It may be
proper to add that as he was serving away from his
immediate superiors, I saw to it that his gallant
and most effective service was faithfully reported,
and fairly recognized by the Government. There
was a sequel to this in the widowhood of after
years. Sometimes we can do for others what we
cannot do for ourselves. And this is the law of
richest increase.

With the declining day I slowly rode over the
stricken field. Around the breastworks lay a

The Overture 55

hundred and fifty of the enemy's dead and desper-
ately wounded. We had taken also in the counter-
charges and eddies of the strife nearly two hundred
prisoners — happier than they knew. These we
sent away for safe-keeping. But we had with us,
to keep and to care for, more than five hundred
bruised bodies of men, — men made in the image
of God, marred by the hand of man, and must
we say in the name of God? And where is the
reckoning for such things? And who is answer-
able? One might almost shrink from the sound of
his own voice, which had launched into the palpita-
ting air words of order — do we call it? — fraught
with such ruin. Was it God's command we heard,
or His forgiveness we must forever implore?

For myself, though hardly able to move erect
for soreness and weakness, I was thankful to have
come out holding together as well as I did. For
one little circumstance, which, I suppose, has
interest only for myself, I felt very grateful for the
kindness, and possibly the favor, of General Griffin
in so ordering my reinforcements as not to deprive
me of the command of the field till my fight was
over. In the exigency of the situation, instead of
sending me four regiments from the other two
brigades of the division, he might very properly
have put in Bartlett, with his fine brigade, and that
gallant officer would doubtless have carried all
before him. But that noble sense of fairness,
that delicate recognition of honorable sensibilities,
in thoughtfully permitting, and even helping, a
subordinate to fight his fight through, if he could,

56 The Passing of the Armies

and receive whatever credit might belong to it,
shows not only the generous traits of General
Griffin's character, but shows also how strange a
bond it is to hold a body of soldiers together, each
and each to all, when men can feel what they have
wrought with the best that is in them is safe in
the hands of their commander, whose power over
the "ways of putting things" has so much effect
to make or mar their reputation. Some command-
ers more than others have commanded love. That
too has reason. Justice is said to be an attribute
of the divine: in our imperfect world, missing that,
we count one thing noblest, — and that is soul.

One other thing I may mention. General
Warren, our Corps commander, came up to me
with pleasant words. "General," he says, "you
have done splendid work. I am telegraphing the
President. You will hear from it." Not long
afterwards I received from the Government a
brevet commission of Major-General, given, as it
stated, "for conspicuous gallantry in action on the
Quaker Road, March 29, 1865. " I had previously
received this brevet of the date of March 13th, pur-
porting to be for meritorious services during that
Virginia campaign. I begged permission to decline
this and to accept the later one.

First looking after the comfort of my wounded
horse in one of the farmsheds, I walked out alone
over the field to see how it was faring for the " unre-
tiirning brave. " It was sunset beyond the clouds;
with us the murky battle-smoke and thickening
mists wrapped the earth, darklier shaded in many

The Overture 57

a spot no light should look on more. Burials
were even now begun; searchings, questionings,
reliefs, recognitions, greetings, and farewells; last
messages tenderly taken from manly lips for
breaking hearts ; insuppressible human moan ; fiick-
erings of heart-held song ; vanishing prayer heaven-
ward. But what could mortal do for mortal or
human skill or sympathy avail for such deep need?
I leaned over one and spoke to another as I passed,
feeling how little now I could command. At
length I kneeled above the sweet body of McEuen,
where God's thought had folded its wing; and
near by, where wrecks were thickly strewn, I came
upon brave old Sickel lying calm and cheerful,
with a shattered limb, and weakened by loss of
blood while "fighting it through," but refusing to
have more attention than came in his turn. Still
pictured on my mind his splendid action where I
had left him rallying his men, I sat down by him to
give him such cheer as I could. He seemed to
think I needed the comforting. The heroic flush
was still on his face. "General," he whispers,
smiling up, "you have the soul of the lion and the
heart of the woman." "Take the benediction to
yourself," was the reply; "you could not have
thought that, if you had not been it." And that
was our thought at parting for other trial, and
through after years. For so it is : might and love,
— they are the all; — fatherhood and motherhood
of God himself, and of every godlike man.

Still we are gathering up our wounded; first
filling the bleak old Quaker meeting-house with

58 The Passing of the Armies

those reqmring instant attention and tenderest
care, then giving our best for the many more,
sheltering them as we could, or out under the
brooding rain, where nature was sighing her own
requiem, but even this grateful to some parched
lip or throbbing wound. Still, after the descending
night had wrapped the world in its softening shroud
the burials were going on (for we had other things
for the morrow), — strange figures on some far
edge, weirdly illumined by the lurid lanterns hold-
ing their light so close, yet magnifying every form
and motion of the scene, all shadow-veiled and
hooded like the procession of the "misericordia. "
Seeking also the wounded of the enemy, led mostly
by moans and supplications, — souls left so lonely,
forlorn, and far away from all the caring; caring for
these too, and partly for that very reason; gather-
ing them out of the cold and rain when possible, — ■
for "blood is thicker than water," — we treated them
as our own. "How far that little candle throws
its beams!" Indeed, in the hour of sorrow and
disaster do we not all belong to each other? At
last, having done all possible, our much-enduring
men lay down under the rain and darkness descend-
ing so close, so stifling, so benumbing, — ^to sleep,
to dream.

For my own part, I was fain to seek a corner
of the sorrow-laden Lewis house, sinking down
drenched and torn in that dark, unwholesome,
scarcely vital air, fitting companion of the weakest
there. But first of all, drawing near a rude kitchen
box, by the smouldering light of a sodden candle.

The Overture 59

steadying my nerves to compose a letter to dear,
high-souled Doctor McEuen of Philadelphia, re-
membering his last words commending to my care
his only son, with the beseeching, almost conse-
crating hands laid on my shoulder, — to tell him
how, in the forefront of battle and in act of heroic
devotion, his noble boy had been lifted to his like,
and his own cherished hope merged with immortal
things.

Never to be forgotten, — that night of March
twenty-ninth, on the Quaker Road. All night
the dismal rain swept down the darkness, deep
answering deep, soaking the fields and roads, and
drenching the men stretched on the ground, sore
with overstrain and wounds, — living, dead, and
dying all shrouded in ghastly gloom. Before
morning the roads were impassable for artillery and
army-wagons, and nearly so for the ambulances,
of our Corps and the Second, that crept up ghost-
like through the shuddering mist. Under the
spectral light of hovering lanterns hundreds of
helpless patient sufferers were loaded in; to be
taken from this scene of their manly valor, now so
barren of all but human kindness, in long procession
for the nearest hospital or railroad station, — and
for what other station and what other greeting,
what could they, or we, foreknow?

CHAPTER III

THE WHITE OAK ROAD

WITH customary cognizance of our pur-
poses and plans, Lee had on the 28th of
March ordered General Fitzhugh Lee
with his division of cavalry — about 1300 strong —
from the extreme left of his lines near Hanover
Court House, to the extreme right in the vicinity
of Five Forks, this being four or five miles beyond
Lee's entrenched right, at which point it was
thought Sheridan would attempt to break up the
Southside Railroad. Longstreet had admonished
him that the next move would be on his communi-
cations, urging him to put a sufficient force in the
field to meet this. "Our greater danger," he said,
"is from keeping too close within our trenches."^
Such despatch had Fitzhugh Lee made that on the
evening of the twenty-ninth he had arrived at
Sutherlands Station, within six miles of Five Forks,
and about that distance from our fight that after-
noon on the Quaker Road. On the morning of
the 29th, Lee had also despatched General R. H.
Anderson with Bushrod Johnson's Division —

' Manassas to Appomattox, p. 588.

60

The White Oak Road 6i

Grade's, Ransom's, Wise's, and Wallace's Brigades
— to reinforce his main entrenchments along the
White Oak Road. It was these troops which we
had encountered on the Quaker Road. Pickett's
Division, consisting of the brigades of Stuart, Hun-
ton, Corse, and Terry, about five thousand strong,
was sent to the entrenchments along the Claiborne
Road, and Roberts's Brigade of North Carolina
cavalry, to picket the White Oak Road from the
Claiborne, the right of their entrenchments, to
Five Forks.

On the thirtieth, the Fifth Corps, relieved by
the Second, moved to the left along the Boydton
Road, advancing its left towards the right of
the enemy's entrenchments on the White Oak
Road. Lee, also, apprehensive for his right, sent
McGowan's South Carolina Brigade and McRae's
North Carolina, of Hill's Corps, to strengthen
Bushrod Johnson's Division in the entrench-
ments there; but took two of Johnson's brigades —
Ransom's and Wallace's — with three brigades of
Pickett's Division (leaving Hunton's in the en-
trenchments) , to go with Pickett to reinforce Fitz-
hugh Lee at Five Forks. W. H. F. Lee's Division
of cavalry, about one thousand five hundred men,
and Rosser's, about one thousand, were also ordered
to Five Forks. These reinforcements did not reach
Five Forks until the evening of the thirtieth.

The precise details of these orders and move-
ments were, of course, not known to General
Grant nor to any of his subordinates. But enough
had been developed on the Quaker Road to lead

62 The Passing of the Armies

Grant to change materially his orginal purpose
of making the destruction of the railroads the
principal objective of Sheridan's movements. At
the close of our fight there, Grant had despatched
Sheridan: "Our line is now unbroken from Appo-
mattox to Dinwiddie. I now feel like ending the
matter, if possible, before going back. I do not
want you, therefore, to cut loose and go after the
enemy's roads at present. In the morning push
around the enemy, if you can, and get on to his
right rear. The movements of the enemy's cavalry
may, of course, modify your action. We will act
together as one army here, until it is seen what
can be done with the enemy." Grant also tele-
graphed President Lincoln: "General Griffin was
attacked near vtrhere the Quaker Road intersects
the Boydton, but repulsed it easily, capturing
about 100 prisoners." But on the morning of the
30th, he telegraphed the President again: 'T
understand the number of dead left by the enemy
yesterday for us to bury was much greater than
our own dead. Our captures also were larger than
reported. This morning all our troops have been
pushed forward." For the morning of the 30th
in spite of the sodden earth and miry roads, we
managed to pull through to the Boydton Plank
Road, which the Fifth Corps occupied as far as
its crossing of Gravelly Run. Meantime, Hum-
phreys with the Second Corps, advanced on the
right of the road, and pressing the Confederate
pickets behind their entrenchments, held his line
close up to them.

The White Oak Road 63

The effect of this message to Sheridan reached
to something more than a measure of tactics. It
brought him at once to Grant. It will be borne in
mind that he was not under the orders of Meade,
but an independent commander, subject to Grant
alone. His original orders contemplated his hand-
ling his command as a flying column, independently
of others — all the responsibility and all the glory
being his own. The new instructions would bring
him to act in conjunction with the Army of the
Potomac, and render quite probable under army
regulations and usages his coming under temporary
command of General Meade, his senior in rank, —
a position we do not find him in during this cam-
paign. The logic of the new situation involved
some interesting corollaries beyond the direct
issue of arms.

In that dismal night of March 29th on the
Quaker Road Sheridan was holding long and close
conference with Grant, having ridden up through
the mud and rain immediately on receiving the
message announcing the change of plan, to Grant's
headquarters a little in rear of us on Gravelly
Run. All that was known of this interview to
those outside was that at the close of it, Sheridan
was directed to gain possession of Five Forks early
in the morning. We could not help feeling that
he should have taken possession of this before.
For all the afternoon and night of the 29th, there
was nothing to oppose him there but the right wing
of Roberts' slender brigade, picketing the White
Oak Road. But when he received a positive order

64 The Passing of the Armies

to secure that point on the morning of the 30th,
he seems to have moved so late and moderately
that Fitzhugh Lee had time to march from Suther-
land's Station to Five Forks, and thence half-way
to Dinwiddle Court House to meet him; and even
then, attacking with a single division, although
this outnumbered the enemy by a thousand men,^
he permitted his demonstration on Five Forks to
be turned into a reconnaissance half-way out,"
his advance being checked at the forks of the Ford
and Boisseau Road, where it remained all night
and until itself attacked the next morning.^ It
is true that the roads and fields were heavy with
rain; but this did not prevent our two infantry
corps from moving forward and establishing them-
selves in front of the White Oak Road, in face of
considerable opposition; nor hinder Lee from zeal-
ously strengthening the right of his lines and press-
ing forward his reinforcements of infantry and
cavalry to Fitzhugh Lee at Five Forks, where
they arrived about sunset. What we cannot
understand is why previous to that time General
Sheridan, with thirteen thousand cavalry, had
not found it practicable to make an effective de-
monstration on Five Forks, covered all the morn-
ing only by what few men Roberts had there
picketing the White Oak Road, and after that

' General Devin's Division numbered, according to returns of March
30, 169 officers and 2830 men, present for duty.

' General Merritt's despatch of March 30th. Rebellion Records, Serial
97. P- 326.

3 General Fitzhugh Lee's testimony. Warren Court Records, vol. i.,
p. 469.

The White Oak Road 65

time, all day, only by Fitzhugh Lee with eighteen
hundred cavalry.

Early on the morning of the 31st the Fifth
Corps had all advanced northerly beyond the
Boydton Road towards the enemy at the junction
of the White Oak and Claiborne Roads: Ayres,
with the Second Division, in advance, about six
hundred yards from this junction; Crawford, with
the Third Division, on Ayres' right rear in echelon
with him, about six himdred yards distant; and
Griffin, with the First Division, in position about
thirteen hundred yards in rear of a prolongation of
Crawford's line to the left, entirely out of sight
of both, owing to woods and broken ground, but
within what was thought to be supporting distance.
This position was along the southeast bank of a
swampy branch of Gravelly Run, half a mile north
of the Boydton Road, and a mile and a half south
of the White Oak Road. Miles* Division of the
Second Corps had extended to the left on the
Boydton Road to connect with Griffin.

My command was the extreme left of our lines;
my own brigade along the difficult branch of
Gravelly Run, facing towards Ayres. Gregory,
who had been directed by General Griffin to report
to me for orders with his brigade for the rest of
this campaign, was placed on the left, his line
bent back at right angles along a country road
leading from Boydton to the Claiborne Road.
A portion of the artillery of the division was placed
also in my lines to strengthen the defense of that
flank, where we had reason to believe the enemy,

66 The Passing of the Armies

after their old fashion, were very Hkely to make a
dash upon our left while we were manoeuvring to
turn their right.

General Grant, understanding from General
Sheridan that he was on the White Oak Road
near Five Forks, on the afternoon of the 30th,
had replied to him that his position on this road
was of very great importance, and concluded this
answer with these words: "Can you not push up
towards Burgess* Mills on the White Oak Road? "^

General Grant's wishes, as now understood,
were that we should gain possession of the White
Oak Road in our front. This was indicated in a
despatch from him March 30th, to General Meade,
the purport of which was known to us and had
much to do with shaping our energies for action.
The despatch was the following:

As Warren and Humphreys advance, thus shortening
their line, I think the former had better move by the left
flank as far as he can stretch out with safety, and cover
the White Oak Road if he can. This will enable Sheridan
to reach the Southside Road by Ford's Road, and, it may
be, double the enemy up, so as to drive him out of his
works south of Hatcher's Run.

In accordance with this understanding, Ayres
had made a careful examination of the situation
in his front, upon the results of which General

' Sheridan's despatch to Grant, March 30th, 2.45 p.m., and Grant's
reply thereto; Records, Warren Court of Inquiry, vol. ii., p. 1309. It
afterwards transpired that Sheridan's cavalry did not long hold this
position. Grant's despatch to Meade, March 31st, Rebellion Records,
Serial 97, p. 339.

The White Oak Road 67

Warren had reported to Generals Meade and
Grant that he believed he could, with his whole
corps, gain possession of the White Oak Road.
This proposition was made in face of the informa-
tion of Grant's order of 7.40 this morning, that
owing to the heavy rains the troops were to remain
substantially as they were, but that three days'
more rations should be issued to the Fifth Corps;
an intimation of a possible cutting loose from our
base of supplies for a time.

Griffin's Division, being entrusted with a double
duty — that of guarding the exposed left flank of
the Fifth and Second Corps, and that of being in
readiness to render prompt assistance in case of
trouble arising from the demonstrations against
the White Oak Road front — our adjustments had
to be made for what in familiar speech is termed a
"ticklish situation." Vague rumors from the
direction of Five Forks, added to what we knew of
the general probabilities, justified us in consider-
able anxiety. There was a queer expression on
Griffin's face when he showed me a copy of a
message from Grant to Sheridan, late the evening
before, which gave us the comical satisfaction of
knowing that our inward fears had good outside
support. This was what we thus enjoyed: "From
the information I have sent you of Warren's po-
sition, you will see that he is in danger of being
attacked in the morning. If such occurs, be pre-
pared to push up with all your force to assist him."
The morning had now come. It is needless to
remark that there was no lethargy in the minds of

68 The Passine of the Armies

a

any on that left flank of ours in a situation so
critical, whether for attack or defense.

It may seem strange that in such a state of
things Warren should have made the suggestion
for a movement to his front. But he was anxious,
as were all his subordinates, to strike a blow in
the line of our main business, which was to turn
Lee's right and break up his army. Wet and worn
and famished as all were, we were alive to the
thought that promptness and vigor of action would
at all events determine the conditions and chances
of the campaign. And if this movement did not
involve the immediate turning of Lee's right in his
entrenchments, it would secure the White Oak
Road to the west of them, which Grant had assured
Sheridan was of so much importance, and would
enable us to hold Lee's right in check, so that
Sheridan could either advance on the White Oak
Road toward us and Burgess' Mills, as Grant had
asked him to do, or make a dash on the Southside
Railroad, and cut their communications and turn
their right by a wider sweep, as Grant had also
suggested to him to do.

Late in the forenoon Warren received through
General Webb, chief of staff, the following order:
"General Meade directs that should you deter-
mine by your reconnaissance that you can gain
possession of, and hold, the White Oak Road, you
are to do so, notwithstanding the order to suspend
operations to-day." This gave a sudden turn to
dreams. In that humiliation, fasting, and prayer,
visions arose like prophecy of old. We felt the

The White Oak Road 69

swing and sweep; we saw the enemy turned front
and flank across the White Oak Road; Sheridan
flashing on oiir wheeHng flank, cutting communica-
tions, enfilading the Claiborne entrenchments ; our
Second Corps over the main works, followed up
by our troops in the old lines seizing the supreme
moment to smash in the Petersburg defenses, scat-
ter and capture all that was left of Lee's army,
and sweep away every menace to the old flag
between us and the James River, — mirage and
glamour of boyish fancy, measuring things by its
heart; daydreams of men familiar with disaster,
drenched and famished, but building, as ever,
castles of their souls above the level river of death.

It was with mingled feelings of mortification,
apprehension, and desperation that, in the very
ecstasy of these visions, word came to us of Sheri-
dan's latest despatch to Grant the evening before,
that Pickett's Division of infantry was deployed
along the White Oak Road, his right reaching to
Five Forks, and the whole rebel cavalry was
massing at that place, so that Sheridan would be
held in check by them instead of dashing up, as
was his wont, to give a cyclone edge to our wheeling
flank. Grant's despatch to Meade, transmitting
this, was a dire disenchantment. The knell rang
thus: "From this despatch Warren will not have
the cavalry support on his left flank that I ex-
pected. He must watch closely his left flank."

Although Grant had given out word that there
should be no movement of troops that day, Lee
seems not so to have resolved. Driven to seize

70 The Passing of the Armies

every advantage or desperate expedient, he had
ordered four brigades, those of Wise, Gracie, and
Hunton, with McGowan's South Carolina Brigade,
to move out from their entrenchments, get across
the flank of the Fifth Corps and smash it in. We
did not know this, but it was the very situation
which Grant had made the occasion for attacking
ourselves. It was a strange coincidence, and it
was to both parties a surprise.

This was the condition of things and of minds
when the advance ordered for the White Oak Road
was put into execution. Ayres advanced soldier-
like, as was his nature; resolute, firm-hearted,
fearing nothing, in truth not fearing quite enough.
Although he believed his advance would bring on
a battle, he moved without skirmishers, but in a
wedgelike formation guarding both flanks. His
First Brigade, commanded by the gallant Win-
throp, had the lead in line of battle, his right and
rear supported by the Third Brigade, that of Gwyn,
who was accounted a good fighter; and Denison's
Maryland Brigade formed in column on Winthrop's
left and rear, ready to face outward by the left
flank in case of need; while a brigade of Crawford's
was held in reserve in rear of the center. This
would seem to be a prudent and strong formation
of Ayres' command. The enemy's onset was swift
and the encounter sudden. The blow fell without
warning, enveloping Ayres' complete front. It
appears that McGowan's Brigade struck squarely
on Winthrop's left flank, with an oblique fire also
on the Maryland Brigade, while the rest of the

The White Oak Road 71

attacking forces struck on his front and right.
General Hunton' says they were not expecting
to strike otir troops so soon and that the attack was
not made by usual order, but that on discovering
our advance so close upon them a gallant lieuten-
ant in his brigade sprang in front of his line, wav-
ing his sword, with the shout, "Follow me, boys!"
whereupon all three brigades on their right dashed
forward to the charge. Winthrop was over-
whelmed and his supports demoralized. All he
could hope for was to retire in good order. This
he exerted himself to effect. But this is not an
easy thing to do when once the retreat is started
before a spirited foe superior in numbers, or in the
flush of success. In vain the sturdy Denison
strove to stem the torrent. A disabling wound
struck down his brave example, and the effect of
this shows how much the moral forces have to do
in sustaining the physical. Brigade after brigade
broke, that strange impulse termed a "panic"
took effect, and the retreat became a rout.

Ay res, like a roaring lion, endeavors to check this
disorder, and makes a stand on each favoring crest
and wooded ravine. But in vain. His men
stream past him. They come back on Crawford's
veteran division and burst through it in spite of
all the indignant Kellogg can do, involving this
also in the demoralization; and the whole crowd
comes back reckless of everything but to get
behind the lines on the Boydton Road, plunging
through the swampy run, breaking through Griffin's

' Records, Warren Court, p. 623.

12 The Passing of the Armies

right where he and Bartlett re-form them behind
the Third Brigade. The pursuing enemy swarm-
ing down the opposite bank are checked there by
the sharp musketry from our Hne. Not knowing
but the enemy were in force sufficient to smash
through us on the left, I prepared for action.
Griffin authorized me to use a portion of the artil-
lery, and I swung two pieces to the right front,
while he himself with great exertion got a battery
into position along Bartlett's front. The enemy
were gathering force, although in much confusion.
I was apprehensive of an attempt to take us in
flank on the left in Gregory's front, and was about
giving my attention to this, when General Warren
and General Griffin came down at full speed, both
out of breath, with their efforts to rally the panic-
stricken men whose honor was their own, and evi-
dently under great stress of feeling. Griffin breaks
forth first, after his high-proof fashion: "General
Chamberlain, the Fifth Corps is eternally damned."
I essayed some pleasantry: "Not till you are in
heaven." Griffin does not smile nor hear, but
keeps right on: "I tell Warren you will wipe out
this disgrace, and that's what we're here for."
Then Warren breaks out, with stirring phrase, but
uttered as if in a strangely compressed tone:
"General Chamberlain, will you save the honor of
the Fifth Corps? That's all there is about it."
That appeal demanded a chivalrous response.
Honor is a mighty sentiment, and the Fifth Corps
was dear to me. But my answer was not up to
the keynote — I confess that. I was expecting

The White Oak Road 72>

every moment an attack on my left flank now that
the enemy had disclosed our situation. And my
little brigade had taken the brunt of things thus
far, but the day before the last, winning a hard-
fought field from which they had come off griev-
ously thinned and torn and worn, and whence I
had but hardly brought myself away. I men-
tioned Bartlett, who had our largest and best
brigade, which had been but little engaged. "We
have come to you; you know what that means,"
was the only answer. ''I'll try it, General; only
don't let anybody stop me except the enemy."
I had reason for that protest as things had been
going. "I will have a bridge ready here in less
than an hour. You can't get men through this
swamp in any kind of order," says Warren. "It
may do to come back on. General ; it will not do to
stop for that now. My men will go straight
through." So at a word the First Battalion of
the 198th Pennsylvania, Major Glenn command-
ing, plunges into the muddy branch, waist deep
and more,^ with cartridge-boxes borne upon the
bayonet sockets above the turbid waters; the
Second Battalion commanded now by Captain
Stanton, since Sickel and McEuen were gone,
keeping the banks beyond clear of the enemy by
their well-directed fire, until the First has formed
in skirmishing order and pressed up the bank. I
then pushed through to support Glenn and formed

' General Warren states in his testimony before the Court of Inquiry
that this stream was sixty feet wide and four or five feet deep. Records,
p. 717.

74 The Passing of the Armies

my brigade in line of battle on the opposite bank,
followed by Gregory's in colimin of regiments.
The enemy fell back without much resistance
until finding supports on broken strong ground
they made stand after stand. Griffin followed
with Bartlett's Brigade, in reserve. In due time
Ayres' troops got across and followed up on our
left rear, while Crawford was somewhere to our
right and rear, but out of sight or reach after we
had once cleared the bank of the stream. It seems
that General Warren sent to General Meade the
following despatch: "I am going to send forward
a brigade from my left, supported by all I can get
of Crawford and Ayres, and attack. . . . This
will take place about 1.45, if the enemy does not
attack sooner." This was the only recognition
or record we were to have in official reports ; it was
not all we were to achieve in unwritten history.

At about this time. Miles, of the Second Corps,
had, after the fashion of that corps, gone in hand-
somely in his front, somewhat to the right of our
division, and pressed so far out as to flank Wise's
Brigade on the left of the troops that had attacked
Ayres, and drove them back half-way to their start-
ing-point. This had the effect to induce the enemy
in my front to retire their line to a favorable position
on the crest of a ravine where they made another
determined stand. After sharp fighting here we
drove them across an extensive field into some works
they seemed to have already prepared, of the usual
sort in field operations — logs and earth, — ^from
which they delivered a severe fire which caused the

The White Oak Road 75

right of my line to waver. Taking advantage of
the slight shelter of a crest in the open field I was
preparing for a final charge, when I received an
order purporting to be Warren's, to halt my com-
mand and hold my position until he could recon-
noitre conditions in my front. I did not like this
much. It was a hard place to stay in. The staff
officer who brought me the order had his horse
shot under him as he delivered it. I rode back
to see what the order meant. I found General
Griffin and General Warren in the edge of the woods
overlooking the field, and reported my plans.
We had already more than recovered the ground
taken and lost by the Second and Third Divisions.
The Fifth Corps had been rapidly and completely
vindicated, and the question was now of taking
the White Oak Road, which had been the object
of so much wishing and worrying. It was evi-
dent that things could not remain as they were.
The enemy would soon attack and drive me back.
And it would cost many men even to try to with-
draw from such a position. The enemy's main
works were directly on my right flank, and how
the intervening woods might be utilized to cover
an assault on that flank none of us knew. I pro-
posed to put Gregory's Brigade into those woods,
by battalion in echelon by the left, by which for-
mation he would take in flank and reverse in suc-
cession any attacks on my right. When Gregory
should be well advanced I would charge the works
across the field with my own brigade. My plan
being approved, I instructed Gregory to keep in

76 The Passing of the Armies

the woods, moving forward with an inclination
towards his left to keep him closed in toward me,
and at the same time to open the intervals in his
echelons so that he would be free to deliver a
strong fire on his own front if necessary, and the
moment he struck any opposition to open at once
with full volleys and make all the demonstration
he could, and I would seize that moment to make a
dash at the works in my front. Had I known of
the fact that General Lee himself was personally
directing affairs in our front, ^ I might not have
been so rash, or thought myself so cool.

Riding forward I informed my officers of my
purpose and had their warm support. Soon the
roar of Gregory's guns rose in the woods like a
whirlwind. We sounded bugles "Forward!" and
that way we go; mounted officers leading their
commands, pieces at the right shoulder until at
close quarters. The action and color of the scene
were supported by my horse Charlemagne, who,
though battered and torn as I was, insisted on
coming up. We belonged together; he knew that
as well as I. He had been shot down in battle
twice before ; but his Morgan endurance was under
him, and his Kentucky blood was up.

What we had to do could not be done by firing.
This was foot-and-hand business. We went with
a rush, not minding ranks nor alignments, but
with open front to lessen loss from the long-range
rifles. Within effective range, about three hun-

' Testimony of General Hunton and General McGowan, Warren
Court Records, vol. i., pp. 625 and 648.

The White Oak Road 'n

dred yards, the sharp, cutting fire made us reel
and shiver. Now, quick or never! On and over!
The impetuous 185th New York rolls over the
enemy's right, and seems to swallow it up; the
198th Pennsylvania, with its fourteen companies,
half veterans, half soldiers "born so," swing in
upon their left, striking Hunton's Brigade in front,
and for a few minutes there is a seething wave of
count ercurrents, then rolling back, leaving a fringe
of wrecks, — and all is over. We pour over the
works, swing to the right and drive the enemy into
their entrenchments along the Claiborne Road,
and then establish ourselves across the White Oak
Road facing northeast, and take breath.'

Major Woodward in his history of the 198th
Pennsylvania, giving a graphic outline of the last
dash, closes with an incident I had not recorded.
"Only for a moment," he says, "did the sudden
and terrible blast of death cause the right of the
line to waver. On they dashed, every color flying,
officers leading, right in among the enemy, leap-
ing the breastworks, — a confused struggle of firing,
cutting, thrusting, a tremendous surge of force,
both moral and physical, on the enemy's breaking
lines, — and the works were carried. Private Augus-
tus Ziever captured the flag of the 46th Virginia
in mounting one of the parapets, and handed it
to General Chamberlain in the midst of the melee,
who immediately gave it back to him, telling him

' General Hunton, since Senator from Virginia, said in his testimony
before the Warren Court, speaking of this charge, "I thought it was one
of the most gallant things I had ever seen." — Records, Part i, p. 625.

78 The Passing of the Armies

to keep it and take the credit that belonged to him.
Almost that entire regiment was captured at the
same time." It scarcely need be added that the
man who captured that battle flag was sent with
it in person to General Warren, and that he re-
ceived a medal of honor from the Government.

In due time Gregory came up out of the woods,
his face beaming with satisfaction at the result,
to which his solid work, so faithfully performed,
had been essential. His brigade was placed in
line along the White Oak Road on our right, and
a picket thrown out close up to the enemy's works.
This movement had taken three hours, and was
almost a continuous fight, with several crescendo
passages, and a final cadence of wild, chromatic
sweeps settling into the steady keynote, thrilling
with the chords of its unwritten overtones. It
had cost us a hundred men, but this was all too
great, of men like these, — and for oblivion. It
was to cost us something more — a sense of fruit-
lessness and thanklessness.

It seems that in the black moment, when our
two divisions were coming back in confusion,
Meade had asked Grant to have Sheridan strike the
attacking force on their right and rear, as he had
been ordered to do in case Warren was attacked.
For we have Grant's message to Meade, sent at
12.40, which is evidently a reply: "It will take so
long to communicate with Sheridan that he can-
not be brought to co-operation unless he comes up
in obedience to orders sent him last night. I un-
derstood General Forsyth to say that as soon as

The White Oak Road 79

another division of cavalry got up, he would send
it forward. It may be there now. I will send to
him again, at once."

So far, to all appearance, all was well. The
Fifth Corps was across the White Oak Road.
General Grant's wish that we should extend our
left across this road as near to the enemy as possible,
so that Sheridan could double up the enemy and
drive him north of Hatcher's Run, had been liter-
ally fulfilled. It had cost us three days' hard work
and hard fighting, and more than two thousand
men. It had disclosed vital points. General
Grant's notice of all this, as given in his Memoirs
(vol. ii., p. 435), representing all these movements
as subordinated to those of General Sheridan, is
the following: "There was considerable fighting
in taking up these new positions for the Second
and Fifth Corps, in which the Army of the James
had also to participate somewhat, and the losses
were quite severe. This is what was known as
the battle of the White Oak Road."'

The understanding of this affair has been con-
fused by the impression that it was the Second

' Contrasts are sometimes illumining. When our assault on the
enemy's right, March 31st, was followed by General Miles' attack on the
Claiborne entrenchments on the second of April, after the exigency at
Five Forks had called away most of its defenders, — Generals Ander-
son and Johnson, with Hunton, Wise, Gracie, and Fulton's Brigades
being of the number, — and the whole rebel army was demoralized,
General Grant, now free to appreciate such action, despatches General
Meade at otice: "Miles has made a big thing of it, and deserves the
highest praise for the pertinacity with which he stuck to the enemy until
he wrung from him victory." Verily, something besides circumstances
can "alter cases."

8o The Passing of the Armies

Corps troops which attacked and drove back the
forces of the enemy that had driven in the Second
and Third Divisions of the Fifth Corps. In the
complicated rush and momentous consummation
of the campaign, and particularly in the singular
history of the Fifth Corps for those days, in which
corps and division and brigade commanders were
changed, there was no one specially charged with
the care of seeing to it that the movements of this
corps in relation to other corps were properly
reported as to the important points of time as
well as of place. General Miles, doubtless, sup-
posed he was attacking the same troops that had
repulsed part of the Fifth Corps. He moved
promptly when Griffin, with infantry and artillery,
was checking the onrushing enemy now close upon
our front; and, attacking in his own front — that
of the Second Corps, — ^fought his way valiantly
close up to the enemy's works in that part of their
line. Miles reported to Humphreys that he was
"ahead of the Fifth Corps," which subsequently
bore off to the left of him and left a wide interval.
This expression must not be understood as direc-
tion in a right line. It is used rather as related
to the angular distance between the Boydton and
the White Oak Roads, this being less where Miles
was, on the right, and widening by a large angle
towards the left, where the Fifth Corps was. It is
as one line is ahead of another when advanced in
echelon; or as a ship tacking to windward with
another is said to be "ahead" of the latter when
she is on the weather beam of it. Miles did not

The White Oak Road 8i

come in contact with a single regiment that had
attacked the Fifth Corps. He struck quite to
the right of us all, attacking in his own front. But
it got into the reports otherwise, and "went up."
Grant accepted it as given; and so it has got into
history, and never can be gotten out. General
Miles did not get ahead of the Fifth Corps that day,
but he came up gallantly on its flank and rendered
it great assistance by turning the flank of General
Wise and keeping the enemy from massing on our
front. He reports the capture of the flag of the
47th Alabama, a regiment of Law's old brigade of
Longstreet's Corps, which was nowhere near the
front of the Fifth Corps on this day.

In the investigations before the Covirt of In-
qtdry, General Warren felt under the necessity of
excusing himself from the responsibility of the
disastrous results of Ay res' advance on the morn-
ing of the thirty-first. He is at pains to show that
he did not intend an attack there, although he had
suggested the probable success of such movement.^
What then was this advance? Surely not to create
a diversion in favor of Sheridan before Dinwiddie.
At all events, there was an endeavor to get posses-
sion of the White Oak Road. And that could not
be done without bringing on a battle, as Ayres
said he knew, beforehand,^ and afterwards knew
still better, and we also, unmistakably. Warren
was evidently im.pressed with Grant's desire to
gain the White Oak Road in order to strike the

' Records, Warren Court, Part ii., p. 1525.

* Testimony, Warren Court Records, Part i., p. 247.

6

S2 The Passing of the Armies

enemy's right as soon as possible; and he was not
aware of any change of intention.

But however this may have been, when Ayres*
advance was repulsed, why was it felt necessary to
recover that field and "the honor of the Fifth
Corps " ? Unless it was the intention to take forci-
ble possession of the White Oak Road, the re-
covery of that field was not a tactical necessity,
but only — if I may so speak — a sentimental
necessity. And there was no more dishonor in
this reconnaissance — if it was only that — being
driven back than in Sheridan's reconnaissance
toward Five Forks being driven back upon Din-
widdle, for his conduct in which he received only
praise. It is evident that General Grant thought
an attack was somehow involved; for hearing of
Ayres' repulse, he blames General Warren for not
attacking with his whole corps, and asks General
Meade, "What is to prevent him from pitching in
with his whole corps and attacking before giving
him time to entrench or retire in good order to his
old entrenchments?" This is exactly what was
done, before receiving this suggestion; but it did
not elicit approval, or even notice, from Grant or
Meade, or Warren. As things turned, Warren
was put under a strong motive to ignore this epi-
sode; and as for Grant, he had other interests in
mind.

I In our innocence we thought we had gained a
great advantage. We had the White Oak Road,
and were across it, and as near to the enemy as
possible, according to Grant's wish. Now we

The White Oak Road 83

were ready for the consummate stroke, the achieve-
ment of the object for which all this toil and trial
had been undergone. It needed but little more.
The splendid Second Corps was on our right,
close up to the enemy's works. We were more
than ready. If only Sheridan with but a single
division of our cavalry could disengage himself
from his occupation before Dinwiddie, so far away
to our rear, and now so far off from any strategic
point, where he had first been placed for the pur-
pose of raiding upon the Danville and Southside
Railroads, — which objective had been distinctly
given up in orders by General Grant, — if with his
audacity and insistance Sheridan could have placed
himself in position to obey Grant's order, and come
to Warren's assistance when he was attacked, by
a dash up between us and Five Forks, we would
have swiftly inaugurated the beginning of the
end, — Grant's main wish and purpose latest ex-
pressed to Sheridan, of ending matters here before
he went back. But another, and by far minor,
objective interposed. Instead of the cavalry com-
ing to help us complete our victories at the
front, we were to go to the rescue of Sheridan at
the rear.

Little did we dream that on the evening of the
30th, Grant had formed the intention of detaching
the Fifth Corps to operate with Sheridan in turn-
ing the enemy's right. This was consistent, how-
ever, with the understanding in the midnight
conference on the 29th. The proposition to Sheri-
dan was this: "If your situation in the morning is

§4 The Passing of the Armies

such as to justify the beHef that you can turn the
enemy's right with the assistance of a corps of
infantry entirely detached from the balance of
the army, I will so detach the Fifth Corps and
place the whole under your command for the opera-
tion. Let me know early in the morning as you
can your judgment in the matter, and I will make
the necessary orders. ..." Precisely what War-
ren had proposed to do at that very time on Gra-
velly Run, only Sheridan would not have been in
chief command. His assistance had, however,
been promised to Warren in case he was attacked.
Sheridan replies to this on the morning of the 31st.
" ... If the ground would permit, I believe I
could, with the Sixth Corps, turn the enemy's
right, or break through his lines; but I would not
like the Fifth Corps to make such an attempt."
By "turning the enemy's right," and "breaking
through his lines," he meant only the isolated
position at Five Forks, where for two days past
there was nothing to prevent his handling them
alone, and easily cutting the Southside Railroad.
Fortunately for our cause, Lee was so little like
himself as to allow the detachment of a consider-
able portion of his infantry from the entrenchments
on the evening of the 30th to reinforce this posi-
tion, for the sake, probably, of covering the
Southside Road, to which, however, this was not
the only key.

Asking for the Sixth Corps shows a character-
istic intensity of self-consciousness and disregard
of the material elements of the situation wholly

The White Oak Road 85

unlike the habits of our commanders in the Army
of the Potomac. The Sixth Corps was away on
the right center of our hues, even beyond Ord
with the Army of the James, and the roads were
impracticable for a rapid movement like that
demanded. Grant's predilection for his forceful
and brilliant cavalry commander could not over-
come the material difficulty of moving the Sixth
Corps from its place in the main line before Peters-
burg: he could only offer him the Fifth. And
Meade, with meekness quite suggestive of a newly
regenerate nature, seems to have offered no objec-
tion to this distraction from the main objective,
and this inauguration of proceedings which re-
peatedly broke his army into detachments serving
under other commanders, and whereby, in the
popular prestige and final honors of the campaign,
the commander of the Army of the Potomac
found himself subordinated to the militant cavalry
commander of the newly made * ' Middle Military
Division."

So while Warren was begging to be permitted
to take his corps through fields sodden saddle-girth
deep with rain and mire, and get across the right
of Lee's entrenched position, the purpose had
already been formed of sending him and his corps
to try to force the enemy from the position where
they were gathering for a stand after having forced
Sheridan's cavalry back upon its base at the Bois-
seau Cross Road, and holding his main body in-
active at Dinwiddle a whole day through. And
after Warren had accomplished all that he had

86 The Passing of the Armies

undertaken in accordance with the expressed
wishes of his superiors, this purpose was to be put
into execution.

Minds accustomed to consider evidence could
not resist the impression that at the midnight
conference on the rainy night of March 29th,
when Grant had announced that they would act
together as one army, one item of the arrangement
was that nothing should be allowed to interfere
with Sheridan's being the leading spirit, and so
actual field-commander in this enterprise. I am
not sure that we can blame Sheridan or Grant for
this if it were so. But it was at least a good work-
ing hypothesis on which to explain facts.

I do not know that Warren was then aware of
General Grant's loss of interest in this movement
for the White Oak Road since the new plan for
Sheridan and the Fifth Corps. Let us recall: at
eight o'clock on the evening before, Meade had
sent Grant a despatch from Warren, suggesting
this movement. Meade forwarded it to Grant,
with the remark: "I think his suggestion the best
thing we can do under existing circumstances —
that is, let Humphreys relieve Griffin, and let
Warren move on to the White Oak Road, and
endeavor to turn the enemy's right." To this
Grant replied at 8.35: "It will just suit what I
intended to propose — to let Himiphreys relieve
Griffin's Division, and let that move further to
the left. Warren should get himself strong to-
night." Orders being sent out accordingly, and
reported by Meade, General Grant replies late

The White Oak Road 87

that evening: "Your orders to Warren are right.
I do not expect him to advance in the morning.
I supposed, however, that he was now up to the
White Oak Road. If he is not, I do not want
him to move up without further orders."^ Meade
replies: "He will not be allowed to advance unless
you so direct."^

It is impossible to think that Warren knew of
this last word of Grant on the subject of the White
Oak Road, but, as we read it now, it throws light
on many things then "dark." It was consistent
with Grant's new purpose, but it must have per-
plexed Meade. And at the turn things took — ■
and men also — during the next forenoon and mid-
day, what must have been the vexation in Grant's
imperturbable mind, and the ebullition of the few
unsanctified remnants in Meade's strained and
restrained spirit, those who knew them can freely
imagine. And as for Warren, when all this light
broke upon him, in the midst of his own hardly
corrected reverses, into what sullen depths his
spirit must have been cast, to find himself liable
to a suit for breach of promise for going out to an
open-handed meeting with Robert Lee of the White
Oak Road when he was already clandestinely en-
gaged to Philip Sheridan of Dinwiddle.

A new anxiety now arose. Just as we had got
settled in our position on the White Oak Road,
heavy firing was heard from the direction of Sheri-

' Records, Warren Court, vol. ii., p. 1242.

» This is to be compared with Meade's order of IO.30 A.M., March
3 1 st through General Webb : see ante.

88 The Passing of the Armies

dan's supposed position. This attracted eager
attention on our part as, with that open flank,
Sheridan's movements were all important to us.
At my headquarters we had dismounted, but had
not ventured yet to slacken girths. I was standing
on a little eminence, wrapped in thoughts of the
declining day and of these heavy waves of sound,
which doubtless had some message for us, soon or
sometime, when Warren came up with anxious
earnestness of manner, and asked me what I
thought of this firing, — whether it was nearing or
receding. I believed it was receding towards
Dinwiddie; that was what had deepened my
thoughts. Testing the opinion by all tokens
known to us, Warren came to the same conclusion.
He then for a few minutes discussed the situation
and the question of possible duty for us in the
absence of orders. I expressed the opinion that
Grant was looking out for Sheridan, and if help
were needed, he would be more likely to send
Miles than us, as he well knew we were at a criti-
cal point, and one important for his further plans
as we understood them, especially as Lee was known
to be personally directing affairs in our front.
However, I thought it quite probable that we
should be blamed for not going to the support of
Sheridan even without orders, when we believed
the enemy had got the advantage of him. "Well,
will you go ? " Warren asked. ' ' Certainly, General,
if you think it best ; but stirely you do not want to
abandon this position." At this point. General
Griffin came up and Warren asked him to send

The White Oak Road 89

Bartlett's Brigade at once to threaten the rear of
the enemy then pressing upon Sheridan. That
took away our best brigade. Bartlett was an
experienced and capable officer, and the hazardous
and trying task he had in hand would be well done.

Just after sunset Warren came out again, and
we crept on our hands and knees out to our ex-
treme picket within two hundred yards of the
enemy's works, near the angle of the Claiborne
Road. There was some stir on our picket line,
and the enemy opened with musketry and artil-
lery, which gave us all the information we wanted.
That salient was well fortified. The artillery was
protected by embrasures and little lunettes, so
that they could get a slant- and cross-fire on any
movement we should make within their range.

I then began to put my troops into bivouac for
the night, and extended my picket around my left
and rear to the White Oak Road, where it joined
the right of Ayres' picket line. It was an anxious
night along that front. The darkness that deep-
ened around and over us was not much heavier
than that which shrouded our minds, and to some
degree shadowed our spirits. We did not know
what was to come, or go. We were alert — Gregory
and I — on the picket line nearly all the night, and
Griffin came up to us at frequent intervals, wide-
awake as we were.

In the meantime many things had been going
on, and going back. It came to us now, in the
middle of the night, that Sheridan had been at-
tacked by Fitzhugh Lee and Pickett's infantry

90 The Passing of the Armies

and driven pell-mell into Dinwiddie. He could
hardly hold himself there. The polarities of things
were reversed. Instead of admitting the Fifth
Corps to the contemplated honor of turning Lee's
right, or breaking through his lines, between Din-
widdie and Five Forks, orders and entreaties
came fast and thick, in every sense of these terms,
for the Fifth Corps to leave the White Oak Road,
Lee's company, and everything else, and rush
back five miles to the rear, floundering through
the mire and dark, to help Sheridan stay where
Pickett and Fitzhugh Lee had put him. Indeed,
the suggestive information had leaked out from
Grant's headquarters that Sheridan might be
expected to retreat by way of the Vaughan Road,
quite to the rear of our entire left. This would
leave all the forces that had routed Sheridan at
perfect liberty to fall upon our exposed flank, and
catch the Fifth Corps to be bandied to and fro
between them and the enemy in their fortifications
near at hand. By the time the Fifth Corps began
to be picked to pieces by divisions and brigades,
and finally made a shuttle-cock as an entire organi-
zation, the situation of things and of persons had
very much changed.

At 6.30 P.M., General Warren received an order
to send a brigade to Sheridan's relief by the short-
est road threatening the rear of the enemy then
in his front. Soon other orders followed, — the
last of these being to send the brigade by the
Boydton Road. This would have been quite a
different matter. But Bartlett had already been

The White Oak Road 91

gone an hour when this order came, and to the
Crump Road, reaching this by aid of a cart track
through woods and mire. Of course, Warren
could not recall Bartlett. But to comply as nearly
as possible with the order, he at once directed
General Pearson, who with three of Bartlett's
regiments was guarding the trains on the Boydton
Road, to move immediately down towards Din-
widdle. Pearson got to the crossing of the main
stream of Gravelly Run, and finding that the bridge
was gone, and the stream not fordable, halted for
orders. But things were crowding thick and fast.
Pearson's orders were countermanded, and orders
came from army headquarters for Griffin's Division
to go.

On the news of Sheridan's discomfiture, Grant
seems first to have thought of Warren's predica-
ment. In a despatch to Meade early in the evening
he says: "I would much rather have Warren back
on the Plank Road than to be attacked front and
rear where he is. He should entrench, front and
rear of his left, at least, and be ready to make a
good fight of it if he is attacked in the morning.
We will make no offensive movement ourselves
to-morrow."

That was on the evening before the battle of
Five Forks.

This was a significant despatch ; showing among
other things Grant's intention of holding on, if
possible, for the present at least, to the White
Oak Road, at the Claiborne salient; for that was
where our two advanced brigades of the Fifth

92 The Passing of the Armies

Corps were holding. This evidence has not been
well appreciated by those who have formed their
judgment, or written the history, of those three
days' battles. And Meade had been trying all
day to get up entrenching tools and implements
for making the roads passable for wheels. A
thousand men had been working at this for the
two days past.

At 8.30 came the notice, — communicated con-
fidentially, I remember, — that the whole army was
going to contract its lines. At nine o'clock came
the order from Grant to Meade: " Let Warren draw
back at once to his position on the Boydton Road,
and send a division of infantry to Sheridan's relief.
The troops to Sheridan should start at once, and
go down the Boydton Road." Meade promptly
sent orders for the corps to retire, and for Griffin
to go to Sheridan, and go at once.

Apparently nobody at general headquarters
seems to have remembered two incidents concern-
ing the selection of Griffin's Division for this
movement: first, that Bartlett of this division was
already by this time down upon the enemy's rear,
by another more direct though more difficult
road, and in a far more effective position for the
main purpose than could be reached by the Boyd-
ton; and secondly, that the two remaining brigades
of this division were with me on and across the
White Oak Road, — the farthest off from the Boyd-
ton Road, and most impeded by difficult ground,
of any troops remaining on our lines. Another
circumstance, forgotten or ignored, was that the

The White Oak Road 93

bridge at the Plank Road crossing of Gravelly
Run was gone/ and that the stream was not ford-
able for infantry. Warren, in reporting his pro-
ceeding to comply with the order, reported also
the destruction of the bridge and his intention to
repair it; but this seems somehow, from first to
last, to have added to the impatience felt toward
him at those headquarters.

Grant had experienced a change of mind — a
complete and decided one. His imperative order
now received meant giving up entirely the position
we had just been ordered to entrench, across the
hard- won White Oak Road. Within ten minutes
from the receipt of this order, Warren directed
his division commanders to gather up their pickets
and all outlying troops, and take position on the
Boydton Road. Griffin was directed to recall
Bartlett and then move down the Plank Road and
report to Sheridan. But as it would take time
for Griffin to get his scattered division together
and draw back through the mud and darkness to
the Boydton Road, ready to start for Sheridan,
Warren, anxious to fulfill the spirit and object of
the order, rather than render a mechanical obedi-
ence to the letter of it, sends his nearest division,
under Ayres, the strong, stern old soldier of the
Mexican War, to start at once for Sheridan. Mean-
time, the divisions of Griffin and Crawford were

' Colonel Theodore Lyman, aid-de-camp on the staff of General
Meade, wrote in his diary on the night of March 30th: "Roads reduced
to a hopeless pudding, Gravelly Run swollen to treble its usual size, and
Hatcher's Run swept away its bridges and required pontoons." — Records,
Warren Court of Inquiry, vol. i., p. 519.

94 The Passing of the Armies

taking steps to obey the order to mass on the
Boydton Road. For my own part, I did not move
a man, wishing to give my men all possible time
to rest, until Bartlett should arrive, who must
come past my rear.

This was the situation when at half-past ten in
the evening came an order throwing everything
into a complete muddle. It was from Meade to
Warren: "Send Griffin promptly as ordered by the
Boydton Plank Road, but move the balance of
your command by the road Bartlett is on, and
strike the enemy in rear, who is between him and
Dinwiddle. Should the enemy turn on you, your
line of retreat will be by J. M. Brooks' and R.
Boisseau's on Boydton Road. You must be very
prompt in this movement, and get the forks of the
road at Brooks' so as to open to Boisseau's. Don't
encumber yoiu-self with anything that will impede
your progress, or prevent your moving in any
direction across the country." The grim humor
of the last suggestion was probably lost on Warren,
in his present distraction. "Moving in any direc-
tion" in the blackness of darkness across that
country of swamps and sloughs and quicksands,
would be a comedy with the savage forces of nature
and of man in pantomime, and a spectacle for the
laughter of the gods. Nor was there much left
to encumber ourselves with, more especially in
the incident of food. Grant had been very anxious
about rations for us ever since early morning,
when he had said that although there were to be
no movements that day, the Fifth Corps must be

The White Oak Road 95

supplied with three days' rations more. But all
the day nothing had been gotten up. Indeed, I
do not know how they could have found us, or
got to us if they had. Grant had repeated impera-
tive orders to Meade to spare no exertions in getting
rations forward to the Fifth Corps; whereupon
Meade, who had himself eaten salt with this
old Corps, gave orders to get supplies to us
anyway — if not possible for trains, then by pack-
mules. The fortunate and picturesque conjunc-
ture was that some few rations were thus got up
by the flexible and fitting donkey-train, while we
were floundering and plunging from every direc-
tion for our rendezvous on the Boydton Road or
elsewhere, just at that witching hour of the night
when the flying cross-shuttle of oscillating military
orders was weaving such a web of movements
between the unsubstantial footing of earth and
the more substantial blackness of the midnight
sky, matched only by the benighted mind.

By this last order the Corps was to be turned
end for end, and inside out. Poor Warren might
be forgiven if at such an order his head swam and
his wits collapsed. He responds thus, and has
been much blamed for it by those under canvas,
then and since: "I issued my orders on General
Webb's first despatch to fall back; which made the
divisions retire in the order of Ayres, Crawford,
and Griffin, which was the order they could most
rapidly move in. I cannot change them to-night
without producing confusion that will render all
my operations nugatory. I will now send General

96 The Passing of the Armies

Ayres to General Sheridan, and take General
Griffin and General Crawford to move against the
enemy, as this last despatch directs I should. I
cannot accomplish the object of the orders I have
received."^

But what inconceivable addition to the confu-
sion came in the following despatch from General
Meade to Warren at one o'clock at night: "Would
not time be gained by sending troops by the Quaker
Road? Sheridan cannot maintain himself at Din-
widdle without reinforcements, and yours are the
only ones that can. be sent. Use every exertion
to get the troops to him as soon as possible. If
necessary, send troops by both roads, and give up
the rear attack.'"

Rapidly changing plans and movements in
effecting the single purpose for which battle is
delivered are what a soldier must expect; and the
ability to form them wisely and promptly illus-
trates and tests military capacity. But the con-
ditions in this case rendered the execution of these
peculiarly perplexing. Orders had to pass through
many hands; and in the difficulties of delivery
owing to distance and the nature of the ground,
the situation which called for them had often en-
tirely changed. Hence some discretion as to
details in executing a definite purpose must be
accorded to subordinate commanders.

' See this despatch of 10.55 P-M., March 31st. War Records, Serial 97,
p. 367. General Warren, in his testimony before the Court of Inquiry,
claimed that the word "Otherwise" should be prefixed to the last
sentence of this order, as it was dictated. — Records, p. 730, note.

The White Oak Road 97

Look for a moment at a summary of the orders
Warren received that evening, after we had
reached the White Oak Road, affecting his com-
mand in detail :

1. To send a brigade to menace the enemy's
rear before Sheridan.

But he had already of his own accord sent Bart-
lett's Brigade, of Griffin's Division, the nearest
troops, by the nearest way.

2. To send this brigade by the Boydton Road
instead of the Crump.

This was a very different direction, and of different
tactical effect. It being impossible to recall Bart-
lett, Warren sent Pearson, already on the Boydton
Road, with a detachment of Bartlett's Brigade.

3. To send Griffin's Division by the Boydton
Road to Sheridan, and draw back the whole corps
to that road.

Griffin's Division being widely and far scattered
and impossible to be collected for hours, Warren
sends Ayres' Division, nearest, and most disen-
gaged.

4. To send Ayres and Crawford by the way
Bartlett had gone, and insisting on Griffin's going
by Boydton Road.

This would cause Ayres and Bartlett to exchange
places — crossing each other in a long, difficult, and
needless march.

5. Ayres having gone, according to Warren's
orders. Griffin and Crawford to go by Bartlett's
way.

But Griffin had sent for Bartlett to withdraw

98 The Passing of the Armies

from his position and join the division ready to
mass on the Boydton Road.

It is difficult to keep a clear head in trying to
see into this muddle now: we can imagine the
state of Warren's mind. But this was not all.
Within the space of two hours, Warren received
orders involving important movements for his
entire corps, in four different directions. These
came in rapid succession, and in the following
order:

1. To entrench where he was (on the White
Oak Road), and be ready for a fight in the morning.
This from Grant.

2. To fall back with the whole corps from the
White Oak Road to the Boydton, and send a di-
vision by this road to relieve Sheridan. This from
Grant.

3. Griffin to be pushed down the Boydton
Road, but the rest of the corps — Ayres and Craw-
ford— to go across the fields to the Crump Road,
the way Bartlett had gone, and attack the enemy
in rear who were opposing Sheridan. This from
Meade.

This required a movement in precisely the op-
posite direction from that indicated in the preced-
ing order, — which was now partly executed. Ayres
had already started.

4. Meade's advice to send these troops by the
Quaker Road (ten miles around), and give up the
rear attack.

5. To these may be added the actual final
movement, which was that Ayres went down the

The White Oak Road 99

Boydton Road, and Griffin and Crawford went
by the "dirt" road across the country to the
Crump Road as indicated in Meade's previous
orders.

There is one thing more. General Grant thought
it necessary, in order to make sure that Sheridan
should have complete and absolute command of
these troops, to send a special message asking
Meade to make that distinct announcement to
Sheridan. (Despatch of 10.34 P-M-» March 31st.)
To this Meade replies that he had ordered the
Fifth Corps to Sheridan, and adds: "The messenger
to Sheridan has gone now, so that I cannot add
what you desire about his taking command, but
I take it for granted he will do so, as he is senior.
I will instruct Warren to report to him."

So General Grant's solicitude lest Sheridan should
forget to assume command, as the regulations
clearly provided, was faithfully ministered to by
that expert in nervous diseases, — Meade.

The orders which came to General Warren that
night were to an amazing degree confused and con-
flicting. This is charging no blame on any par-
ticular person. We will call it, if you please, the
fault of circumstances. But of course many evil
effects of such conditions must naturally fall upon
the officer receiving them. Although the responsi-
bility according to military usage and ethics
rests upon the officer originating the order, yet the
practical effects are apt to fall upon the officer
trying to execute it. And when he is not allowed
to use his judgment as to the details of his own

100 The Passing of the Armies

command, it makes it very hard for him sometimes.
Indeed it is not very pleasant to be a subordinate
officer, especially if one is also at the same time
a commanding officer.

But in this case I think the trouble was the
result of other recognizable contributory circum-
stances,— if I might not say causes.

1. The awkwardness of having in the field so
many superior, or rather co-ordinate, commanders :
Grant, commanding the United States Armies,
with his headquarters immediately with those of
the commander of the Army of the Potomac; un-
intentionally but necessarily confusing authority
and detracting from the dignity and independence
of this subordinate; Meade, commanding the
Army of the Potomac, only two corps of which
were with him, — and one of these half the time
under Sheridan, — the two others being on the
extreme right of our entrenched lines, with Ord
and the Army of the James between them; Sheri-
dan, maintaining an independent cavalry command,
but in such ticklish touch with the Fifth Corps
that it hardly knew from moment to moment
whether it was under Meade or Sheridan.

2. A double objective: one point being Sheri-
dan's independent operations to cut the enemy's
communications; the other, the turning of Lee's
right and brealdng up his army by our infantry.
It is true this double objective was in terms given
up when Sheridan was informed all were to "act
together as one army"; but the trouble is, this
precept was never strictly carried into effect; inas-

The White Oak Road loi

much as General Sheridan was not inclined to
serve under any other commander but Grant, and
it became difficult to humor him in this without
embarrassing other operations. And, as a matter
of fact, the communications were not cut, either
on the Southside or the Danville Roads, until our
infantry struck them, — Sheridan, however, con-
tributing in his own way to this result.

3. These two supreme commanders being at
such distance from the fields of operation on the
31st of March, that it was impossible to have a
complete mutual understanding at the minute
when orders were to be put into effect. Nor could
they make themselves alike familiar with material
conditions, such as grounds and bridges, or with
the existing state of things at important junctures,
owing to rapid, unforeseen changes.

4. Time lost, and sequence confused, by the
difficulty of getting over the grotind to carry orders
or to obey them, owing to the condition of the
roads, or lack of them, and the extreme darkness
of the night.

We had very able officers of the general staff
at each headquarters; otherwise things might
have been worse. The responsibilities, labors,
tests, and perils — physical and moral — that often
fall upon staff officers in the field are great and
trying. Upon their intelligence, alertness, accu-
racy of observation and report, their promptitude,
energy, and endurance, the fate of a corps or a field
may depend.

The frictions, mischances, and misunderstand-

102 The Passine of the Armies

&

ings of all these circumstances falling across
Warren's path, might well have bewildered the
brightest mind, and rendered nugatory the most
faithful intentions.

Meantime, it may well be conceived we who held
that extreme front line had an anxious night.
Griffin was with me most of the time, and in in-
vestigating the state of things in front of our
picket lines some time after midnight, we discov-
ered that the enemy were carefully putting out
their fires all along their own visible front. Griffin
regards this as evidence of a contemplated move-
ment on us, and he sends this information and
suggestion to headquarters, and thus adds a new
element to the already well-shaken mixture of
uncertainty and seeming cross-purposes. But with
us, the chief result was an anxiety that forbade a
moment's relaxation from intense vigilance.

Meantime Ayres had kept on, according to
Warren's first orders to him, getting a small in-
stallment of rations on the way, and arriving at
Warren's "Bridge of Sighs" on the Gravelly Run
just as it was ready, at about two o'clock in the
morning, whence he pushed down the Plank Road
and reported to Sheridan before Dinwiddle at the
dawning of day. Whereupon he was informed
that he had advanced two miles farther than
General Sheridan desired, and he had to face about
his exhausted men and go back to a cross-road
which he had passed for the very sufficient reason
that Sheridan had no staff-officer there to guide
him where he was wanted.

The White Oak Road 103

At three o'clock I had got in my pickets, which
were replaced by Crawford's, and let my men rest
as quietly as possible, knowing there wotild be
heavy burdens laid on them in the morning. For,
while dividing the sporadic mule-rations, word
came to us that the Fifth Corps, as an organization,
was to report to Sheridan at once and be placed
under his orders. We kept our heads and hearts
as well as we could ; for we thought both would be
needed. It was near daylight when my command
— all there was of Griffin's Division then left on
the front — drew out from the White Oak Road;
Crawford's Division replacing us, to be brought off
carefully under Warren's eye. We shortly picked
up Bartlett's returning brigade, halted, way-worn
and jaded with marching and countermarching,
and struck off in the direction of the Boisseau
houses and the Crump Road, following their heavy
tracks in the mud and mire marking a way where
before there was none; one of those recommended
"directions across the country," which this veteran
brigade found itself thus compelled to travel for
the third time in lieu of rest or rations, churning
the sloughs and quicksands with emotions and
expressions that could be conjectured only by a
veteran of the Old Testament dispensation.

I moved with much caution in approaching
doubtful vicinities, throwing forward an advance
guard which, as we expected to encounter the
enemy in force, I held immediately in my own hand.
Griffin followed at the head of my leading brigade,
ready for whatever should happen. Arrived at

104 The Passing of the Armies

the banks of the south branch of Gravelly Run,
where Bartlett had made his dispositions the night
before, from a mile in our front the glitter of ad-
vancing cavalry caught my eye, saber-scabbards
and belt-brasses flashing back the level rays of the
rising sun. Believing this to be nothing else than
the rebel cavalry we expected to find somewhere
before us, we made dispositions for instant attack.
But the steady on-coming soon revealed the blue
of our own cavalry, with Sheridan's weird battle-
flag in the van. I reduce my front, get into the
road again, and hardly less anxious than before
move forward to meet Sheridan.

We come face to face. The sunlight helps out
the expression of each a little. I salute: "I report
to you, General, with the head of Griffin's Divi-
sion." The courteous recognition is given. Then
the stern word, more charge than question: "Why
did you not come before? Where is Warren?" — •
"He is at the rear of the column, sir." — "That is
where I expected to find him. What is he doing
there?" — "General, we are withdrawing from the
White Oak Road, where we fought all day. General
Warren is bringing off his last division, expecting
an attack." Griffin comes up. My responsibility
is at an end. I feel better. I am directed to mass
my troops by the roadside. We are not sorry for
that. Ayres soon comes up on the Brooks
Road. Crawford arrives at length, and masses
his troops also, near the J. Boisseau house, at the
junction of the Five Forks Road. We were on
the ground the enemy had occupied the evening

The White Oak Road 105

before. It was Bartlett's outstretched line in their
rear, magnified by the magic lens of night into the
semblance of the whole Fifth Corps right upon
them, which induced them to withdraw from
Sheridan's front and fall back upon Five Forks/
So after all Bartlett had as good as fought a success-
ful battle, by a movement which might have been
praised as Napoleonic had other fortunes favored.
General Warren has been blamed, and perhaps
justly, for attacking with a single division on the
White Oak Road. As he denies that he intended
this for an attack, we will put it that he is blamed
for not sufficiently supporting a reconnaissance;
so that the repulse of it involved the disorderly
retreat of two divisions of his corps. It is to be
said to this that he very shortly more than recov-
ered this ground, driving the enemy with serious
loss into his works. But at the worst, was that a
fault hitherto unknown among corps or army
commanders? Sheridan attacked with a single
division when he was ordered to take Five Forks
on the day before, and was driven back by a force
very inferior to that he had in hand. He was not
blamed, although the result of this failure was the
next day's dire misfortunes. And on this very
day, driven back discomfited into Dinwiddle, he
was not blamed; he was praised, — and in this high
fashion. General Grant in his official report and
subsequent histories, speaking of this repulse, says :
"Here General Sheridan displayed great general-

' Testimony of General Fitzhugh Lee, Warren Court, vol. i., pp. 475 and
481.

io6 The Passing of the Armies

ship. Instead of retreating with his whole com-
mand on the main army, to tell the story of superior
forces encountered, he deployed his cavalry on
foot, leaving only mounted men enough to take
charge of the horses. This compelled the enemy
to deploy over a vast extent of wooded and broken
country and made his progress slow."

This definition of great generalship was intended,
no doubt, to reassure Sheridan; but it was en-
couraging all around. It would let quite a number
of modest colonels, of both sides, into the temple
of fame.

Warren was deposed from his command the
next day, mainly, I have no doubt, under the irri-
tation at his being slow in getting up to Sheridan
the night before from the White Oak Road. But
he was working and fighting all day to hold the
advanced left flank of Grant's chosen position,
and harassed all night with conflicting and stulti-
fying orders, while held between two threatening
forces: his left, with nothing to prevent Lee's choice
troops disengaged from Sheridan from striking it
a crushing blow; and on the other hand, Lee him-
self in person, evidently regarding this the vital
point, with all the troops he could gather there,
ready to deliver on that little front a mortal stroke.
For it is not true, as has been stated by high author-
ity, that any troops that had fought us on the
White Oak Road had gone to Pickett's support at
Five Forks that day. And when in the gray of
the morning he moved out to receive Sheridan's
not overgracious welcome to the Fifth Corps,

The White Oak Road 107

Warren withdrew under the very eyes of Lee, his
rear division faced by the rear rank, ready for the
not-improbable attack, himself the last to leave
the field that might have been so glorious, now
fated to be forgotten.

I enliven this somber story by a brief personal
reference. Somehow — I never quite understood
it — General Griffin, in the confusion of that dash-
ing and leaping about, lost his sword — scabbard
and all. Seeing him ride up to me in that way, I
instantly unhooked my belt and sheathing my
sword handed it to the General with the assurance
that I should be proud if he would accept it, as a
token of what I could not then fully set forth in
words. He did accept it and outdid me in the
expression of sentiments. One of the noble cap-
tains (Rehfuss) of the 198th Pennsylvania instantly
handed me one that lay on the line we had carried,
— I should say, perhaps, he had carried, — and
which was a fine sword with a "Palmetto" en-
graved scabbard. I took it until our muster out,
when I returned it to Captain Rehfuss, with words
of remembrance which he seemed to appreciate.

This sword of mine has a peculiar history since
that time. General Griffin at the close of the war
was ordered to a command in Texas, and took
this sword with him. Here the yellow fever break-
ing out he was advised by the War Department to
take a leave of absence and return to his home for
a season. He declined; saying that his duty was
where his command was, and that he would stay
by his men. He took the fever and died before

io8 The Passing of the Armies

friends could reach him. Sometime afterwards I
received through the War Department a box con-
taining this sword and General Griffin's cap worn
by him in the Civil War, and familiar to all his
soldiers, together with the last division battle-
flag we carried in the field, and the division bugle,
which had sounded all the calls during the last two
years of the war. I could not express the regard
in which these relics are held.

It may be prestimption to offer opinions on the
operations of that day under such commanders.
But having ventured some statements of fact that
seem like criticism, it may be required of me to
suggest what better could have been done, or to
show reason why that which was done was not the
best. I submit therefore, the following remarks:

1. Five Forks should have been occupied on
the thirtieth as Grant had ordered, and when there
was nothing formidable to oppose. The cavalry
could then easily strike the Southside Railroad,
and the Fifth and Second Corps be extended to
envelop the entire right of the enemy's position,
and at the opportune moment the general assault
could be successfully made, as Grant had contem-
plated when he formed his purpose of acting as
one army with all his forces in the field.

2. This plan failing, there were two openings
promising good results: one, to let the cavalry
linger about Dinwiddle and threaten Lee's com-
munications, so as to draw out a large body of his
troops from the entrenchments into the open
where they could be attacked on equal ground,

The White Oak Road 109

and his army be at least materially crippled; the
other, to direct the assault immediately on the
right of Lee's entrenched lines on the Fifth Corps
front, — the cavalry, of course, sweeping around
their flank so as to take them in reverse, while
the infantry concentrated on their weakest point.

A third thing was to do a little of both ; and this
is what we seem to have adopted, playing from
one to the other, fitfully and indecisively, more
than one day and night.

Beyond doubt it was Grant's plan when he
formed his new .purpose on the night of the twenty-
ninth, to turn the enemy on their Claiborne flank,
and follow this up sharply by vigorous assault on
the weakest point of their main line in front of
Petersburg. The positions taken up by the Fifth
and Second Corps are explained by such a ptu^pose,
and the trying tasks and hard fighting required
of them for the first three days are therein justified.
The evidence of this purpose is ample.

Everything was made ready, but the attack was
suspended. I am not upon the inquiry whether
this was postponed until Sheridan should have
done something; my point is that if, or when, this
purpose was abandoned for another line of action,
other dispositions should have been promptly
made, and information given to officers charged
with responsibilities, and environed with difficul-
ties as Warren was, so that they could catch the
change of key. Grant had set the machinery in
motion for the White Oak Road, and it was hard
and slow work to reverse it when he suddenly

no The Passing of the Armies

changed his tactics, and resolved to concentrate
on Sheridan. Why was the Fifth Corps advanced
after Ayres' repulse? The "reconnaissance" had
been made ; the enemy's position and strength ascer-
tained, and our party had returned to the main
line. There was no justification in pressing so
hard on that point of the White Oak Road, at
such costs, unless we meant to follow up this at-
tack to distinct and final results. This may pos-
sibly be laid to Warren's charge in his anxiety and
agony to "save the honor of the Fifth Corps."
But this was not essential to the grander tactics
of the field. I sometimes blame myself, — if I may
presume to exalt myself into such high company, —
for going beyond the actual recovery of Ayres'
lost field, and pressing on for the White Oak Road,
when it was not readily permitted me to do so.
It may be that my too youthful impetuosity about
the White Oak Road got Warren into this false
position across this road, where all night, possessed
with seven devils, we tried to get down to Sheridan
and Five Forks. But I verily believed that what
we wanted was the enemy's right, on the White
Oak Road. How could we then know Grant's
change of purpose? However, it was all a mistake
if we were going to abandon everything before
morning. We should have been withdrawn at
once, and put in position for the new demonstra-
tion. That order to mass on the Boydton Road,
received at about ten o'clock at night, should have
been given much earlier, as soon as we could
safely move away from the presence of the enemy,

The White Oak Road iii

if we were to reinforce Sheridan on his own
lines.

3. But better than this, as things were, it
would have been to leave a small force on the White
Oak Road to occupy the enemy's attention, and
move the whole Fifth Corps to attack the rear of
the enemy then confronting Sheridan, as Meade
suggested to Grant at ten o'clock at night. It
would have been as easy for us all to go, as for
Bartlett. With such force we would not have
stopped on Gravelly Run, but would have struck
Pickett's and Fitzhugh Lee's rear, and compelled
them to make a bivouac under our supervision
on that ground where they had ' * deployed. ' ' They
would not have been able to retire in the morning,
as they were constrained to do by Bartlett's
demonstration.

4. No doubt it was right to save the honor of
the cavalry before Dinwiddle, as of the Fifth Corps
before the White Oak Road; and Sheridan's with-
drawal to that place having lured out so large a
force — six thousand infantry and four thousand
cavalry — from a good military position to the
exposed one at Five Forks, it was good tactics to
fall upon them and smash them up. Lee, strangely
enough, did not think we would do this; so he held
himself at the right of his main line on the White
Oak Road, as the point requiring his presence;
and sent reinforcements from there for his im-
periled detachment only so late that they did not
report until after the struggle at Five Forks was
all over.

112 The Passing of the Armies

But we owe much to fortune. Had the enemy
on the afternoon of the 31st let Fitzhugh Lee with
his cavalry reinforcements occupy Sheridan, and
rushed Pickett's Division with the two brigades
of Johnson's down the White Oak Road upon the
flank of the momentarily demoralized Fifth Corps,
while Hunton and Gracie and Wallace and Wise
were on its front, we should have had trouble.
Or had they, after repulsing Sheridan towards
evening, left the cavalry deployed across his front
to baffle his observation, while Pickett should an-
ticipate and forestall the movement of Bartlett's
Brigade, and come across conversely from that
Crump Road to fall upon oiu- untenable flank posi-
tion, it would have opened all eyes to the weakness
and error of our whole situation. What would
have become of us, only some higher power than
any there could say.

So we part, after this strangely broken acquaint-
ance,— Sheridan, the Fifth Corps, and White Oak
Road. Whether the interventions that brought
intended purposes and effects to nought were
through the agency of supernal or infernal spirits,
we must believe that it was by one of those
mysterious overrulings of Providence, or what
some might call poetic justice, and some the irony
of history, that it befell Sheridan to have v/ith him
at Five Forks and at Appomattox Court House —
not slow nor inconspicuous — the deprecated, but
inexpugnable, old Fifth Corps.

CHAPTER IV

FIVE FORKS

AFTER such a day and night as that of the
31st of March, 1865, the morning of April ist
found the men of the Fifth Corps strangely
glad they were alive. They had experienced
«i kaleidoscopic regeneration. They were ready
for the next new turn — whether of Fortunatus or
Torquemada. The tests of ordinary probation
had been passed. All the effects of "humiliation,
fasting, and prayer," believed to sink the body and
exalt the spirit, had been fully wrought in them.
At the weird midnight trumpet-call they rose from
their sepulchral fields as those over whom death
no longer has any power. Their pulling out for
the march in the ghostly mists of dawn looked like
a passage in the transmigration of souls — not sent
back to work out the remnant of their sins as
animals, but lifted to the "third plane" by those
three days of the underworld, — eliminating sense,
incorporating soul.

The vicissitudes of that day, and the grave and
whimsical experiences out of which we emerged
into it, exhibited the play of that curious law of

8 113

114 The Passinc^ of the Armies

the universe seen in tides, reactions, or reversals
of polarities at certain points of tension or extremes
of pressure, and which appears also in the mixed
relations of men and things. There are pressure-
points of experience at which the insupportably
disagreeable becomes "a jolly good time." When
you cannot move in the line of least resistance, you
take a very peculiar pleasure in crowding the point
of greatest resistance. No doubt there is in the
ultimate reasons of human probation special place
for that quality of manhood called perseverance,
patience, pluck, push, persistence, pertinacity,
or whatever name beginning with this "explosiv(3
mute," the excess of which, exhibited by persons
or things, is somewhat profanely referred to as
"pure cussedness."

The pleasantries associated with April ist were
not much put in play : none of those men were going
to be "fooled" that day.

When we joined the cavalry, some of us were
aware of a little shadow cast between the two chief
luminaries, — him of the cavalry and him of the
infantry; but that by no means darkened our disks.
If not hale fellows, we were well met. The two
arms of the service embraced each other heartily,
glad to share fortunes. Particularly we; for the
cavalry had the habit of being a little ahead, and
so, as the Germans said, "got all the pullets."
And we thought the cavalry, though a little piqued
at our not going down and picking up what they
had left at Dinwiddie the night before, were quite
willing we should share whatever they should get

Five Forks 115

to-day. Sheridan had also come to the opinion
that infantry was "a good thing to have around,"
— however by some queer break in the hierarchy
of honor subordinated to the chevaHers, the biped
to the quadruped, and by some freak of etymology
named "infantry" — the speechless — ^whether be-
cause they had nothing to answer for, or knew
too much and mustn't tell. We were glad to be
united to Sheridan, too, after the broken engage-
ments of the day before, perhaps renewed reluc-
tantly by him; glad to fight under him, instead of
away from him, hoping that when he really struck,
the enemy would hurt more than friends.

We cannot wonder that Sheridan might not be
in the best of humor that morning. It is not
pleasant for a temperament like his to experience
the contradiction of having the ardent expectations
of himself and his superior turned into disaster and
retreat. It was but natural that he should be
incensed against Warren. For not deeply im-
pressed with the recollection that he had found
himself unable to go to the assistance of Warren
as he had been ordered to do, his mind retained
the irritation of vainly expecting assistance from
Warren the moment he desired it, without consider-
ing what Warren might have on hand at the same
time. Nor could Warren be expected to be in a
very exuberant mood after such a day and night.
Hence the auguries for the cup of loving-kindness
on this crowning day of Five Forks were not
favorable. Each of them was under the shadow
of yesterday: one, of a mortifying repulse; the

ii6 The Passing of the Armies

other, of thankless success. Were Warren a mind-
reader he would have known it was a time to put
on a warmer manner towards Sheridan, — for a
voice of doom was in the air.

That morning, two hours after the head of the
Fifth Corps column had reported to General Sheri-
dan, an officer of the artillery staff had occasion
to find where the Fifth Corps was, evidently not
knowing that under orders from superiors it had
been like "all Gaul," divided into three parts, —
and went for that purpose to the point where
Warren had had his headquarters the night before.
Warren, in leaving at daybreak, had not removed
his headquarters' material; but in consideration
for his staff, who had been on severe duty all
night, told Colonel Locke, Captain Melcher, and a
few others to stay and take a little rest before
resuming the tasking duties of the coming day.
It was about nine o'clock in the morning when the
artillery officer reached Warren's old headquarters,
and suddenly rousing Colonel Locke asked where
the Fifth Corps was. Locke, so abruptly wakened,
his sound sleep bridging the break of his last
night's consciousness, rubbed his eyes, and with
dazed simplicity answered that when he went to
sleep the Fifth Corps was halted to build a bridge
at Gravelly Run on the Plank Road. No time
was lost in reporting this at headquarters, without
making further inquiries as to the whereabouts of
the Fifth Corps, now for three hours with Sheri-
dan on the Five Forks Road. Thereupon General
Grant forthwith sends General Babcock to tell

Five Forks 117

General Sheridan that "if he had any reason to be
dissatisfied with General Warren," or as it has
since been put, "if in his opinion the interests of
the service gave occasion for it," he might relieve
him from command of his corps. ^

" So do we walk amidst the precipices of our fate."

Griffin's and Crawford's Divisions were massed
near the house of J. Boisseau, on the road leading
from Dinwiddle Court House to Five Forks. Ayres
was halted a mile back at the junction of the Brooks
Road, which he had reached by his roundabout,
forced march during the night. We were waiting
for Sheridan, at last. And he was waiting until
the cavalry should complete one more "reconnois-
sance," to determine the enemy's position and
disposition at Five Forks, three miles northward.

Although the trains which had got up were
chiefly ammimition wagons, a considerable halt
was indicated and the men seized the occasion to
eat, to rest, to sleep, — exercises they had not much
indulged in for the last three days, — and to make

' Records, Warren Court, testimony of Captain Warner, p. 38 ; of
General Babcock, p. 901; also of General Sheridan, p. 93; and General
Grant, p. 1028.

General Grant afterwards stated that although this information about
the bridge was the occasion, it was not the reason, of his authorization
of General Sheridan to depose General Warren from his command.
Ibid., p. 1030.

That bridge — for a non-existent one — had a strange potency. Con-
sidering how various were the tests of which it was made the instrument,
it well rivals that other "pons asinorum" of Euclid; and certainly the
associated triangle was of surpassing attributes; for the squares de-
scribed on the two "legs" of it were far more than equal to that so
laboriously executed on its hypothenuse.

ii8 The Passing of the Armies

their toilets, which means to wring out their few
articles of clothing, seriatim, and let the sun shine
into the bottom of their shoes; and also — ^those
who could — to make up their vital equation of
three days' rations — ^hard-tack, pork, coffee, and
sugar — ^by stuffing their haversacks with twenty
rounds extra ammunition.

Meantime those of us who were likely to have
some special responsibilities during the approach-
ing battle, had anxious thoughts. We had drawn
away from the doubly confused conflict of yester-
day; we were now fairly with Sheridan, cut off
from reach of other wills, absolved from the task
of obeying commands that made our action seem
like truants driving hoops, — resulting mostly in
tripping up dignitaries, and having a pretty hard
time ourselves, without paternal consolations when
we got home. We expected something out of the
common order now. General Griffin came and
sat by me on the bank-side and talked quite freely.
He said Sheridan was much disturbed at the opera-
tions of the day before, as Grant's language to him
about this had been unwontedly severe, and that
all of us woiild have to help make up for that day's
damage. "^

' This was in a despatch sent by Grant to Sheridan at about 2
P.M. on the 31st of March, just as I was advancing, after Ay res'
repulse. This read: " Warren's and Miles' Divisions are now advancing.
I hope your cavalry is up where it will be of assistance. Let me know
how matters stand now with the cavalry; where they are; what their
orders, etc. If it had been possible to have had a division or two of them
well up on the right-hand road taken by Merritt yesterday, they could
have fallen on the enemy's rear as they were pursuing Ayres and Craw-
ford."— Records, Warren Court, p. 13 13.

Five Forks 119

He told me also that Grant had given Sheridan
authority to remove Warren from command of the
corps, when he found occasion, and that we should
see lively times before the day was over. We
remarked how these things must affect Sheridan:
Grant's censure of his failures the day before; the
obligation to win a decisive battle to-day ; and the
power put in his hands to remove Warren. We
could not but sympathize with Sheridan in his
present perplexities, and, anxious for Warren,
were resolved to do our part to make things go
right. ^

' The mental attitude of the parties concerned will be understood by
reference to the despatches of the Hon. Charles A. Dana to the War
Office during the previous summer. They were doubtless known to
Sheridan, as to the higher officers of the Fifth Corps. Those of May 9th
and I2th, 1864, referring to Warren's movements as slow and piecemeal,
so as to fail of the desired effect in the plans of the general commanding
the army. He accuses him of not handling his corps in a mass, and even
impUes a positive disobedience of orders on his part in attacking with a
division when ordered by Grant to attack with his whole corps. (Serial
No. 67, pp. 64, 68.)

Still the Fifth Corps "got in" enough to lose ten thousand six hundred
and eighty-six men in the first two fights. (Dana's report, War Records,
Serial 64, p. 71.)

Even more light is turned on. For no despatch of Dana's concerning
Warren compares in severity with Dana's to the Secretary of War,
July 7, 1864, denouncing General Meade, and advising that he be re-
moved from the command of the army. (Serial No. 80, p. 35.)

It now appears that Warren was in great disfavor with Meade also,
after arriving before Petersburg. Meade called upon Warren to ask to
be relieved from command of his corps on the alternative that charges
would be preferred against him. (Dana's despatch, June 20, 1864, War
Records, Serial No. 80, p. 26.)

Meade was much displeased, too, with Warren for his characteristic
remark to the effect that no proper superior commanding officer was
present at the time of the Mine explosion, to take control of the whole
affair.

And now, with Sheridan against him, poor Warren may well have

120 The Passing of the Armies

The troops had enjoyed about four hours of this
unwonted rest when, the cavalry having completed
its reconnoissance, we were ordered forward. We
turned off on a narrow road said to lead pretty
nearly to the left of the enemy's defenses at Five
Forks on the White Oak Road. Crawford led,
followed by Griffin and Ayres, — the natural order
for prompt and free movement. The road had
been much cut up by repeated scurries of both the
contending parties, and was even yet obstructed
by cavalry led horses, and other obstacles, which
it woiild seem strange had not been got off the
track during all this halt. We who were trying to
follow closely were brought to frequent standstill.
This was vexatious, — our men being hurried to
their feet in heavy marching order, carrying on
their backs perhaps three days' life for themselves
and a pretty heavy installment of death for their
antagonists, and now compelled every few minutes
to come to a huddled halt in the muddy road,
"marking time" and marking place also with deep
discontent. In about two hours we get up where
Sheridan wants us, in some open ground and thin
woods near the Gravelly Run Church, and form as
we arrive, by brigades in column of regiments. The
men's good nature seems a little ruffled on account
of their manner of marching or being marched.
They have their own way of expressing their
wonder why we could not have taken a shorter

wished at least for David's faculty of putting his grievances into song,
with variations on the theme: "Many bulls have compassed me about;
yea, many strong bulls of Bashan. "

Five Forks 121

road to this cavalry rendezvous, rather than to be
dragged around the two long sides of an acute-
angled triangle to get to it, — why the two-legged
animals might not have taken the short route and
the four-legged ones the long one, — in short, what
magic relics there were about "J. Boisseau's, "
that we should be obliged to make a painful
pilgrimage there before we were purified enough to
die at Five Forks.

It is now about four o'clock. Near the church
is a group of restless forms and grim visages,
expressing their different tempers and tempera-
ments in full tone. First of all the chiefs: Sheri-
dan, dark and tense, walking up and down the
earth, seeking — well, we will say — some adequate
vehicle or projectile of expression at the prospect
of the sun's going down on nothing but his wrath;
evidently having availed himself of some incidental
instrumentalities to this end, more or less explicit
or expletive. Warren is sitting there like a caged
eagle or rather like a man making desperate effort
to command himself when he has to obey unwel-
come orders, — all his moral energies compressed
into the nerve centers somewhere behind his eyes
and masked pale cheek and compressed lip.
Griffin is alert and independent, sincere to the core,
at his ease, ready for anything, — for a dash at the
enemy with battery front, or his best friend with
a bit of satire when his keen sense of the incongru-
ous or pretentious is struck; Bartlett, with drawn
face, like a Turkish cimetar, sharp, springy, curved
outward, damascened by various experience and

124 The Passing of the Armies

in the flame and whirl of battle, leading his brigade
like a demigod, as in a chariot of fire he was lifted
to his like.

The corps formation was: Ayres on the left,
west of the Church Road, the division in double
brigade front in two lines, and Winthrop with the
First Brigade in reserve, in rear of his center;
Crawford on the right, east of the road, in similar
formation; Griffin in rear of Crawford, with Bart-
lett's Brigade in double coltimn of regiments, three
lines deep; my own brigade next, somewhat in
echelon to the right, with three battalion lines in
close order, while Gregory at first was held massed
in my rear. General Mackenzie's cavalry, of the
Army of the James, had been ordered up from
Dinwiddle, to cross the White Oak Road and move
forward with us covering our right flank. Never-
theless, just as we were moving. General Griffin
cautioned me: " Don't be too sure about Macken-
zie; keep a sharp lookout for your own right."
Accordingly I had Gregory throw out a small
battalion as skirmishers and flankers, and march
another regiment by the flank on our right, ready
to face outwards, and let his other regiment follow
in my brigade column.

At four o'clock we moved down the Gravelly
Run Church Road, our lines as we supposed nearly
parallel to the White Oak Road, with Ayres
directed on the angle of the enemy's works. Just
as we started there came from General Warren a
copy of a diagram of the proposed movement.
I was surprised at this. It showed our front of

Five Forks 125

movement to be quite oblique to the White Oak
Road, — as much as half a right angle, — with
the center of Crawford's Division directed upon
the angle, and Ayres, of course, thrown far to the
left, so as to strike the enemy's works halfway
to Five Forks. Griffin was shown as following
Crawford; but the whole direction was such that
all of us would strike the enemy's main line before
any of us could touch the White Oak Road. The
diagram, far from clearing my mind, added confu-
sion to surprise. The order read : "The line will
move forward as formed till it reaches the White
Oak Road, when it will swing around to the left,
perpendicular to the White Oak Road. General
Merritt's and General Custer's cavalry will charge
the enemy's line as soon as the infantry get
engaged." This was perfectly clear. The whole
corps was to reach the White Oak Road before any
portion of it should change direction to the left;
Ayres was to attack the angle, and the rest of us
swing round and sweep down the entrenchments
along the White Oak Road.

The diagram showed the Gravelly Run Church
Road as leading directly to and past the angle of
the enemy's works. The formation shown led us
across the Church Road and not across the White
Oak Road at all, which at the point of direction
was behind the enemy's entrenched lines. Accord-
ing to this, Crawford and not Ayres would strike
the angle. Ayres would strike the breastworks
well up toward the cavalry, — quite a way from
any support Griffin's division could give him.

126 The Passing of the Armies

111 at ease in such uncertainty I rode over to
General Griffin, who with General Warren was
close on my left at this early stage of the move-
ment, and asked for an explanation. Griffin
answers quickly: "We will not worry ourselves
about diagrams. We are to follow Crawford.
Circumstances will soon develop our duty." In
the meantime we were moving right square down
the Church Road, and not oblique to it as the
diagram indicated. However, I quieted my mind
with the reflection that the earth certainly was a
known quantity, and the enemy susceptible to
discovery, whatever might be true of roads, dia-
grams, or understandings.

Crawford crossed the White Oak Road, his line
nearly parallel to it, without encountering the
expected angle. This road, it is to be remarked,
made a considerable bend northerly at the crossing
of the Church Road, so that Ayres had not reached
it when Crawford and even Griffin were across.
We naturally supposed the angle was still ahead.
Crawford immediately ran into a sharp fire on
his right front, which might mean the crisis. I
had been riding with Griffin on the left of my
front line, but now hastened over to the right,
where I found Gregory earnestly carrying out my
instructions to guard that flank. I caught a
glimpse of some cavalry in the woods on our right,
which I judged to be Roberts' North Carolina
Brigade, that had been picketing the White Oak
Road, and so kept Gregory on the alert. The
influence of the sharp skirmish fire on Crawford's

Five Forks 127

right tended to draw the men towards it; but I
used all my efforts to shorten step on the pivot and
press the wheeling flank, in order to be ready for
the "swing" to the left. Still, the firing ahead
kept me dubious. It might mean Fitzhugh Lee's
cavalry making a demonstration there; but from
the persistence of it was more likely to mean
infantry reinforcements sent the enemy from the
Claiborne entrenchments where we had left them
the day before. It was afterwards seen how near
it came to being that. ^

It was, in fact, Fitzhugh Lee's cavalry, com-
manded now by the experienced and able Munford
who had dismounted his men and posted them at
the junction of the Church Road and the White
Oak Road, behind some light rail defenses which
they had hastily thrown up. From this they were
being slowly driven by Crawford's advance. We
crossed the White Oak Road without hearing any-
thing from Ayres, a circumstance which troubled
me very much, as our division was supposed to be
in supporting distance of both Crawford and Ayres.
It was now apparent that the road-crossing Craw-
ford had struck was not at the angle of the enemy's
entrenched line, but at least a gunshot to the east
of this, — in fact it was a thousand yards away.

' Wise, Grade, and Hunton's Brigades had been ordered out of the
Claiborne entrenchments that afternoon to attack the right flank of the
Fifth Corps; but being obliged to take a roundabout way and getting
entangled among the streams and marshes north of the White Oak Road,
they were too late to reach the scene of action until allwas over. ^Records,
Warren Court, Lee's testimony, p. 473; McGowan's, p. 651; Hunton's,
p. 626.

128 The Passing of the Armies

Mackenzie had crowded off Roberts* cavalry
towards its right near Burgess' Mill, — this cavalry
not being under Fitzhugh Lee or Munford but
taking orders directly from the infantry general
R. H. Anderson. My orders were in general to
follow Crawford.

I had managed, however, to gain towards the
left until we had fairly got past Crawford's left
rear. Some firing we had heard in the supposed
direction of our cavalry, but it did not seem heavier
than that in Crawford's front. We were moving
rapidly, and had been out about twenty minutes
from the church, and perhaps nearly a mile distant,
when a sudden burst of fire exactly on our left
roused very definite thoughts. This could only
be from Ayres' attack. I halted my line and rode
ahead through the woods to some high, cleared
ground, the southeastern corner of a large field,
known as the "Sydnor field," along the opposite
edge of which I could see strong skirmishing along
Crawford's front; and turning southerly, looking
across broken, scrubby ground, could see Ayres'
troops engaged in a confused whirl of struggling
groups, with fitful firing. This was about as far
away, I judged, as Crawford's skirmishing, about
six hundred yards. The great gap between these
engagements made me feel that something was
"all wrong." I was anxious about my duty.
My superiors were not in sight. Bartlett had
closely followed Crawford, away to my right.
But I could see the corps flag in the Sydnor field,
moving towards Crawford, and on the other side,

Five Forks 129

in a ravine half-way to Ayres, I saw the division
flag. There was Ayres fighting alone, and that
was not in the program. There was Griffin down
there ; that was order enough for me, and I took the
responsibility of looking out for the left instead of
the right, where my last orders committed me. I
pulled my brigade out of the woods by the left
flank, telling Gregory to follow; and, sending to
Bartlett to let him know what I was doing, pushed
across a muddy stream and up a rough ravine
towards Ayres. Half-way up, Griffin came to meet
me, — never more welcome. He gave the look
I wanted, and without coming near enough for
words waved me to follow up to the head of the
ravine and to attack on my right, along the bank
where, hidden by brush and scrub, the enemy had a
line perpendicular to their main one on the White
Oak Road, and were commencing a slant fire in
Ayres' direction. Griffin rode past me towards
Warren and Bartlett.

At the head of the gully all we had to do was to
front into line of battle, and scramble up the rough
brambly steep. The moment we showed our
heads, we were at close quarters with the enemy.
We exchanged volleys with good will, and then
came the rush. Our lines struck each other
obliquely, like shutting jaws. It was rather an
awkward movement; for we had to make a series
of right half-wheels by battalion to meet the fire,
and all the while gain to the left. Thus we stopped
that cross-fire on Ayres, who was now lost from
sight by intervening scrubby woods. The brunt

130 The Passing of the Armies

of this first fell on my stalwart 185th New York,
Colonel Sniper; but Gregory" soon coming in by
echelon on their right took the edge off that enfilad-
ing fire.

Ayres' fitful fire was approaching, and I rode
over towards it. Somewhere near the angle of the
"return" I met Sheridan. He had probably seen
me putting my men in, and hence I escaped censure
for appearing. Indeed his criticism seemed to be
that there was not more of me, rather than less.
"By G — , that's what I want to see!" was his
greeting, "general officers at the front. Where are
your general officers?" I replied that I had seen
General Warren's flag in the big field north of us,
and that seeing Ayres in a tight place I had come to
help him, and by General Griffin's order. ' ' Then, ' '
cried he, with a vigor of utterance worthy of the
"army in Flanders," "you take command of all
the infantry round here, and break this dam — "
I didn't wait to hear any more. That made good
grammar as it stood. I didn't stand for anything,
but spurred back to some scattered groups of men,
demoralized by being so far in the rear, and not
far enough to do them any good, yet too brave to
go back. Captain Laughlin of Griffin's staff came
along, and I took him with me down among these
men to get them up. I found one stalwart fellow
on his hands and knees behind a stump, answering
with whimsical grimaces to the bullets coming
pretty thick and near. "Look here, my good fel-

' His regiments were the 187th, i88th, and 189th New York; thus the
four New York regiments constituted the right of my command.

Five Forks 131

low," I called down to him, "don't you know you'll
be killed here in less than two minutes? This is
no place for you. Go forward!" "But what can
I do?" he cried; "I can't stand up against all this
alone!" "No, that's just it," I replied. "We're
forming here. I want you for guide center. Up,
and forward!" Up and out he came like a hero.
I formed those "reserves" on him as guide, and
the whole queer line — two hundred of them — went
in right up to the front and the thick of it. My
poor fellow only wanted a token of confidence and
appreciation to get possession of himself. He was
proud of what he did, and so I was for him.

I let the staff officers take these men in, for I had
caught sight of Ayres' Third Brigade coming out
of the woods right behind me, and standing in the
further edge of the scrubby field. The men were
much excited, but were making a good line.
General Gwyn was riding up and down their front
in a demonstrative manner, but giving no sign of
forward movement. I thought this strange for him
and bad for us all, in the pinch things then were
at, and with the warrant Sheridan had given me
galloped down to him and asked him if he was
acting under any particular orders from General
Ayres. "No, General," he repHed with an air of
relief, "I have lost Ayres. I have no orders. I
don't know what to do." "Then come with me, "
I said; "I will take the responsibility. You shall
have all credit. Let me take your brigade for a
moment!" His men gave me good greeting as
I rode down their front and gave the order, "For-

132 The Passinof of the Armies

&

ward, right oblique!" On they came, and in they
went, gallantly, gladly, just when and where they
were needed, with my own brigade fighting the
"return," and ready to take touch with Ayres.
His fire was advancing rapidly on my left, and I
rode over to meet him. Sheridan was by my side
in a moment, very angry. "You are firing into my
cavalry!" he exclaims, his face darkening with a
checked expletive. I was under a little pressure,
too, and put on a bold air. "Then the cavalry
have got into the rebels' place. One of us will have
to get out of the way. What will you have us do,
General?" "Don't you fire into my cavalry, I tell
you!" was the fierce rejoinder. I felt a little left
out in the cold by General Sheridan's calling
them "my cavalry," as if we were aliens and did
not belong to him also; but, whosesoever they were,
I could not see what business they had up here at
the "angle." This was our part of the field. The
plan of the battle put them at the enemy's right
and center, a mile away on the Dinwiddle Road
and beyond.

Fortunately for me, Ayres comes up, his troops
right upon the angle — the right, the Maryland
Brigade on the "return" — brave Bowerman
down — and Winthrop's Brigade — gallant Win-
throp gone — reaching beyond, across the White
Oak Road, driving a crowd before them. I have
only time to say to Ayres, "Gwyn is in on the
right"; for Sheridan takes him in hand. "I tell
you again. General Ayres, you are firing into my
cavalry!" "We are firing at the people who are

Five Forks 133

firing at us!" is the quick reply. "These are not
carbine shot. They are minie-balls. I ought to
know."

But I felt the point of Sheridan's rebuke. As
my oblique fire across the "return" was now so
near the enemy's main line on the White Oak Road,
it was not unlikely that if any of the cavalry were
up here on their front, I might be firing into them
and they into me. There was a worse thing yet:
if we continued advancing in that direction, in
another minute we should be catching Ayres'
fire on oiu* left flank. He was already in, with his
men. Grifhn, coming up, detains me a moment.
Sheridan greets him well. "We flanked them
gloriously!" he exclaims, with a full-charged smile,
implying that all was not over yet. After a
minute's crisp remark, Griffin wheels away to the
right, and I am left with Sheridan. He was sitting
right in the focus of the fire, on his horse "Rienzi, "
— ^both about the color of the atmosphere, his
demon pennon, good or ill, as it might bode, red
and white, two-starred, aloft just behind him.
The stream of bullets was pouring so thick it
crossed my mind that what had been to me a poet's
phrase — "darkening the air" — was founded on
dead-level fact. I was troubled for Sheridan.
We could not afford to lose him. I made bold to
tell him so, and begged him not to stay there; —
the rest of us would try to take care of things,
and from that place he could be spared. He gave
me a comical look, and answered with a peculiar
twist in the toss of his head, that seemed to say he

134 The Passing of the Armies

didn't care much for himself, or perhaps for me.
"Yes, I think I'll go!" and away he dashed, right
down through Ayres' left, down the White Oak
Road, into that triple cross-fire we had been
quarreling about. I afterwards learned that
Sheridan did order his cavalry to cease firing in
the direction of our advancing infantry.

I plunged into my business, to make up for this
minute's lost time. My men were still facing too
much across Ayres' front, and getting into the
range of his fire. We had got to change that,
and swing to the right, down the rear of the
enemy's main works. It was a whirl. Every way
was front, and every way was flank. The fighting
was hand to hand. I was trying to get the three
angles of the triangle into something like two right
angles, and had swung my left well forward, open-
ing quite a gap in that direction, when a large body
of the enemy came rushing in upon that flank and
rear. They were in line formation, with arms at
something like a "ready," which looked like
"business." I thought it was our turn to be
caught between two fires, and that these men were
likely to cut their way through us. Rushing into
the ranks of my left battalion I shouted the order,
"Prepare to fire by the rear rank!" My men
faced about at once, disregarding the enemy in
front; but at this juncture our portentous visitors
threw down their muskets, and with hands and
faces up cried out, "We surrender," running right
in upon us and almost over us. I was very glad
of it, though more astonished, for they outnum-

Five Forks 135

bered us largely.' I was a little afraid of them,
too, lest they might find occasion to take arms
again and revoke the "consent of the governed."
They were pretty solid commodities, but I was
very willing to exchange them for paper token of
indebtedness in the form of a provost-marshal's
receipt. So getting my own line into shape again,
I took these well-mannered men, who had been
standing us so stiff a fight a few minutes before,
with a small escort out over the "return, " into the
open field in rear, and turned them over to one of
Sheridan's staff, with a request for a receipt when
they were counted.''

In the field I find Ayres, who is turning over a
great lot of prisoners. The "angle" and the
whole "return" are now carried, but beyond them
the routed enemy are stubbornly resisting. I have
time for a word with Ayres now, and to explain my
taking up Gwyn so sharply. He is not in the mood
to blame me for anything. He explains also.
He had been suddenly attacked on his left, and

' These were Colonel Hutter of the nth Virginia Infantry of Mayo's
Brigade and part of the 3d Virginia Cavalry dismounted which Mun-
ford had sent to reinforce Ransom.

' The receipt sent me bore the whole number of prisoners turned over
by me during the battle; but most of them were taken in this encounter.
This acknowledges from my command two colonels, six captains, eleven
lieutenants, and a thousand and fifty men sent in by my own brigade;
and four hundred and seventy men by Gregory's. It is not impossible
that some of these prisoners turned over to General Sheridan's provost
marshal, may have been counted twice, — with the cavalry captures as
well as my own. It should be said that the prisoners taken by us were
due to the efficiency and admirable behavior of all the troops in our part
of the field near the "angle," and not alone to that of my immediate
command.

136 The Passing of the Armies

had been obliged to change front instantly with
two of his brigades. Their two comnianders,
Winthrop and Bowerman, falling almost at the
first stroke, he had taken these brigades in person,
and put them in, without sending any word to
Gwyn on his right. I could see how it was.
Losing connection, Gwyn was at a loss what to
do, and in the brief time Ay res was routing the
enemy who had attacked him, I had come upon
Gwyn and had put him in, really ahead of the
main line of Ayres, who soon came up to him. So
it all came about right for Ayres. '

General Bartlett now came appealing for assist-
ance. Two of his regiments had gone off with
Crawford, and Bartlett had more than he could do
to make head against a stout resistance the enemy
were making on a second line turned back near the
Ford Road. I helped him pick up a lot of strag-
glers and asked Gregory to give him the i88th
New York for assistance.

Meanwhile Warren, searching for Crawford,
had come upon his First Brigade, Kellogg's, and
had faced it southerly towards the White Oak

* To complete this reference, I will mention that Brevet Brigadier-
General Gwyn was colonel of the 11 8th Pennsylvania Volunteers, in
Griffin's Division, and had been assigned to command one of Ayres'
Brigades. Not long afterwards I came in command of the division, and,
a general court-martial being convened, charges were preferred against
Gwyn by some who did not understand the facts of this occurrence as
well as I did. When the papers reached me, I disapproved them and
sent them back with the endorsement that General Gwyn had done his
best under peculiarly perplexing circumstances, and had gone in with
his brigade handsomely, under my own eye at a critical moment of the
battle. I believed this to be justice to a brave officer.

Five Forks 137

Road, as a guide for a new point of direction for
that division, and had then gone off in search of
the rest of these troops to bring them in on the
line. Thereupon one of Sheridan's staff officers
came across Kellogg standing there, and naturally
ordered him to go forward into the "fight."
Kellogg questioned his authority, and warm words
took the place of other action, till at length Kellogg
concluded it best to obey Sheridan's representative,
and moved promptly forward, striking somewhere
beyond the left of the enemy's refused new flank.
It seems also that Crawford's Third Brigade,
Coulter's, which was in his rear line, had antici-
pated orders or got Warren's, and moved by the
shortest line in the direction Kellogg was taking.
So Crawford himself was on the extreme wheeling
flank, with only Baxter's Brigade and two regi-
ments of Bartlett's of the First Division immedi-
ately in hand. His brigades were now moving in
echelon by the left, which was in fact about the
order of movement originally prescribed, and that
which the whole corps actually took up, auto-
matically as it were, or by force of the situation.
Our commands were queerly mixed; men of every
division of the corps came within my jurisdiction,
and something like this was probably the case
with several other commanders. But that made
no difference; men and officers were good friends.
There was no jealousy among us subordinate
commanders. We had eaten salt together when
we had not much else. This liveliness of mutual
interest and support, I may remark, is sometimes

138 The Passing of the Armies

of great importance in the developments of a
battle.

The hardest hold-up was in front of my left
center, the First Battalion of the 198th Pennsyl-
vania. I rode up to the gallant Glenn, command-
ing it, and said, "Major Glenn, if you will break
that line you shall have a colonel's commission!"
It was a hasty utterance, and the promise un-
military, perhaps; but my every energy was
focused on that moment's issue. Nor did the
earnest soldier need a personal inducement; he
was already carrying out the general order to press
the enemy before him, with as much effect as we
could reasonably expect. But it was deep in my
mind how richly he already deserved this promo-
tion, and I resolved that he should get it now. It
was this thought and purpose which no doubt
shaped my phrase, and pardoned it. Glenn
sprung among his men, calling out, " Boys, will you
follow me?" wheeled his horse and dashed forward,
without turning to see who followed. Nor did
he need. His words were a question; his act an
order. On the brave fellows go with a cheer into
the hurricane of fire. Their beautiful flag sways
gracefully aloft with the spring of the brave youth
bearing it, lighting the battle-smoke; three times
it goes down to earth covered in darkening eddies,
but rises ever again passing from hand to hand
of dauntless young heroes. Then bullet-torn and
blood-blazoned it hovers for a moment above a
breastwork, while the regiment goes over like a
wave. This I saw from my position to the left of

Five Forks 139

them where I was pressing on the rest of my com-
mand. The sight so wrought upon me that I
snatched time to ride over and congratulate Glenn
and his regiment. As I passed into a deeper
shadow of the woods, I met two men bearing his
body, the dripping blood marking their path.
They stopped to tell me. I saw it all too well.
He had snatched a battle flag from a broken regi-
ment trying to rally on its colors, when a brute
bullet of the earth once pronounced good, but
since cursed for man's sin, struck him down to its
level. I could stop but a moment, for still on my
front was rush and turmoil and tragedy. I could
only bend down over him from the saddle and
murmur unavailing words. "General, I have
carried out your wishes!" — this was his only
utterance. It was as if another bullet had cut me
through. I almost fell across my saddle-bow.
My wish? God in heaven, no more my wish than
thine, that this fair body, still part of the unfallen
"good," should be smitten to the sod, that this
spirit born of thine should be quenched by the
accursed !

What dark misgivings searched me as I took the
import of these words! What sharp sense of
responsibility for those who have committed to
them the issues of life and death! Why should I
not have let this onset take its general course and
men their natural chances? Why choose out him
for his death, and so take on myself the awful
decision into what home irreparable loss and
measureless desolation should cast their unlifted

140 The Passing of the Armies

burden? The crowding thought choked utterance.
I could only bend my face low to his and answer:
''Colonel, I will remember my promise; I will
remember youV and press forward to my place,
where the crash and crush and agony of struggle
summoned me to more of the same. War! —
nothing but the final, infinite good, for man and
God, can accept and justify human work like
that!

I feared most of all, I well remember, — such
hold had this voice on me, — that it might not be
given me to be found among the living, so that I
could fulfill my word to him. But divine grace and
pity granted me this. As soon as the battle was
over, I sent forward by special messenger my
recommendation for two brevets for him, in
recognition of his conspicuous gallantry and great
service in every battle of this campaign, up to
this last hour. These were granted at once, and
Glenn passed from us to other recognition, " Brevet
Colonel of United States Volunteers, " — and that
phrase, so costly won, so honorable then, made
common since, has seemed to me ever after, tame
and something like travesty.'

' I sought for him from the Governor of Pennsylvania lineal promo-
tion in his regiment, though he had but few hours to Hve. But that
grade was held by an accomplished gentleman detached from his regi-
ment on office duties in the cities, and there was no place for Glenn.
The colonel, dear old Sickel, was in hospital with an amputated arm,
shattered at the Quaker Road three days before. Within that time this
regiment had now lost in battle colonel, major, and adjutant, and all we
could secure for the rest of the service, that great regiment of fourteen
companies, was a major's rank. This, indeed, was worthily bestowed.
It came to Captain' John Stanton, who after the fall of Sickel and MacEuen

Five Forks 141

By this time Warren had found Crawford, who
with Baxter's Brigade had been pursuing Mun-
ford's dismounted cavalry all the way from where
we had crossed the White Oak Road, by a wide
detour reaching almost to Hatcher's Run, until he
had crossed the Ford Road, quite in rear of the
breaking lines which Ransom and Wallace and
Wood were trying to hold together/ Hence he
was in position to do them much damage, both by
cutting off their retreat by the Ford Road and
taking many prisoners, and also by completing
the enemy's envelopment. To meet this, the
enemy, instead of giving up the battle as they
would have been justified in doing, stripped still
more their main works in front of otir cavalry by
detaching nearly the entire brigade of General
Terry, now commanded by Colonel Mayo, and
facing it quite to its rear pushed it down the Ford
Road and across the fields to resist the advance of
Warren with Crawford.

We, too, were pressing hard on the Ford Road
from the east, so that all were crowded into that
whirlpool of the fight. Just as I reached it,
Captain Brinton of Griffin's staff dashed up at

had acted as a field officer with fidelity and honor, and had distinguished
himself in the struggle for the flag snatched by Glenn with more than
mortal energy and at mortal cost.

' To my grief over the costs of this struggle was added now another,
when, borne past me on the right, came the form of Colonel Farnham of
the i6th Maine, now on Crawford's stafT, who, sent to bear an order
into this thickening whirl, was shot through the breast and fell, as we
thought, mortally wounded, but the courage and fortitude which never
forsook him carried him through this also.

142 The Passinor of the Armies

headlong speed and asked if I knew that Griffin
was in command of the corps. I was astonished
at first, and incredulous afterwards. I had heard
nothing from General Warren since I saw his flag
away in the Sydnor field when I was breaking out
from the column of march to go to Ayres' support.
My first thought was that he was killed. I asked
Brinton what he meant. He told me the story.
General Warren, when he got to the rear of the Ford
Road, sent an enthusiastic message by Colonel
Locke, his chief of staff, to Sheridan, saying that
he was in the enemy's rear, cutting off his retreat,
and had many prisoners. This message met scant
courtesy. Sheridan's patience was exhausted.
'' By G — , sir, tell General Warren he wasn't in the
fight ! " Colonel Locke was thunderstruck. " Must
I tell General Warren that, sir?" asked he. "Tell
him that, sir!" came back, the words like hammer-
blows. " I would not like to take a verbal message
like that to General Warren. May I take it down
in writing?" — "Take it down, sir; tell him, by
G — , he was not at the front!" This was done.
Locke, the old and only adjutant-general of the
Fifth Corps, himself just back from a severe wound
in the face on some desperate front with Warren,
never felt a blow like that. Soon thereafter Sheri-
dan came upon General Griffin, and, without pre-
face or index, told the astonished Griffin, "I put
you in command of the Fifth Corps!" This was
Brinton's story; dramatic enough, surely; pathetic
too. I hardly knew how to take it. I thought
it possible Sheridan had told every general officer

Five Forks 143

he met, as he had told me, to take command of all
the men he could find on the field and push them
in. I could not think of Warren being so wide-off
an exception.

Pressing down towards the Forks, some of
Ayres' men mingled with my own, I saw on emerg-
ing into a little clearing, Sheridan riding beside
me like an apparition. Yet he was pretty certain
flesh and blood. I felt a little nervous, not in the
region of my conscience, nor with any misgiving
of the day's business, but because I was alone with
Sheridan. His expression was at its utmost bent;
intent and content, incarnate will. But he greeted
me kindly, and spoke freely of the way things had
been going. We were riding down inside the
works in the woods covering the Forks and Ford
Road, now the new focus of the fight. Just then
an officer rode flightily up from that direction,
exclaiming to General Sheridan, "We are on the
enemy's rear, and have got three of their guns."
" I don't care a d — for their guns, or you either, sir!
What are you here for? Go back to your business,
where you belong! What I want is that Southside
Road." The officer seemed to appreciate the force
of the suggestion, and the distant attraction of the
Southside Road. I looked to see what would
happen to me. There were many men gathered
round, or rather we had ridden into the midst of
them, as they stood amazed, at the episode. The
sun was just in the tree-tops ; it might be the evening
chill that was creeping over us. Then Sheridan,
rising in his stirrups, hat in hand waving aloft

144 The Passino^ of the Armies

at full arm's length, face black as his horse, and
both like a storm-king, roared out: "I want you
men to understand we have a record to make,
before that sun goes down, that will make hell
tremble! — I want you there!" I guess they were
ready to go ; to that place or any other where death
would find them quickest ; and the sooner they got
there, the safer for them.

Griffin came down now from the right, dashed
ahead of me and jumped his horse over the works.
I thought myself a pretty good rider, but preferred
a lower place in the breastworks. My horse saw
one and made for it. Just as he neared the leap,
a bullet struck him in the leg, and gave him more
impetus than I had counted on. But I gave him
free rein and held myself easy, and over we went,
and down we came, luckily feet-foremost, almost
on top of one of the enemy's guns, which we were
fortunate enough not to "take." In truth the
gun was so hot from its rapid recent fire that we
could not bear our hands on it.

There was a queer "parliament of religions"
just then and there, at this Five Forks focus. And
it came in this wise. As Ransom and Wallace
and Wood's reinforced but wasting lines had fallen
back before us along the north and east side of their
works, our cavalry kept up sharp attacks upon
their right across the works, which by masterly
courage and skill they managed to repel, replacing
as best they could the great gaps made in their
defenses by the withdrawal of so many of Stewart's
and Terry's Brigades, to form the other sides of

Five Forks 145

their retreating "hollow square. " Driven in upon
themselves, and over much "concentrated," they
were so penned in there was not a fair chance to
fight. Just as Ay res' and Grijffin's men struck the
brave fellows holding on around the guns at the
Forks, from which Pegram, the gifted young com-
mander, had been borne away mortally wounded, —
and spirits as well as bodies were falling, — two
brigades of our cavalry, Fitzhugh's and Penning-
ton's of Devins' and Custer's commands, seizing
the favorable moment, made a splendid dash, dis-
mounted, over the works in their front, passing
the guns and joining with our men in pressing back
the broken ranks scattering through the thick
woods. Bartlett, also, with some of Crawford's
men following, came down nearly at the same time
from the north on the Ford Road. All, therefore,
centered on the three guns there; so that for a
moment there was a queer colloquy over the silent
guns. The cavalry officers say that they captured
the guns, but Griffin would not let them "take"
them. Crawford and Bartlett afterwards also
both report the capture of the guns; but as the
enemy had abandoned them before these troops
struck them, the claimants of the capture should
be content to rank their merits in the order of their
coming. There were, however, some guns farther
up the Ford Road, — whether those at first under
Ransom on the "refused" flank, or those hurried
from Pegram 's command on the White Oak Road
to the support of the breaking lines vainly essaying
to cover the Ford Road. Of the capture of these

146 The Passing of the Armies

there is no doubt. These Major West Funk — a
strange misnomer, but a better name in German
than in English, showing there is some "sparkle"
in his blood — actually "took," by personal touch,
— both ways. First dodging behind trees before
their canister, then shooting down the horses and
mules attached to the limbers, as well as the
gunners who stood by them, his two little regiments
made a rush for the battery, overwhelmed it,
unmanned it, and then swept on, leaving the guns
behind them, making no fuss about it, and so ver}^
likely to get no credit for it. This little episode,
however, was not unobserved by me; for this
resolute young commander had been a member of
my personal staff, and these two regiments — the
12 1st and I42d Pennsylvania, now attached to
Crawford's Division, were all that was left to us of
the dear lost old First Corps, and of my splendid
brigade from it in Griffin's Division, in the ever
memorable charge of "Fort Hell," June 18, 1864.

"Taking guns" is a phrase associated with very
stirring action. But words have a greater range
than even guns. There is the literal, the legal,
the moral, the figurative, the poetic, the florid, the
transcendental. All these atmospheres may give
meaning and color to a word. But dealing with
solid fact, there is no more picturesque and thrilling
sight, no more telling, testing deed, than to "take
a battery" in front. Plowed through by boom-
ing shot ; torn by ragged bursts of shell ; riddled by
blasts of whistling canister; straight ahead to the
guns hidden in their own smoke ; straight on to the

Five Forks 147

red, scorching flame of the muzzles, the giant
grains of cannon-powder beating, burning, sizzHng
into the cheek; then in upon them! — pistol to
rifle-shot, saber to bayonet, musket-butt to hand-
spike and rammer; the brief frenzy of passion;
the wild "hurrah!" then the sudden, unearthly
silence; the ghastly scene; the shadow of death;
the aureole of glory; much that is telling here,
but more that cannot be told. Surely it were much
better if guns must be taken, to take them by flank
attack, by skillful manoeuvre, by moral suasion,
by figure of speech, or even by proxy.

But this is digression, or reminiscence. For the
matter in hand, the guns taken at the Forks and
on the Ford Road, with due acknowledgments of
individual valor, were taken by all the troops who
closed in around them, front, flank, and rear;
by the whole movement, indeed, from the brain
of the brilliant commander who planned, to the
least man who pressed forward to fulfill his high
resolve.

We had pushed the enemy a mile from the left
of their works — the angle, their tactical center —
and were now past the Forks. Something re-
mained to be done, according to Sheridan's
biblical intimation. But the enemy made no more
resolute, general stand. Only little groups, held
back and held together by individual character,
or the magnetism of some superior officer, made
front and gave check. For a moment, after the
deafening din and roar, the woods seemed almost
given back to nature, save for the clinging smoke

148 The Passing of the Armies

and broken bodies and breaking moans which
betokened man's intervention.

Our commands were much mixed, but the men
well moving on, when in this slackening of the
strain. Griffin and Ayres, who were now riding with
me, spoke regretfully, sympathizingly, of Warren.
They thought he had sacrificed himself for Craw-
ford, who had not proved equal to the demands of
the situation. "Poor Warren, how he will suffer
for this!" they said with many variations of the
theme. Griffin did not say a word about his be-
ing placed in command of the corps. He was a
keen observer, a sharp critic, able and prompt to
use a tactical advantage, but he was not the man
to take pleasure which cost another's pain, or
profit from another's loss. It was high promotion,
gratifying to a soldier's ambition; it was special
preferment, for he was junior to Crawford. But
he took it all modestly, like the soldier and man
he was, thinking more of duty and service than of
self.

Sheridan came upon us again, bent to his pur-
pose. "Get together all the men you can," he says,
"and drive on while you can see your hand before
you!" The men were widely scattered from their
proper commanders. Griffin told me to gather the
men of the First Division and bring them to the
White Oak Road. Riding along the ground of
the wide pursuit, I kept my bugler sounding the
brigade calls of the division. This brought our
officers and men to the left. Among others. Gen-
eral Warren came riding slowly from the right. I

Five Forks 149

took pains to greet him cheerfully, and explained
to him why I was sounding all the bugle calls.
"You are doing just right," he replies, "but I am
not in command of the corps. " That was the first
authoritative word I had heard spoken to this
effect. I told him I had heard so, but that General
Sheridan had been putting us all in command of
everything we could get in hand, and perhaps after
the battle was over we would all get back where we
belonged. I told him I was now moving forward
under Sheridan's and Griffin's order, and rode
away from him towards the left with my gathered
troops, shadowed in spirit for Warren's sake. I
could not be sorry for the corps, nor that Griffin
was in command of it — he had the confidence of the
whole corps. And however sharp was Griffin's
satire, he had the generosity which enables one to
be truly just, and never made his subordinates
vicarious victims of his own interior irritations.

We had now come to the edge of a wide field
across the road and the works on the enemy's
right, known as the Gilliam field. Here I came to
Sheridan and Griffin, my troops all up, and well in
hand. A sharp cavalry fight was going on, in
which some of Ayres' men and my own had taken
part. On the right, along the White Oak Road,
were portions of Crawford's infantry that had
swung around so quickly as to get ahead of us and
they were the ones now principally engaged.

Here Warren took his leave of the corps, himself
under a shadow as somber as the scene and with a
flash as lurid as the red light of the battle-edge

150 The Passing of the Armies

rolling away into the darkness and distance of the
deep woods. When our line was checked at this
last angle, Griffin had ordered one of Crawford's
colonels to advance. The colonel, a brave and
well-balanced man, replied that where soldiers as
good as Griffin's men had failed, he did not feel
warranted in going in without proper orders . ' ' Very
well I order you in!" says Griffin, without adding
that he did it as commander of the corps. The
gallant colonel bows, — it is Richardson, of the
7th Wisconsin, — grasps his regimental colors in
his own hand, significant of the need and his resolu-
tion in face of it, and rides forward in advance of
his men. What can they do but follow such ex-
ample? General Warren, with intensity of feeling
that is now desperation, snatches his corps flag
from the hands of its bearer, and dashes to Rich-
ardson's side. And so the two leaders ride, the
corps commander and his last visible colonel, —
colors aloft, reckless of the growing distance be-
tween them and their followers, straight for the
smoking line, straight for the flaming edge; not
hesitating at the breastworks, over they go: one
with swelling tumult of soul, where the passion of
suffering craves outburst in action; the other with
obedience and self-devotion, love-like, stronger
than death. Over the breastworks, down among
the astonished foe, one of whom, instinct over-
mastering admiration, aims at the foremost a
deadly blow, which the noble youth rushes forward
to parry, and shielding with his own the breast of
his uncaring commander, falls to earth, bathing his

Five Forks 151

colors with his blood. Need more be told? Do
men tarry at such a point? One crested wave
sweeps on; another, broken, rolls away. All is
lost; and all is won. Slowly Warren returns over
the somber field. At its forsaken edge a staff
officer hands him a crude field order. Partly by
the lurid flashes of the last guns, partly by light of
the dying day, he reads: "Major-General Warren,
commanding the Fifth Army Corps, is relieved
from duty and will at once report for orders to
Lieutenant -General Grant, commanding Armies
of the United States. By command of Major-
General Sheridan."

With almost the agony of death upon his face,
Warren approaches Sheridan and asks him if he
cannot reconsider the order. "Reconsider. Hell!
I don't reconsider my decisions. Obey the order! "
fell the last thunderbolt on Warren's heart.

The battle has done its worst for him. The iron
has entered his soul. With bowed head and with-
out a word, he turns from the spectral groups of
friend and foe mingled in the dark, forbidding
cloud of night, to report to the one man on earth
who held power over what to him was dearer than
life, and takes his lonely way over that eventful
field, along that fateful White Oak Road, which for
him had no end on earth.

After nightfall the corps was drawn in around
Five Forks, for a brief respite. We were all so
worn out that our sinking bodies took our spirits
with them. We had reasons to rejoice so far as
victory gives reasons; but there was a strange

152 The Passing of the Armies

weight on the hearts of us all. Of things within?
or things without? We could not tell. It was not
wholly because Warren had gone, although in the
sundering of old ties there is always a strain, and
Warren had been part of the best history of the
Fifth Corps from the beginning. Even victory is
not for itself; it looks to a cause and an end. We
thought of this, pondering on the worth and cost,
and to what that end might unfold, of which this
was the beginning. There are other emotions, too,
which will arise when night draws over a scene
like that, and with it the thoughts come home.

We grouped ourselves around Grifhn at the
Forks, center of the whirling struggle, we who
were left of those once accustomed to gather about
him in field or bivouac, — alas for those who came
no more! — half -reclining against the gloomy tree-
trunks and rudely piled defenses so gallantly lost
and won, torn by splintering shot and rush of men;
half-stretched on the ground moistened by the dews
of night and the blood of the mingled brave;
hushed at heart, speaking but in murmurs answer-
ing to the whispers of the night ; with a tremulous
sensitiveness, an awe that was not fear. Few
things we said; but they were not of the history
that is told.

Suddenly emerged from the shadows a compact
form, with vigorous stride unlike the measure and
mood of ours and a voice that would itself have
thrilled us had not the Import of it thrilled us more.
"Gentlemen," says Sheridan, as we half started
to our feet, " I have come over to see you. I may

Five Forks 153

have spoken harshly to some of you to-day; but
I would not have it hurt you. You know how it is :
we had to carry this place, and I was fretted all
day till it was done. You must forgive me. I
know it is hard for the men, too ; but we must push.
There is more for us to do together. I appreciate
and thank you all. "

And this is Phil Sheridan ! A new view of him,
surely, and amazing. All the repressed feeling of
our hearts sprang out towards him. We were
ready to blame ourselves if we had been in any way
the cause of his trouble. But we thought we had
borne a better part than that.

We had had a taste of his style of fighting, and
we liked it. In some respects it was different from
ours; although this was not a case to test all
qualities. We had formed some habits of fighting
too. Most of us there had been through Antietam,
Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Mine
Run, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor,
Bethesda Church, the North Anna, Petersburg: —
we had formed habits. We went into a fight with
knowledge of what it meant and what was to be
done. We went at things with dogged resolution;
not much show; not much flare; not much accom-
paniment of brass instruments. But we could
give credit to more brilliant things. We could see
how this voice and vision, this swing and color, this
vivid impression on the senses, carried the pulse
and will of men. This served as the old "fife and
drum," and "Hail Columbia," that used to stir
men's souls. We had a habit, perhaps, drawn

154 The Passing of the Armies

from dire experience, and for which we had also
Grant's quite recent sanction/ when we had carried
a vital point or had to hold one, to entrench. But
Sheridan does not entrench. He pushes on, carry-
ing his flank and rear with him, — rushing, flashing,
smashing. He transfuses into his subordinates
the vitality and energy of his purpose ; transforms
them into part of his own mind and will. He
shows the power of a commander, — inspiring both
confidence and fear. He commanded our admir-
ation, but we could discriminate: we reserved
room for question whether he exhibited all the
qualities essential to a chief commander in a cam-
paign, or even in the complicated movements of an
extensive field of battle.

As a rule, our corps and army commanders were
men of brains rather than of magnetism. Warren
was one of these. He was well capable of organ-
izing an entire plan of battle on a great field. He
would have been an admirable chief of staff of the
army, where brains outweigh temperament. He
could see the whole comprehensively and adjust
the parts subordinate to it. But he had a certain
ardor of temperament which, although it brought
him distinction as a subordinate commander,
seemed to work against him as corps commander.
It led him to go in personally with a single division
or brigade, when a sharp fight came on. Doing
this when having a larger command, one takes the
risk of losing grasp of the whole. That was what

' The order to entrench on the White Oak Road, March 31st. See
War Papers, vol. i., p. 235.

Five Forks 155

he did in trying to change front with Crawford's
Division under fire. It was a difficult thing. He
put his personaHty into it ; just as Sheridan would
do and did in this very fight. It was the crudest
thing to say of him that he "was not in the fight. "
This blamed him for the very opposite of what had
been complained of as his chief fault ; and this time
the accusation was not true. He was in the fight;
and that in fact was his fault; at any rate it was
his evil fate. That he felt this accusation' keenly
was manifest in that last reckless onset in the
charge in the Gilliam field: he would let Sheridan
see whether he was in the fight or not. But this
did no good. If he had brought Crawford in
where Griffin came, he might have saved himself.
But that long labor of his out of Sheridan's sight
missed the moment. It was too late. The day
was done. So he rode through into the night.

In the later dispositions of the corps the several
divisions were moved out in directions which would
best guard against sudden attack, not unexpected:
Crawford, down the Ford Road, half-way to the
Run; Ay res out the White Oak Road on the right,
and Bartlett on the left, facing towards the enemy,
supposed to be gathered in their last stronghold
where we had left their main body the day before, —
the Claiborne entrenchments. It fell to me to be
held in reserve, and by midnight my command was
left alone on the field over which the sweeping
vision of power had passed. The thunder and
tumult of the day had died with it. Now only
the sighing of the night winds through the pine

156 The Passinor of the Armies

tops took up the ghostly refrain; and moans from
the darkened earth beneath told where we also
belonged. So the night was not for sleep, but
given to solemn and tender duties, and to thoughts
that passed beyond that field.

This is the story of Five Forks within my knowl-
edge of what was done and suffered there. It
shows confusions and struggles besides those of the
contending lines. It shows extent and complexity
quite beyond what would appear from an outside
view of the movement or the orders concerning it.
The story that went out early, and has taken lodg-
ment in the public mind, is more simple. Taking
its rise and keynote from Sheridan's report, some-
what intensified by his staff officers, and adopted
by Grant without feeling necessity of further
investigation, this story is that Sheridan and
his cavalry, with the assistance of a part of Ayres'
Division, carried Five Forks with all its works,
angles, and returns, its captives, guns, and glory.

The widely drawn and all-embracing testimony
before the Warren Court of Inquiry in 1879 and
1880, although in some instances confused and
even contradictory, — the result, however, in no
small degree of the preoccupation in the witnesses'
minds by the accounts so early and abundantly
put forth, and without rectification for so long a
time, — yet reveals some spreading of the plan of
battle, a steadfast, well-connected, and well-exe-
cuted conformity to the ideas under which the battle
was ordered. It also affords ample means of un-

Five Forks 157

derstanding the confusions and frictions which
were actual passages in the battle, and not artificial
and intensified in statement under the necessity of
sustaining a thesis or vindicating an act of authority.
The light shed by these records and the official War
Records lately published enables us now, by some
effort of attention it is true, to see in proper per-
spective, sequence, and comprehension the complex
details of that battle.

There was some very remarkable testimony
before the court in regard to the fight at Dinwiddle,
resulting from anything but "infirmity of mind."
There were also many inconsistencies concerning
the fight at Five Forks. But all these must be
accepted as a part of human conditions.^

The whole trouble and the disturbance of Sheri-
dan's preconceived image of the battle arose from
a wide misunderstanding of the enemy's position,
and the consequent direction of the attack by the
Fifth Corps. The general plan was well under-
stood by us all, and the specific written orders were
in perfect accordance with the idea in our minds.
It was to be mainly a flank and rear attack, — a
cyclone sweep. The intention evidently was that

' See, for instance, Sheridan's statement before the Warren Court,
Records, p. ii8, and those of his officers all through this investigation.
Also Grant's account of this battle, Memoirs, vol. ii., pp. 443-446, the
details of which, however, are so erroneous as to movements, their time
and place and bearing on the result, that they would not be recognized
as pertaining to that battle by anyone who was there; — an observation
which adds to our sorrow at the distressing circumstances under which
the distinguished writer was compelled to conclude his last volume
without opportunity for examining the then existing evidence in that

158 The Passing of the Armies

our cavalry should engage the enemy's attention
by vigorous demonstrations on their right and
center, while the left of the Fifth Corps — Ayres'
Division — should strike the left of the enemy's
entrenched line at the angle or return on the White
Oak Road, and on this pivot the whole corps should
make a great left turn and flank and envelop the
enemy's entire position.' It was a brilliant piece of
tactics, and if properly carried out its success was
as certainly predicted as anything in warfare can
be. There was no lack of loyalty and earnestness.
The importance of the battle was felt, and Sheri-
dan's impatience shared by all.

But our actual movement was based on an
imperfect reconnoissance, and a diagram made
therefrom greatly misled us. This showed Craw-
ford, the extreme right of the corps, directed on
the angle, instead of Ayres, the extreme left.
By this, not a man of the Fifth Corps could reach
the White Oak Road without doing so on top of the
enemy entrenched upon it. Swinging to the left
on reaching it would have to be done inside the
enemy's lines, or in front of them at close touch,
presenting the right of each subdivision to their
raking fire.

The diagram placed the angle of the enemy's
works at the crossing of the White Oak Road and
the road we were formed on, — the Gravelly Run
Church Road; while as matter of fact, the angle
was one thousand yards west of this crossing.
So that "the line as formed" moving forward,

' See map.

Five Forks 159

instead of its right striking the angle, as the dia-
gram indicated, the left of the line would pass it at
the distance of nearly five hundred yards, as Ay res
did.

It is now perfectly shown, although not clearly
held in mind by all, even at the Warren investiga-
tion, that the celebrated "angle" and "return"
were not the extreme left of the enemy's lines, nor
of his fortified position, as would appear by the
diagram. East of the angle as given there, was an
extended work of similar character, but across the
White Oak Road — south of it — extending a hun-
dred and fifty yards, facing south. This seems to
have been intended to cover the "return" which
ran north from its right for some two hundred
yards. This was the vicinity of the veritable "an-
gle" where the severe fight took place when our in-
fantry struck Ransom's and Wallace's Brigades on
the return.' There had been a good deal of hard
fighting north of the White Oak Road before
reaching this angle at all.

Nor were the troops in the main works and
about the "angle" and the "return" — as both the
orders and the diagram indicated — by any means
all the force we had to contend with that day.
Fitzhugh Lee's cavalry, dismounted, now com-
manded by Munford, — among them Stuart's old
brigade, and as their officers said, "as good
marksmen as ever fired a gun, " — were confronting
our advance, all the way round, not less than

' It was from this that our advance, Ayres and Crawford, v>?as first
struck. Testimony of General Munford, Warren Court Records, p. 4^52.

i6o The Passing of the Armies

fifteen hundred skilled and veteran soldiers, — no
sort of people to be ignored by us, nor by those
reporting the battle to be wholly on the angle and
on our cavalry front.

Now this was a very different state of facts from
that anticipated and pictured by us, and we had
to rectify all our lines under heavy fire in the midst
of battle. Who was responsible for this misap-
prehension? It would appear that the staff of-
ficer making the reconnoissance had not examined
the whole field or all of the enemy's position.
Possibly Munford's cavalry had not then reached
that portion of the field. But a discrepancy of a
thousand yards in a report of such consequence is
a pretty wide error. It might be said that Warren
was responsible for assuring himself perfectly of
the conditions in his front of attack. But Sheridan
saw and approved the diagram; and if anybody
is to be blamed, he must be considered ultimately,
and in a military sense, responsible for these mis-
apprehensions. At any rate there was a very
imperfect reconnoissance, from which we all suf-
fered; but it would be very unjust to place the
blame on the Fifth Corps or its commander.

It was charged by General Sheridan and som.e
of his staff that the right of Ayres' line, which
they call skirmishers, behaved badly on receiving
the first fire, — that they threw themselves on the
ground and fired into the air ; that they even broke
and ran; and that General Warren did not exert
himself to correct the confusion. As if the corps
commander's duty was to be on a brigade skirmish

Five Forks i6i

line in a great wide-sweeping movement of his
entire corps! Sheridan and Ayres would seem to
be assistance enough for Gwyn in handHng his
little skirmish line. But Sheridan says more
deliberately and explicitly before the Warren
Court: "Our skirmish line lay down; the fire of
the enemy was very slight. The line became
confused, and commenced firing straight in the air."
A somewhat difficult operation, it may be remarked
parenthetically, for men lying down, — unless the
resultant of two such compound forces as the enemy
in front and Sheridan behind made them roll over
flat on their backs, calling on heaven for aid.
"The poor fellows," he continues, "had been
fighting behind breastworks, for a long period, and
when they got out to attack breastworks, they
seem to have been a little timid. "^ They were
attacking breastworks then, out at the Church
Road crossing! But this is perhaps a fling at the
Army of the Potomac in the soft places of "Grant's
Campaign, " in which they lost more men than Lee
had in his entire army, and saved the other quarter
by now and then entrenching when put momen-
tarily on the defensive. Ayres does not relish this
remark, whether intended for excuse or sarcasm.
He answers that his troops, most of them, had
fought at Gettysburg, and through the Wilderness,
Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, and the
Weldon Railroad, and none of them had ever but
once fought behind breastworks.^

The unsteadiness of Ayres' skirmishers was

» Testimony, Warren Court Records, p. 254, ' Ibid, p. 450.

1 62 The Passing of the Armies

no vital matter. It was a trifling circumstance,
hardly relevant to the charge of indifference and
incompetency on Warren's part, and did not war-
rant the launching of thunderbolts at the whole
Fifth Corps. At the worst, the commander of the
skirmish line might have been reprimanded and "re-
lieved, " but hardly the commander of the corps.

I am pained on more accounts than one to find
that General Grant in his notice of our action that
afternoon, as given in his Memoirs (volume ii.,
page 443), uses the following language: "Griffin's
Division, in backing to get out of the way of a
severe cross-fire of the enemy, was found marching
away from the fighting. " He adds, however, that
after a while it was "brought back" and did excel-
lent service. This is an extraordinary statement,
— or at any rate it is to be hoped it is not an
ordinary one in writing history, — to put down
authoritatively as the record of our conduct and
spirit that day.

"Backing to get out of the way of fire"? Grif-
fin's Division? At what point in their history?
"Backing from a cross-fire" here? The fire first
followed was that of Munford's cavalry on their
front and right while advancing according to
orders; and "backing" from this would have
thrown them directly on the celebrated "angle,"
where indeed they did arrive most timely, and on
purpose to meet a "cross-fire, " which they did not
back out of. "Away from the fighting"? Let
Ayres, and Ransom, and Wallace, and Wood, and
Sheridan answer. "Found"? By whom? "Brought

Five Forks 163

back"? By what? They were found at the
"angle," and brought themselves there ahead of
the finders. Saul, the seeker of old, got more lost
than the domestic wanderers he was after: they
were in their place before he was; but the seeker
found a kingdom, and doubtless forgave himself
and the animals whose society he missed.

But this is a very serious charge against Griffin's
Division, and in time of active service would
warrant a court of inquiry. And even now the
statement of one so revered cannot but be injurious
to its reputation and its honor.

To have stated this as fact without being sure of
it is so unlike the truthfulness and magnanimity
of that great character, that we are forced to be-
lieve he has here fallen before his only weak-
ness,— that of trusting too implicitly to those
whom he liked. If General Grant was to honor us
by his notice at all, we should suppose he would
acquaint himself with the facts. He seems, how-
ever, on so comparatively unimportant a topic, to
have innocently absorbed the impression made
upon him by parties interested in justifying an
arbitrary act of authority. If General Grant
could have looked into the case, he would have
seen that this statement was not only unjust, but
the very reverse of truth. The pressing sense of
his approaching end compelled General Grant to
finish his book in haste. However painful it may
be to review words written under circumstances so
affecting, it is but just to inquire into the grounds
of the accusation.

164 The Passing of the Armies

GrifBn's orders were to follow Crawford, but
the spirit of his position was that of a reserve;
and this is held in hand ready to go in at a critical
moment when and where most needed. All the
facts necessary to adduce are that this division
strictly, and with painstaking fidelity, — not in
stupid quiescence, — followed its orders, until a
moment came when it promptly acted in accord-
ance with the spirit of its orders and of the whole
plan of battle. It was "reserved" for that very
kind of thing. And no one can say it fell short of
its duty or the standard of its ancient honor.

The evidence is explicit and ample that the head
of this division was at the angle of the works with
Ayres and helped him to carry it. This is directly
testified to by commanding officers of the "Mary-
land Brigade" on Ayres' right, and of the 4th
Delaware on Gwyn's right, who say that Griffin's
troops were on the flank and rear of the rebel line
at the angle before they attacked it in front. ^ This
is confirmed by officers of the highest character in
Ransom's Brigade on the left of the angle."* Gen-

' Colonel Stanton, who succeeded Bowerman in command of Ayres'
Second Brigade, says the enemy were struck on their left and rear and
forced in confusion on his front at the angle. Captain Buckingham,
commanding the 4th Delaware, the extreme right of Ayres' Division,
says our troops had struck the enemy's works from the north at the
time he reached them in front, facing west.

' Captain Faucette, 56th North Carolina, Ransom's Brigade, fully
confirms this; and Honorable Thomas R. Roulac, 49th North Carolina,
says that when the angle was carried, his troops had been attacked from
the north and west, as well as on their proper front; and this by troops
he saw moving down on them from the north, and that it was a "hand
to hand" fight, "with clubbed muskets." See also North Carolina
Regiments, 1861-65, vol. iii., p. 143.

Five Forks 165

eral Ayres says substantially the same in his testi-
mony before the Warren Court. ^ General Sheri-
dan himself admits this.^ It is evident, however,
that in recounting his impression of the fight at the
angle he failed to give prominence to the fact —
of no consequence to him, or to the general result,
as to the particular troops engaged ; and moreover,
if acknowledged, making against his charge that
Warren did not bring in his other divisions to sup-
port Ayres — that Griffin's troops quite as much as
Ayres' took part in carrying that angle. Indeed,
he most probably regarded the troops of Griffin
whom he met here as part of Ayres' command.
For this would explain most of the discrepancies
in his statements compared with established and
admitted facts.

But in truth the fight was by no means over
when the angle was carried. Although tactically
the result was a foregone conclusion when this was
done, and although the fighting there was for a
few minutes sharp, yet the hard fighting was in the
whole field where the enemy made their successive
stands with such courage and desperation. Griffin's
part in this, and even Crawford's, cannot be
ignored.

But it is insisted that Crawford's Division
marched out of the fight. What is true is that
it did not swing in promptly on Ayres' when he

' Ayres says Chamberlain's troops at the angle were somewhat in
advance of his at the critical moment. Warren Court Records, p. 267
and p. 1080.

' Testimony, Records Warren Court, p. 123.

i66 The Passing of the Armies

changed front to the left. That was an error, and
an inexcusable departure from positive orders, not
being warranted by the developments of the battle.
But something is to be said about its cause, and
its practical results. The diagram indicated to
Crawford that his division would strike the enemy
first at the "angle." Encountering serious re-
sistance on crossing the White Oak Road, and
naturally drawn towards it, he kept on, expecting
perhaps that he was shortly to encounter the main
force of the enemy in their works, and not observing
the more severe attack which fell on Ayres* left, —
where, indeed, the general orders for the battle
should have prepared him to understand it, and
take accordant action. In such case. Griffin would
have taken in hand what was opposing Crawford.
But the enemy before him led him to a wider sweep,
in the course of which he confronted not only the
two thousand dismounted cavalry, but at length
large bodies of the infantry broken from their first
hold and trying to make a stand on the Ford Road.
He had fighting all the way around. Calling our
fight at the angle, on our extreme left, "the front, "
and saying that General Warren was not "in the
fight," while it might be pardoned as an excited
ejaculation in the heat of battle, will not stand as
sober truth, or as the premise for so violent a
conclusion. And all those people who ring changes
on the "obliquing off" of Crawford and Griffin
from the center of action, "marching away from
the fighting," or "drifting out of" what they call
(by a familiar figure of speech) "the fight, " do not

Five Forks 167

tell us that this appearance was because Ayres was
suddenly compelled to make a square change of
front, and those who did not instantly conform
and follow might seem to be obliquing to the right,
when in fact they were "swinging to the left"
according to orders, — unfortunately by too wide a
sweep, having a very active enemy in their front.
In this concern, some minds are unduly affected
by that very natural notion that the fight is where
they are ; although in the case of General Sheridan
it must be admitted that "the point was well
taken." Crawford's wide movement was un-
doubtedly an error, and a costly one for Warren;
but the simple fact that Crawford lost more men
in the battle than both the other divisions together
— more indeed than all the rest, cavalry and in-
fantry together — goes to show that some of the
fight was where he was.

These accusations against the conduct of each
of Warren's divisions, while susceptible of being
magnified and manipulated so as to produce a
certain forensic effect, are of no substantial weight.
Even if true in the sharpest sense, they would be
overstrained and uncalled for considering how the
battle ended, and by whom it was mainly fought.

But the case against Warren seems to be labored.
Small matters are accentuated and accumulated
as if to make weight for some special conclusion.

First there is the accusation of a manner of in-
difference on Warren's part previous to the action.
As to this, opinions would vary. There is no
doubt this feeling on General Sheridan's part

i68 The Passing of the Armies

was very deep and disturbing. That must be con-
sidered. Those who knew Warren best saw no
indifference. He was not in his usual spirits, — and
we cannot wonder at it, — but he was intense rather
than expressive. He knew what was depending,
and what was called for, and put his energies into
the case more mentally than muscularly. His
subordinates understood his earnestness.

The broad ground of reason — and a valid one if
substantiated by fact — for dissatisfaction with
General Warren's conduct in the battle, and for his
removal from command in consequence, would be
that he was not in proper position during the battle
to command his whole corps, and did not effectually
command it. That at a sharp and critical point
he was not present where General Sheridan wanted
him is another matter, which does not in itself
support the former conclusion.

In a military and highly proper sense. General
Warren was responsible for the conduct of his
corps, and ultimately for that of each of his divi-
sions. There are two ways in which such control
might be exercised: by prevention, or by correction.
It was Crawford's duty to keep his vital connection
with Ayres, and if in any way it should be broken,
to be on the alert to see and to act. Warren
should hold him responsible for that. And if he
could not at the start rouse Crawford, whose
peculiarities he knew, to a vivid conception of the
anatomy and physiology of the case, he should
have had a staff officer charged with the duty of
keeping Crawford closed on Ayres, while he himself

Five Forks 169

at the point where he could keep in touch with his
whole corps should hold Griffin under his hand as
the ready and trusted reserve prepared for the
unexpected.

It may be questioned, perhaps, whether it was
wise to give Crawford that front line and wheeling
flank in a movement of such importance, and make
him a guide for Griffin. It would have been bet-
ter (as Griffin and Ayres said later in the day)
to put Griffin on Ayres* right, in the order in which,
curiously enough. Griffin's brigades put themselves
as if by some spiritual attraction, or possibly only
common sense.

But it may be justly said that, whatever errors
the development of the battle disclosed, Warren
should have made his troops conform to the state
of facts. He did. We can well understand how
exasperating it must have been to General Sheridan
when Ayres was so suddenly, and it seems un-
expectedly, struck on the left flank, to find the
largest division of the corps not tiirning with him,
but drawing away from the tactical focus and
the close envelopment of it intended, and getting
into the place on the wheeling flank which was
assigned to Mackenzie's cavalry, and crowding
Mackenzie "out of the fight." Griffin, when the
exigencies on the left disclosed this error, hastened
to put in his rear brigade, — the nearest, — now
become the leading one. Warren with the same
intent, passing him, pushed on for Crawford with
feverish effort not short of agony. Indeed he
did more than could be legally required. He

170 The Passing of the Armies

performed acts of "supererogation," — voluntary-
works and above the commandments, — which
certainly should have saved him from perdition.
He undertook the duties of staff officer for Craw-
ford. He got hold of Kellogg's Brigade and posted
it as a "marker" in the midst of the Sydnor woods,
while he went off to find the rest of Crawford, and
make him execute the grand left wheel; when one
of Sheridan's staff coming along, astonished at this
dumbshow, a brigade stationary, "marking time"
at such a crisis, orders the marker into the "fight " ;
which the gallant commander begins right there,
but ends soon after with a more exacting antagonist
and with equal glory.

Meantime finding Crawford disporting himself
on the tangent of a two-mile ctirve, Warren stuck
to him like a tutor, leading him in on a quick
radius to the supposed center, — which, be it borne
in mind, we were all the time shifting off to the
westward, making his route exhibit all the marvels
of the hyperbola. His guide had gone into the
vortex, and all he could do, in coming back with
Crawford's recovered men, was to follow the fire,
which we were battering off to the Forks. The
cyclone had become a cycloid. So that Crawford
was constantly obstructed by fugitives from the
fight crowding him worse and worse all the way
around; and when at last he struck the enemy's
works, it was by no fault of Warren's that he struck
them at their western end, near the Gilliam field,
instead of at the left and center through the Sydnor
fields. Things being as they were, Warren got his

Five Forks 171

corps into the "fight" as quickly and effectively
as he or anybody else possibly could.

But it is charged that the failure to close quickly
on Ayres imperiled the result of the whole battle/
Recalling the fact that Griffin did not fail to close
very promptly on Ayres, striking the "return"
before Ayres struck the "angle," and the fact
that the battle went on in the general way intended
only by a wider sweep and more complete envelop-
ment, we should give attention to this remark,
made in a manner so forcible. General Sheridan's
judgment as a tactician can hardly be questioned;
nor can his deliberate statement of it. But as we
are now on the line of hypothesis, we may be
entitled to consider what would have been the
result in case Ayres had been withstood, or even
repulsed, in his first attack. In the assertion
before us, no account is made of Griffin's troops.
Is it assumed that they were a flock of stray sheep,
engaged in backing out of fire? What they would
do may be judged from what they did. And can
anyone suppose the enemy would consider them-
selves in a very triumphant position between
three bodies of our troops: — Ayres in front; the
cavalry in rear; and two divisions of the Fifth
Corps on their left flank as they would then front?
How long does anyone believe it would be, at
such a signal, before the whole Fifth Corps and our
cavalry also would whirl in, and catch the enemy

'General Sheridan says: "If Ayres had been defeated, Crawford
would have been captured: the battle would have been lost." Testi-
mony, Warren Court Records, p. 125.

172 The Passing of the Armies

in a maelstrom of destruction? What did happen,
as it was, would have happened quicker had Ayres
fared harder.

Or suppose Ayres was not so fortunately struck
from the extended outwork, and had marched past
the left of the enemy's entrenched line two hundred
and fifty yards away, as he says he was doing.'
Being on Griffin's left, he must have struck the
left flank of the "return," and soon the rear of
the enemy's main line on the White Oak Road.
Griffin would then have been in immediate con-
nection and would have swung with him. It would
have taken a little longer; but the enemy would
have been enveloped all the same. Sheridan's
brilliant tactics would have been triumphant.
Only Warren would have shared the glory.

Another consideration. Take things exactly
as they were said to be, — Ayres at the "angle";
Griffin and Crawford out. What if those three
Confederate brigades, ordered out of the Claiborne
entrenchments that afternoon to fall on the flank
of the Fifth Corps attacking at Five Forks, had
come straight down, and not gone a long round-
about way as they did, striking too late and too far
away for any good or harm, — what would have
been the effect in such case had not these two
divisions of the Fifth Corps been out there to stop
them?

But suppose, again, all had gone as ordered and

' Testimony, Warren Court Records, p. 255. Major Benyaurd, Corps
of Engineers, says Ayres' left passed the "Bass" house to our right
of it. Warren Court Records, p. 160.

Five Forks 173

intended, and Crawford and Griffin had swung
in on the rear of the Hnes on the White Oak Road.
Would it not have been awkward to have these
five thousand fresh men^ come down on the backs
of our infantry, while having its hands full in
front? What could Mackenzie have done with
these men and Fitzhugh Lee's cavalry together?
Lucky was it for us, in either case, that these five
thousand infantrymen did not get down there.
Lucky would it have been in such case, that Craw-
ford and Griffin should happen to be out as flankers.

It is a very remarkable circumstance that neither
of the three chief Confederate commanders was
actually present on the field during the progress of
the battle. They had been on the ground earlier
it seems on retiring from Dinwiddie; but for one
reason or another they had one by one retired across
Hatcher's Run, — looking after their "communica-
tions" very likely.^ Pickett returned to the field
only after we had all gained the Ford Road at
about 6 P.M., but Fitzhugh Lee and Rosser not at
all. Pickett narrowly escaped the shots of our
men as he attempted to pass them to reach his
broken lines towards the White Oak Road.

It is also remarkable that General Robert E. Lee,
although himself alert, was not kept informed by

* General Hunton, before the Warren Court, placed the numbers of
these three brigades, when they attacked us the day before, first at
seven thousand five hundred, but was induced by the effect of cross
examination afterwards to reduce this to five thousand. Records, pp.
629 and 630.

^ Private correspondence of Confederate officers present gives some
curious details as to a shad dinner on the north side of Hatcher's Run.

174 The Passing of the Armies

Fitzhugh Lee or Pickett of the movements of the
Fifth Corps in relation to Five Forks, and that Lee
was led by a word from Pickett to suppose that
Fitzhugh Lee's and Rosser's cavalry were both
close in support of Pickett's left flank at Five Forks. ^
This was not the truth. Fitzhugh Lee's cavalry
under Munford was over a thousand yards east of
Pickett's left at the beginning and during the day
was pressed around his rear so as to reach his
troops after their lines had all been broken. And
as for Rosser's cavalry they were at no time on the
field. We know now that General Lee afterwards
wrote General Wade Hampton in these words:
"Had you been at Five Forks with your cavalry
the disaster would not have befallen my army."
Nor does it appear that General Anderson, com-
manding General Lee's reserves in this quarter,
knew anything of the pressing need of them at Five
Forks until all was over.

So there are some other generals beside Warren
who helped Sheridan to his fame at Five Forks.

So much for the tactics of that battle. In spite
of errors it was a great victory. It was Sheridan's
battle. The glory of it is his. With his cavalry
there was no error nor failure. Their action was
not less than magnificent ; the central thought car-
ried into every brilliant act ; — a picture to satisfy
any point of view, idealist or impressionist.

As to the strategic merits of the battle, a few
reflections may be permitted. Undoubtedly, as
things were, it was an important battle. But our

^ Rebellion Records, serial 95, p. 1264.

Five Forks 175

isolated position there invited fresh attack; and
we only escaped it by the blundering or over-cau-
tious course of the forces sent out by Lee from
the Claiborne front that afternoon, and which in
Sheridan's solicitude we were pushed out to meet
that night. Then, too, we were much farther off
from the Petersburg front, and the opportunity for
concerted action with the other corps in the line
for general assault. And finally, we were in no
more advantageous position now than we should
have been if we had turned the Claiborne flank of
the enemy's entrenchments, and cut the Southside
Road at Sutherland's the day before.^ Indeed,
the very first thing we did the next morning after
Five Forks was to move back to turn this same
flank on the Claiborne Road and gain possession of
Sutherland's. But Miles had taken care of this,
as we might have done before him. Only Lee had
now got a day's start of us, the head of his column
well out on its retreat, necessitated not by Five
Forks alone but by gallant work along our whole
confronting line, — which might have been done the
day before, and saved the long task of racing day
and night, of toils and tribulations and losses
recorded and unrecorded, which brought fame to
Appomattox, and the end of deeds rewarded and
unrewarded.

A study of this battle shows vexing provocations,

^ The right of the enemy's entrenchments on the Claiborne Road after
they were driven in on the afternoon of March 31st was by no means
strongly held. Testimony of General Himton, Warren Court Records,
p. 629.

176 The Passing of the Armies

but does not show satisfactory reasons for the
removal of General Warren from command of the
Fifth Corps. The fact is that much of the dis-
satisfaction with him was of longer standing.
We recall the incident that General Sheridan did
not wish to have the Fifth Corps with him at the
start^; also the suggestion by General Grant that
Sheridan might have occasion to remove him, and
the authority to do so^; then the keen disappoint-
ments of the Dinwiddie overture the day before,
and the exasperation at Warren's not reporting to
Sheridan that night.^ We recall General Griffin's
remark in the morning that something Hke this
would happen before the day was through."* We
recur also to the complaints earlier noticed.^
There was an unfavorable judgment of Warren's
manner of handling a corps; an uncomfortable
sense of certain intellectual peciiliarities of his;
a dislike of his self-centered manner and tempera-
ment and habit generally, and his rather injudicious
way of expressing his opinion on tender topics.
There was a variety of antagonism towards General
Warren stored up and accumulating in General
Sheridan's mind, and the tension of a heated
moment brought the catastrophe.

No one can doubt General Sheridan's "right'*
to remove Warren; but whether he was right in
doing so is another question, and one involving
many elements. It is necessary that a chief com-

' See paper on the White Oak Road, vol. i., of this series, p. 230.
^ Idem, p. 246. J Idem, pp. 244-45.

* Ante. s Ante, note.

Five Forks 177

mander, who is under grave responsibilities, should
have the power to control and even displace the
subordinates on whom he depends for the execution
of his plans. Nor is it to be expected that he can
properly be held to give strict account of action so
taken, or be called upon to analyze his motives and
justify himself by reasons to be passed upon by
others. In this case, there are many subjective
reasons — influences acting on the mind of General
Sheridan himself and not easily made known to
others, impressions from accounts of previous
action, the appearance of things at the moment,
and his state of mind in consequence — which go
to strengthen the favorable presumption accorded
to his act. But as to the essential equity of it,
the moral justification of it, opinions will be
governed by knowledge of facts, and these extend-
ing beyond the incidents or accidents of this field.

The simple transfer of a corps commander is
not a disgrace, nor necessarily an injury. General
Warren had no vested right to the command of the
Fifth Corps. And if Sheridan expected to have
this corps with him in this campaign, in which he
held assurances of a conspicuous and perhaps pre-
eminent part, and General Warren was to him a
persona no7i grata, we cannot wonder that he
should wish to remove him. He had already ob-
jected to having this corps with him; but after
trial he did not send back the corps, but its com-
mander. It was the time, place, and manner of this
removal, the implications involved in it, and the
vague reasons given for it, which made the griev-

178 The Passing of the Armies

ance for General Warren. He was immediately
assigned to another command; but even if Grant
had restored him to the Fifth Corps, this would not
wipe out that record, which stood against his honor.
It is highly probable that a court-martial would not
have found him guilty of misconduct warranting
such a punishment as dismissal from his command.
There was not then, as there is not now, any
tribunal with power to change the conclusion so
summarily given by Sheridan, or to annul or miti-
gate the material effects of it. But such reasons
as were given for this affected Warren's honor, and
hence he persistently invoked a court of inquiry.
All that he could hope for from such a court was
the opportunity thus given for the facts and
measurably the motives and feelings affecting the
case to be brought out and placed upon the public
records.

The posture of the parties before that court was
peculiar. The members of the court were general
officers of the active army. The applicant was
then a lieutenant-colonel of engineers. The re-
spondent— virtually the defendant — was lieuten-
ant-general of the armies of the United States,
— the superior of course, and the commander, of
every member of the court, as also of most of the
witnesses before it, then in the military service.
The "next friend" and chief witness — called by
the applicant, but necessarily for the respondent —
was General Grant, ex-President of the United
States, who still carried an immense prestige and
influence. The traditions of the whole War De-

Five Forks 179

partment were for sustaining military authority.
We could not expect this court to bring in a verdict
of censure on General Sheridan, or anything that
would amount to that. We can only wonder at
the courage of all who gave Warren any favorable
endorsement or explanation, and especially of the
cotirt which found so little to censure in the conduct
of General Warren as commander of the Fifth
Corps in those last three days. The court sus-
tained General Sheridan in his right, but General
Warren felt that the revelation of the facts was of
the nature of vindication. It came too late to save
much of his life; it may have saved what was
dearer.

I am by no means sure but that injustice must
be taken by a military officer as a necessary part of
his risks, of the conditions and chances of his ser-
vice, to be suffered in the same way as wounds and
sicknesses, in patience and humility. But when
one feels that his honor and the truth itself are
impugned, then that larger personality is concerned
wherein one belongs to others and his worth is
somehow theirs. Then he does not satisfy himself
with regret, — that strange complex feeling that
something is right which is now impossible, — and
even the truth made known becomes a consolation.

The battle of Five Forks was also the battle of
the White Oak Road, on an extended front, in an
accidental and isolated position, and at a delayed
hour. It was successful, owing to the character of
the troops, and the skill and vigor of the com-
mander. Appomattox was a glorious result of

i8o The Passing of the Armies

strong pushing and hard marching. But both
could have been forestalled, and all that fighting,
together with that at Sailor's Creek, High Bridge,
and Farmville have been concentrated in one grand
assault, of which the sharp-edged line along the
White Oak Road would have been one blade of the
shears, and Ord and Wright and Parke on the main
line the other, and the hard and costly ten days'
chase and struggle would have been spared so
many noble men. Lee would not have got a day's
start of us in the desperate race. Sheridan cutting
the enemy's communications and rolling up their
scattering fugitives would have shown his great
qualities, and won conspicuous, though not su-
preme honors. Warren would have shared the
glories of his corps. Humphreys and Wright with
their veterans of the Second and Sixth, whose
superb action compelled the first flag of truce con-
templating Lee's surrender, would not have stood
idly around the headquarters' flag of the Army of
the Potomac, with Longstreet's right wing brought
to bay before them, waiting till Lee's final answer
to Grant should come through Sheridan to the
Fifth Corps front, where Ord, of the Army of the
James, commanded. And Meade, the high-born
gentleman and high-born soldier, would have been
spared the slight of being held back with the main
body of his army, while the laurels were bestowed
by chance or choice, which had been so fairly won
by that old army in long years of heroic patience in
well-doing and stiff ering; — might have been spared
the after humiliation of experiencing in his own

Five Forks i8i

person how fortune and favor preside in the final
distribution of honors in a country's recognition.

The Fifth Corps had an eventful history. Two
passages of it made a remarkable coincidence. It
was its misfortune to lose two of its commanders — -
the first and the last in the field of action — by
measures so questionable as to call for a court of
review, by which, long after, both were substan-
tially vindicated: Fitz-John Porter, accounted the
most accomplished corps commander on the Penin-
sula, and "heir apparent" to the command of the
army, and Warren, whom Grant says he had
looked upon for commander of the army in case
anything should take from the field the sterling
Meade. ^ Who from such beginning could have
foretold the end! And Meade, — he, too, went
from the Fifth Corps to the command of the army,
and found there a troubled eminence and an un-
crowned end.

Shakespeare tells us, poetizing fate or faith:

There's a Divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will.

To our common eyes it often seems a dark divin-
ity that rules; and the schoolmaster might inter-
change the verbs.

' Grant's Memoirs, vol. ii., p. 216.

CHAPTER V

THE WEEK OF FLYING FIGHTS

THE victory at Five Forks had swept away a
flying buttress of the enemy's stronghold.
We had broken down the guard of a
tactical movement to hold their threatened com-
munications and cover their entrenched lines. We
may be said to have virtually turned the right of
the defenses of Petersburg and broken the Con-
federate hold upon Virginia. It was, indeed, a
brilliant overture, giving courage to our hearts
and stimulus to our energies.

Immediately on learning of Sheridan's victory
at Five Forks, Grant reissued the suspended order
directing an assault on the long-confronted de-
fenses of Petersburg, which was executed by our
Sixth and Ninth Corps with the assistance of the
Army of the James with splendid valor and deci-
sive effects. But he felt anxious about our isolated
position at Five Forks, and ordered Himiphreys
to make vigorous demonstrations to find a vul-
nerable spot in the enemy's entrenched line in his
front, and if he could not carry any portion of this,

to send Miles' Division up the White Oak Road

182

The Week of Flying Fights 183

to Sheridan that night. To intensify the diversion,
our whole army in that quarter was to keep up a
roar of cannonading all night long.

We now have to chronicle movements of ex-
traordinary vacillation and complexity. It will be
remembered that on the night of the battle most
of our corps was moved out towards the Clai-
borne on the White Oak Road, and that part of
Griffin's Division now commanded by Bartlett
remained on the field with a guard at the Ford of
Hatcher's Run, and a picket encompassing that
storied and now haunted ground. We hardly
know what General Grant can be desiring to
establish when he says {Memoirs, ii., p. 446) that
Sheridan, "appreciating the importance of the
situation, sent the Fifth Corps that night across
Hatcher's Run to just south west of Petersbiu-g,
and faced them towards it." If he had done so,
there would have been a "diversion" on our end
of the line as well as elsewhere, and with music
and dancing; for this would have called us to
disprove one of the very doubtful axioms of
physics, that "two bodies cannot occupy the same
space at the same time," with such pyrotechnic
celebration as two clouds charged with opposite
electricities exhibit when driven to bivouac to-
gether in the same field of the heavens. We should
have camped inside the rebel lines, and a bedlam
of a bivouac that would have been.

After their defeat at Five Forks, the cavalry of
both the Lees joined Rosser at the Ford crossing
of Hatcher's Run, and then drew back on that

i84 The Passing of the Armies

road to the Southside Railroad crossing. There
were gathered also the fugitives from Pickett's
and Johnson's Divisions, covered by the remainder
of those divisions that had not been in the fight,
— Hunton's Brigade of Pickett's Division, and
Wise's, Gracie's (commanded by Colonel Sanf ord) ,
and Fulton's of Johnson's Division, all under com-
mand of General R. H. Anderson. Their ultimate
destination was to cover the enemy's right flank
at Sutherland's Station. These would have been
unpleasant fellows to camp with on the night of
April 1st.

Humphreys, finding the entrenchments in his
front impregnable, at about midnight sent Miles
up the White Oak Road to Sheridan. But at day-
light Sheridan faced him right about, and with two
divisions of the Fifth Corps following, pushed back
down the White Oak Road to attack the Claiborne
flank, — ^where we had left it on the night of the
thirty-first. Meantime, this morning of April 2d
saw the splendid and triumphant assault of our army
upon the outer Petersburg defenses. Humphreys,
learning of this at about nine o'clock, attacked
the works in his own front along the eastern end of
the White Oak Road, defended by McGowan's,
MacRay's, Scales', and Cook's Brigades of Hill's
Corps commanded by Heth, and forced them out
of their works by their right flank towards the
Claiborne Road. Humphreys followed them up
with his two divisions, and receiving word from
Miles that he was returning towards him, ordered
the whole Second Corps to pursue the enemy along

The Week of Flying Fights 185

the Claiborne Road towards Sutherland's Station
with a view to cutting off the retreat of the fugi-
tives from Wright's and Ord's attacks, and closing
in on Petersburg. Sheridan, arriving at the Clai-
borne Road and learning this, thereupon faces about
the Fifth Corps, after having, strangely enough,
given Miles permission to attack the enemy
there, and marches his men back over the White
Oak Road to Five Forks, and pushes on by the
Ford Road up to Hatcher's Run. What lost labor
for Miles and the Fifth Corps, running empty ex-
press up and down the White Oak Road! The
shuttlecock was flying again. In the meantime
Humphreys advancing with the two divisions to
join Miles for the contemplated movement on the
Claiborne flank and Sutherland's, having apprised
General Meade of his intention, finds his action
disapproved by his superiors, and receives orders
to leave Miles and move his two other divisions
off by the Boyd ton Road towards Petersburg and
form on the left of the Sixth Corps. This, of
course, left Miles to Sheridan, and Sheridan had
now left Miles.

As these apparently absurd performances in-
volve again the action and honor of the Fifth
Corps, it is proper to bring them under examination.
The accounts of the affair of Miles at Sutherland's
Station given by General Badeau, General Grant,
General Sheridan, and General Humphreys involve
irreconcilable differences; and it is necessary to
form our judgments on the subject by taking into
account the means of knowledge, and probable

1 86 The Passinsf of the Armies

&

motives of action and of utterance, which go to
establish the credibility of witnesses.

First we are prone to wonder how it could be
that such a man as General Sheridan, — who does
not reconsider his determinations, — when within
less than two miles of the intended point of attack,
should suddenly retire with his whole command,
and leave Miles to fight the battle alone. It seems
equally strange that General Himiphreys should
nearly at the same time turn and march off in
the opposite direction, towards Petersburg. It is
certainly a curious conjuncture that both Meade
and Sheridan should be pulling away from Miles'
high-toned division and the very respectable
company of Confederates about Sutherland's as
if they were not fit for their seeing.

Sheridan gives for his action a reason which
appears sufficient, and adds an opinion which is
significant. He says: "On the north side of
Hatcher's Run, I overtook Miles, who was anxious
to attack, and had a very fine and spirited division.
I gave him permission; but about this time General
Humphreys came up, and receiving notice from
General Meade that he would take command of
Miles' Division, I relinquished it at once, and
faced the Fifth Corps to the rear. I afterwards
regretted giving up this division, as I believe the
enemy could at the time have been crushed at
Sutherland's depot. I returned to Five Forks, and
marched out the Ford Road towards Hatcher's
Run."

Two things are to be noted here: the reason why

The Week of Flying Fights 187

Sheridan did not join the attack here, but released
himself from the fight and Miles from his jurisdic-
tion; and also his belief that this was the place at
which to crush the enemy. Some of the rest of us
had thought the same way on the 31st of March.
This testimony is also confirmed by the opinion of
the modest Humphreys, who cannot help saying
that if the Second Corps could have been permitted
to continue its march in the morning, "the whole
force of the enemy there would probably have been
captured." This cumulative testimony shows
what was lost by the antipathy of polarities, in the
presence of Miles, the mysterious repellant.

In reflecting on the probabilities of Meade's mo-
tive in ordering Humphreys away from Miles* Di-
vision when Sheridan was approaching it with the
intention of making an important fight there, it ap-
pears more than likely that Meade had a strong
intimation that Sheridan must have undisturbed
control of the entire operations on the extreme
left. To this effect we have the direct, although
perhaps unintentional, testimony of a most com-
petent witness. General Badeau, Grant's military
secretary, in his Military History of U. S. Grant,
vol. iii., p. 624, says: "Grant, however, intended
to leave Sheridan in command of Miles, and indeed
in full control of all the operations in this quarter
of the field; and supposing his views to have been
carried out, it was at this juncture that he ordered
Humphreys to be faced to the right and moved
towards Petersburg." This appears to settle that
part of the question, and takes the burden entirely

1 88 The Passing of the Armies

from Meade's shoulders, which he never seems to
have had the heart to roll off for himself. Sheri-
dan's motive, too, is readily seen by the same light.
When he thought Miles had been ordered to resume
relations with his own corps commander, Sheridan
wished to have nothing to do with the fight,
although in his estimation this was the supreme
opportunity for "crushing the enemy."

It is a little confusing to try to reconcile this
testimony and explanation, with General Grant's
statement in his offiical report, that learning the
condition of things on the morning of April 2d,
Sheridan "returned Miles to his proper command."
If so, why did Sheridan give Miles permission to
attack at Sutherland's? And why, if the smashing
up of the rebel right flank was so easy to achieve
here, did he tvirn his back on Miles on the very
edge of battle, and leave to him the solitary honor
and peril of confronting there Heth's, and what
of Johnson's and Pickett's Divisions and Fitzhugh
Lee's cavalry, falling back that afternoon before
the Fifth Corps advance, should get into his front?
Certainly there were no other of the enemy west
of this point at that hour worth Sheridan's march-
ing the Fifth Corps ten miles round to hunt after.

It is a striking coincidence that Sheridan with
the Fifth Corps should have come so near to Miles
and the enemy, — two miles on the south of them, —
in the morning, at the moment when Humphreys
was first coming up with his two divisions for the
fight he anticipated, and then again, after the
middle of the afternoon, have come within two

The Week of Flying Fights 189

miles of Sutherland's and of Miles fighting, on the
Cox Road west of them, and also just at the time
when Humphreys was "returning" from the direc-
tion of Petersburg with his division ordered by
Grant to go up to Miles' relief. The play of
attraction and repulsion is something deep-lying
in the "law" of forces.

An effort has also been made to give the impres-
sion that these two appearances of Sheridan, on the
right and on the left of Miles at Sutherland's, were
moments of one and the same action, — parts of
one undivided movement. Whereas they were
separated by a wider detour, possibly imperiling
quite as much as the eventful one of Crawford at
Five Forks, where Warren was the chief victim.

There are so many curious jumbles of coincidence
and dislocation in the accounts of Sheridan's
movements that day, — if we may not say in the
movements themselves, — that readers who are not
on the alert to keep things clear in their minds are
liable to lose their bearings. Badeau "bothers"
matters very much; as when he says (vol. iii., p.
520), "At noon the left wing under Sheridan
was still unheard from." It would seem that the
delirium of writing history had reached the stupor
symptom somewhere. Grant must have known
that Sheridan had dropped Miles and gone back
to start for a longer run. We have Grant's state-
ment in his official report that he got worried
about Miles after a while, left as he was alone
when he ordered Humphreys away from him, and
Sheridan had abandoned him. He adds, in terms

190 The Passing of the Armies

implying censure of Hiimphreys: "I directed
Humphreys to send a division back to his relief.
He went himself." It required considerable bold-
ness in Himiphreys to "go himself" with one of his
divisions. Warren had tried that, and it took him
so far he never got back. Whatever the much
buffeted Humphreys could have done, in obeying
orders, he would have been left with only one of his
divisions somewhere, and we cannot blame him
for trying to get where he had a chance of getting
his eye in range of two of them, when a mixed
fight was going on. And Grant ordering Himi-
phrey's divisions makes us wonder where Meade
was, supposed to command the corps of his army.
Though raised to functions of a higher power, the
ratio seems the same as that of Warren and
Humphreys to their commands, — the instinctive
dignity and abnormal solicitude of the hen with
one chicken. When Humphreys got to Miles,
that gallant officer had beaten the enemy from their
last stand; but the most of them had got off be-
tween Meade and Sheridan.

General Grant, with the sincere kindness of his
prepossessions, makes a special effort to have
General Sheridan appear as a direct participator
in the victory at Sutherland's. He allows Badeau
to speak to this effect. And he himself says in his
Memoirs (vol. ii., p. 451), "Sheridan then took
the enemy at Sutherland's Station, on the reverse
side from where Miles was, and the two together
captured the place, with a large number of prisoners
and some pieces of artillery, and put the remainder,

The Week of Flying Fights 191

portions of three Confederate corps, to flight.
Sheridan followed, and drove them until night,
when further pursuit was stopped. Miles biv-
ouacked for the night on the ground which he with
Sheridan had so handsomely carried by assault."
It was sometime before noon when Miles made his
first attack, and quite as late as 3 p.m. when he
made his last and completely successful one. At
this time the Fifth Corps, the head of Sheridan's
colimin, had got around as far as Cox's Station on
the Southside Railroad, within two miles of Suther-
land's, and was tearing up the rails there. Our
column was not near enough to Miles's fight to take
part in the actual assault, although no doubt
its rapid and close advance on the enemy's right
had some influence on the victory. But we never
thought of claiming part of the glory that belonged
to Miles, — except that he was not long ago a Fifth
Corps boy.

The truth is that after all the pains to secure for
Sheridan the glory of whatever was achieved on the
left, or as Badeau says, "in that quarter of the
field," when all came to the very field where by
unanimous consent the enemy's main force could
have been "crushed," and in fact was broken away
with less complete results by Miles' gallant fight,
Sheridan came perilously near — so near in truth
that the difference is inappreciable by the human
mind — to being found "not in the fight," by
reason of the far-reaching effect of his recoil from
the suddenly appearing Humphreys, who rose
upon him at the crowning moment when he gave

192 The Passing of the Armies

Miles permission to open the "crushing" fight.
Shakespeare puts it:

Ay, now, I see 'tis true;
For the blood-bolter^d Banquo smiles upon me,
And points at them for his.

It is a relief to resume the plain account of our
pursuit of tangible beings evading Five Forks.
It seems like passing from war to peace. Early on
the morning of the 2d our cavalry drew off north-
westerly from the Ford Road crossing of Hatcher's
Run to cut off some rebel cavalry reported to have
made a push in that direction. Sheridan having
returned from the Claiborne Road with the rest
of the Fifth Corps, at about noon our column
moved out, my own command in the advance,
down the Ford Road. At Hatcher's Run a vigor-
ous demonstration of the enemy's skirmishers to
prevent our crossing was soon dislodged by a
gallant attack by Colonel Sniper with the 185th
New York. Throwing forward a strong skirmish
line, in command of Colonel Cunningham of the
32d Massachusetts, we pressed on for the Southside
Railroad. Hearing the noise of an approaching
train from the direction of Petersburg, I pushed
forward our skirmishers to catch it. A wild,
shriek of the steam-whistle brought our main line
up at the double-quick. There we find the train
held up, Cunningham mounted on the engine
pulling the whistle-valve wide open to announce
the arrival at a premature station of the last train
that tried to run the gauntlet out of Petersburg

The Week of Flying Fights 193

under the Confederate flag. This train was
crowded with quite a mixed company as to color,
character, and capacity, but united in the single
aim of forming a personally-conducted southern
tour. The officers and soldiers we were obliged
to regard as prisoners of war: the rest we let go in
peace, if they could find it. It was now about one
o'clock. It is to be noted that this train appears to
have had no difficulty in getting by Sutherland's
at that hour.

I was now directed to advance and, if possible,
get possession of the Cox Road. This we found to
be well defended. A force of about ten thousand
men formed a strong line in front of us, but with
that "light order" of disposition and movement
which betokens a rear-guard. As this is sometimes,
however, the mask for formidable resistance, I
prepared to carry the position whatever it might
prove to be. Accordingly, I threw forward the
185th New York in extended but compact order,
covering the enemy's front, brought the two
battalions of the 198th Pennsylvania into line of
battle in support, placed the 189th New York,
Lieut. -Colonel Townsend commanding, in a large
tract of woods on the right with orders to move left
in front, ready to face outwards and protect that
flank which looked toward Sutherland's, and ad-
vanced briskly upon the opposing lines. They
proved to be Fitzhugh Lee's Division of cavalry
dismounted, which from character and experience
had acquired a habit of conservative demeanor.
But a strong dash broke them up, and we pressed
13

194 The Passing of the Armies

them slowly before us along the Cox Road. An-
ticipating the burden of the retreat from the direc-
tion of Petersburg to fall this way, I prepared to
hold this road against all comers, in the meantime
pushing forward to the bank of a branch of Hatch-
er's Run a mile short of Sutherland's. Here
my command was held in line and on the alert
while the rest of the Fifth Corps were engaged in
tearing up the Southside Railroad between us and
Cox's Station in our rear. We were on the flank
and rear of the enemy fighting Miles, but the stress
of that fire died away as we approached. Miles
had utterly routed the enemy. No doubt our
advancing along the Cox Road towards this point,
and also our preventing Fitzhugh Lee's cavalry
from joining the resistance to Miles, had some
considerable effect on the minds of the enemy, as
well as in determining the direction of their retreat,
and in so far helped Miles win his victory; but
this could hardly be construed as part of the action.

Our cavalry shortly afterwards coming up in our
rear, Sheridan with them pursued the fugitives
along their retreat, now northwesterly, our rear
division, Crawford's, joining in a skirmish at about
dusk. We turned off the Cox Road to the Namo-
zine, and moving out about two miles, bivouacked
at the junction of this road with the River Road,
which here turns north, leading to the Appomattox.

This was a hard day for my command. Being
in the advance and in contact with the enemy, we
had to move as nearly as possible in line of battle,
taking a wide breadth of that broken country,

The Week of Flying Fights 195

through brush and tangle, swamp and mire. Eight
hours of this right upon such severe experience the
two days and nights before left the men utterly-
exhausted. But they gathered the sticks for their
little fires, and unrolled their slender haversacks,
disclosing treasures that were mostly remnants,
whether pork or sugar, biscuit or blankets — ■
things provided for their earthly sustenance while
they were contending for ideals to come true for
them only in some other life, or far-away form.
Sic vos no7t vohis — not you for yourselves — says
Virgil to his bees and birds building nests and
storing up food, mostly for others. Strange
shadows fall across the glamour of glory. The law
of sharing for the most of mankind seems to be that
each shall give his best according to some inner
commandment, and receive according to the decree
of some far divinity, whose face is of a stranger,
and whose heart is alien to the motives and sym-
pathies that animate his own.

At daylight on the 3d we moved out on the
River Road on the south side of the Appomattox,
with the purpose of cutting off the enemy's retreat
from Petersburg. This day was remarkable in the
fact that then, for once, we had somebody "ahead"
of the Fifth Corps except the enemy. The cavalry
were ahead this time, and that incident did not
add to the comfort of marching in the mud, which
in its nature, and without previous preparation,
was a sufficient test for human powers, physical
and moral. We had, however, the stimulus of hear-
ing in exultant and wildly exaggerated phrase of the

196 The Passing- of the Armies

&

flight of the Confederate government from Rich-
mond, the full retreat of Lee's army from Virginia,
and the downfall of the Confederacy. The plain
facts were enough for us : Lee's army was in retreat
for Danville, the Richmond government broken
up, and the Confederacy at least mounted on its
last legs. The splendid work of the right wing of
our army on the 2d had set this in motion, and we
still thought our restless behavior on the extreme
left had at least induced Lee to notify Davis on the
evening of that day that he should be obliged to
abandon his lines during the night and would
endeavor to reach Danville, North Carolina.
Davis anticipated him with military promptitude,
and succeeded in getting off with his personal
effects and the Confederate archives by the Dan-
ville Road.

Grant had ordered a general assault on the
interior lines of Petersburg and Richmond early
on this morning of the 3d, but it was then dis-
covered that they had been evacuated dtiring the
night. These places were immediately occupied
by oiu- troops, and General Warren was assigned
to the command of the forces in and around
Petersburg and City Point. The order given by
Lee for the general retreat had been put into
execution early in the evening of the 2d; Long-
street and the troops that had been in our main
front, including also Gordon's Corps, had crossed
to the north side of the Appomattox, directing
their course towards Amelia Court House on the
Danville Railroad about equidistant from Rich-

The Week of Flying Fights 197

mond and Petersburg. Those with whom we had
been principally engaged, Pickett's and Bushrod
Johnson's Divisions, with Fitzhugh Lee's cavalry,
moved up the south side of the Appomattox,
closely followed by us. The cavalry ahead were
pressing on the enemy's rear all day, and just at
dusk of the evening came upon a strong line of
Lee's cavalry with Hunton's and Wise's infantry
brigades boldly confronting us at the crossing of
Deep Creek. The cavalry had forced them away
in a sharp engagement before we got up to share
in it. We could not help admiring the courage and
pluck of these poor fellows, now so broken and
hopeless, both for their cause and for them-
selves. A long and hard road was before them,
whatever fate should be at the end of it. We
had a certain pride in their manliness, and a
strong "fellow-feeling," however determined we
were to destroy the political pretension which they
had accepted as their cause. Before morning of
the 4th General Sheridan, learning that Lee was
trying to assemble his army near Amelia Court
House, ordered the Fifth Corps to make all dis-
patch for Jetersville, a point about eight miles
south of that place, to intercept Lee's communica-
tions by the Danville Road, while a column of our
cavalry was sent around to strike that road still
south of us and then move up to join us at Jeters-
ville. Here, after a brisk march, — thirty-five miles,
Sheridan says, — we arrived late in the day, and
before midnight the Fifth Corps was in line of
battle across the Danville Railroad, strongly

198 The Passing of the Armies

entrenched, effectually cutting Lee's plans and
therefore in a position where we were pretty sure
to be ourselves attacked with desperation in the
morning, by Lee's whole army. This expectation
held us at high tension on the morning of the 5th,
waiting for the Army of the Potomac to come up
and secretly hoping in our interior confessionals
that Lee would also wait for them.

We had all expected a great battle at Jetersville.
A sonorous name is not necessary for a famous field.
And there was a little French flavor about this
name that might have brought livelier associations
than "jetsam," of which also there was plenty
before the week was over. Sheridan thought Lee
missed his great opportunity in not attacking us
here before any reinforcements got up. We shall
not censure Lee. If he had doubts about the issue
of a fight with the Fifth Corps we willingly accord
him the benefit of his doubt. It appears, however,
that Lee being informed by "Rooney" Lee, his
son, that Sheridan had a heavy force of infantry
here, gave up the attack and turned his columns
off by a more northerly route, sending his trains
by the best protected roads towards the Danville
communications. So narrow was our chance of
being confronted by Lee's whole army. And so
great was our satisfaction at Lee's opinion of the
Fifth Corps.

Our Second and Sixth Corps had been trying to
follow the Fifth all the morning of the 4th, but
had been stopped a long way back by one of those
common, and therefore presumably necessary, but

The Week of Flying Fights 199

unspeakably vexatious, incidents of a forced
march, — somebody else cutting in on the road,
claiming to have the right of way. The cavalry
had come in on them from one of the river-cross-
ings where they had been heading off Lee from his
nearest road to Amelia Court House, and prece-
dence being given the cavalry in order, our infantry
corps had to mass up and wait till they could get
the road. The fields were in such condition that
troops could not march over them, and the roads
were not much better for the rear of a column, with
all its artillery and wagons. These delayed corps
were not allowed to get the rheiunatism by resting
on the damp ground, but were favored with the
well-proved prophylactic of lively work cordu-
roying roads, so that they could have something
substantial to set foot on. At half-past two in the
afternoon of the 5th, the advance of the Second
Corps began to arrive in rear of our anxious,
expectant, front-faced lines, and form in upon our
left, soon followed by our Sixth Corps, which in
like manner formed upon our right. It needs not
be told what kind of a greeting we gave each other
there. These corps, what had they not done since
they parted on the old lines a week before! That
Army of the Potomac together once again, at that
turning, burning point dividing the storied past
from the swift-coming end of its history.

At one o'clock that afternoon my command was
suddenly called out to support the cavalry, which
returning from a heavy reconnoissance had struck
one of the enemy's trains moving off on our left

200 The Passing of the Armies

flank, and having captured i8o wagons and five
pieces of artillery, and destroyed the wagons, was
bringing in the artillery and a large number of
prisoners, and was severely attacked by a strong
body of cavalry and infantry, not far out from our
lines. This had made things lively for a time. We
had not much to do, however, when we got up to
them. Or perhaps that prolific and redundant
principle of anticipation, by which a thing seems
so much better when you want it than when you
get it, and, vice versa, so much worse when you
fear it than when you front it, may have availed
here. The so-called moral effect of seeing and
knowing that our plodding infantry had covered
their tracks was perhaps stronger than we could
have made good if we had been more severely
tested in the flying fight. But our cavalry was a
queer sight. Before they had destroyed the
wagons, they had apparently had a custom-house
inspection, and confiscated many, various, and
marvelous "goods," — contraband, and some of
them contradictory, of war. It looked as if not
only the grocers and tinsmiths, but also the
jewelers and possibly the milliners, of Petersburg
and Richmond had been disappointed in a venture
they had hopefully consigned to southern ports.
It was almost provocative of levity, — quite "to the
prejudice of good order and military discipline, " —
to see otir grave cavalry forming their flowing
lines of battle with silver coffee-pots and sugar-
bowls thumping at their saddle-straps, and when
they rallied in return to see their front fluttering

The Week of Flying Fights 201

with domestic symbols, and even "favors" of the
boudoir, as if a company of troubadours had dis-
mounted a squadron of crusaders between Joppa
and Jerusalem. But it was with a joy deeper far
than merriment that I came in touch with our
splendid old First Maine Cavalry, famed for man-
hood and soldierhood then and ever since, with
Smith at their head straight and solid and luminous
as a lighthouse.

Sheridan, however, wished to move up and
attack Lee, even before the other corps got up to
us. Meade, having arrived in person in advance of
even the Second Corps, was unwilling to move out
without the other corps to attack Lee with forty
thousand men in hand and in position, — if the
reports which Sheridan relied upon were true.
This decision of Meade, Badeau says, was "much to
Sheridan's mortification." Still all he could do
about it was to "tell his father." He sent a
messenger to Grant saying that it was of utmost
importance that Grant should come to him in
person. Meade had been very ill for the last two
days, — we cannot much wonder at that, — and
had asked Sheridan to put the Second Corps and
also the Sixth into position as he might desire,
while he retired for a little rest. Grant, coming
promptly up in the course of the night, held a
conference with Sheridan on the situation, and
especially, it now appears, on Meade's supposed or
imputed plan "of moving out to his right flank,"
whatever that might be conjectured to mean,
"and giving Lee the coveted opportunity of escap-

202 The Passing of the Armies

ing us, and putting us in rear of him." Grant and
Sheridan then went, after midnight, to see Meade,
when General Grant says he "explained to Meade
that we did not want to follow the enemy, but to
get ahead of him, and that his (Meade's) orders
would allow the enemy to escape." It seems in-
credible that an officer of the position, experience,
and responsibility of General Meade could have
listened patiently to this imputation of ignorance
and stupidity. A movement to Meade's " right
flank," as his army was faced, would have carried
him back to our old entrenched lines. It is absurd
to imagine Meade ever intended this imdertaking.
And it may be questioned whether the movement
we did make under Sheridan's direction and
Grant's authority and orders for Meade to execute
did not immediately "put us in rear of Lee's army"
and keep us there until the long, hard circuit to
Appomattox Court House was run.

This kind of history makes it proper to look at
matters a little in detail. And for the first thing
as to the state of mind and purpose of General
Meade, against whom such belittling reference has
been made.

The last week's experiences had worked together
to make Meade in truth seriously ill. Still he held
up in spirit and body like a martyr. When Sheri-
dan with the Fifth Corps at Jetersville on the 5th
sent word to Meade asking for the other corps of
his army, Meade, lying on his rude couch scarcely
able to move, shows no lack of soldierly spirit or in-
deed of magnanimity. He dispatches Grant: 'T

The Week of Flying Fights 203

have ordered Humphreys to move out at all hazards
at 3 A.M. ; but if the rations can be issued to them
prior to that, to march as soon as issued; or if the
temper of the men, on hearing the dispatch of
General Sheridan communicated to them, leads
to the belief that they will march with spirit, then
to push on at once, as soon as they can be got under
arms." In his order then issued Meade says:
"The troops will be put in motion regardless of
every consideration but the one of ending the war.
. . . The Major-General commanding feels that
he has but to recall to the Army of the Potomac
the glorious record of its repeated and gallant
contests with the Army of Northern Virginia, and
when he assures the army that in the opinion of so
distinguished an officer as Major-General Sheridan,
it only requires these sacrifices to bring this long
and desperate contest to a triumphant issue, the
men of this army will show that they are as willing
to die of fatigue and of starvation as they have
ever shown themselves ready to fall by the bullets
of the enemy."

This may not carry all the incitements of per-
suasive eloquence; but whatever concentric or
eccentric meanings it may bear, it is the testimony
of a high and heroic soul. He was the senior of
Sheridan in rank and service and in command, and
had now begun to comprehend the plans for
Sheridan in the coming campaign beyond the part
of commander of the cavalry forces. But he sends
him this word: "The Second and Sixth Corps shall
be with you as soon as possible. In the meantime

204 The Passing of the Armies

your wishes or suggestions as to any movement
other than the simple one of overtaking you will be
promptly acceded to by me, regardless of any other
consideration than the vital one of destroying the
Army of Northern Virginia." Deep-drawn is this
simple language: deeplier significant the more one
ponders it. We have the high authority of General
Adam Badeau that "this is the stuff of which
commanders are made." That is, — self-effacement
and renunciation at the behest of a rival ! We are
not so sure about this definition of the proper
"stuff" for the composition of commanders; but
certainly this message is an almost sublime utter-
ance of a gentleman and a patriot, — an unselfish
and magnanimous man. To my mind, it seems like
the last words of an Algernon Sidney or a Montrose :
"The noblest place where man can die is where he
dies for man."

In this same spirit he rises from his couch of
suffering and passing his troops upon the road,
finds his Fifth Corps in advance of Sheridan's
cavalry, square across the Danville Railroad,
faced towards Lee's then approaching army, and
asks Sheridan to place the rest of the Army of the
Potomac, as it comes up, in such order of battle as
Sheridan may think proper, and trusting that all
will be done in the spirit that has animated his
whole movement thus far, asking only that this
overmarched advance shall not be hurled against
Lee's whole entrenched army before our main
body is all up, Meade sinks down to his couch for a
respite at least of mental suffering. Here he is

The Week of Flying Fights 205

visited by Grant and Sheridan with the very dis-
tinct intimation that his plans are weak and silly,
and that Sheridan's plans would now be put into
execution. Then, to sleep, we may suppose. And
in that sleep what dreams might come, those who
watched his troubled rest spoke not what they
divined. For it needed not vision nor prophet, nor
Urim nor Thummim to read through the palpitat-
ing air that another sun had arisen. Samuel had
already anointed David and Saul could get no
answer from the Lord. It needed no far-sighted
glasses to see that Meade was no longer in reality
commander of the Army of the Potomac but only
the vanishing simulacrum of it. Was he dreaming
perchance of the affront offered him by the false
charge of an intended "right flank" movement
which would lead him past the enemy's rear? Or
lamenting in helpless agony the lost opportunity
of striking a decisive blow at Lee's last vital stand
had he not been sent off by Grant and Sheridan to
Amelia Court House whence Lee had already fled?
For it was well known to some whose business it
was to know, that Meade had planned to move in a
very different direction and on shorter lines on the
morning of April 6th, and strike Longstreet at
Rice's Station on the Lynchburg Road where there
is every reason to believe he would have brought
about the beginning of the end. Alas for Meade!
He never saw his army together again, — not even
in the grand review at Washington, — from which
time too he sunk from sight.

To return to our story it will be borne in mind

2o6 The Passing of the Armies

that the Fifth Corps and the cavalry held Jeters-
ville from the afternoon of the 4th of April to the
afternoon of the 5th, in the face of Lee's whole
army. But as things were before morning Sheridan
returns the Fifth Corps to the command of Meade,
an act which he states he "afterwards regretted"
— a conciliatory phrase which had become habitual.
Assured by him that Lee's army is at Amelia Court
House, Grant orders Meade to move out in that
direction in the order of battle in which his corps
were already formed, to attack the enemy in posi-
tion there, while Sheridan with the cavalry should
take the direction Meade had intended for his
army, — towards the Danville and Lynchburg road-
crossings. We had moved in this way five miles
of the eight, when Griffin learns that Lee's army is
not at Amelia Court House, having left there on the
evening before, and being now well on its way
around our left flank. Humphreys caught sight of
some of Lee's rear columns moving on a road about
four miles northwest of us, and immediately sent
out a detachment to cut them in two. It was no
part of Lee's plan to wait to be attacked by our
whole army, and on learning of our gathering at
Jetersville he began his retiring movement at eight
o'clock in the evening, sending his several corps by
all the roads leading in the desired direction, either
for Danville or for Lynchburg. So Meade was
actually sent out with the foregone certainty of
doing what he had no thought of doing, but was
charged with having contemplated, — letting Lee
pass him, and putting us in his rear.

The Week of Flying Fights 207

Meade at once faces his army about and directs
his several corps by different roads to follow, out-
march, and intercept Lee's flying army. Griffin
is sent by the most northerly and roundabout way,
through Paineville (well-named), Ligontown, and
Sailor's Creek, — in doing this, observe, moved
from the extreme left to the extreme right of the
army. Humphreys moves on the left of the Fifth
Corps to Deatonsville, and thence towards Sailor's
Creek, while the Sixth Corps under Wright moves
from Jetersville by the shortest roads to the same
rendezvous. Now began the terrible race and
running fights, swift, bold, and hard; both armies
about equally tasked and tried, and both driven
to the prayer: "Give us this day our daily bread."

We could not well understand our being moved
by so roundabout a way to reach our destination.
It is explained, however, by a passage in General
Grant's Memoirs (vol. ii., p. 473), which consider-
ing the pressure upon time and strength and gener-
ous resolution falling upon our men, is remarkable
as showing what motives sometimes control mili-
tary movements. It is remarkable also in showing
what part General Meade had in commanding his
army corps. The passage reads: "When the move
towards Amelia Court House had commenced that
morning, I ordered Wright's Corps, which was on
the extreme right, to be moved to the left, past the
whole army, to take the place of Griffin's, and
ordered the latter at the same time to move by,
and place itself on the right. The object of this
movement was," proceeds this naive narration.

2o8 The Passing of the Armies

&

"to get the Sixth Corps, Wright's, next to the
cavalry, with which they had formerly served so
harmoniously and so efficiently in the valley of
Virginia."

The Sixth Corps now remained with the cavalry
and under Sheridan's direct command, until after
the surrender.

This is in truth a gracious reference to the work
of the Sixth Corps before the onset of Early when
Wright had already made a stand and was turning
the tide backward as Sheridan came riding "from
Winchester twenty miles away." But the last
remark will provoke a smile. The wish was father
to the thought, no doubt; but the fact was a "bar
sinister." The Sixth Corps was under Sheridan's
direct command only in the one fight at Sailor's
Creek, and Sheridan did not get sight of it again, — •
not even in the grand review at the disbandment
of the armies. Moreover, for that one fight,
Sheridan complains that although Wright obeyed
his orders, he refused to make his report to him
until positively ordered to do so by the Lieutenant-
General himself.

Lee had got ahead of us; we were mortified at
that. But he found his way a "hard road to
travel." His hope was now to get to the Danville
junction at Burkesville, where he expected rations,
and possibly a clear road to Danville or Lynchburg.
So he pushes the heads of his flying colimms along
the roads running between the Southside and the
Appomattox, a path traversed by many and diffi-
cult streams, only to find at every crossing some

The Week of Flying Fights 209

hot vanguard of Sheridan or Hinnphreys or Wright
or Griffin, or at last of Ord; and each time, too,
after fighting more or less severe to be beaten off
with ever new disaster, wasting powers, and
spreading demoralization. Yet stretching on with
ever increasing desperation. ... As one has
seen some poor worm upon the forestick, girdled
with fire, again and again attempt to cross the
deadly edge and recoil writhing from the touch;
wearing out his life in the frantic effort to save it;
his struggles the more frenzied and wild the less
his chances are — so now for these brave spirits
who held together for manhood's sake in the name
of what they already felt to be a doomed Con-
federacy. Virginia was but a prison-pen; the
Southside Railroad was the dead-line; the river
the Lethean stream. There was blood at every
bridge and ford. Yet higher and higher up road
and river stretched the two armies; one with the
frenzy of a forlorn hope; the other with the energy
of fierce resolve.

Our privilege was to push things; and there was
no default of that. Our advanced infantry corps
were operating with cavalry; which means doing
cavalry -work marching and infantry- work fighting.
And the example of the cavalry was superb.

For all our haste, we moved with caution;
skirmishers and flankers well out; every moment
looking for some hard-pressed rear-guard to turn
and give battle, to gain time for their crowding
columns ahead to pass some obstacle, or reach some
favorable ground for respite or defense. For the
14

210 The Passing of the Armies

&

most part the road of our pursuit was hard and
smooth and clean; with no particular marks of
disorder save here and there a dead man by the
wayside, or an empty haversack which want had
made superfluous, or a musket which haste and
hopelessness had made too heavy.

Now we come to low ground where the ruts are
axle deep and the road strewn with wreckage:
broken-down forage trains, empty but unwieldy;
abandoned cannon and battery-wagons stuck fast
in the mire, — the trembling mules still harnessed
to the wreck; horses starved and overtasked, but
still saddled or packed, turned loose by their
masters, whose future interests so outweighed the
present that they couldn't stop to ride; queer
Virginia farm-carts, as queerly freighted, with
which some ignorant citizen was bearing off his
household gods, and goddesses as well, fleeing
before the Yankees with the full persuasion that
they were after them with hoofs and horns in the
likeness of their master, the evil one. '

Now we come to the deep creek, where the
fugitives have destroyed the bridge behind them to
check our oncoming, but checking more effectually
their own followers; strewn, the stream, with
sunken and floating remnants of almost every
kind that man strives to put together and fate is
busy to take to pieces; betokening how many,
soldier and civilian, have reached the stream too
late for the bridge, and have attempted the danger-
ous ford; while crowding on the banks are still

' Of. R. R. xlvi., pp. 733-1102, Serial 97.

The Week of Flying Fights 211

stranger vehicles and convoys; wild-looking men
in homespun gray, standing sulkily by, or speak-
ing only to insist that they are civilians and not
soldiers, — what they know of prison-pens not being
attractive, as compared with starving in the open
barrens; sometimes white men, or what seem to
be, declaring they are not white, but colored; —
a claim not often set up in that section of the
Republic, though there might be some truth in it
for all that ; for there was in those days a whimsical
variance between law and fact, — between being
actually white and legally white, — as indeed under
all climes and constitutions one may be found
physically one color and morally the other.

But sometimes there was no mistake. For here
we have come upon a waif of the deluge, — a token
of the dispersion of peoples, the survival of the
fittest, the stock and cradle of a race. Mounted on
a pile of worldly goods that might have been
blown together by the four winds, or rolled up by
the waves of as many lost civilizations, crowded
into a vehicle till it was a vehicle no longer, as it
could neither carry nor go, sat supreme the irre-
pressible "man and brother" himself, surrounded
by his ebony tokens of the earth's replenish-
ment,— proof and promise of plenty, — cheerful,
hopeful, imperturbable, all of them alike, trust-
ing to luck as ever, for all it seemed rather against
them just then; bound for the promised land, and
piously waiting a special dispensation from heaven
in their behalf, some Moses hand that cleft the Red
Sea before the chosen.

212 The Passing of the Armies

Obstacles like these give check to the pursuit.
A bridge must be built that the ammunition wagons
may pass dry. Loiterers and impatient voyagers
are alike impressed for service. The pioneers
search shores and woods and hamlets for timber
and planks. The stalled forage wagons are
dragged in to form the temporary piers. The
mounted officers dash about to find a safe ford for
the men. The most intrepid of them follow breast-
deep, cartridge-boxes and haversacks borne upon
the bayonets high above their heads, to keep both
kinds of ammunition dry. Some enterprising
surgeon or meandering chaplain, thinking to do
better than the hard-headed pioneers or adventur-
ous orderlies for the men's welfare, shouts from the
middle of the stream above or below that he has
found the ford, and in the midst of his jubilation
suddenly sinks into an unforeseen hole, whence
after stirring variations from plain song to rapid
minor and staccato, and splurges of diminuendo
and crescendo, he returns to the hither shore in
dismal cadence and saturated conviction.

Some men here, too, have their daintinesses as
well as those who are delicately apparelled and
live in kings' houses. It is hard to march in
gurgling shoes after wading neck-deep. They
wish to take off wet garments, assume the nether-
most Highland costume, or even to emulate the
Sandwich Island fellow-citizen in church array,
and then stop to dry and dress again on the other
side. But this dandyism cannot be indulged.
Time is an essential element of this contract. Not

The Week of Flying Fights 213

a moment must the pursuit lose its semblance of
forwardness if we mean to catch Lee's army. So
each superior takes his own style of persuasion
according to his conception of personal and official
dignity. The higher the rank, the loftier the style.
The corporals and sergeants coax; the captains
command ; the colonels scold ; the generals scowl ; —
and several who appear to have conscientious
scruples against affirming, freely avail themselves
of that other alternative which the laws so chari-
tably provide.

But fairly over at last, instead of halting any-
where the column is pushed on at the "double
quick," to make up for lost time. We climb the
way, the narrow cut scarce wide enough for a
single track, here again choked with abandoned
artillery and entangled mules, whose strength
succumbed after passing purgatory. The way is
strewn with new tokens of the painful ascent for
our leaders. Among these some quite unwelcome
waifs, such as loaded percussion shells jolted out of
the galloping chests, which for aught we know the
blow of a horse's hoof might explode in our faces ;
gun-carriages and caissons set on fire by the
desperate fugitives, and when we pass them the
flames already within a foot of the fuses and
powder-bags. There is not much loitering about
that sort of a camp-fire. Better crunch the earth
with wet shoes for a good, dead pull than take the
chance of being hung up to dry on a clay bank, or
aired on a tree-top.

Now we reach a spot where Sheridan had burst

214 The Passing of the Armies

across the flying column and left a black and
withered track behind him like the lightning's path.
Our orders are to destroy all military equipage we
capture or overtake. The war had not ended then,
and military necessity was both lawful and expe-
dient rule. Such masses of war-material must not
be left unspoiled behind us, for aught we can fore-
see or foreordain by some chance of battle or of
movement to fall into the enemy's hands and serve
them against us again. War is destruction, —
word and deed. So we make wild bonfires of wagon
heaps and munitions, throw into the swamps and
streams what we dare not risk ourselves to add to
the lesser piles of ammunition capping the fire-
stacks, and chop and slash the wheel-spokes of the
gun carriages we cannot stop to burn.

Forward again! On a fresh track. Suddenly
the rattling musketry of the skirmishers ahead
tells that we have struck the enemy's rear-guard.
A bold battery of flying artillery runs up out of a
cross-road on a hillside half a mile away, and opens
back on the head of our column with case-shot and
shell. This offers variety, which is said to be the
spice of life, if spice is what we need. A regiment
is thrown forward into line at the double quick; a
brigade follows in column of support. There
comes a blast of canister, the answering swell of
musketry ; this for a few minutes ; then a wild shout
goes up into the rolling smoke ; the battery manages
to limber up and is off at a gallop, or sinks into
sudden silence with all around. We reach the
spot, and find our gallant fellows resting on their

The Week of Flying Fights 215

line, with a goodly half-glad company of prisoners
in hand, and a patient group of the wounded of
both parties for the ambulances which come
galloping to the front, and alas, not without some
brave men, our brothers, born near or far, to be
buried here by the lonely wayside, lost but un-
f orgotten !

We will look at these things with a more military
eye, and something more of detail. When Meade
had been sent off to Amelia Court House on the
morning of the 6th, Sheridan sent his cavalry in
the opposite direction, — the way Meade had in-
tended to go with his army, — towards Farmville,
where we had learned from intercepted dispatches
Lee expected to find rations for his famishing
troops. The cavalry soon got on the flank of Lee's
trains; however, they were well guarded, and our
forces were unable to inflict more injury than to
hold the enemy in check until the Second and Sixth
Corps, faced about and sent back by Meade,
should come up, to take their accustomed and
decisive share in the work. Barlow's Division of
the Second had been turned off to the right of the
road taken by his corps, towards that on which the
Fifth Corps was moving, and where the enemy was
expected to be encountered. But the enemy's
columns on this road had already passed in the
night, so that Barlow and the Fifth Corps had their
hard and eager march with no material effect upon
the enemy but that of capturing prisoners and
destroying overtaken material of war. The other
two divisions of the Second Corps took the road for

2i6 The Passing of the Armies

Deatonsville towards Sailor's Creek and the Appo-
mattox, and soon found themselves in a running
fight with Gordon's Corps, which held the costly
honor of forming the rear-guard of Lee's main
army. Our troops had a very difficult country to
overcome, — broken, tangled, and full of swamps.
They had to cross streams by wading armpit
deep, and then push on to strike the flank or rear
of the sullen ranks. Meanwhile a portion of our
men were building bridges after Humphreys's rapid
fashion, for the passage of our artillery and am-
bulances. Thus we succeeded in keeping the
artillery up to the skirmish lines, and in carrying
the strong positions which the well-handled enemy
had managed to entrench in their own rear-guard
style and efficiency. In this way Humphreys
pushed them for more than sixteen miles, the
road much of the way strewn with wagons, camp
equipage, battery-forges, and limbers — a stream of
wreckage. At Perkinson's Mills, near the mouth
of Sailor's Creek, Gordon made a definite stand,
with a well-placed line of battle. But Humphreys*
splendid handling of his plucky men inspired them
to their best, and a sharp fight left the Second
Corps masters of the field, and of large numbers of
the enemy. This cost the corps 311 men killed and
wounded. The loss of the enemy was still greater.
The captures of the corps were thirteen battle-flags,
four cannon, and seventeen hundred prisoners.
After this defeat, Gordon pushed his retreat to
High Bridge, a crossing of the Appomattox five
miles below Farmville.

The Week of Flying Fights 217

Meantime Ewell and Anderson had been brought
to a stand by our cavalry higher up Sailor's Creek,
three miles on Humphreys's left. It was our Sixth
Corps that now came upon them; the sharp issue
soon joined. This corps fought with all its old
hardihood, and our cavalry surpassed itself, riding
over the enemy's works, saber to bayonet. This
splendid courage and soldiership won commen-
surate results. General Ewell was compelled to
surrender, and nearly all of his command, over
six thousand men, fell into our hands. Among
these were many distinguished generals, both of his
corps, and of Pickett's Division.

These were most brilliant victories for the
Second and Sixth Corps, and we of the Fifth were
proud of them, for they were our own. We
expected this of Sheridan and the cavalry, but
were glad the old Army of the Potomac infantry
came in for an undeniable share of the solid work as
well as of the glory.

There was some imaccountably poor generalship
that day in the Confederate army. Longstreet
held his troops all day at Rice's Station waiting
for Anderson and Ewell and Gordon to come up,
who had been held back to cover the trains. But
for all that, Lee lost his trains, and by reason of this
effort to save his trains he lost also a large part of
his army and his main chance of escape. General
Humphreys in his admirable review of this day's
business, noting the fact that "Ewell's whole force
was lost, together with nearly half of Anderson's
and a large part of Gordon's, all in a useless effort

2i8 The Passing of the Armies

to save the trains, " goes on to say in effect that if
Lee had abandoned all surplus artillery and camp
equipage and retained only his ammunition and
hospital wagons, and established temporary depots
of supplies at important railroad stations, he
might have been able to move rapidly enough to
make a successful junction with Johnson at Dan-
ville, or at least, to reach the moimtains of Lynch-
burg.

What would this have availed to the main issue?
Already the shadow of doom drew over the drifting
Confederacy. The hour of deliverance and dis-
persion was almost welcomed by its armies. And
it was reserved for Lee to be confronted by a man as
magnanimous as himself, and guided by a better
star. He had to go down, honored and beloved
indeed for the man he was, but the more lamented
for the unhappy choice he made when he cast in his
lot with those who forsook the old flag for a new
one, which did not recognize the fact that old
things had become new, — that even constitutions
move with the march of man, with wider interpreta-
tions and to their appointed goals, and that the
old flag borne forward by farther-seeing men held
its potency not only in the history of the past but
for the story of the future.

General Ord with the Army of the James by
hard marches after splendid fighting in the old
lines had reached Burkes ville on the evening of the
5th, and on the morning of the 6th was directed to
destroy the High Bridge and all other bridges
which might be used by Lee in the direction of

The Week of Flying Fights 219

Danville or Lynchburg. This Ord proceeded to
do with promptitude and vigor. But not aware of
the proximity of the head of Lee's column, he sent
out only a small party for this purpose, which
after heroic and desperate fighting with Rosser's
and Munford's cavalry, and the loss of the gallant
General Reed and Colonel Washburn and many of
their command, were forced to surrender what
remained.

As for the Fifth Corps, we had made a day of it,
marching thirty-two miles, burning and destroying,
and bivouacked after dark in the vicinity of Sailor's
Creek on the Appomattox. We had encountered
only cavalry rear-guards and scouts, and had
captured much material of war and over three
hundred prisoners. We had many delays, bridge-
building and burning; but our step was quickened
by the roar of the Second and Sixth Corps battling
on our left, and by sight of the dense black smoke
that rose from the piles where our cavalry were
burning the wagon-trains they captured on the
roads to Farmville. Marvelous stories borne
through the air, of our cavalry darting everywhere
across the pathway of the fugitives, made good
cheer around the camp-fires when we cooked frugal
portions of precious coffee with cautious admixtures
of turbid and possibly more deeply stained waters
that came down to us from the ensanguined banks
of Sailor's Creek.

As soon as it was dark on the night of the 6th,
Longstreet pushed forward to Farmville, where his
men at last got a supply of rations. For two or

220 The Passine of the Armies

fc)

three days past they had been Hving on parched
corn, — if they could stop to make a fire to parch it.
Longstreet did not tarry here ; but on the morning
of the 7th he crossed the river, burning the bridges
behind him and moving out on the road to Lynch-
burg. Gordon, with Johnson's and Mahone's Di-
visions following, crossed to the north side of the
Appomattox at High Bridge, five miles below
Farmville. Our Second Corps closely followed,
reaching the river just as the fugitives had blown up
the bridge-heads forming its southern defense, and
had set fire to the wagon bridge near by. Barlow
hurrying forward saved it, and thus secured the
passage of the Second Corps. Thereupon in the
belief that Longstreet was moving toward Danville,
he was sent up the river towards Farmville, and
had a sharp engagement with some of Gordon's
rear-guard on that road — while Humphreys with
the rest of his corps, pushing closely out on the
Lynchburg road, came suddenly on the enemy,
who had turned to give battle, and who opened
on him with sixteen pieces of artillery. He at
once informs General Meade that he has the
whole of Lee's remaining army in front of him, and
asks that our Sixth Corps shall attack from the
Farmville side while he takes the enemy in his
front.

In the meantime the Fifth Corps had moved
from Sailor's Creek at daylight, and at 9.50 had
arrived at High Bridge. A singular movement is
now put into effect, the purpose of which to ordi-
nary minds seems inscrutable. From the extreme

The Week of Flying Fights 221

right where Grant had so carefully placed us in
order that the Sixth Corps might be next to Sheri-
dan, the Fifth Corps is now marched past the rear
of the Second and Sixth, — needing help as Hum-
phreys did, — and ordered to the "extreme left"
again, — which begins to seem our natural place
after the manner of the "opposition " in the French
Assembly. The queer thing about this is, that it
puts us again into immediate contiguity with
Sheridan and his cavalry, where General Grant
had led us to fear we were not "harmonious," as
the good Sixth Corps was. But we were not such
bad fellows after all. Having the last three days
proved our prowess in marching, we were assigned
the honor of making a cavalry-sweep around the
left flank and front of Lee's rushing army while our
Second and Sixth Corps did all they could to drive
them beyond us. So by 7.30 that night we biv-
ouacked at Prince Edward's Court House, as far
south of the rest of our army as we had been north
of it the day before.

Meantime Grant, now at Farmville, sends word
to Himiphreys confronting Longstreet and Gordon
on the opposite side of the river, between High
Bridge and Farmville, that the Sixth and Twenty-
fourth Corps are at hand, and that "the enemy
cannot cross the river," — for what purpose it is
difficult to divine, as he had already crossed to the
north side and destroyed the bridges behind him,
and could not be suspected of cherishing a desire
to get back to the other side again at this juncture
of affairs. Crook's cavalry managed to wade the

222 The Passing of the Armies

river and make a bold attack, but was repulsed
with loss, the gallant General Irvin Gregg being
rash enough to get into the enemy's lines, where he
was held as prisoner.

But it was the Sixth and Twenty-fourth Corps
that "could not cross," and so Humphreys stood
up there before Lee's army in a very perilous
position. It was like the situation of our First
Division sent across the Potomac at Shepardstown
Ford after the battle of Antietam, — Lee's army in
front of them, and a river behind them, perfectly
surrounded by the enemy. Had Lee but under-
stood Humphreys's situation, he might have de-
stroyed the Second Corps, if he struck quickly,
before the Fifth could have got over the river at
High Bridge, and the Sixth and Twenty-fourth
could have come around from Farmville by that
long route.

Meade, indeed, had promptly ordered the Sixth
and also the Twenty-fourth Corps — the latter
being now by its proximity subject to his orders —
to cross and attack as Humphreys had requested,
on the enemy's right flank. Nobody at either
headquarters seems to have been aware that the
bridges at Farmville had been destroyed. So
Humphreys, hearing the firing from Crook's attack,
and believing it was that of these two infantry
corps, made a bold stand and a bluff fight (almost
in the slang sense of that term) all along the salient
points of the line, which had the important effect
of causing Lee to lose a day, which he could but
ill afford. For in the meantime the cavalry and

The Week of Flying Fights 223

the Fifth Corps with Ord's advance were driving
with all their might to get across Lee's track.

Could our army that morning in easy reach of
High Bridge have been rapidly concentrated
according to Htimphreys's earnest suggestion, and
Meade's intention, and a little more "dash" and
skillful engineering been put into exercise in the
crossing at Farmville, there can be no question but
that the Army of the Potomac would have "ended
matters there, before they went back."

But perhaps Grant thought there had been
bloodshed enough, for that evening he writes a
note to Lee making this thought the basis for
asking the surrender of Lee's army. At half-past
eight, this letter is sent by General Humphreys
through his picket line. An hour's truce was given
at this time to enable the enemy to gather up their
wounded lying between the lines, which were only a
few hundred yards apart. Lee's answer comes
back within an hour, not offering to surrender but
asking the terms that would be given in such case.
In the course of the night, as might have been
anticipated, Lee retires, making all possible dis-
patch for Lynchburg, the Second Corps by daylight
in close pursuit, followed by the Sixth. We, of
course, knew nothing of this at the time; but only
of what was going on in the road to Appomattox.

For our part, on the morning of the 8th the
Fifth Corps moved out at six o'clock, pressing with
all our powers to outflank Lee's march. This
morning I received a wholesome lesson of the
results of inattention. In crossing Buffalo River,

224 The Passing of the Armies

my horse had a pardonable desire to take a drink.
I let him advance half his length into the water,
knee-deep or more, — ^which I thought enough;
but with that unaccountable instinct of a drinking
horse (or other fellow) to get further in, to "take
another," my horse kept creeping forward, and I
was stupid enough to let him — imtil suddenly
stepping over a steep bank of the channel his
whole body was forced to follow, as also his master,
— or who should have been. Decidedly all was
not over, — mostly the reverse; two emergent
heads absurdly trying to look dignified marking
the vital center. We made for the nearest bank;
but could not effect a landing on account of the
extreme tendency of the earth and water there to
resume prehistoric conditions. The horse, not
being a saurian, could neither walk nor swim in
that mire. I had to act the part of a "lighter" and
the horse and I assumed more than original rela-
tions,— I being now the leader and something like
the bearer. I got out first, — having only two feet
to hold me fast. Then the dispensation of grace
took the place of natural law, and two or three of
my self-renouncing, now nearly sanctified, men
went to the rescue of the crestfallen but still
admired Charlemagne. What they had to do for
us both afterwards, official dignity prevents ex-
plaining.

This driving pursuit, this relentless "forward,"
was altogether new experience for our much-
enduring, much-abused old Army of the Potomac,
— so taunted with not moving, — urged "on to

The Week of Flying Fights 225

Richmond" with the spur, but held to cover
Washington with the curb, hitherto forced by
something in the rear to stand still after our victo-
ries, and by something we did not understand to
draw back from some of our best-fought fields.
Yet it had been so managed that at the worst the
enemy seldom got sight of our backs. For our
part, we had come off in good order from Bull Run
and Fredericksburg in '62, and equally well from
Chancellorsville in '63, and from all the long series
of terrible drawn battles from the Rapidan to the
James in '64. And we had many times seen the
rebel army retiring in good order from great dis-
aster; for Lee showed his best generalship in the
defensive, his best manhood and humanity in
orderly retreat. But we had never seen anything
like this. Now we realized the effects of Grant's
permission to "push things," — some of these
things being ourselves. But the manifest results
on others helped our spirits to sustain the wear and
tear of body. The constantly diminishing ratio
of the strength of Lee's army compared with ours
made it clear that we should soon overcome that
resistance and relieve Virginia of the burden of
being the head of the Confederacy, and from that
must follow the downfall of the Confederacy
itself.

In this race, the 8th of April found the Fifth
Corps at Prospect Station on the Southside Rail-
road, nearly abreast of Lee's hurrying column, ten
miles north of us at New Store, across the Appo-
mattox,— Meade with his two corps close upon his
15

226 The Passine of the Armies

fe

rear. We had been now a week in hot pursuit,
fighting and marching by sharp tiirns, on a long
road. At noon of this day we halted to give oppor-
tunity for General Ord of the Army of the James
to have the advance of us upon the road. He had
come across from his successful assault on the
center of the enemy's entrenchments before Peters-
burg to join our force and had with him the Twenty-
fourth Corps under General Gibbon and Birney's
Division of the Twenty-fifth Colored troops, —
whom we had not seen in the field before. The
Fifth Corps was under Sheridan's immediate orders
but General Ord being the senior officer present
was by army regulations commander of our whole
flanking column. He was very courteous to us all
and we greeted him heartily. The preference of his
corps to ours on the road was but natural consider-
ing his rank, and I am sure no one thought of
taking offense at it. But we could not resist the
thought that it was for some reasons other than
military that General Ord's command instead of
being directed upon Lee's rear by the shortest
course should be sent around to the extreme left to
co-operate with Sheridan, while the Army of the
Potomac was dismembered and divided right and
left, — thus as we thought entailing much needless
hard marching when time and htiman strength
were prime elements of our problem; with the
reflection also that the breaking up of familiar
companionship was not good economy for a fight-
ing force. However, our duty was to obey orders
and keep our thoughts to ourselves.

The Week of Flying Fights 227

These men of the Army of the James had been
doing splendid work, — especially in getting up to us.
But the hard march to overtake us had pretty
nearly used them up. A marching column under
such circumstances cannot help stretching. This
was the case before us now. When we pulled out
to follow their column we found it dragging and
lagging before us, the rear moving at a rate ever
slower than the head. This made it very hard on
our men. We had managed hitherto to keep in
pretty close touch with the cavalry; but this
constant checking up was a far worse trial. It
fretted our men almost to mutiny. Men who w^ere
really "the best fellows in the w^orld," as many a
girl had told them on fairer evenings, and who
wholly respected their officers and loved them, would
greet the luckless officers believed to be leading the
column with very insubordinate and wholly im-
practicable advice as to the merits of this march,
and the duty of treating our men with some sense.
The head of our column seemed more like a mob
than our patient well-disciplined soldiers. The
headquarters wagons and pack mules which
made the bulk of that real rabble ahead got un-
ceremoniously helped along. Whoever blocked
the way was served with a writ of ejectment in
quite primitive fashion. After dark the belated
artillery obstructing the way was treated without
much reverence. Even the much suffering horses
were held responsible, and prodded and belabored
by men who wanted to put two legs in the place of
four. The drivers defended their poor beasts by

228 The Passine of the Armies

&

directing their whips against the assailants, whose
"high primed parry" with their muskets and
bayonets availed little against the lithe and cutting
lash. As little did the replications and rejoinders
settle the issue of justice in the all too "pending
case. " We tried to drown the tumult, if we could
not pacify the spirits of our exasperated men, by
bringing the bands to the head of the column to
administer the unction of the "Girl I left behind
me." However, this seemed to make them Vv'ant
to "get there" all the more.

Commanding officers could not exercise "dis-
cretion" about moving. We could not bring our
men to a halt when there was this kind of obstacle
before us, impassable as if it were a wall or a bog,
and let them rest until the way could be cleared,
as would have been reasonable. For some roving
staff officer would happen along just then, and
without inquiring into the case, would repor^ to
headquarters that such an officer was not moving
according to orders, but was absolutely halting
on the road. Then back would come an unjust
reprimand, or perhaps the stultification of an
"arrest," — of which there was quite too much
already. So officers had to seem like incapables,
and the men, poor fellows, had to keep on their
feet, creeping at a snail's pace, or standing like
tripods, on two legs and a musket-butt; weighed
down with burdens of "heavy-marching order,"
which the mere momentum of marching, the
changing play of muscles, would have helped to
bear; all knowing full well that they would have

The Week of Flying Fights 229

to make up for this weary work by running them-
selves fever- wild for hours at the end.

We of the Fifth Corps had a good right to be
tired, too. We had had a brisk week's work of it
since the White Oak Road and Five Forks — rush-
ing and pushing night and day, fighting a little
now and then for the sake of that variety which is
the spice of life. Many of our big-hearted fellows
lost patience whose only disobedience of orders
was that they refused to die of fatigue and starva-
tion, as Meade had promised Sheridan they were
ready to do.

At last our lingering predecessors turn off. We
have the road and the mood to make the most of it.
We did not know that Grant had sent orders for the
Fifth Corps to march all night without halting;
but it was not necessary for us to know it. After
twenty-nine miles of this kind of marching, at the
blackest hour of night, human nature called a halt.
Dropping by the roadside, right and left, wet and
dry, down went the men as in a swoon. Officers
slid out of saddle, loosened the girth, slipped an
arm through a loop of bridle-rein, and sank to
sleep. Horses stood with drooping heads just
above their masters' faces. All dreaming, — one
knows not what, of past or coming, possible or
fated.

CHAPTER VI

APPOMATTOX

THE darkest hours before the dawn of April
9, 1865, shrouded the Fifth Corps sunk
in feverish sleep by the roadside six miles
away from Appomattox Station on the Southside
Road. Scarcely is the first broken dream begun
when a cavalryman comes splashing down the road
and vigorously dismounts, pulling from his jacket-
front a crumpled note. The sentinel standing
watch by his commander, worn in body but alert
in every sense, touches your shoulder. "Orders,
sir, I think." You rise on elbow, strike a match,
and with smarting, streaming eyes read the brief,
thrilling note, sent back by Sheridan to us infantry
commanders. Like this, as I remember: "I have
cut across the enemy at Appomattox Station, and
capttired three of his trains. If you can possibly
push your infantry up here to-night, we will have
great results in the morning." Ah, sleep no
more. The startling bugle notes ring out "The
General" — "To the march." Word is sent for
the men to take a bite of such as they have for

food: the promised rations will not be up till

230

Appomattox 231

noon, and by that time we shall be perhaps too
far away for such greeting. A few try to eat, no
matter what. Meanwhile, almost with one foot
in the stirrup, you take from the hands of the black
boy a tin plate of nondescript food and a dipper of
miscalled coffee; — all equally black, like the night
around. You eat and drink at a swallow; mount,
and away to get to the head of the column before
you sound the "Forward." They are there — the
men : shivering to their senses as if risen out of the
earth, but something in them not of it. Now
sounds the "Forward," for the last time in our
long-drawn strife. And they move — these men — •
sleepless, supperless, breakfastless, sore-footed,
stiff-jointed, sense-benumbed, but with flushed
faces pressing for the front.

By sunrise we have reached Appomattox Station,
where Sheridan has left the captured trains. A
staff officer is here to ttirn us square to the right, to
the Appomattox River, cutting across Lee's re-
treat. Already we hear the sharp ring of the horse-
artillery, answered ever and anon by heavier field
guns; and drawing nearer, the crack of cavalry
carbines; and unmistakably, too, the graver roll
of musketry of opposing infantry. There is no
mistake. Sheridan is square across the enemy's
front, and with that glorious cavalry alone is
holding at bay all that is left of the proudest army
of the Confederacy. It has come at last, — the
supreme hour. No thought of human wants or
weakness now: all for the front; all for the flag,
for the final stroke to make its meaning real — these

232 The Passing of the Armies

men of the Potomac and the James, side by side,
at the double in time and column, now one and now
the other in the road or the fields beside. One
striking feature I can never forget, — Birney's
black men abreast with us, pressing forward to
save the white man's country.

We did not know exactly what was going on.
We did know that our cavalry had been doing
splendid work all night, and in fact now was holding
at bay Lee's whole remaining army. I was proud
to learn that Smith's Brigade — our First Maine
Cavalry in the van — had waged the most critical
part of the glorious fight.

Ord's troops were in lead, pushing for the roar
of the guns to bring relief to our cavalry before
Lee's anxious infantry should break through.
The storm-center was now on the Lynchburg Pike,
a mile or so beyond Appomattox Court House.
The Fifth Corps followed, Ayres' Division ahead;
then our old Third Brigade of the First Division, —
once mine, since Bartlett's; next, my command,
my own brigade and Gregory's; at the rear of the
column Crawford's fine division, but somehow
unaccountably slow in its movements and march.

I was therefore in about the middle of our Fifth
Corps column. The boom of the battle thickened
ahead of us. We were intent for the front. Sud-
denly I am accosted by a cavalry staff officer dash-
ing out of a rough wood road leading off to oiu*
right. "General, you command this column?" —
"Two brigades of it, sir; about half the First
Division, Fifth Corps." — "Sir, General Sheridan

Appomattox 233

wishes you to break off from this column and come
to his support. The rebel infantry is pressing him
hard. Our men are falling back. Don't wait for
orders through the regular channels, but act on this
at once."

Of course I obey, without question. Sending
word forward to Griffin, in command of our Fifth
Corps, that he may understand and instruct Craw-
ford to follow the main column and not me, I turn
off my brigade and Gregory's and guided by the
staff officer, push out to see if we can do as well on
a cavalry front as we had at their heels. My guide
informed me of the situation. Ord's troops were
holding Gordon's hard on the Lynchburg Pike;
this latter command was now a formidable force,
having taken in the heart of Stonewall Jackson's
and A. P. Hill's corps, and what was left of Ander-
son's. But the rear of this column pressing on had
made a demonstration indicating that they were
now about to try a final forlorn hope to cut through
near the Court House while the head of their column
was engaging Ord. General Sheridan, to thwart
this attempt, had taken Devins's Cavalry Division
back to meet them, at least until our infantry
could be brought up. The barrier of cavalry alone
could not withstand the desperate Confederate
veterans essaying their last hope, and in fact was
slowly receding. This explained the reason of our
summons.

Sharp work now. Pushing through the woods at
cavalry speed, we come out right upon Sheridan's
battle flag gleaming amidst the smoke of his bat-

234 The Passino^ of the Armies

teries in the edge of the open field. Weird-looking
flag it is: fork-tailed, red and white, the two
bands that composed it each charged with a star of
the contrasting color; two eyes sternly glaring
through the cannon-cloud. Beneath it, that storm-
center spirit, that form of condensed energies,
mounted on the grim charger, Rienzi, that turned
the battle of the Shenandoah, — both, rider and
steed, of an unearthly shade of darkness, terrible
to look upon, as if masking some unknown powers.

Right before us, our cavalry, Devins' division,
gallantly stemming the surges of the old Stone-
wall brigade, desperate to beat its way through.
I ride straight to Sheridan. A dark smile and
impetuous gesture are my only orders. Forward
into double lines of battle, past Sheridan, his guns,
his cavalry, and on for the quivering crest ! For a
moment it is a glorious sight: every arm of the
service in full play, — cavalry, artillery, infantry;
then a sudden shifting scene as the cavalry, dis-
engaged by successive squadrons, rally under their
bugle-calls with beautiful precision and prompti-
tude, and sweep like a storm-cloud beyond our
right to close in on the enemy's left and complete
the fateful envelopment.

Ord's troops are now square across the Lynch-
burg Pike. Ayres and Bartlett have joined them
on their right, and all are in for it sharp. In
this new front we take up the battle. Gregory
follows in on my left. It is a formidable front we
make. The scene darkens. In a few minutes the
tide is turned; the incoming wave is at flood; the

Appomattox 235

barrier recedes. In truth, the Stonewall men
hardly show their well-proved mettle. They seem
astonished to see before them these familiar flags
of their old antagonists, not having thought it
possible that we could match our cavalry and
march around and across their pressing columns.

Their last hope is gone, — to break through our
cavalry before our infantry can get up. Neither to
Danville nor to Lynchburg can they cut their way ;
and close upon their rear, five miles away, are
pressing the Second and Sixth Corps of the Army
of the Potomac. It is the end! They are now
giving way, but keep good front, by force of old
habit. Halfway up the slope they make a stand,
with what perhaps they think a good omen, —
behind a stone wall. I try a little artillery on
them, which directs their thoughts towards the
crest behind them, and stiffen my lines for a rush,
anxious for that crest myself. My intensity may
have seemed like excitement. For Griffin comes
up, quizzing me in his queer way of hitting off our
weak points when we get a little too serious ; accus-
ing me of mistaking a blooming peach tree for a
rebel flag, where I was dropping a few shells into a
rallying crowd. I apologize — I was a little near-
sighted, and hadn't been experienced in long-range
fighting. But as for peaches, I was going to get
some if the pits didn't sit too hard on our stomachs.

In a few minutes Griffin rides up again, in quite
a different mood. "General," he says, "I want you
to go back and bring up Crawford's Division. He
is acting in the same old fashion that got Warren

236 The Passing of the Armies

into trouble at Five Forks. He should have been
up here long ago. We need him desperately.
He deserves to be relieved of his command."
— "General, do you mean to relieve me of mine,
and make me a staff officer? It can't come to
that." — "I mean to put you in command of that
division," he answers; "I will publish an order to
that effect. " — "General, pardon me, but you must
not do that. It would make trouble for everybody,
and I do not desire the position. It would make
great disturbance among Crawford's friends, and
if you will pardon the suggestion they may have
influence enough at Washington to block your
confirmation as Major-General. Besides, I think
General Baxter of the Third Division is my senior ;
that must settle it."

This is a singular episode for such a moment.
But it may be cited as showing the variety of com-
motions that occupied our minds.

But now comes up Ord with a positive order:
"Don't expose your lines on that crest. The
enemy have massed their guns to give it a raking
fire the moment you set foot there. " I thought I
saw a qualifying look as he turned away. But left
alone, youth struggled with prudence. My troops
were in a bad position down here. I did not like
to be "the under dog. " It was much better to be
on top and at least know what there was beyond.
So I thought of Grant and his permission to "push
things" when we got them going; and of Sheridan
and his last words as he rode away with his cavalry,
smiting his hands together — "Now smash 'em,

Appomattox 237

I tell you ; smash 'em ! " So we took this for orders,
and on the crest we stood. One booming cannon-
shot passed close along our front, and in the next
moment all was still.

We had done it, — had "exposed ourselves to the
view of the enemy. " But it was an exposure that
worked two ways. For there burst upon our
vision a mighty scene, fit cadence of the story of
tumultuous years. Encompassed by the cordon
of steel that crowned the heights about the Court
House, on the slopes of the valley formed by the
sources of the Appomattox, lay the remnants of
that far-famed counterpart and companion of our
own in momentous history, — the Army of Northern
Virginia — Lee's army!

In the meantime Crawford's troops have begun
to arrive, and form in between Gregory and
Bartlett on our left.

It was hilly, broken ground, in effect a vast
amphitheater, stretching a mile perhaps from crest
to crest. On the several confronting slopes before
us dusky masses of infantry suddenly resting in
place; blocks of artillery, standing fast in column
or mechanically swung into park ; clouds of cavalry
small and great, slowly moving, in simple restless-
ness;— all without apparent attempt at offense or
defense, or even military order.

In the hollow is the Appomattox, — which we had
made the dead-line for our baffied foe, for its whole
length, a hundred miles; here but a rivulet that
might almost be stepped over dry-shod, and at the
road crossing not thought worth while to bridge.

23S The Passing of the Armies

Around its edges, now trodden to mire, swarms an
indescribable crowd: worn-out soldier struggling
to the front; demoralized citizen and denizen,
white, black, and all shades between, — following
Lee's army, or flying before these suddenly con-
fronted terrible Yankees pictured to them as
demon-shaped and bent; animals, too, of all forms
and grades; vehicles of every description and non-
description, — public and domestic, four-wheeled,
or two, or one, — sheading and moving in every
direction, a swarming mass of chaotic confusion.

All this within sight of every eye on our bristling
crest. Had one the heart to strike at beings so
helpless, the Appomattox would quickly become
a surpassing Red Sea horror. But the very spec-
tacle brings every foot to an instinctive halt. We
seem the possession of a dream. We are lost in a
vision of human tragedy. But our light-twelve Na-
poleon guns come rattling up behind us to go into
battery; we catch the glitter of the cavalry blades
and brasses beneath the oak groves away to our
right, and the ominous closing in on the fated foe.

So with a fervor of devout joy, — as when, per-
haps, the old crusaders first caught sight of the
holy city of their quest, — with an up-going of the
heart that was half paean, half prayer, we dash
forward to the consummation. A solitary field -
piece in the edge of the town gives an angry but
expiring defiance. We press down a little slope,
through a swamp, over a bright swift stream.
Our advance is already in the town, — only the
narrow street between the opposing lines, and

Appomattox 239

hardly that. There is wild work, that looks like
fighting; but not much killing, nor even hurting.
The disheartened enemy take it easy; our men
take them easier. It is a wild, mild fusing, — earn-
est, but not deadly earnest.

A young orderly of mine, unable to contain
himself, begs permission to go forward, and dashes
in, sword-flourishing as if he were a terrible fellow,
— and soon comes back, hugging four sabers to his
breast, speechless at his achievement.

We were advancing, tactically fighting, and I
was somewhat uncertain as to how much more of
the strenuous should be required or expected. But
I could not give over to this weak mood.

My right was "in the air," advanced, unsup-
ported, towards the enemy's general line, exposed
to flank attack by troops I could see in the distance
across the stream. I held myself on that extreme
flank, where I could see the cavalry which we had
relieved, now forming in column of squadrons
ready for a dash to the front, and I was anxiously
hoping it would save us from the flank attack.
Watching intently, my eye was caught by the
figure of a horseman riding out between those lines,
soon joined by another, and taking a direction
across the cavalry front towards our position.
They were nearly a mile away, and I curiously
watched them till lost from sight in the nearer
broken ground and copses between.

Suddenly rose to sight another form, close in our
own front, — a soldierly young figure, a Confeder-
ate staff officer undoubtedly. Now I see the white

240 The Passing of the Armies

flag earnestly borne, and its possible purport
sweeps before my inner vision like a wraith of
morning mist. He comes steadily on, the mys-
terious form in gray, my mood so whimsically
sensitive that I could even smile at the material of
the flag, — wondering where in either army was
found a towel, and one so white. But it bore a
mighty message, — that simple emblem of homely
service, wafted hitherward above the dark and
crimsoned streams that never can wash themselves
away.

The messenger draws near, dismounts; with
graceful salutation and hardly suppressed emotion
delivers his message: "Sir, I am from General
Gordon. General Lee desires a cessation of hostili-
ties until he can hear from General Grant as to the
proposed surrender."

What word is this! so long so dearly fought for,
so feverishly dreamed, but ever snatched away,
held hidden and aloof; now smiting the senses with
a dizzy flash! "Surrender"? We had no nmior
of this from the messages that had been passing
between Grant and Lee, for now these two days,
behind us. "Surrender"? It takes a moment to
gather one's speech. "Sir," I answer, "that
matter exceeds my authority. I will send to my
superior. General Lee is right. He can do no
more." All this with a forced calmness, covering
a tumult of heart and brain. I bid him wait a
while, and the message goes up to my corps com-
mander, General Griflin, leaving me mazed at the
boding change.

Appomattox 241

Now from the right come foaming up in cavalry-
fashion the two forms I had watched from away
beyond. A white flag again, held strong aloft,
making straight for the little group beneath our
battle-flag, high borne also, — the red Maltese cross
on a field of white, that had thrilled hearts long ago.
I see now that it is one of our cavalry staff in
lead, — indeed I recognize him. Colonel Whitaker
of Custer's staff; and, hardly keeping pace with
him, a Confederate staff officer. Without dis-
mounting, without salutation, the cavalryman
shouts : ' ' This is unconditional surrender ! This is
the end!" Then he hastily introduces his com-
panion, and adds: '*I am just from Gordon and
Longstreet. Gordon says 'For God's sake, stop
this infantry, or hell will be to pay!' I'll go to
Sheridan," he adds, and dashes away with the
white flag, leaving Longstreet 's aide with me.^

I was doubtful of my duty. The flag of truce
was in, but I had no right to act upon it without
orders. There was still some firing from various
quarters, lulling a little where the white flag passed
near. But I did not press things quite so hard.
Just then a last cannon-shot from the edge of the

' The various accounts that have been since given of the reception of
the flag of truce on this occasion might lead to the impression upon
readers of history that we were all under great agitation of mind and
that our memories were somewhat confused or possibly our habit of
truth telling. But those who were acquainted with the facts will not be
disturbed in their inferences or judgments. In accordance with Lee's
instructions several flags were sent out at important points along his
own line, and several came in on our Appomattox front. The flag-
bearers I refer to were Capt. P. M. Jones, now U. S. District Judge in
Alabama, and Capt. Brown of Georgia.

16

242 The Passing of the Armies

town plunges through the breast of a gallant and
dear young officer in my front line, — Lieutenant
Clark, of the 185th New York, — the last man killed
in the Army of the Potomac, if not the last in the
Appomattox lines.' Not a strange thing for war, —
this swift stroke of the mortal; but coming after
the truce was in, it seemed a cruel fate for one so
deserving to share his country's joy, and a sad
peace-offering for us all.

Shortly comes the order, in due form, to cease
firing and to halt. There was not much firing to
cease from; but "halt," then and there? It is
beyond human power to stop the men, whose one
word and thought and action through crimsoned
years had been but forward. They had seen the
flag of truce, and could divine its outcome. But
the habit was too strong; they cared not for points
of direction, it was forward still, — ^forward to the
end; forward to the new beginning; forward to
the Nation's second birth!

But it struck them also in a quite human way.
The more the captains cry, "Halt! the rebels
want to surrender," the more the men want to be
there and see it. Still to the front, where the real
fun is! And the forward movement takes an up-
ward turn.. For when we do succeed in stopping

' It has been claimed that the last man killed in the Appomattox
lines belonged to the Army of the James. That may possibly be so,
as the reception of flags began on our right, and probably did not reach
the extreme left where the Army of the James was until some time after.
So there may have been some firing and casualties after the truce had
been received on our right. The honor of this last death is not a proper
subject of quarrel.

Appomattox 243

their advance we cannot keep their arms and legs
from flying. To the top of fences, and haystacks,
and chimneys they clamber, to toss their old caps
higher in the air, and leave the earth as far below
them as they can.

Dear old General Gregory gallops up to in-
quire the meaning of this strange departure from
accustomed discipline. "Only that Lee wants
time to surrender, " I answer with stage solemnity.
"Glory to God!" roars the grave and brave old
General, dashing upon me with an impetuosity that
nearly unhorsed us both, to grasp and wring my
hand, which had not yet had time to lower the
sword. "Yes, and on earth peace, good will to-
wards men, " I answered, bringing the thanksgiving
from heavenward, manward.

"Your legs have done it, my men," shouts the
gallant, gray-haired Ord, galloping up cap in hand,
generously forgiving our disobedience of orders,
and rash "exposure" on the dubious crest. True
enough, their legs had done it, — had "matched the
cavalry" as Grant admitted, had cut around Lee's
best doings, and commanded the grand halt. But
other things too had "done it"; the blood was still
fresh upon the Quaker Road, the White Oak Ridge,
Five Forks, Farmville, High Bridge, and Sailor's
Creek; and we take somewhat gravely this com-
pliment of our new commander, of the Army of the
James. At last, after "pardoning something to
the spirit of liberty," we get things "quiet along
the lines."

A truce is agreed upon until one o'clock — it is

244 The Passing of the Armies

now ten. A conference is to be held, or rather
colloquy, for no one here is authorized to say any-
thing about the terms of surrender. Six or eight
officers from each side meet between the lines,
near the Court House, waiting Lee's answer to
Grant's summons to surrender. There is lively
chat here on this unaccustomed opportunity for
exchange of notes and queries.

The first greetings are not all so dramatic as
might be thought, for so grave an occasion. "Well
Billy, old boy, how goes it?" asks one loyal West
Pointer of a classmate he had been fighting for
four years. "Bad, bad, Charlie, bad I tell you;
but have you got any whisky? " was the response, —
not poetic, not idealistic, but historic; founded on
fact as to the strength of the demand, but without
evidence of the questionable maxim that the de-
mand creates the supply. More of the economic
truth was manifest that scarcity enhances value.

Everybody seems acquiescent and for the
moment cheerful, — except Sheridan. He does not
like the cessation of hostilities, and does not con-
ceal his opinion. His natural disposition was not
sweetened by the circumstance that he was fired
on by some of the Confederates as he was coming
up to the meeting under the truce. He is for
unconditional surrender, and thinks we should
have banged right on and settled all questions
without asking them. He strongly intimates that
some of the free-thinking rebel cavalry might take
advantage of the truce to get away from us. But
the Confederate officers, one and all, Gordon,

Appomattox 245

Wilcox, Heth, "Rooney" Lee, and all the rest,
assure him of their good faith, and that the game
is up for them.

But suddenly a sharp firing cuts the air about our
ears — musketry and artillery — out beyond us on
the Lynchburg pike, where it seems Sheridan had
sent Gregg's command to stop any free-riding
pranks that might be played. Gordon springs up
from his pile of rails with an air of astonishment
and vexation, declaring that for his part he had
sent out in good faith orders to hold things as they
are. And he glances more than inquiringly at
Sheridan. "Oh, never mind!" says Sheridan, "I
know about it. Let 'em fight!" with two simple
words added, which, literally taken, are supposed
to express a condemnatory judgment, but in Sheri-
dan's rhetoric convey his appreciation of highly
satisfactory qualities of his men, — especially just
now.

One o'clock comes ; no answer from Lee. Noth-
ing for us but to shake hands and take arms to
resume hostilities. As I turned to go, General
Griffin said to me in a low voice, "Prepare to make,
or receive, an attack in ten minutes!" It was a
sudden change of tone in our relations, and brought
a queer sensation. Where my troops had halted,
the opposing lines were in close proximity. The
men had stacked arms and were resting in place.
It did not seem like war we were to recommence,
but wilful murder. But the order was only to
"prepare," and that we did. Our troops were in
good position, my advanced line across the road,

246 The Passini^' of the Armies

and we stood fast intensely waiting. I had mounted,
and sat looking at the scene before me, thinking of
all that was impending and depending, when I felt
coming in upon me a strange sense of some presence
invisible but powerful — like those unearthly visit-
ants told of in ancient story, charged with supernal
message. Disquieted, I turned about, and there
behind me, riding in between my two lines, ap-
peared a commanding form, superbly mounted,
richly accoutred, of imposing bearing, noble coun-
tenance, with expression of deep sadness over-
mastered by deeper strength. It is no other than
Robert E. Lee! And seen by me for the first time
within my own lines. I sat immovable, with a
certain awe and admiration. He was coming, with
a single staff officer,' for the great appointed meet-
ing which was to determine momentous issues.

Not long after, by another inleading road, ap-
peared another form, plain, unassuming, simple,
and familiar to our eyes, but to the thought as
much inspiring awe as Lee in his splendor and his
sadness. It is Grant! He, too, comes with a
single aide, a staff officer of Sheridan's who had
come out to meet him.^ Slouched hat without
cord; common soldier's blouse, unbuttoned, on
which, however, the four stars; high boots, mud-
splashed to the top; trousers tucked inside; no
sword, but the sword-hand deep in the pocket;
sitting his saddle with the ease of a born master,
taking no notice of anything, all his faculties
gathered into intense thought and mighty calm.

' Colonel Marshall, chief of staflf. ^ Colonel Newhall.

Appomattox 247

He seemed greater than I had ever seen him, — a
look as of another world about him. No wonder
I forgot altogether to salute him. Anything like
that would have been too little.

He rode on to meet Lee at the Court House.
What momentous issues had these two souls to
declare! Neither of them, in truth, free, nor held
in individual bounds alone; no longer testing each
other's powers and resources, no longer weighing
the chances of daring or desperate conflict. In-
struments of God's hands, they were now to record
His decree!

But the final word is not long coming now.
Staff officers are flying, crying "Lee surrenders!"
Ah, there was some kind of strength left among
those worn and famished men belting the hills
around the springs of the Appomattox, who rent
the air with shouting and uproar, as if earth and
sea had joined the song! Our men did what they
thought their share, and then went to sleep, as
they had need to do ; but in the opposite camp they
acted as if they had got hold of something too good
to keep, and gave it to the stars.

Besides, they had a supper that night, which
was something of a novelty. For we had divided
rations with our old antagonists now that they
were by our side as suffering brothers. In truth,
Longstreet had come over to our camp that evening
with an unwonted moisture on his martial cheek
and compressed words on his lips: "Gentlemen,
I must speak plainly; we are starving over there.
For God's sake! can you send us something.'^"

248 The Passing of the Armies

We were men ; and we acted like men, knowing we
should suffer for it otirselves. We were too short-
rationed also, and had been for days, and must be
for days to come. But we forgot Andersonville
and Belle Isle that night, and sent over to that
starving camp share and share alike for all there;
nor thinking the merits of the case diminished by
the circumstance that part of these provisions was
what Sheridan had captured from their trains the
night before.

Generals Gibbon, Griffin, and Merritt were
appointed commissioners to arrange the details of
the surrender, and orders were issued in both
armies that all officers and men should remain with-
in the limits of their encampment.

Late that night I was summoned to headquarters,
where General Griffin informed me that I was
to command the parade on the occasion of the
formal surrender of the arms and colors of Lee's
army. He said the Confederates had begged hard
to be allowed to stack their arms on the ground
where they were, and let us go and pick them up
after they had gone; but that Grant did not think
this quite respectful enough to anybody, including
the United States of America ; and while he would
have all private property respected, and would
permit officers to retain their side-arms, he insisted
that the surrendering army as such should march
out in due order, and lay down all tokens of Con-
federate authority and organized hostility to the
United States, in immediate presence of some
representative portion of the Union Army. Griffin

Appomattox 249

added in a significant tone that Grant wished the
ceremony to be as simple as possible, and that
nothing should be done to humiliate the manhood
of the Southern soldiers.

I appreciated the honor of this appointment,
although I did not take it much to myself. There
were other things to think of. I only asked
General Griffin to give me again my old Third
Brigade, which I had commanded after Gettysburg,
and with which I had been closely associated in
the great battles of the first two years. Not for
private reasons, however, was this request made,
but because this was to be a crowning incident of
history, and I thought these veterans deserved this
recognition. I was therefore transferred from the
First Brigade, of which I had been so proud, to
the Third, representing the veterans of the Fifth
Corps. The soul-drawing bugle-call "Lights Out ! "
did not mean darkness and silence that momentous
evening ; far into the night gleamed some irrepres-
sible camp fire and echoed the irrepressible cheer in
which men voiced their deepest thought, — how
different for each, no other knows!

At last we sleep — those who can. And so
ended that 9th of April, 1865 — Palm Sunday, — in
that obscure little Virginia village now blazoned
for immortal fame. Graver destinies were deter-
mined on that htimble field than on many of classic
and poetic fame. And though the issue brought
bitterness to some, yet the heart of humanity the
world over thrilled at the tidings. To us, I know,
who there fell asleep that night, amidst memories of

250 The Passing of the Armies

things that never can be told, it came like that
Palm Sunday of old, when the rejoicing multitude
met the meekly riding King, and cried: "Peace in
Heaven; glory in the highest. "

Morning dawned; and then, in spite of all
attempts to restrain it, came the visiting and sight-
seeing. Our camp was full of callers before we were
up. They stood over our very heads now, — the
men whose movements we used to study through
field-glasses, or see close at hand framed in fire.
We woke, and by force of habit started at the
vision. But our resolute and much-enduring old
antagonists were quick to change their mood when
touched by appealing sentiment; they used their
first vacation to come over and see what we were
really made of, and what we had left for trade.
Food was what was most needed ; but was precisely
what we also most lacked. Such as we parted with
was not for sale, or barter; this went for " old
times" — old comradeship across the lines. But
tobacco, pipes, knives, money — or symbols of it,
— shoes, — more precious still; and among the staff,
even saddles, now and then, and other more trivial
things that might serve as souvenirs, made an
exchange about as brisk as the bullets had done a
few days ago. The inundation of visitors grew
so that it looked like a country fair, including the
cattle-show. This exhibit broke up the order of the
camp; and the authorities in charge had to inter-
pose and forbid all visiting. All this day and part
of the next our commissioners were busy arranging
for the reception and transportation of surrendered

Appomattox 251

property and the preparation of parole lists for the
surrendering men. It was agreed that officers
should sign paroles for their commands. But it
took work and time to get the muster rolls in
shape, not for "red tape" reasons, but for clear
and explicit personal and public record. On our
part most of us had time to think, — looking back-
ward, and also forward.

Most of all, we missed our companions of the
Second and Sixth Corps. They were only three
miles away and were under orders to move back
at once to Burkeville. It seemed strange to us
that these two corps should not be allowed that
little three-mile march more, to be participants of
this consummation to which they perhaps more
than any had contributed. Many a longer detour
had they made for less cause and less good.

But whatever of honor or privilege came to us of
the Fifth Corps was accepted not as for any pre-
eminent work or worth of ours, but in the name
of the whole noble Army of the Potomac; with
loving remembrance of every man, whether on
horse or foot or cannon-caisson, whether with
shoulder-strap of office or with knapsack, — of every
man, whether his heart beat high with the joy of
this hour, or was long since stilled in the shallow
trenches that furrow the red earth from the An-
tietam to the Appomattox !

It may help to a connected understanding of
these closing scenes, if we glance at the movements
of that close-pressing column for a day or two
before. On theeyening^ of the 7th, General Grant '^

2^2 The Passing" of the Annies

&

had written General Lee a letter from Farmville,
and sent it through General Humphreys' lines,
asking Lee to surrender his army. Lee answered
at once declining to surrender, but asking the
terms Grant would offer. The pursuit being
resumed on the morning of the 8th, Grant wrote
to Lee a second letter, delivered through Hum-
phreys' skirmish line and Fitzhugh Lee's rear-guard,
proposing to meet him for the purpose of arranging
terms of surrender. To this Lee replied that he
had not intended to propose actual surrender, but
to negotiate for peace, and to ask General Grant
what terms he would offer on that basis ; proposing
a meeting at lo o'clock on the morning of the 9th
between the picket lines, for discussion of this
question. Grant answered declining the appoint-
ment for this purpose, saying in effect that the
only way to secure peace is for the South to lay
down their arms.

General Grant must have felt that the end was
fast coming, even without negotiations; and he
seems quite earnest to impress this upon General
Lee. For, after all the solicitude about sparing
further bloodshed, he in no wise permits his pur-
suing columns to remit their activity. The natural
result of this must be a battle, a destructive and de-
cisive one. Indeed, in the present situation of our
Second and Sixth Corps, this battle is imminent.
Still, at this very juncture, — Lee being now in his
immediate presence, so to speak, close upon Hum-
phreys' skirmish line, — for reasons which he has
not made fully apparent but which we of the White

Appomattox 253

Oak Road could without difficulty surmise, General
Grant deems it proper to transfer his own personal
presence, as he says, "to the head of the column, "
or, as Badeau puts it, "to join Sheridan's column."
This was now fighting Gordon's command and
Lee's cavalry at Appomattox Court House. Ac-
cordingly, General Grant, having sent this sugges-
tive answer to General Lee, took a road leading
south from a point a mile west of New Store, for a
good twenty-mile ride over to Sheridan, leaving
great responsibility on Humphreys and Wright.
Lee was repeatedly sending word to Humphreys
asking for a truce pending consideration of pro-
posals for surrender. Humphreys answered that
he had no authority to consent to this, but, on the
contrary, must press him to the utmost; and at
last, in answer to Lee's urgency, he even had to
warn General Lee that he must retire from a posi-
tion he was occupying somewhat too trustingly on
the road not a hundred yards from the head of the
Second Corps column. Lee's reason undoubtedly
was that he was expecting the meeting with Grant
which he had asked for between the skirmish lines
at ten o'clock. Half an hour after the incident,
and half a mile beyond this place, the Second Corps
came up to Longstreet's entrenched lines three
miles northeast of Appomattox Court House;
and the Sixth Corps closely following, dispositions
were made for instant attack. At this moment
General Meade arrives on the ground, and the
attack is suspended. For Lee in the meantime has
sent a further letter through Himiphreys to Grant,

254 The Passing of the Armies

asking an interview on the basis of Grant's last
letter, and Meade reading this, at once grants a
truce of an hour on his own lines, awaiting the
response from Grant. But Grant had already left
that front. Had he been here, matters could have
been quickly settled. A staff officer is sent to
overtake General Grant, and at noon, half-way
on his journey, the General sends back answer to
Lee that he is pushing forward "to the front" for
the purpose of meeting him, with the very queer
advice that word may be sent to him on the road
he is now on, at what point General Lee wishes the
meeting to be — that is, by a messenger out -gal-
loping Grant. There is not much choice for Lee
now. Grant being on so long a road and at such
distance from both of the two "columns," com-
munication with him is for a time impracticable.
In consequence of this necessary delay, Lee sent a
flag of truce both to Meade in his rear and to
Sheridan in his front, to ask for a suspension of
hostilities until he could somewhere meet General
Grant, and himself took the shortest road for
Appomattox Coirrt House.

To resume my point of time and place, I was
most of this day and the next adjusting relations
in my changing commands, and with a part of my
men, in picking up abandoned guns and munitions
of value along the track of the Confederate march.
I also had some thoughts which, as this is a per-
sonal narrative, it may be permitted to recall.
For those who choose, the passage may be passed
by. Some people have naturally asked me if I

Appomattox 255

knew why I was designated to command the
parade at the formal surrender. The same query
came to my mind during the reflections of this day.
I did not know or prestime to ask those who per-
haps would not have told me. Taking the assign-
ment as I wotild any other, my feeling about it
was more for the honor of the Fifth Corps and
the Army of the Potomac than for myself. In
lineal rank the junior general on the field, I never
thought of claiming any special merit, nor tried
to attract attention in any way, and believed
myself to be socially unpopular among the "high
boys." I had never indulged in loose talk, had
minded my own business, did not curry favor with
newspaper reporters, did not hang around superior
headquarters, and in general had disciplined my-
self in self-control and the practice of patience,
which virtue was not prominent among my natural
endowments.

Some of my chief superiors had taken notice of
this latter peculiarity apparently, as, when the
recommendations for my promotion to brigadier-
general after Gettysburg were ignored by the
"delegation" at Washington, I found myself very
soon assigned to command of a brigade. When,
after the sharp tests of the Bristoe and Culpeper
campaign, I was sent disabled to hospital from
Rappahannock Station, and found on returning
to duty that General Bartlett, of the Sixth
Corps, sent over to relieve the dearth of generals
in the Fifth, had chosen to take my brigade,
I cheerfully returned to my regiment. Having

256 The Passing of the Armies

in the meantime been applied for to command the
Regular Brigade in Ayres' Division, I declined the
offer at the request of General Griffin, who desired
me to remain with the First Division. So remain-
ing, I was often put in charge of peculiarly trying
ventures, advance and rear-guard fights, involving
command of several regiments, from Spottsylvania
to Cold Harbor. Immediately after this, being
still Colonel of the 20th Maine, I was assigned in
special orders by General Warren to the command
of a brigade of six Pennsylvania regiments, made
up of veterans of the First Corps, who had divStin-
guished themselves at Gettysburg by their heroism
and their losses, with a fine new regiment of full
ranks, — mostly veterans also. I devoted nvy best
energies to the perfecting of this command during
the campaign before Richmond and the opening
assaults on Petersburg, but in the first battle here
was severely wounded leading a charge, after
rather presumptuously advising against it. Here
General Grant promoted me on the field to Briga-
dier-General in terms referring to previous history.
Returning to the front after months in Annapolis
Naval School Hospital, I found my splendid bri-
gade broken up and scattered, and its place filled
by two new regiments, one from New York and one
from Pennsylvania, both of finest material and
personnel, but my command was reduced from the
largest brigade in the corps to the very smallest.
Although offered other highly desirable positions,
I quietly took up this little brigade and with no
complaints and no petitions for advancement went

Appomattox 257

forward in my duty with the best that was in
me. The noble behavior of these troops was the
occasion of the brevet of Major-General, and no
doubt in consideration of meekness in small things
General Griffin placed under my orders for all
the active engagements of this campaign, the fine
Second Brigade of the division, — thus giving me
a command equal to my former one, or any other
in the corps.

So I had reason to believe that General Griffin
had something to do with General Grant's kind
remembrance, and negative merits appeared to
stand for something. Tout vient a point pour qui
sail attendre — "Everything comes in good time to
him who knows how to wait. "

On the morning of the nth our division had been
moved over to relieve Turner's of the Twenty-
fourth Corps, Army of the James, near the Court
House, where they had been receiving some of
the surrendered arms, especially of the artillery
on their front, while Mackenzie's cavalry had
received the surrendered sabers of W. H. F. Lee's
command.

Praises of General Grant were on every tongue
for his magnanimity in allowing the horses of the
artillery and cavalry that were the property of the
men and not of the Confederacy, to be retained by
the men for service in restoring and working their
little plantations, and also in requesting the mana-
gers of transportation companies in all that region
to facilitate in every way the return of these men
to their homes.
17

258 The Passlne^ of the Armies

t>

At noon of the nth the troops of the Army of the
James took up the march to Lynchburg, to make
sure of that yet doubtful point of advantage. Lee
and Grant had both left : Lee for Richmond, to see
his dying wife; Grant for Washington, only that
once more to see again Lincoln living. The busi-
ness transactions had been settled, the parole
papers made out; all was ready for the last turn,
— the dissolving-view of the Army of Northern
Virginia.

It was now the morning of the 12th of April. I
had been ordered to have my lines formed for the
ceremony at sunrise. It was a chill gray morning,
depressing to the senses. But our hearts made
warmth. Great memories uprose; great thoughts
went forward. We formed along the principal
street, from the bluff bank of the stream to near
the Court House on the left, — to face the last line
of battle, and receive the last remnant of the arms
and colors of that great army which ours had been
created to confront for all that death can do for
life. We were remnants also: Massachusetts,
Maine, Michigan, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New
York; veterans, and replaced veterans; cut to
pieces, cut down, consolidated, divisions into
brigades, regiments into one, gathered by State
origin; this little line, quintessence or metem-
psychosis of Porter's old corps of Gaines' Mill
and Malvern Hill ; men of near blood born, made
nearer by blood shed. Those facing us — now,
thank God! the same.

As for me, I was once more with my old command.

Appomattox 259

But this was not all I needed. I had taken leave of
my little First Brigade so endeared to me, and the
end of the fighting had released the Second from all
orders from me. But these deserved to share with
me now as they had so faithfully done in the sterner
passages of the campaign. I got permission from
General Griffin to have them also in the parade.
I placed the First Brigade in line a little to our rear,
and the Second on the opposite side of the street fac-
ing us and leaving ample space for the movements
of the coming ceremony. Thus the whole division
was out, and under my direction for the occasion,
although I was not the division commander. I
thought this troubled General Bartlett a little,
but he was a manly and soldierly man and made
no comment. He contented himself by mounting
his whole staff and with the division flag riding
around our lines and conversing as he found
opportunity with the Confederate officers. This
in no manner disturbed me; my place and part
were definite and clear.

Our earnest eyes scan the busy groups on the
opposite slopes, breaking camp for the last time,
taking down their little shelter-tents and folding
them carefully as precious things, then slowly
forming ranks as for unwelcome duty. And now
they move. The dusky swarms forge forward
into gray columns of march. On they come, with
the old swinging route step and swaying battle-
flags. In the van, the proud Confederate ensign —
the great field of white with canton of star-strewn
cross of blue on a field of red, the regimental

26o The Passing of the Armies

battle-flags with the same escutcheon following on,
crowded so thick, by thinning out of men, that the
whole column seemed crowned with red. At the
right of our line our little group mounted beneath
our flags, the red Maltese cross on a field of white,
erewhile so bravely borne through many a field
more crimson than itself, its mystic meaning now
ruling all.

The momentous meaning of this occasion im-
pressed me deeply. I resolved to mark it by
some token of recognition, which could be no
other than a salute of arms. Well aware of the
responsibility assumed, and of the criticisms that
would follow, as the sequel proved, nothing of
that kind could move me in the least. The act
could be defended, if needful, by the suggestion
that such a salute was not to the cause for which
the flag of the Confederacy stood, but to its going
down before the flag of the Union. My main
reason, however, was one for which I sought no au-
thority nor asked forgiveness. Before us in proud
humiliation stood the embodiment of manhood:
men whom neither toils and sufferings, nor the
fact of death, nor disaster, nor hopelessness could
bend from their resolve; standing before us now,
thin, worn, and famished, but erect, and with
eyes looking level into ours, waking memories that
bound us together as no other bond; — ^was not
such manhood to be welcomed back into a Union
so tested and assured?

Instructions had been given ; and when the head
of each division column comes opposite our group,

Appomattox 261

our bugle sounds the signal and instantly our whole
line from right to left, regiment by regiment in
succession, gives the soldier's salutation, from
the "order arms" to the old "carry" — the march-
ing salute. Gordon at the head of the coltmin,
riding with heavy spirit and downcast face, catches
the sound of shifting arms, looks up, and, taking
the meaning, wheels superbly, making with himself
and his horse one uplifted figure, with profound
salutation as he drops the point of his sword to the
boot toe; then facing to his own command, gives
word for his successive brigades to pass us with
the same position of the manual, — honor answering
honor. On our part not a sound of trumpet more,
nor roll of drum ; not a cheer, nor word nor whisper
of vain-glorying, nor motion of man standing
again at the order, but an awed stillness rather,
and breath-holding, as if it were the passing of the
dead!

As each successive division masks our own, it
halts, the men face inward towards us across the
road, twelve feet away; then carefully "dress"
their line, each captain taking pains for the good
appearance of his company, worn and half starved
as they were. The field and staff take their
positions in the intervals of regiments; generals in
rear of their commands. They fix bayonets, stack
arms; then, hesitatingly, remove cartridge-boxes
and lay them down. Lastly, — reluctantly, with
agony of expression, — they tenderly fold their flags,
battle-worn and torn, blood-stained, heart -holding
colors, and lay them down; some frenziedly rush-

262 The Passing of the Armies

ing from the ranks, kneeling over them, clinging to
them, pressing them to their lips with burning tears.
And only the Flag of the Union greets the sky !

What visions thronged as we looked into each
other's eyes ! Here pass the men of Antietam, the
Bloody Lane, the Sunken Road, the Cornfield, the
Bumside-Bridge; the men whom Stonewall Jack-
son on the second night at Fredericksburg begged
Lee to let him take and crush the two corps of the
Army of the Potomac huddled in the streets in
darkness and confusion ; the men who swept away
the Eleventh Corps at Chancellorsville; who left
six thousand of their companions around the bases
of Culp's and Cemetery Hills at Gettysburg; these
survivors of the terrible Wilderness, the Bloody-
Angle at Spottsylvania, the slaughter pen of Cold
Harbor, the whirlpool of Bethesda Church!

Here comes Cobb's Georgia Legion, which held
the stone wall on Marye's Heights at Fredericks-
burg, close before which we piled our dead for
breastworks so that the living might stay and live.

Here too come Gordon's Georgians and Hoke's
North Carolinians, who stood before the terrific
mine explosion at Petersburg, and advancing re-
took the smoking crater and the dismal heaps
of dead — ours more than theirs — huddled in the
ghastly chasm.

Here are the men of McGowan, Hunton, and
Scales, who broke the Fifth Corps lines on the
White Oak Road, and were so desperately driven
back on that foriorn night of March 31st by my
thrice-decimated brigade.

Appomattox 263

Now comes Anderson's Fourth Corps, only
Bushrod Johnson's Division left, and this the rem-
nant of those we fought so fiercely on the Quaker
Road two weeks ago, with Wise's Legion, too fierce
for its own good.

Here passes the proud remnant of Ransom's
North Carolinians which we swept through Five
Forks ten days ago, — and all the little that was left
of this division in the sharp passages at Sailor's
Creek five days thereafter.

Now makes its last front A. P. Hill's old Corps,
Heth now at the head, since Hill had gone too far
forward ever to return: the men who poured
destruction into our division at Shepardstown
Ford, Antietam, in 1862, when Hill reported the
Potomac running blue with our bodies; the men
who opened the desperate first day's fight at Get-
tysburg, where withstanding them so stubbornly
our Robinson's Brigades lost 1185 men, and the
Iron Brigade alone 1153, — these men of Heth's
Division here too losing 2850 men, companions of
these now looking into our faces so differently.

What is this but the remnant of Mahone's
Division, last seen by us at the North Anna? its
thinned ranks of worn, bright-eyed men recalling
scenes of costly valor and ever-remembered history.

Now the sad great pageant — Longstreet and
his men! What shall we give them for greeting
that has not already been spoken in volleys of
thunder and written in lines of fire on all the river-
banks of Virginia? Shall we go back to Gaines'
Mill and Malvern Hill? Or to the Antietam of

264 The Passing of the Armies

Maryland, or Gettysbtirg of Pennsylvania? —
deepest graven of all. For here is what remains
of Kershaw's Division, which left 40 per cent, of its
men at Antietam, and at Gettysburg with Barks-
dale's and Semmes' Brigades tore through the
Peach Orchard, rolling up the right of our gallant
Third Corps, sweeping over the proud batteries of
Massachusetts — Bigelow and Philips, — where un-
der the smoke we saw the earth brown and blue
with prostrate bodies of horses and men, and the
tongues of overturned cannon and caissons pointing
grim and stark in the air.

Then in the Wilderness, at Spottsylvania and
thereafter, Kershaw's Division again, in deeds of
awful glory, held their name and fame, until fate
met them at Sailor's Creek, where Kershaw him-
self, and Ewell, and so many more, gave up
their arms and hopes, — all, indeed, but manhood's
honor.

With what strange emotion I look into these
faces before which in the mad assault on Rives'
Salient, June 18, 1864, I was left for dead under
their eyes! It is by miracles we have lived to see
this day, — any of us standing here.

Now comes the sinewy remnant of fierce Hood's
Division, which at Gettysburg we saw pouring
through the Devil's Den, and the Plum Run
gorge; turning again by the left our stubborn
Third Corps, then swarming up the rocky bastions
of Round Top, to be met there by equal valor,
which changed Lee's whole plan of battle and
perhaps the story of Gettysburg.

Appomattox 265

Ah, is this Pickett's Division? — this little group
left of those who on the lurid last day of Gettys-
burg breasted level cross-fire and thunderbolts of
storm, to be strewn back drifting wrecks, where after
that awful, futile, pitiful charge we buried them in
graves a furlong wide, with names unknown!

Met again in the terrible cyclone-sweep over the
breastworks at Five Forks; met now, so thin, so
pale, purged of the mortal, — as if knowing pain or
joy no more. How could we help falling on our
knees, all of us together, and praying God to
pity and forgive us all!

Thus, all day long, division after division comes
and goes, surrendered arms being removed by our
wagons in the intervals, the cartridge-boxes emp-
tied in the street when the ammunition was found
unserviceable, our men meanwhile resting in place.

Meantime many men had been coming in late
in the day, complaining that they had been aban-
doned by their officers and declaring that they
preferred to give their parole in surrender, rather
than encounter all the difficulties and hardships
of an attempt to escape.

There are incidents of that scene which may be
worth repeating. There was opportunity for con-
verse with several Confederate generals. Their
bearing was, of course, serious, their spirits sad.
What various misgivings mingled in their mood
we could not but conjecture. Levying war against
the United States was serious business. But one
certain impression was received from them all;
they were ready to accept for themselves and for

266 The Passing of the Armies

the Confederacy any fate our Government should
dictate. Lincoln's magnanimity, as Grant's
thoughtfidness, had already impressed them much.
They spoke like brave men who mean to stand
upon their honor and accept the situation. " Gen-
eral," says one of them at the head of his corps,
"this is deeply humiliating; but I console myself
with the thought that the whole country will re-
joice at this day's business. " "You astonish us, "
says another of equally high rank, "by your hon-
orable and generous conduct. I fear we should not
have done the same by you had the case been
reversed. " "I will go home, ' ' says a gallant officer
from North Carolina, "and tell Joe Johnston we
can't fight such men as you. I will advise him
to surrender." "I went into that cause" says
yet another of well-known name, "and I meant it.
We had our choice of weapons and of ground, and
we have lost. Now that is my flag (pointing to
the flag of the Union), and I will prove myself as
worthy as any of you. "

In fact that was the whole drift of the talk, and
there is no reason to doubt that it was sincere.
Equally so but quite different was the strain of
another. I saw him moving restlessly about,
scolding his men and being answered back by them
instead of ordering them. He seemed so disturbed
in mind that I rode down the line to see if I could
not give him a word of cheer. With a respectful
salutation, calling his attention to the bearing of
the men on both sides, "This promises well for our
coming good-will," said I; "brave men may be-

Appomattox 267

come good friends." "You're mistaken, sir,"
he turned and said. "You may forgive us but we
won't be forgiven. There is a rancor in our hearts
[here came in an anatomical gesture] which you
Httle dream of. We hate you, sir." "Oh, we
don't mind much about dreams, nor about hates
either. Those two Hnes of business are closed,"
was the quiet reply. Then as if a little sorry for
his opening, fixing his gaze on two ungainly look-
ing holes in the breast of my coat and a much-
abused sleeve, he exclaimed in a milder tone:
"Those were ugly shots. General. Where did you
get these?" Unfortunately I had to admit that
this happened on the first day of the campaign in
an afternoon I had the honor of spending with him
and his party on the Quaker Road, where there
were plenty of quakers and shakers also, and some
few runners who left me a parting souvenir. "I
suppose you think you did great things there, "
he burst in. "I was ordered to attack you and
check your advance; and I did it too with a vim,
till I found I was fighting three army corps, when
I thought it prudent to retire." I was really
sorry to have to reassure him that there was no
more than the third part of one corps present on
our side. "I know better," he cries; "I saw the
flags myself." I think that he did stop to count
three before he left us, leaving his cap behind.
But I could not resist saying: "You saw the flags
of three regiments ; steady eyes could see no more. "
One of his staff officers corroborates this, and for a
moment he subsides. Then he breaks out again:

268 The Passine of the Armies

£3

"It's a pity you have no lawyers in your army, " —
I did not know what was coming now, unless he
wanted to make his will, — "you don't know how to
make out paroles. Who ever heard of paroles
being signed by any but the parties paroled?" I
tried to explain to him that this was a matter of
mercy and humanity, for if we should keep all
their men there till every individual could sign his
parole, half of them would be dead of starvation
before their turn came. "Nonsense," he rejoins;
"all that is spargere voces; every lawyer knows such
a parole as this is a mere hrutum fulmen. " "Sir,"
I answer, "if by brute thunderbolts you mean a
pledged word to keep the peace accepted and
adopted by the recipient of the favor, I don't
believe your people need any lawyer to instruct
them as to the word of honor. " I was about to
turn away; he catches the suggestion of the motion
and issues a parting order. "You go home," he
cries, "you take these fellows home. That's what
will end the war." "Don't worry about the end
of the war, ' ' I answer. ' ' We are going home pretty
soon, but not till we see you home." "Home!"
he snatches up the word. "We haven't any. You
have destroyed them. You have invaded Vir-
ginia, and ruined her. Her curse is on you."
"You shouldn't have invited us down here then,"
was the obvious reply. "We expected somebody
was going to get hurt when we took up your chal-
lenge. Didn't you? People who don't want to get
hurt. General, had better not force a fight on
unwilling Yankees."

Appomattox 269

By this time the thing grew comic. The staff
officers both in blue and gray laughed outright;
and even his men looked around from their somber
service and smiled as if they enjoyed the joke.
He turned away also to launch his "brute thunder-
bolts," not waiting to receive my thanks for in-
struction in Law and Latin. "The wise man
foreseeth the evil and hideth himself, but the
foolish pass on and are punished, says the old
proverb." If there are no exceptions to this rule,
then this gentleman was not rightly named.

With this comedy ends, in classic fashion, the
stern drama of the Appomattox. A strange and
somber shadow rose up ghost-like from the haunts
of memory or habit, and rested down over the final
parting scene. How strong are these ties of habit !
How strange the undertone of sadness even at the
release from prison and from pain! It seems as if
we had put some precious part of ourselves there
which we are loath to leave.

When all is over, in the dusk of evening, the
long lines of scattered cartridges are set on fire,
and the lurid flames wreathing the blackness of
earthly shadows give an unearthly border to our
parting.

Then, stripped of every token of enmity or
instrument of power to hurt, they march off to give
their word of honor never to lift arms against the
old flag again till its holders release them from
their promise. Then, their ranks broken, the
bonds that bound them fused away by forces
stronger than fire, they are free at last to go where

270 The Passinor of the Armies

t>

they will; to find their homes, now most likely
stricken, despoiled by war.
j.y Twenty-seven thousand men paroled ; seventeen
thousand stand of arms laid down or gathered up ;
a hundred battle-flags. But regiments and bri-
gades— or what is left of them — ^have scarce a score
of arms to surrender; having thrown them away
by road and riverside in weariness of flight or
hopelessness of heart, disdaining to carry them
longer but to disaster. And many a bare staff was
there laid down, from which the ensign had been
torn in the passion and struggle of emotions, and
divided piece by piece; a blurred or shrunken
star, a rag of smoke-stained blue from the war-
worn cross, a shred of deepened dye from the rent
field of red, to be treasured for precious keepsakes
of manhood's test and heirlooms for their children.
Nor blame them too much for this, nor us for
not blaming them more. Although, as we believed,
fatally wrong in striking at the old flag, misreading
its deeper meaning and the innermost law of the
people's life, blind to the signs of the times in the
march of man, they fought as they were taught,
true to such ideals as they saw, and put into their
cause their best. For us they were fellow-soldiers
as well, suffering the fate of arms. We could not
look into those brave, bronzed faces, and those
battered flags we had met on so many fields where
glorious manhood lent a glory to the earth that
bore it, and think of personal hate and mean
revenge. Whoever had misled these men, we had
not. We had led them back, home. Whoever had

Appomattox 271

made that quarrel, we had not. It was a remnant
of the inherited curse for sin. We had ptirged it
away, with blood-offerings. We were all of us
together factors of that high will which, working
often through illusions of the human, and following
ideals that lead through storms, evolves the en-
franchisement of man.

Forgive us, therefore, if from stern, steadfast
faces eyes dimmed with tears gazed at each other
across that pile of storied relics so dearly there laid
down, and brothers' hands were fain to reach
across that rushing tide of memories which divided
us, yet made us forever one.

It was our glory only that the victory we had
won was for country, for the well-being of others^
of these men before us as well as for ourselves and
ours. Our joy was a deep, far, unspoken satisfac-
tion,— the approval, as it were, of some voiceless
and veiled divinity like the appointed "Angel of
the Nation" of which the old scriptures tell — ■
leading and looking far, yet mindful of sorrows;
standing above all human strife and fierce passages
of trial; not marking faults nor seeking blame;
transmuting into factors of the final good corrected
errors and forgiven sins; assuring of immortal in-
heritance all pure purpose and noble endeavor,
humblest service and costliest sacrifice, unconscious
and even mistaken martyrdoms offered and suffered
for the sake of man.

Now on the morrow, over all the hillsides in
the peaceful sunshine, are clouds of men on foot or
horse, singly or in groups, making their earnest way

2']2 The Passino: of the Armies

t)

as by the instinct of the ant, each with his own little
burden, each for his own little home. And we are
left alone, and lonesome. We miss our spirited
antagonists in the game, and we lose interest. The
weight is taken out of the opposite scale, and we go
down. Never are we less gay. And when we took
up the long, round-about march homeward, it was
dull to plod along looking only at the muddy road,
without scouts and skirmishers ahead, and reckless
of our flanks. It was tame to think we could ride
up to any thicket of woods we pleased, without
starting at the chirrup of those little bluebirds
whose cadence was so familiar to our ears, and
made so deep a lodgment in our bosoms too, some-
times. It was dreary to lie down and sleep at
night and think there was no vigilant picket out on
the dubious-looking crests around to keep faithful
watch and ward. And it seems sheer waste of
opportunity and mark of military incapacity, when
we emerge from some deep wood or defile and
no battery belches destruction upon us from so
advantageous a position as the commanding heights
beyond.

But slowly these lingering images of memory or
habit are lost in the currents of a deeper mood;
we wonder at that mysterious dispensation whereby
the pathway of the kingdom of Love on earth must
needs be cut through by the sword, and why it must
be that by such things as we had seen and done
and suffered, and lost and won, a step is taken in
the homeward march of man.

CHAPTER VII

THE RETURN OF THE ARMY

ALTHOUGH fraught with deepest interest
and filled with occupations of great variety,
our sojourn at Appomattox Court House
was a hard experience. We had raced to that
point in lightest marching order; there was no
superfluity of equipage. The packs were slender;
overcoats and blankets had proved too heavy for
those thirty-mile marches. The shelter- tent cloths
had to serve for these, and for towels also, which
they most resembled. The rations reduced to
sediment in the haversacks smelt of lead and
gunpowder. To be sure, a few supply wagons had
managed to get up to us, and our cavalry had
captured some trains at Appomattox Station;
but all we had we shared with our surrendering
competitors, technically called "the enemy," —
now become our sympathizing guests. For a day
or two past all hands had to forage for a living,
and many a ten-mile tramp resulted only in arm-
fuls of com on the cob, which needed a good deal
of soaking to yield to our practised jaws. It got it.

For when on Saturday morning we took up the
18 273

274 The Passing of the Armies

march for Burkeville and had got well stretched
out on the road, we were overtaken by a pouring
rain, which made mulch of everything. Seeking
the center of the earth by a force of gravity we
cotdd fully sympathize with, it soon formed a junc-
tion in the roads and fields to the extent of four or
five inches of "half and half," denominated in the
Low-German dialect "mudde"; but later circum-
stances inclined certain travelers to transpose the
superfluous final "d " and put it to use as the initial
prefix of a deeply descriptive adjective. Drenched,
hungry, draggled in mire, that long, lank body
presented an image not unlike that reported by
Daniel on the king's dream, — the head gold, the
belly brass, the legs iron, and the feet clay, —
but the proportions were not so well observed.
We were informed in animated tones that we were
to draw rations that night, — but what kind of a
"draw" it was to be we were by no means assured.
We noticed that the goal was fixed a long stretch
ahead ; it suggested to us what we had seen offered
a team of cattle tolled on by a show - of forage
fastened well forward of the yoke or pole.

Near Evergreen Station we struck the Southside
Railroad, and hoping to save the men's strength, I
told the colonel of the leading regiment to have
his men take the railroad track and keep out of the
heavy mud. They tried it for a while, but soon I
saw them jumping back into the mire ankle deep;
and, wondering at this, I felt rebuked for my sim-
plicity, when informed that the men found it much
more wearing to watch the varying distance of the

The Return of the Army 275

cross-ties spaced anjrwhere from eighteen inches
to two feet, and measure every step accordingly,
than to take the road as it was, and be free to put
their feet down wherever they could get them out
again. So dear is liberty.

Long after dark we were led to a place desig-
nated for a camp. To reach this we were counter-
marched or turned off on a tangent for quite a
space, and halted on a flat-pine land, some cubit
lower and knee deeper than the road. I heard no
orders given the regiments to "break ranks," the
effort of the officers was to get their men together,
that they might be looked after, and possibly,
though a whimsical suggestion, to draw rations.
But no commissary could find us in that dark and
drench, even if the wagons could worry through
the muddle. Fire would be of no use ; the thought
of trying to make one would do more good, for it
would raise our spirits to join "the mighty laughter
of the vernal floods." It was interesting to hear
the men — poor fellows — making their beds, some
on the rugged roots of the pines, or cradled be-
tween two broken branches to lift them from softer
pillows, or securing the shelter of a big bough,
which ever and anon swaying under accumulated
weight, bent down to envelop them in unwelcome
"sheets." Now some one seeking the open, —
less covering the best, — reckless of all things, now
that they had returned to "chaos and old night."
One bright, belated fellow, seeking to share some
luckier sleeper's cot, was heard muttering with
"wakeful " reminiscence, "Sure, a Yank wud shleep

276 The Passing of the Armies

uf the divil sat at his hid!" To us, in so-called
headquarters — though quarters were not perfectly
distinguished that night amidst such mingling of
the elements — a kind of ichthyosaurian sleep came
at last — dreaming that the whole earth was about
this way once, and fully sympathizing with the
Hebrew description of it as 'Tohoo vaw Vohoo, "
if not exactly "without form and void. "

In the morning the men sighted the few places
where they could get splinters enough to make a
fire to cook their last "ration" of pickled pork and
gunpowder. Then pulling out at 6 a.m. under
chilly rain and lowering clouds, we took the road
for Farmville. It was Sunday afternoon when we
reached its vicinity, and were welcomed by a sky
clear and serene, overlooking the town. The
trains were there, and so a breakfast — in literal
terms, though belated fact. The clouds had rolled
away and field and camp were flooded with sun-
shine. All the domestic arts were soon in evidence,
— largely that of washing-day; — as if we had not
had enough in the previous twenty-four hours.
Gradually a Sabbath peace stole over the scene.
All were at rest, mind and body, and the very
heart of nature breathed soft airs and mellow light.

Headquarters had been taken in the ample
front yard of an old mansion of the ancient regime.
Here at about four o'clock the fine German Band
of my old First Brigade came over to reciprocate
the smiles of heaven by choice music, ministering
also to our spiritual upgoings. They were in the
midst of a bright and joyous strain when there came

The Return of the Army 277

galloping up the old familiar figure — the mud-
splashed, grave-faced, keen-eyed cavalryman, —
the message-bearer. It was no uncommon thing
to receive a military telegram in those days; but
something in the manner and look of this messenger
took my attention. He rode up in front of the
sentinel and the colors, and dismounted. My
chief of staff went out to meet him. 'T think the
General would wish to treat this as personal," he
said. I beckoned him to the rear of our group, and
he handed me a yellow tissue-paper telegram. It
read as I remember it, — the original was kept by
somebody as a memento:

"Washington, April 15, 1865.
"The President died this morning. Wilkes
Booth the assassin. Secretary Seward dangerously
wounded. The rest of the Cabinet, General Grant,
and other high officers of the Government included
in the plot of destruction."

I should have been paralyzed by the shock, had
not the sense of responsibility overborne all other
thoughts. If treachery had overturned the Govern-
ment, and had possession of the Capitol, there was
work for us to do. But the first thought was of the
effect of this upon our soldiers. They, for every
reason, must be held in hand. "Put a double
guard on the whole camp immediately. Tell the
regimental commanders to get all their men in,
and allow no one to leave, " — was the first word
sent out. "Then tell the gentlemen I would like

278 The Passing- of the Armies

fc.

to see them here." I stepped back and with
especial pains to be calm and cotirteous I thanked
and dismissed the band, and they quietly withdrew.
All eyes were on me, but not until my officers came
up did I disclose to any one this appalling news.
I enjoined upon them absolute reticence until we
had made, all secure. Against what? and whom?
Our men. They could be trusted well to bear any
blow but this. Their love for the President was
something marvelous. Their great loving hearts
of sterling manhood seemed to have gathered
him in. After each success and especially after
each great reverse, he had been accustomed to
come out to see them. That honest, homely face,
showing how heavily pressed the terrible burden
that had come upon him, — of settling the "irre-
pressible conflict" which had been growing for a
century; that look of an infinite sadness in the
eyes that rested with such trust and such solicitude
on these men, the only instrimients with which to
fulfill his task ! Heart-wrung by the sacrifice, he had
taken deep hold on the soldier's heart, stirring its
many chords. Now the cowardly, brutal blow,
when his words of gentleness to all were still warm
as the breath of the returning spring, must stir
their yet unfathomed depths. It might take but
little to rouse them to a frenzy of blind revenge.
And right before them lay a city, one of the nerve-
centers of the rebellion, and an easy and inviting
prey to vengeance. Large quantities of goods,
military and merchandise, had been stored there,
it was said; many citizens had gathered there for

The Return of the Army 279

safety against the marauders of a demoralized
army; a young ladies' seminary, we were told,
serving especially as a sort of sanctuary for the
tender and sensitive, which they thought would be
respected even in those turbulent times.

How could we be sure that change of century had
made men different from what they were when
Tilly at Magdeburg, Cromwell at Wexford, or
Wellington at San Sebastian had been powerless
to restrain dire passions, excited by far less cause?
How could we be sure that lessons and thoughts
of home, the habit of well formed character, and
the discipline of the field would be sufficient to
hold within the boimds of patience men who saw
that most innocent and noble-hearted man, their
best-beloved, the stricken victim of infernal out-
rage? I knew my men thoroughly, high-minded
and self-controlled; but what if now this blackest
crime should fire their hearts to reckless and
implacable vengeance?

But a heavier responsibility, perhaps, awaited
us. Strange forebodings pressed upon the mind.
It seemed as if the darkest things might be yet to
come; as if, now that men of honor had given up
the fight, it had fallen to baser hands; as if victory,
magnanimity, and charity, accepted by those who
had lost in the manly appeal to arms, were all to
avail nothing against the sullen treacheries that
lurked in the shadows of the capital.

As I was pacing the ground, wrapped in anxious
thoughts, the lady of the house — there were never
any men at home in those days — came out to

28o The Passing of the Armies

ask what had happened that distiirbed us so
deeply.

"It is bad news for the South," said I. "Is it
Lee or Davis?" she asked, a look of pain pinching
her features. "I must tell you, madam, with a
warning," I replied. "I have put your house
under a strict guard. It is Lincoln. "

I was sorry to see her face brighten with an
expression of relief. "The South has lost its best
friend, madam," was the only thing to say.

All being now secure in camp, with the assurance
that the news should be prudently broken to the
men, instinct and habit turned to the superior
officers. Even the companionship of these ex-
perienced men would be some relief; and perhaps
there might be counsel to be taken now, as in so
many a dark and boding hour before. Leaving
General Gregory at my quarters with instructions,
I mounted my horse. My thought was antici-
pated. Scarcely had I got beyond the limits of
our camp when I saw a figure often welcome to
many eyes, — Charles Griffin riding up, — our corps
commander now, and never more prized than at
this hour. "I was coming to see you," he says;
"now let us get Ayres. " Finding Ayres — soldier
born, and tried and true, — we discussed possible
tactics on an unknown field. We did not pretend
to be men of influence in statecraft; but we well
knew we were likely, if anything was to be done,
to be men of action. So we had reason and right to
forecast events. All we knew as yet of the con-
dition of things at Washington was what the brief

The Return of the Army 281

telegram had told. But that looked dark enough.
It was a daring attempt, and, as it was told to us,
must have had reserved force to support it, as well
as reckless impulse to carry it out. Lee's army had
been broken up ; many able and honorable officers,
and perhaps thirty thousand of their best men
had given their parole; but Davis and officers
of his Government had got away, and there were
other armies and other men, whom the shock of
the surrender and remoteness from the controll-
ing influence had made desperate rather than
discouraged.

Our little conference was soon concluded. ' ' Now
let us go up and see Meade," said Griffin. We
found him sad — very sad. He had only two corps
with him, the Second and Fifth; the Sixth had
been sent in another direction. And the course of
dealings in this last campaign led to gloomy fore-
bodings as to his own treatment when we should
arrive at Washington, We well knew what his
mood and meditations were — like St. Paul's: "I
go bound in spirit up to Jerusalem, not knowing
the things that shall befall me there." But this
supreme exigency roused all the patriot and soldier
in him.

The upshot of this conference was expressed in
words I well remember: "The plan is to destroy
the Government by assassination. They probably
have means to get possession of the capital before
anybody can stop them. There is nothing for it
but to push the army to Washington, and make
Grant military dictator until we can restore con-

282 The Passine of the Armies

&

stitutional government." This may be smiled at
now, as the habit is after the peril has passed,
especially on the part of those who never realized
it. But in the situation of things then, there was
little to laugh at. The spirit of that evening con-
ference showed one reliance to be counted on in
case the need had come.

We returned at evening to our several stations,
ready for anything. But no worse news came from
the capital. Our soldiers, like our people, wonder-
fully patient in severest stress, kept their self-
command even now. So the march was resumed
calmly and orderly as before, and more so, now
that we had free course and a fair road. In the
meantime I had been assigned to the command
of the First Division of the Fifth Corps, General
Bartlett having been transferred to the Ninth
Corps at Alexandria. Two days' additional rations
were issued at daylight on the 17th, and we
marched out for Burkeville. Near here we were
by some blunder switched off on the Danville
Road, and encamped near Liberty Church by the
Little Sandy River. The erroneous move being
now discovered, we resumed our march early the
next morning, almost retracing our steps, and
finally encamped near Burkeville. On the nine-
teenth, the day appointed for the funeral of the
President at Washington, an order came from the
War Department for us to halt the march and
hold all still while the funeral was passing at the
capital. Then we thought, why not for us a
funeral? For the shadow of one reverenced and

The Return of the Army 283

beloved was to pass before our souls that day, and
we would review him, now.

We began by draping headquarters tents with
mourning rosettes of crape; then also draping the
colors and our sword-hilts, with a wreath of crape,
too, on the left arms of all. At noon, the solemn
boom of the minute-guns, speaking power and
sorrow, hushed all the camp. I summoned the
senior chaplain of the division, Father Egan, and
told him we looked to him for the memorial address,
cautioning him to prepare beforehand, not so
much what to say, as what not to say. For I
knew his Irish warmth and power of speech, and
that he might, if not restrained, stir the hearts of
the men too much for our control. He assured
me he would be very careful. The division was
formed in hollow square, facing inward. The old
flags were brought to the front of their regiments,
battle-torn and smoke-dimmed, draped in sorrow,
but some of them blazoned with a crimson deeper
than their red, touching the stars. Behind these
the men stacked arms, and stood, tense and
motionless, as a hushed sea. Those faces spoke
depths of manliness, and reaches of deeds words
do not record. The veterans of terrible campaigns,
the flushed faces from Appomattox, the burning
hearts turned homewards, mighty memories and
quenchless love held innermost. On the open face
of the square, on a little mound, we planted the
red Maltese cross of the division, — itself emblem
and memorial of great things suffered and done for
man. Around it gathered the generals and staff:

284 The Passin^^ of the Armies

Griffin chief, never forgetting his old division,
with which he had passed through all things from
the beginning, its name and soul the same, after
terrible transmutations, — Griffin, graceful in figure,
sincere and brave of speech, reverential and re-
ligious in cherished thought ; Ayres, too, ours from
the beginning, solid and sure as the iron guns he
brought, holding all his powers well in hand, faced
to the front; gallant, ever-ready, dashing Pearson;
dear old Gregory, pure-souled as crystal, thinking
never of self, calmest in death's carnival; others,
younger, — ^how shall I name them all? Staff
officers, cool, keen, and swift as sword flash, ful-
filling vital trusts, even at vital cost; — of such our
group. On the little platform of ammunition
boxes I held myself close in reach of the chaplain
ready to enforce my warning.

Catching the keynote of the last cannon-boom,
strikes in the sincere, deep-feeling German Band
with that wondrous "Russian Hymn" swelling
with its flood of music, — deep calling unto deep :

" God, the all -terrible ; Thou who ordainest,

Thunder Thy clarion, and lightning Thy sword."

That whelming flood of chords with the breath-
stifling chromatic cadences, as if to prepare us for
whatever life or death cotdd bring.

Then, a few words — ^such as cotdd be spoken —
introducing the occasion and its orator. His very
first words deepened the passion of the music
echoing in the hearts of that stern, impression-
able, loving, remembering assembly. With counte-

The Return of the Army 285

nance precluding speech, in measured articula-
tion made more impressive by its slightly foreign
cast, he launches forth his thrilling text: "And
she, being instructed of her mother, said, 'Give
me here the head of John Baptist in a charger.'"
The application went through men's minds with
a thrill. But he took it up phrase by phrase.
The spirit of rebellion against the country's life
and honor, he said, incited its followers to mur-
der the innocent and just. Even on its own
showing, the cause of secession was narrow and
trivial. The will of a section rooted in self-interest,
should not outweigh the vital interests of a whole
people. Lincoln had committed no crime in being
constitutionally elected President of the United
States. He then portrayed the character of Lin-
coln, his integrity, his rugged truth, his innocence
of wrong, his loyalty and lofty fidelity to the people.
Then having raised this figure to its highest ideal
lights and most endearing attractiveness, he pic-
tured him stricken down by dastard hand in the
very midst of acts of mercy and words of great-
hearted sympathy and love. Gathering up the
emotions of his audience with searching, imploring
glance, he reminded the soldiers of Lincoln's love
for them, and theirs for him; that brotherhood of
suffering that made them one in soul with him.

"And will you endure this sacrilege?" he cried.
"Can heavenly charity tolerate such crime under
the flag of this delivered country?" "Will you
not rather sweep such a spirit out of the land
forever, and cast it, root and branch, into ever-

286 The Passing of the Armies

lasting burning?" Men's faces flushed and paled.
Their muscles trembled. I saw them grasp as for
their stacked muskets, instinctively, from habit,
not knowing what else, or what, to do. I myself
was under the spell. Well that the commander was
there, to check the flaming orator. Men could not
bear it. You could not, were I able to reproduce
the scene. Then the speaker stopped. He stood
transfixed. I seized his arm. "Father Egan, you
must not stop . Turn this excitement to some good . "
"I will," he whispers. Then lifting his arm full
height, he brought it down with a tremendous
sweep, as if to gather in the whole quivering circle
before him, and went on: "Better so. Better to
die glorious, than to live infamous. Better to be
buried beneath a nation's tears, than to walk the
earth guilty of a nation's blood. Better, thou-
sandfold, forever better, Lincoln dead, than Davis
living."

Then admonished of the passion he was again
arousing, he passed to an exhortation that rose
into a prayer, then to a paean of victory, and with
an oath of new consecration to the undying cause
of freedom and right, he gave us back to ourselves,
better soldiers, and better men. Who that heard
those burning words can ever forget them? And
who that saw, can ever forget that congregation
in the field? Meekly returning from their glories
at Appomattox, and sternly sharing — for it was of
theirs also — the sacrifice at Washington. Stead-
fast and noble in every test, unto the end. God
bless them beyond, likewise !

The Return of the Army 287

That evening came the orders for the corps to
stretch itself out for permanent duty along the
railroad between Burke ville and Petersburg, and
the next morning we moved for the new field.
Ayres' Division took ground from Burkeville to
Nottaway Court House, his headquarters being at
the latter place, which was also headquarters of the
corps. From this Crawford's Division extended
six miles farther to the station called "Blacks and
Whites," where he made his headquarters. His
jurisdiction also reached to Wilson's Station. Here
my division, the First, took up the line from Wil-
son's Station to Petersburg, headquarters being
at Wilson's. The distance from here to Peters-
burg being twenty-seven miles, made for me a dis-
proportionate responsibility, and an order from
army headquarters terminated my jurisdiction at
Sutherland's Station, ten miles out.

Our assigned duty was to guard the railroads and
the adjacent territory. But there were many other
duties necessitated by the condition of the country
and of the inhabitants. This region had been
overrun successively by the two hostile armies for
the last two years, hence it was now a scene of
desolation. This was exemplified within the limits
of my own command. My First Brigade, com-
manded by Colonel Sniper, had its headquarters at
Wilson's, which was in the vicinity of our conflicts
on the White Oak Road ; my Second Brigade, under
General Gregory, made headquarters at Ford's
Station, its jurisdiction covering the battlefields
of Five Forks, Dinwiddie, and the White Oak Road;

288 The Passingf of the Armies

fc.

and the Third, the Veteran Brigade, of nine
regiments — lately my own — commanded now by
Colonel Edmunds of the 32 Massachusetts, was
placed at Sutherland's Station, which covered the
fields of the Quaker Road, Armstrong's Mill,
Hatcher's Run, and of many minor fights on the
left of our old entrenched lines. It was familiar
ground. It was painful to be brought into contact
with the ruin, waste, and desolation that had been
wrought upon proud old Virginia, and her once
prosperous homes. Well were they reluctant to
declare themselves foes of the American Union;
dearly had they paid for the distinction when the
Confederacy demanded that its defiance to the
Union should be enforced under their prestige and
entrenched upon their soil.

Settling into our new position we soon found that
obeying orders was not the whole of our duty. To
be sure the war was not yet over by official recogni-
tion; but these suffering people were our own, —
citizens of our common country we had fought to
preserve. Had they not been so, humanity and
honor would have commanded our aid. Peace
indeed there was on all the face of the country, —
the desolation that has been called a "Roman
peace." But the inhabitants we had to defend
against lawlessness and violence, and save them
from starvation and despair. Since the breaking
up of the rebel lines, three weeks before, the whole
region had been a scene of marauding upon the
defenseless citizens, who were unable to remove
to any other place than this, which they had still

The Return of the Army 289

to call their home. The depraved and soulless
take advantage of others' misery, and make the
day of calamity their holiday. Such had been the
case at Richmond but a few weeks before, when,
freed from the control of Lee's army, it was
pillaged and fired by the base hidden within its
limits, and it was humane conquerors who restored
order and repaired hurt and harm. We found the
negroes especially unruly. All restraints which had
hitherto held them in check were set loose by the
sudden collapse of the rebel armies. The flood-
gates were opened to the rush of animal instinct.
The only notion of freedom apparently entertained
by these bewildered people was to do as they
pleased. That was what they had reason to sup-
pose white men did. To act according to each
one's nature was liberty, contrasted with slavery.
Nvimbers gave them a kind of frenzy. Without
accustomed support, without food, or opportunity
to work, they not unnaturally banded together;
and without any serious organization and probably
without much deliberate plotting of evil, they still
spread terror over the country. They swarmed
through houses and homes demanding food,
seizing all goods they could lay their hands on,
abusing the weak, terrifying women, and threaten-
ing to burn and destroy. This was an evil that
had to be met promptly, and we construed our
orders to protect the country liberally. So the
First Brigade under Colonel Sniper was sent out
charged with the duty of protecting the homes of
the people, and the peace of the community, more
19

290 The Passinc: of the Armies

&

especially against the depredations of the lawless
negro bands, of whom there were about a thousand
within my jurisdiction. For our lines were ex-
tensive in depth as well as length, somewhat to
the confusion of ordinary geometry. A constant
reconnoissance was going on to break up, drive off,
or hold at bay the hordes that were hovering about
the towns and farm-houses. In cases of personal
violence or outrage, my orders were sharp, and the
process more summary than that authorized by
courts. There was no other way.

Meantime the condition of the citizens of that
region had excited the attention of our authorities,
and much correspondence had been going on.
Orders hitherto had forbidden us to furnish food
for citizens unless they took the oath of allegiance
to the United States. But conditions compelled
us sometimes to take responsibility not strictly
authorized. I had adopted some measures of a
domestic character. One of them was in the
commissary's and quartermaster's departments.
The lack of food among the people was a condition
which laid on us an imperative duty. We had
seized, of course, all the commissary's supplies
belonging to the Confederacy and distributed
them among the citizens. I felt obliged now to
take under control all the necessities of life to
whomsoever belonging, both for protection and for
judicial distribution. Mills, shops, and stores were
also taken under control and put in operation, and
the products distributed according to need. Strict
accounts were kept; debits and credits carefully

The Return of the Army 291

adjusted to the parties concerned. Abandoned
vehicles, implements, and animals, chiefly Con-
federate property, were seized and put in the hands
of those who could make use of them for livelihood.
We also had to undertake the administration of
justice. There were no courts, or municipal or
police officers, exercising functions in that region;
in fact no semblance of authority, human or divine,
except our own. We had no civil jurisdiction; we
acted under the laws of war, — not of martial, but
of military law, which admits of some discretion
on the part of its responsible agents. It is said:
"Necessity knows no law"; but it compelled us to
make them. There was a great back country
around us. Demoralized relics and stragglers from
both the Confederate and the Union armies were
coming in, and became for a time our guests, volun-
tary or involuntary, according to behavior. Com-
plaints were constant from civil and military sources
as to the misbehavior of some of these men. Now
and then charges were brought against our own men.
These cases must be disposed of. Otherwise our
provost guard would be swamped with prisoners.
So a division court-martial was duly organized,
with General Pearson as president. This was in
effect at least a tribunal of justice, and it inspired
respect, as well as compelled obedience. The court,
ably conducted, was very careful in its procedure
and its decisions. It came to be looked upon as a
legitimate if not legal authority. Citizens high and
low were often the complainers, and, assuming
the power to summon witnesses and cause attend-

292 The Passing of the Armies

ance, we could generally discover the real culprit
or delinquent, who preferred to accept our decision
rather than risk himself away from our protection.
The queer thing about our court was that its fame
soon went abroad, and it was appealed to by many
reputable citizens who could not otherwise settle
their difficulties with their old servants or with
each other. We did not undertake to settle ques-
tions of property, but only of conduct. The records
of that court must be very amusing. I do not
think they all went to the archives at Washington.
Nor would I quite wish to disclose all that came
within my knowledge.

But we had one constant difficulty no recon-
noissance or court could settle. Our Government
authorized the issue of food from our commissary
stores absolutely necessary for the sustenance of
citizens; but only on the condition, to be strictly
enforced, that the beneficiaries should first take
the oath of allegiance to the United States. Many
of our clients gave this rather too promptly for
the satisfaction of our solemn justiciary of the
commissary department. There was a misgiving — •
not to indulge a pun — ^lest people who had been
calling the Yankees all the bad names they could
hit upon, were altogether too easy in accepting
favors of them, and in their new kind of swearing
towards the United States. For my own part, I
had not this opinion. I believed there was more
genuineness in this declaration of allegiance than
in their real loyalty to the Confederacy. Very
many felt that they had been drawn into this by a

The Return of the Army 293

play upon their State pride and the example of
great men whom they revered. In truth it was a
grave responsibility they took upon themselves,
these leading minds, in issues so deep-reaching and
effects so disastrous to the well-being of a State
honored and beloved by us all for its part in the
making of the Union.

Some cases of this oath-taking drew their own
peculiar meed of tender regard. One such was
reported to me by our young provost marshal. A
young lady of finest manners had ridden to our
headquarters, followed by a servant on a mule
bearing a coarse bag, which she earnestly desired
to have filled with materials for food, if nothing
more than potatoes. The story of her home was
enough. Our provost marshal, who kept our oaths
for us, told her of the requirement, and demanded
this acknowledgment, asking her to kiss the book in
token. To both of these suggestions she opposed
a very firm determination. Indeed, considering
the aspect of these two respective objects, I would
not have blamed her if she preferred to reverse the
directions, swear to the book and kiss the officer.
Her charming and coquettish ways, indicating a
habit of easy conquest, caused an aesthetic efflores-
cence among the emotional susceptibilities of this
personage, and so melted the firm face of his official
habit, that he did not consider himself wholly fit
for duty, and came to me stating the case, and
asking if he might bring the reluctant petitioner
for a hearing before me. Of course I assented,
notwithstanding his remark that she was considered

294 The Passing^ of the Armies

the belle of Dinwiddle, and the fact that I was
not then on the superannuated list myself. Her
graceful bearing as she entered my tent, composed
manner of address, and I must add her beauty
as she adjusted herself to our courtesies, left me no
doubt of her status, — whatever might be my own.
My guests took two camp chairs placed at an angle
from my center of about sixty degrees, which I
believe is the frost angle, perhaps salutary here.
I could not but be amused at their mutual bearing
in stating the case in which they were presumed to
be antagonist parties. It would be an infelicity in
language to say my young officer was demoralized.
On the contrary, all the moral emotions — that is
to say, the spiritual — were at a sublime exaltation.
But it was a comical sight when in their presenta-
tion of the case, they exchanged glances. Her air
was that of an injured party, and he the aggressor.
At every soft impeachment his color rose to the
Jacqueminot. He was a handsome fellow; there
were united states to which she might be ready to
take the oath of allegiance, where the vitalizing
function in testimony of loyal devotion would not
be sustained by a book.

The captivating client stated her case with
Ciceronian skill. She said it was unreasonable to
require her to entertain a feeling of duty and
allegiance to the "North, " while her brothers and
all her manly friends were in the Southern service ;
and that it was cruel, if not more deeply immoral,
to demand the form of such a declaration when she
could not give it heartily or truly; moreover, to

The Return of the Army 295

take advantage of her distress to demand what was
immoral and impossible, did not accord with her
ideal of chivalrous gentlemen.

"My dear young lady, you intend to live in this
country, do you not?" began the not altogether
self-commanding commander, endeavoring to re-
tain his official importance and personal composure.

"That is my present intention, " was the demure
reply, which allowed a little "leeway" for the
possibilities now sublimating the faculties of the
ingenuous youth, her duty-bound opponent.

"Then you will have to live under the authority
of the United States of America," was the next
link in the inexorable logic prepared to compel our
young rebel into the compliance necessary for our
consciences to yield to our hearts in granting what-
ever she should ask.

" I shall obey the laws of my State, " she astutely
rejoins.

"Your more immediate personal and domestic
plans can be sanctioned and consummated, no
doubt, under the laws of Virginia," proceeds the
prosy, didactic court of final resort, "but Virginia
is not at present exercising her functions as a State
anywhere; and under the jurisdiction of what you
will allow to be the de facto power of the United
States, in order to enjoy its advantages and recipro-
cate its good will, you will be reqmred to declare
yourself its loyal citizen, and not its enemy."

"If to grant my humble and needful request,"
replies the indomitable Portia, "you require me
to swear that I will bear true allegiance to the

296 The Passing of the Armies

United States, when by her actual power she can
compel me to do so or withdraw her protection,
I am ready to say, not that I do, but that I will,
bear such allegiance. "

"Do you say now that you will do so, — the
'will* meaning not simply in future time, but with
full purpose?" interrogates the dazed General.

"I will take that oath," is the gracious conces-
sion; and the court is able to take a conscience-
approving breath.

The fair conqueror, triumphant in her refutation
of the slanderous pronouncement that "the woman
who deliberates is lost," steps forward, bends
over the book deftly covered with a fold of her
soft handkerchief, — both held in the trembling
hand of the young officer, who balances himself
with such extremely Delsartian proneness that he
does not seem to fear it if he should fall completely
forward, — and the saving oath is taken. With
what mental reservation, or spiritual committals,
the defective records of earth do not show. There
was, however, a lingering twilight of the transaction
in the fact that there was immediately a daily
unaccountable diminution among the finer delica-
cies of our private headquarters' mess-stores;
and that on moonlight evenings there was as item
of the report, "present but not accounted for,"
concerning the horse and also the material personal-
ity of our provost marshal; both of whom had
undoubtedly passed into a state which science
taking refuge in electrical metaphysics denominates
"the fourth dimension."

The Return of the Army 297

We were kept very busy. Even the relief of
duty from Sutherland's to Petersburg left us
seventeen miles to care for, and enlarging duties.
Oirr numbers were increasing rapidly. Not only
were many men belonging to our command recalled
from detached service to their regiments but
eighteen hundred convalescents and recruits be-
longing to the Fifth Corps reported themselves at
Sutherland's to be cared for there and thence dis-
tributed to their proper commands. The troops
and garrisons at City Point were also assigned to
the corps and finally taken up in Ayres' Division.
We certainly had all the responsibility we could
well exercise; and we had now a pretty solid and
efficient corps, which we took pleasure in keeping
up in discipline and character, and in as good spirits
as possible. Near the end of the month notice
came to us that we were to prepare to move and to
start for Richmond on the 26. of May.

It may be a trace of that curious paradox in the
human heart which makes us love those who have
been a care and trouble to us, that the thought of
leaving these stricken and helpless people brought
as much sorrow to some of us as the thought of
going home did of joy. Indeed what is home in
deepest truth, but the place where by our thought
and toil and tender care we are able to promote the
well-being of others? Is not that satisfaction love's
best support and toil's best reward? We are made
and meant to care. And where we have given of
our best, even if unavailing, there the heart holds
a certain treasure. There was here, too, a pleasant

298 The Passing of the Armies

counterpart of this sentiment when the people
among whom we had exercised this autocratic
power learned of our near departure. Our domina-
tion had been but for a little while but our points
of contact with the people had been many and
close. And we had made our rule of conduct
towards each other such as was befitting those who
were to live together as fellow-citizens in peace and
good will.

On one of those last fair April mornings I
received a formal visit from a deputation whose
personal appearance, bearing, and manner wore a
solemnity almost religious in suggestion, but be-
tokening high character and sincere purpose. They
announce themselves as a delegation appointed by
the citizens of Dinwiddie County to tender me
a public dinner in testimony of what they were
pleased to characterize as judicious management
and kindly spirit in dealing with the confused
elements and powers of that difficult situation.
While a certain incongruity between the spiritual
motive and the material constituence of their
proffer might be conducive to a smile, yet there
were elements in its seriousness which commanded
sentiments even deeper than respect. However
much their approving feeling may have overpassed
their material means of expression, the proffer
sprang from generous and noble sentiments exer-
cised under trying conditions and was a testimony
which it was an honor to receive. Literal accept-
ance of the compliment, however, was not to be
thought of. But all the more my response should

The Return of the Army 299

show sincere appreciation and even more than
common courtesy. "Gentlemen," I replied, "I
deeply appreciate your expression of approval and
good will in respect to my conduct of affairs. Your
personal regard I fully reciprocate. But you must
pardon me. I am aware of the conditions in your
homes. Let me say then that if you have any sur-
plus in your store of food to be disposed of, I beg
you will give it to your own suffering people, and
not to me. I confess to a certain pain in leaving
you. I shall ever think of you with respect and af-
fection, and not without solicitude. The preserva-
tion of this Union is for the benefit of all its citizens ;
and I trust will soon result in one of deeper effect
in drawing our hearts together as never before. "

They responded in words I shall not undertake
to record.

The order of march for May ist reversed the
order of the division camps. Ay res was to start
early in the morning, followed by the artillery and
trains. On his reaching Black's and White's
Crawford was to follow Ayres, and when the two
reached my division I was to follow them, if they
passed me. The corps would thus be gathering
itself up as it marched. Moreover, by this order
the whole corps would, so to speak, pass itself in
review. It was a sort of "break from the left to
march to the right." All these divisions did,
however, that day was to reach my headquarters
at Wilson's Station, where instead of having to
break camp, I had the pleasure of receiving several
honored guests, especially General Griffin.

300 The Passing of the Armies

At 5.30 on the morning of the 2d, I began to take
up my troops and my part in the march ; the Third
Division followed mine, then the headquarters
train, the Second Division, the artillery, and the
ambulances and general train. By night we had
reached Sutherland's, seventeen miles from my left
to my right, and the whole corps was massed.
At six o'clock on the 3d the corps took up its
march along the Cox Road towards Petersburg.
That was an interesting and picturesque march.
The successive breaking of camps, all seasonably to
fall into the column in due order; the tents struck
regiment by regiment, the little shelter-tents at will,
the pieces folded up and packed in each man's
knapsack; then at a bugle-note down go the officer's
tents, with the funeral rosettes still on their gable-
fronts, disappearing at a breath, as the dissolving
of a dream; and the colimm comes out, colors
draped in mourning, and the crape on arm and
sword-hilt. It had a certain majesty of tone, —
that returning army of august memories. A solemn
march it was, — past so many fields from which
visions arose linking life with the immortal. First
past the Five Forks not far away, at the Ford
Station where a month before we had forced
back Fitzhugh Lee and caught the last train out
of Petersburg under Confederate auspices; then
Sutherland's, ten miles farther, which we were so
strangely prevented from making our own on the
31st of March, and where the gallant Miles two
days afterwards made a maelstrom of the out-
rushing currents of Lee's broken army; then pass-

The Return of the Army 301

ing the focal point where three roads crossing made
a six-pointed star, behind Burgess' Mill, and the
Quaker Road where my stubborn little First
Brigade made the costly overture of the last
campaign; then moving along that well-worn road
between the Boydton Plank and the Appomattox
so graven in our brain, so grave in history. All
forsaken and silent now, the thundering salients
and flaming crests since our Sixth and Ninth Corps
and Gibbon with his men from the James burst
over them in overwhelming wave. That silent,
tipheaved earth, those hidden covered ways, —
what did they speak of gloomy patience, and
hardening fortitude and costly holding, — the far-
stretching, dull red crests and trenches which
splendid manhood, we thought mistaken, had
made a wall of adamant against us during all the
long, dreary, unavailing siege; and as we look
across the farther edge, the grim bastions of Fort
Mahone and Fort Sedgwick, — not unfitly named
in soldier speech "Fort Hell" and "Fort Dam-
nation,"— ^the latter front carried a year before
by the dark and desperate charge of my old
veteran brigade; the forlorn Balaklava onset
thereafter, and terrible repulse before the enemy's
main entrenchments, — that darkest day of darkest
year, 1864; and farther on, amidst the funereal
pines, the spot where I was laid on boughs tearfully
broken for what was thought my last bed, but
where, too. Grant touched me with the accolade
and woke new life.

We passed also the gloomy remnants of the great

302 The Passing of the Armies

outworks — well known to us — where our com-
rades of the Second, Sixth, and Ninth Corps and
the Army of the James won imperishable fame by
desperate valor; and farther on we passed with
averted gaze the Crater of the Mine of fearful
memory.

And now we enter Petersburg, filled with thoughts
that fleck the sunshine; pondering the paradox of
human loss which is gain, — not jubilant but firm-
stepped, reverently, as treading over graves.

Warren was in the city. He had alighted here,
where with corps flag in hand he had passed like a
meteor infantry and cavalry and leaped the rebel
breastworks down into the faces of the astonished
foe, and Sheridan sent him otherwhere. He was
commanding this city now, — promotion down-
ward; but down is up for half the world. Griffin
could not pass him without fitting recognition ; the
men of the Fifth Corps, who had seen him in their
front from the beginning, could not pass him now,
voiceless themselves as he. General Griffin had
sent Warren word that the corps would like to give
him the salute of honor as they marched through
the city. He accepted, and placed himself with his
wife and some members of his staff in the balcony
of the Bolingbroke Hotel, while the corps passed
before him in review. But the regulations for such
ceremony were traversed by strange signs not
written in that zodiac. Drums ruffled, bands
played, colors dipped, officers saluted with their
swords; but for the men it was impossible to hold
the "carry," or keep the touch of elbow and the

The Return of the Army 303

guide right. Up turned the worn, bronzed faces;
up went the poor old caps; out rang the cheers
from manly hearts along the Fifth Corps column ; — •
one half the numbers, old and new together, that
on this very day a year ago mustered on the banks
of the Rapidan, their youthful forms resplendent
as the onlooking sun. One half the corps had gone,
passing the death-streams of all Virginia's rivers;
two hundred miles of furrowed earth and the
infinite of heaven held each their own. Warren,
too, had gone in spirit, never to rise, with deeper
wound than any who had gone before.

There was much to interest us in this city we had
held "so near and yet so far"; long gazing or
fitfully glancing at the hazard of otir lives, where it
lay glistening in morning light or wrapped in sun-
set splendor, or perchance shrouded in cannon-
smoke, or lurid canopy of exploding mine, with
phantasmagory human and superhuman. But we
pressed through without stopping, and camped
that night five or six miles out on the Richmond
turnpike.

On the fourth we had a fine, smooth road before
us, and marched briskly, having the right of way.
We took a little nooning at Fort Darling on Drury's
Bluff, and spent most of our time in admiring the
strength and beauty of these works, proving the
skill of the engineers, educated at our West Point,
admiring still more the frankness of the strong
soldier whose home was there, declaring that the
appeal they had so resolutely taken was decided
against them, and now there must be but one flag.

304 The Passinpr of the Armies

At evening we reached Manchester, a pleasant little
town opposite Richmond where we closed up to be
ready to pass through Richmond the next day in
ceremonial order. But a heavy rain kept us rather
quiet all day, except for some who with difficulty
got permission to go over and visit the famed city
which the newspapers had ordered us "on to"
since 1861. Our camp made slender shelter, ex-
pecting but the "tarry of a night." I had my
headquarters in the front yard — not the house —
of a courteous Virginia gentleman of the old school,
who seemed to like my name, which if braced with
an aristocratic y in the last syllable stood high he
said in that section. Much might have happened
if my ancestors had not prided themselves in
straight lines and in not striking below the belt.
So they held to the simple iota in writing out their
long name. Therefore I could not claim honors
and he waived the demand, offering a fresh mint
julep to settle accounts, but this exception did not
prove the rule.

The Second Corps had now come by way of
Amelia Court House and the Danville Road, and
on the morning of the sixth we prepared to pass
through Richmond. These two corps were all; the
Ninth had been set loose again from our army and
was sent to Alexandria; the Sixth had been sent
back to the Danville Road to take care of the North
Carolina communications. Our corps was formed
in numerical order of divisions; this gave me the
head of the column although the junior commander.
The artillery followed the infantry. No other

The Return of the Army 305

wheeled vehicles were allowed in the column o
review; but they were sent by another way, to
rejoin the troops outside the city on the road to
Hanover. We crossed the James on the upper
pontoon bridge. This gave a glimpse of Libby and
Belle Isle prisons, which I had always carefully
instructed my men never to allow themselves to
get into, but to prefer death, — by which desperate
tactics they sometimes saved their lives, cutting
their way out of capture like madmen. But these
buildings carried heavy thoughts to some among
us, which ministered to "silence in the ranks."
Orders had been given to the Twenty-fourth Corps
to pay us some attention; accordingly we passed
in review along the front of that corps, — General
Halleck and General Meade being in their line.
These troops had instructions to present arms to
every general officer by regiments in succession,
and afterwards to stand at "order arms." We
were about as threadbare a set of fellows as was
not usually seen, to use the French idiom. But we
were clean and straight. We bore ourselves with
greatest military precision, — that was something
we could do, — ^mostly out of pride. Looks go for a
good deal, especially when you have a previous
reputation to meet somehow or other. The
Twenty-fourth Corps, paraded in our honor, gave
us hearty greeting; quite transcending orders and
regulations. We had not met since side by side
we had double-quicked up to Sheridan's hard-
pressed front at Appomattox Court House; and
when their manual dropped from the "present"

3o6 The Passing^ of the Armies

&

to the "order, " there was a demonstration running
along their line in which manly hearts took com-
mand, the contagion of which disturbed our perfect
military demeanor.

It was a city of strange contrasts then; famous
always for its beauty and the nobleness of its
public buildings. But the incendiary had done
much to mar the picture: the charred ruins our
route of march could not wholly conceal telling
either of desperate loyalty unwilling that so rich a
trophy should fall into our hands; or else of some
renegades, thinking all was lost, giving way to
general disgust with all creation. The houses of
Lee and of Davis received much attention, — the
latter apparently already pillaged. The famous
statue of Washington stood solitary in the square,
seeming to rebuke somebody, — not us, we con-
fidently believed. In the streets and dooryards
all was confusion, like a grand "May moving-
day" — fiu-niture scattered and piled as if having
nowhere to go or stay; papers flying loose every-
where; Confederate money cheap, — to be had
almost for the asking from the ebony runners
flashing their white teeth and eyes in joy of our
coming. Multitudes of good citizens, however,
lined the streets; while here and there some closed
doors and shrouded windows showed where grief
or bitterness was holding its despair.

It was rather hard for our men to be held in such
strict order, and, after passing in review, to be
pushed on as if still in pursuit of Lee. Yet on we
pressed, out through the fortifications of Richmond,

The Return of the Army 307

and not inward, whither we had so long striven;
but now when we saw their terrible strength, we
were not wholly sorry that we satisfied oiirselves
with the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, and Cold
Harbor, and took a wide sweep to the south-
ern flank of those entrenchments rather than
"fight it out on that line all summer." Out
towards the old battlefields we drew, crossing the
baleful Chickahominy and the unforgotten Toto-
potomoy, scarcely pausing until ten o'clock at
night, when we were halted, after a singularly hard
march, at "Peake's Turn Out" on the Virginia
Central Railroad, not far from Hanover Court
House. This was familiar ground for the Fifth
Corps. Here it was that our First Division in the
ardor of its youth made the gallant fight three years
before, and where especially our Second Maine
under the chivalrous Roberts proved the quality
of its soldiership and manhood.

In the darkness of establishing bivouac, I heard
some mutterings, as I had seen some sour looks
before, among the men, seeming to hold me re-
sponsible for the hardships of the twenty-mile
forced march, because I had the head of the column
and was supposed to set the pace. But they did not
understand that our camps as well as our routes
were strictly appointed as to time and place by
orders from high headquarters. If I could have
appointed the routes and hours of that homeward
march, I would not have been governed so much
by considerations of "the shortest distance between
two points" on the earth, as of a line running

3o8 The Passing of the Armies

tortuously and deep-chambered through soldiers*
hearts, and darkly graven in all the homes of the
land. We had to pass very near many storied
spots; and one day more for the whole march
would have allowed our men the somber satisfac-
tion of reviewing the fields of lost battles, which
have their place, also, in making up life's full
account. Broken threads are sometimes well
worth picking up. If this is mere sentiment, I
confess to it; outlawed I dare say in scientific
circles, but not therefore banished from the make-
up of manhood. If discipline means bracing the
heart and will as well as the body it is part of good
discipline to give the soldier satisfaction for his
sacrifice, if only to see the ground where he
fought in darkness and blind obedience, and gave
his best even though in defeat, and perhaps, by
such recognition, giving him part in the continuity
of great endeavor.

Other orders of being also share this halt at the
bridge of life and death. I give place to a night-
episode. At about midnight when the tired camp
was still, the sentinel in front of my bivouac spoke
nervously, saying there was something strange
going on about my horse not far away in rear of us.
He had been hastily tethered there amidst a little
growth of scrubby pines, so near, and the place so
quiet, there seemed to be no need of a guard.
The boy who cared for him had dropped down near
by in a swoon of sleep. I rose and went out myself ;
and before I reached him my foot crushed through
the breast-bones of a body half buried by the fallen

The Return of the Army 309

pine-cones and needles so long undisturbed, now
gone back mostly ashes to ashes. I found that the
horse, pawing the earth within the scope of his
picket-rope, had rolled out two skulls and scattered
the bones of bodies he had unearthed, and was gazing
at the white skulls as if lost in doubt ; now and then
snorting to call others to solve the mystery, or sway-
ing at his tether as if to get away himself. It was
a weird, uncanny scene: the straggling, uncom-
panionable pines ; the night brooding still and chill ;
black lowering clouds, now massing, now rifting,
disclosing, then shutting out of sight, the white
skulls mocking life. The horse was not easily paci-
fied,— not until I had gathered up the menacing
skulls and the outlying limbs too, and laid them
where I saw glimmering amidst the dusky debris
of the pines other bones as if adrift on a Sargasso
sea, and showed him that I was not afraid.

In the morning the men got to looking around
among the bodies and relics, and by initials cut
into the breast-plates or other marks or tokens
identified the remnants of bodies of comrades long
left among the missing. As we were not to move
until ten o'clock, they asked permission to gather
up these mournful remnants and pack them in the
empty cracker-boxes in our supply trains, to be
sent to friends who would gladly cherish even such
tokens of the fate of the unreturning brave. I was
glad to grant this and to instruct the wagoners to
take especial care of these relics on the road or in
camp. And so the strange column set forth bear-
ing in its train that burden of unlost belongings, as

3IO The Passing^ of the Armies

Moses coming up out of Egypt through the wilder-
ness of the Red Sea, bearing with him the bones of
Joseph the well-beloved.

Ayres led that day; we had the rear of the col-
umn, with the artillery. Passing through Hanover
Court House, and crossing the Pamunkey, we
made twelve miles march and camped at Concord
Church, not far from our battlefield of the North
Anna and Jericho Mills. On the 8th, the Third
Division led, the First following. We crossed the
Mattapony and bivouacked at Milford, south of
Bowling Green, at 5 p.m., having marched about
fifteen miles. On the 9th, we moved at 7 a.m.,
passing through Bowling Green, which wakened
for me thrilling reminiscences of a rear-guard fight,
and crossing the Massaponax we encamped near
Fredericksburg not far from our old battlefields of
1862. We made this long march more easily
because of the fine Bowling Green Pike that served
us a good part of the way. Although we had
marched twenty miles, some of the men of the
First Division could not resist the opportunity to
visit the storied Marye's Heights, up which they
had charged, — the fifth line they had seen go on to
be swallowed up in flame, and cut level with the
earth the moment it reached the fatal crest before
the stone wall, — and holding flat to earth, were able
to be drawn off only under the blackness of a rainy
midnight, the last to leave the front line, to catch
the last pontoon bridge below the city just as it
was swung to the safe shore.

In the morning we crossed again the Rappahan-

The Return of the Army 311

nock — two years and a half later; and what years,
and with what changes of men ! — and moved up
abreast of the city, whose slopes on the morning
of that other crossing we saw through misty eyes,
trampled to gory mire, and so flecked with bodies
of our comrades that the whole heights shone blue.
The artillery leading and we in rear of the column,
— thoughts lingering too, — we passed through our
old camping ground of 1862, where first we learned
how little we knew how to take care of ourselves or
of those committed to our care, but where we
learned also under the discipline of the accom-
plished Ames how to behave ourselves in battle.
Visions more than sad passed with us. Hooker
and the Grand Divisions, and the grand reviews;
the tournaments of the reorganized cavalry; the
sword presentations with their afterglow; the
"Ladies' Days" — Princess Salm-Salm the Val-
kyrie, the witching Washington belles, strange new
colors flying, sweet forms grouped around tent
doors, lithe in the saddle ; days so bright and nights
so silver toned, — lenesque sub noctem susurri, —
where are you, forms and souls, men and women,
where in these days of stern rejoicing triumph,
but so forlorn? Then days of the Adversary: the
Mud March; tragic Chancellorsville ; and dreary
return to dull Stoneman's Switch and dolorous
smallpox hospital — they, too, stood for something
as prelude to the Gettysburg campaign. This is
the procession that passes as we pass. Pensively
we crossed the Aquia Creek, old debouchure from
Washington of all that food for death, and of the

312 The Passing of the Armies

spectral gayeties of what is called life. Plunging
now into lower levels we found a hard road to
travel, and crossing the Choppawamsic and Quan-
tico, we went down with the sun in dreary bivouac
at Dumfries.

The roads were bad; pressing feet and heavy
hoofs and cutting wheels had made them worse.
General Humphreys, following with the Second
Corps, thoughtful ever for his men, and as an
accomplished engineer scorning such crude con-
ditions, sent out two entire divisions to repair the
road before he would undertake to move, and
even then was forced to take anotherroute. In
our movement on this morning of the nth of
May General Griffin leading out with the artillery
sent the pioneers of the Third Division following
to move with the artillery and help it along, while
sending the pioneers of the First and Second Divi-
sions to attend the trains which followed. One
half the ambulances followed their respective
divisions, and there was sore need of them. The
memory of this day and night march will last its
participants a lifetime, of which I have no doubt
these experiences shortened many. The roads
rough and ragged; the hills steep and as it were
cross-furrowed; the valleys swamps; the track a
trap of mire. We toiled painfully and patiently
along, testing that formula of the chiefest virtue, —
the charity that "beareth all things; belie veth all
things; hopeth all things; endvireth all things."
In the middle of the afternoon a heavy rainstorm
swept over us, opening with terrific summons of

The Return of the Army 313

thunder and lightning, sky and earth meeting.
I chanced to be at that moment on the summit of a
very high hill, from which I could see the whole
corps winding its caravan with dromedary pa-
tience. The first lightning-bolt nearly stunned
me. I saw its forerunner flashing along the cannon
far ahead and illuminating Crawford's column
with unearthly glare ; and turning quickly towards
my own I could see the whole black column
struggling on and Ayres a mile behind urging and
cheering his men with condensed reserve energies
all alive; when this ever-recurrent pulse of flame
leaped along the writhing column like a river of
fire. It looked to me as if the men had bayonets
fixed, the points of intense light flew so sharp from
the muzzles sloping above the shoulders. Sud-
denly an explosion like a battery of shrapnel fell
right between our divisions. An orderly came
galloping up to me, with word that one of the
ambulances was struck, killing the horses and the
driver, and stunning the poor fellows who, unable
to keep up with the rushing column, had sought
this friendly aid. It was a mile away from me, but
I knew Ayres close following would see the right
thing done till my orders came. I sent instructions
for the stricken men to be cared for, and for the
following forage trains to take along the disabled
ambulance. We were bringing along one dead
body already, besides the strange freight of rescued
fragments packed in the bread-boxes. This was
the body of Lieutenant Wood, of the 20th Maine,
killed in his tent by a careless wagoner's unau-

314 The Passing of the Armies

thorized discharge of a musket some way off the
day before, — such an act as some call accident; I
did not treat it as such.

The storm and turmoil of the elements kept on all
the afternoon; and all our company, man and
beast, were drenched and sodden, — body and soul.
In such plight we crossed the Occaquan, and in
four hours more we "stopped for refreshments"
on soggy ground and in pitchy darkness about
a mile below Fairfax Station on the Orange &
Alexandria Railroad. Then began the orgies of
which five elements were the factors, the human,
and air, earth, water, fire, — the last deemed
divine in Grecian legend, but difficult to har-
monize that night with Promethean will or human
need.

What cannot be helped must be borne. Well-
doing is not a smooth road and its rewards do not
instantly appear. But good heart, nevertheless !
Dear poor Tom Pinch knew all about it. " * Wher's
the pudding?'" said Tom, "for he was cutting his
jokes, Tom was."

Why we were marched so hard and made to
suffer such discomforts on that homeward journey
no one of us could understand. Thoughtless men,
as is usual, laid it to their officers; and that is
perhaps not unjust as their short reasoning went.
It is great part of an officer's duty to take care of
his men. But there is always strong motive for
officers to be reasonable; those who march with
their men are not likely to be cruel to them. In
the saddle hour upon hour, day after day, march-

The Return of the Army 315

ing Is almost as wearisome for rider as for footman.
The balancing mental medicine for the rider is that
he can get from point to point quicker, and get
over more ground in a given time. Keeping pace
with obstructed and slow-moving infantry is hard
for the horsemen too.

But here we were, marched as hard as if we were a
forlorn hope, or a Lucknow relief, hurled in for
life and death — only going to be mustered out.
It was, I suppose, a measure of economy, to save
the expense of maintaining an army not now
actively engaged, and so far from the principal
base of supplies, and to shorten the days before us
for the final discharge. It seemed as if somebody
was as anxious now to be rid of us as ever before
to get us to the front. That is a fair inference
from the orders that came to the commander of
our army; and his orders were no doubt the result
of this urgency. We commanders in the Fifth
Corps had not so much to say about it as the men
had; and what we did say is not written, and
would have been of little avail for them if spoken
aloud, and not calculated to put us in pleasant
relations with those above us, including what
Sterne would call "the recording angel."

We moved once more at 9 o'clock on the morning
of the 12th, the corps in the order of its divisions,
followed by the artillery and trains. At Fairfax
Coiu^t House we received orders to take the Colum-
bia Pike and passing Falls Church Station to go
into permanent camp on Arlington Heights. This
brought us near the ground where our First

3i6 The Passinor of the Armies

&

Division, now comprising all that were left of the
original Fifth Corps, had its station after the battle
of Bull Run Second, and whence we started early
in September for the Antietam campaign. A new
procession of associations, farther reaching than
those before, thronged our minds and spirits.
We had not seen this ground since those earlier
troubled days; and what had been given us to
traverse since, and forms once with us, now taken
away, all rose before us in tumultuous phantasies.
Here was Lee's home, too; and we gazed at it
earnestly, wondering if it was true only in poetry

" That men may rise on stepping-stones
Of their dead selves to higher things."

Poor, great-hearted Lee; what was his place in the
regenerated country?

And for us: we were returning from our part in
the redemption of the nation's life, — the vindica-
tion of its honor and authority ; we were summoned
to the capital to report the completion of this ser-
vice and this trust; to lay down our arms and
colors, emblems of costly sacrifice and great de-
liverance; to receive thanks, perhaps; but for
best reward the consciousness that what we had
lost and what we had won had passed into the
nation's peace; our service into her mastery, our
worth into her well-being, our life into her life.

Now the satisfied earth, returning its excess of
rain heavenward in canopy of mists, overspread us
with shadow, shutting us in with ourselves. But
just as we reached the heights, the clouds with-

The Return of the Army 317

drew their veil, and the broad sunlight lay upon the
resplendent city ; highest the dome of the delivered
Capitol, and nearest, it seemed, the White House,
home of Lincoln's mighty wrestle and immortal
triumph. Around us some were welcoming with
cheers; but for our part, weighted with thought,
we went through our accustomed motions mechan-
ically, in a great silence. The sun, transfiguring
for a moment our closing ranks, went down in
glorious promise for the morrow, — leaving us
there to ourselves again, on the banks of the river
whose name and fame we bore, flowing in darkness
past us, as from dream to dream.

M

CHAPTER VIII

THE ENCAMPMENT

ANY circumstances tended to make our
camp on Arlington Heights an ideal one.
We well knew that its material existence
was to be brief; but its image in thought was to
hold for us the traces of momentous history and
to remain the most visible token of the probation
under which our personal characters had been
moulded. We took therefore a certain pride in
this last encampment; we looked upon this as the
graduation day of our Alma Mater. The disturb-
ing incidents which had forbidden us ever to make
a perfect camp were now overpassed, and it
afforded some satisfaction to show that we had
kept alive a scientific knowledge and skill we had
never fairly put into practice, and cherished ideals
of soldierly living, which though never projected
on the earthly plane, may have somehow left an
indwelling impress in our characters.

There was now an abundance of camp equipage.
Tents were distributed and established in accord-
ance with ideal regulations. And the extensive
preparations for final accounting and muster-out

318

The Encampment 319

justified an extra number of great hospital tents
for crowding clerical work. These were a con-
venience and incentive for social gatherings at
hours so disposable. We had many visitors also,
to whom we were glad to show civil and military
coiirtesies.

To increase the magnitude and also the compli-
cations of this gathering, Sherman's army came
up on the 20th of May and encamped on the
same side of the river but lower down towards
Alexandria, — a situation not so conspicuous nor
otherwise desirable as ours, a circumstance which
had place in some further incidents of the field
in the War for the Union. These troops were not
the whole of Sherman's great Army of the West.
The part of it which he brought here comprised
many high names and titles, as well as stalwart
men: the old Army of the Tennessee (once Mc-
Pherson's, later Howard's, now under Logan),
composed of the Fifteenth Corps, Hazen command-
ing (Sherman's old corps), and the Seventeenth
Corps under Blair, together with the Army of
Georgia, commanded now by Slocum, composed
of the Fourteenth Corps (part of Thomas' old
Army of the Cumberland), now under Davis, and
the Twentieth Corps under Mower, — this latter
composed of the Eleventh and Twelfth Corps of
the Army of the Potomac sent to Sherman after
Gettysburg, with Howard and Slocum. That part
of Sherman's old army known as the Army of the
Ohio, now commanded by Schofield, and made up
of the Twenty-third Corps under Cox and the

320 The Passing of the Armies

Tenth Corps under Terry, — of Fort Fisher fame, —
was not brought to this encampment.

The fame of these men excited our curiosity and
wish to know them better. Although not much
interchange of visiting was allowed, we started out
with very pleasant relations, — which unfortunately
not being very deep-rooted soon withered. Still
we admired them at a distance, and had it in
our own hands to keep up that kind of a friend-
ship. I am speaking now for our men of the
rank and file, whose good nature would stand a
good deal.

Within our own camp things were harmonious
and more than that. The Second and Fifth Corps
grew nearer and dearer to each other. One pleasing
incident in my command may be worthy of record.
The officers of my division desired to present to
Major-General Griffin, our corps commander, a
worthy token of the deep regard in which he was
held in this division so honorably known as his in
the last campaign, and with which he had been
conspicuously associated since the heroic days of
Fitz-John Porter. A Maltese cross was decided
on as the basis for this memorial, and the design
for it being entrusted to me by the committee in
charge, was sent to Tiffany of New York for
execution. It was our battle flag in miniature, —
the Red Maltese cross on a white field, the colors
enameled on a gold ground, the cross bordered
with small diamonds, and in the center a diamond
worth a thousand dollars.

Orders were now out for the grand review of our

The Encampment 321

army on the 23d of May, and we decided to hold
our presentation ceremonies on the evening before
this, when so many old comrades and distinguished
visitors were near by to join us. It is needless to
say everything was ordered on a scale worthy of
such occasion. Four large hospital tents were put
together cathedral-like for our service, and clusters
of smaller tents were grouped around, like chapels,
to serve as offices and dressing-rooms. It had not
the magnificence of array and grandeur of titled
personages of the Field of the Cloth of Gold, but
the sentiment and soul that animated the greeting
and farewell were of a fellowship more than royal.
Beauty and chivalry were not lacking; nobility of
soul made high presence. Soft summer airs were
stirring all things to tremulous pulse. The scene
without enwrapped our senses, and that within
thrilled our hearts. Soon through the trembling
hush the martial bugle rang out the "Assembly of
Tnmipeters. " Then flowed forth from a sym-
phony of trumpets that orison of the setting sun,
"The Retreat," with final cadence of the "Sun-
set Gun, " answering afar.

Now the shadows descended, and the deep stars,
brooding close over the night, lent the immortal
presence. Soon all the slopes glimmered with
scores of thousands of lights illuminating great
fields of white tents of our army and Sherman's
far outspread, like the city of a dream. So atmo-
sphered, guest-greetings lingered; new friendships
grew "old"; farewells begun, — never to end. And
when all the deep influences of the hour were at

322 The Passing of the Armies

their fullness, we drew within the canvas cathedral
for our consummation. Here circled another
scene, — bright, clear, and strong, — the presence
of cherished womanhood shed a glory upon the
stern faces and martial forms of men long lost to
dreams like these. The great assembly hushed
itself to silence in expectation. General Griffin
was seated in the focus of all this; it was my part
to present the material memorial. I had no ex-
perience in public speaking, and felt hardly com-
petent to express the feeling which then filled every
heart of the assembly. But words like these were
somehow given me:

"General Griffin:

" Our hearts stir as I speak the name, — so
familiar, so revered; so interwoven with experi-
ences deep as life and death.

" The officers of your old division have desired to
present you with a testimonial of their appreciation
and esteem. They have selected for this purpose
the badge of our division, — the Red Maltese
Cross, — as the most fitting remembrance of your
long association with them, — a memento of the
toils and trials and desperate deeds and the suffer-
ings you have not shunned to share with them, and
a token of honorable service they are proud to
share with you.

" This cross of ours is already famed in story.
Now it has a new history, — a new sanctity. Not
more worthily was this the chosen emblem of those
who thronged to redeem the Holy Sepulchre from

The Encampment 323

Infidel hands, than of these men of yours who have
rallied to rescue a nation's life from assaults the
more bitter because dealt by those we had deemed
as brothers. On no breasts was this ever more
bravely borne in battle — on no banners more
proudly emblazoned — in no cathedral arches
more sacredly enshrined.

"But this is not the hour for words. The tongue
cannot follow where the feet have trod, nor reach
where the heart aspires.

"It remains for me, therefore, to present you
with this cross, in behalf of the officers of your
old division who wait to greet you. But not all.
Some who were with us, and would have been of
the brightest to grace this festival, greet us here no
more, — hearts warmest in friendship, truest to
trust, bravest in the day of battle. We know and
hallow the spots where they fell, first or last, in the
ranks of honor. But not one of them all, — I say
it before these witnesses, — not one of those is
lying in his lowly bed to-day through any fault or
failure or rashness of our commander.

" In memory, then, of those, and in behalf of
these, — in the name of all, — I give this cross into
the hand of a soldier without reproach. It is red, —
with blood more precious than its diamonds; red,
— after the symbolism of sacred art, — with love
more lasting than its stars.

"In this day of the country's victory and peace,
in this hour of sacred associations, we meet, and
we part, under this cross, emblem of the world's
dearest memories and most blessed hopes. Receive

324 The Passing of the Armies

it, therefore, with its legend and benediction:
In hoc signo vincesy

General Griffin received the badge, and holding
it in his hand, responded :

"General:

"Your words have overcome me with a sense
of what it is to be thus honored by men who have
added honor to this symbol. You remind me of
what has been the cost of this fame, and what
has been the value of this service. You yourself,
General, a youthful subordinate when I first took
command of this division, now through so many
deep experiences risen to be its tested, trusted, and
beloved commander, — you are an example of what
experiences of loyalty and fortitude, of change and
constancy, have marked the career of this honored
division. I say to you all, that you have written
a deathless page on the records of your country's
history, and that yotir character and your valor
have entered into her life for all the future.

"For myself, having seen and served with you
from the first, my affection for you is in the deepest
places of my heart, and as often as I shall look
upon this token in the coming years, I shall thank
God for the manhood that has made it glorious."

As he spoke these last words, I advanced and
pinned the badge over his breast, and pressing his
hand upon it he turned and bowed before the
assembly. Then it was as if the slumbering chords

The Encampment 325

of thousands of hearts had challenged the song of
the morning stars. First the low ripple of hand-
clapping after common custom, but more were
clasping each others' hands in emotion they knew
not how to express. Strong men rose to their feet
or bent their heads in sobs. But soon murmurs
found voice, and this swelled to shouting until the
band struck up its rhapsody, "Hail to the Chief,"
when all left their seats and crowded around Gen-
eral Griffin, who for once was not able to give
command, — even to himself. Slowly we broke
into friendly groups, calming ourselves down in
circling cadences of farewells until at a signal we
drew together in the song of Auld Lang Syne,
after which the heart-searching bugle-call "Lights
Out " calling as from some far-away home dispersed
us under the stars.

CHAPTER IX

THE LAST REVIEW

IT was now the morning of May 23d, 1865, the
day appointed for the final grand review of
the Army of the Potomac, to extend from the
Capitol to the White House along Pennsylvania
Avenue in the city of Washington. It is with deep
emotion that I attempt to tell the story of my last
vision of that army, — the vision of its march out
of momentous action into glorious dream.

This is not an essay in composition — military,
historic, or artistic. I seek to hold fast the image
which passed before my eyes. But this will no
less be truth, — one aspect of the truth, which in its
manifold, magnificent wholeness would take the
notes and memories of thousands to portray. It
will be manifest that I cannot undertake to reduce
all the features of the picture to a common scale,
nor to exhibit merit equitably. Some points, no
doubt, are set in high light, under the emotion
which atmospheres them; but it is not meant to
throw others into shadow. If, in so rapid and
condensed a passage, only familiar and prominent

commanders can be named, it is not that I forget

326

The Last Review 327

that in every grade and all through the ranks are
men whose names deserve remembrance as im-
mortal as their devotion was sublime. Neither
can I forget, while yielding to none in my appreci-
ation of the honor due to "the man behind the
musket," that the military efficiency of such is
largely affected by the instruction, discipline, and
influence of those in authority and responsibility
over them, and their success and fame largely
due to the manner in which they are "handled."
A command is likely to be what its commander is.
There are crises when confidence in his ability
turns the scale of battle. There are supreme
moments when the sudden sweep to the front by a
commanding character strikes the heart and exalts
the spirit of men so that they do superhuman things.
Such are the men who are to pass before us.

It is the Army of the Potomac. After years of
tragic history and dear-bought glories, gathering
again on the banks of the river from which it took
its departure and its name; an army yet the same
in name, in form, in spirit, but the deep changes in
its material elements telling its unspeakable vicissi-
tudes; having kept the faith, having fought the
good fight, now standing up to receive its benedic-
tion and dismissal, and bid farewell to comradeship
so strangely dear.

We were encamped on Arlington Heights, op-
posite the capital. As yet there were but two corps
up — the Second and the Fifth. The Sixth had
been sent back from Appomattox to Danville, to
secure the fruits of the surrender, and stand to the

328 The Passing of the Armies

front before the falling curtain of the Confederacy.
They had fulfilled that duty, and on this very day
were setting forth for this final station. Of those
that had come up, all the detachments had been
called in. My division that left Appomattox
five thousand strong now mustered twice that
number. The ranks stood full — what there were
of the living — for one more march together, one
last look and long farewell.

Troops that had been with us and part of us in
days of need and days of glory, were brought with
us again: the Cavalry Corps, and the Ninth Corps,
with a division of the Nineteenth. The Ninth, by
the circimistance of its commander outranking all
other generals except Grant, although of late often
with us, was not incorporated with our army until
the twenty-fourth of May, 1864, when Burnside
magnanimously waived his rank and with his
corps became part and parcel of our army through
the terrible campaign of that dark year, and until
relieved at Burkeville a few days after the surrender
at Appomattox. To these old companions General
Meade with generous courtesy gave the post of
honor and precedence. Sherman's great army
had lately come up, and was encamped on the river
bank at no great distance below.

A mighty spectacle this: the men from far and
wide, who with heroic constancy, through toils and
sufferings and sacrifices that never can be told,
had broken down the Rebellion, gathered to give
their arms and colors and their history to the keep-
ing of a delivered, regenerated nation.

The Last Review 329

For our review the order of march was to be the
following: headquarters of the Army of the Po-
tomac; the cavalry corps; the provost marshal's
brigade; the engineer brigade; the Ninth Corps
with a division of the Nineteenth; then the Army
of the Potomac, that stood here upon the earth —
the Fifth Corps and the Second; the infantry and
artillery, and ambulances too — great sharers of
eventful service.

The Ninth Corps crossed the Potomac on the af-
ternoon of the twenty-second and went into bivouac
east of the Capitol. The engineer brigade, the pro-
vost guard, and the escort moved to bivouac near
Long Bridge, to start at 3.30 in the morning for their
rendezvous at the foot of the Capitol front, ready to
follow the cavalry ordered to be there at 9 A.M. At
4 A.M., of the twenty- third, the Fifth Corps began
its march over Long Bridge, Canal Bridge, and
Maryland Avenue to First Street, East, moving
"left in front," in order to draw out easily right in
front, for the ceremonial column. The Second
Corps, leaving camp at 7 a.m., followed the Fifth to
the vicinity of the Capitol, ready to follow in review.

The movement was to be up Pennsylvania
Avenue. The formation was in column by com-
panies closed in mass, with shortened intervals
between regiments, brigades, and divisions; the
company fronts equalized to twenty files each, so
the number of companies corresponded to the total
numbers of the regiment, some having twelve or
fifteen companies, so many had gathered now for
the grand muster-out.

330 The Passing of the Armies

Six ambulances were to follow each brigade,
moving three abreast. The artillery brigades were
to accompany their respective corps. The in-
fantry were to take "route step" and right shoulder
arms until reaching the State Department building,
where they take the cadenced step and the shoulder
arms, later known as the "carry." Here also the
"guide left " was to be taken, as the reviewing stand
was in front of the President's house. He was
the proper reviewing officer ; but arrangements were
made for the accommodation also of the Cabinet,
the Foreign Diplomatic Corps, the governors of
States, and other distinguished personages and
high officials. In the salute, drums were to ruffle
and colors dip, but only mounted officers were to
salute. The bands were not to ttirn out in front of
the reviewing officer, as is the custom in reviews.
All precautions were taken to preserve relative
distances, so as to avoid crowding, confusion, and
delay in the marching column.

In my command we were well aware of quite an
anxiety among officers and men of the army gen-
erally to look their very best, and more, too, on this
occasion; for new uniforms, sashes, epaulettes,
saddle housings, and other gay trappings almost
disguised some of our hardiest veterans, who were
not insensible to the new order of spectators before
whom they were now to pass their ordeal. I hesi-
tate to admit that in the revulsion from this on the
part of the officers and men of my division, there
might be a scornful pride more sinful than that of
vanity. We knew many a dude in dress who ex-

The Last Review 33 1

pressed in this way a consciousness of personal
worth which rang true in the tests of battle. We
could not pretend to be better, — proud of our
humility. Perhaps we thought we could not look
equal to what we deemed our worth and possibly
our reputation; so we resolved to do nothing for
show, but to look just what we were, and be
judged by what we wore, letting our plainness tell
its own story. The men brought themselves up to
regulation field inspection; themselves, their dress
and accouterments clean and bright, but all of
every-day identity. And for officers no useless
trappings, rider or horse ; plain, open saddle, with
folded gray army blanket underneath; light, open
bridle with simple curb and snaffie-rein ; service
uniform — shoulder-strap, belts, scabbards, boots,
and spurs of the plainest, — no sashes, no epaulettes ;
light marching order, just as in the field, but
clean and trim. No doubt this might make us
somewhat conspicuous, as things were; but home-
liness was a character we thought we could main-
tain, even "before company."

It was a clear, bright morning, such as had so
often ushered in quite other scenes than this. At
nine o'clock the head of column moved. First
Meade — commanding all — our old Fifth Corps
commander, knightly in bearing as ever, grave of
countenance now, thoughtful perhaps with fore-
shadowings. With him rode his principal staff:
chivalrous "Andy Webb," in earlier days familiar
friend, inspector of our corps, — since that, meet-
ing with his superb brigade the death-defying

332 The Passing of the Armies

valor of Pickett's charge, — now rightly chief-of-
staff of the army ; grim old Hunt, chief of artillery,
whose words were like his shot, whose thunder-
sweeps had shaken hearts and hills from Antietam
to Appomattox; Seth Williams, adjutant-general,
steadfast as the rocky crests of Maine from which
he came, whose level head had balanced the dis-
turbances and straightened the confusions of
campaigns and changes of commanders through
our whole history. And following these heads of
staff, all the gallant retinue well known to us
all.

Now move the cavalry: survivors and full-
blown flower of the troopers Joe Hooker, in the
travailing winter of 1862 and 1863, had redeemed
from servitude as scattered orderlies and provost
guards at headquarters and loose-governed cities,
and transformed into a species of soldier not known
since the flood-times of Persia, the Huns of Attila,
or hordes of Tamerlane ; cavalry whose manoeuvres
have no place in the tactics of modern Europe;
rough-rider, raiders, scouts-in-force, cutting com-
munications, sweeping around armies and leagues
of entrenched lines in an enemy's country, —
Stoneman and Pleasanton and Wilson, Kilpatrick,
Custer, and alas! Dahlgren.

And when the solid front of pitched battle op-
poses, then terrible in edge and onset, as in the
straight-drawn squadron charges at Brandy Sta-
tion, the clattering sweep at Aldie, the heroic lone-
hand in the lead at Gettysburg, holding back the
battle till our splendid First Corps could surge

The Last Review 333

forward to meet its crested wave, and John Buford
and John Reynolds could shake hands! Through
the dark campaign of 1864, ever5rwhere giving
account of themselves as there. At last in 1865,
sweeping over the breastworks at Five Forks
down upon the smoking cannon and serried bayo-
nets; thence swirling around Sailor's Creek and
High Bridge, and finally at Appomattox by incredi-
ble marches circumventing Lee's flying column,
and holding at bay Stonewall Jackson's old corps,
with Hill's and Anderson's, under Gordon; — alone,
this cavalry, until our infantry overtaking the
horses, force the flag of truce to the front, and all is
over! Fighters, firm, swift, superb, — cavalry —
chivalry !

Sheridan is not here. He is down on the Rio
Grande, — a surveyor, a draughtsman, getting
ready to illustrate Seward's diplomatic message to
Napoleon that a French army cannot force an
Austrian Emperor on the Mexican Republic.
Crook, so familiar to our army, is not here, pre-
ferring an "engagement" elsewhere and otherwise;
for love, too, bears honors to-day. Soldierly
Merritt is at the head, well deserving of his place.
Leading the divisions are Custer, Davies, and
Devin, names known before and since in the lists
of heroes. Following also, others whom we know :
Gibbs, Wells, Pennington, Stagg of Michigan,
Fitzhugh of New York, Brayton Ives of Con-
necticut. Dashing Kilpatrick is far away. Grand
Gregg we do not see; nor level-headed Smith, nor
indomitable "Prin. " Cilley, with his ist Maine

334 The Passing of the Armies

Cavalry; these now sent to complete the peace
around Petersburg.

Now rides the provost marshal general, gallant
George Macy of the 20th Massachusetts, his right
arm symbolized by an empty sleeve pinned across
his breast.

Here the 2d Pennsylvania Cavalry, and stout
remnants of the ist Massachusetts, reminding us
of the days of Sargent and "Sam" Chamberlain.
Here, too, the 3d and loth U. S. Infantry, experi-
enced in stern duties.

Now, with heads erect and steady eyes, marches
the Signal Corps ; of those that beckoned us to the
salvation of Round Top, and disclosed movements
and preparations otherwise concealed in the dense
maze and whirl of battle from the Wilderness to
the Chickahominy ; then from their lofty observa-
tories watching the long ferment on the Appo-
mattox shores. What message do your signals
waft us now?

Here come the engineers with their great un-
wieldy pontoons grotesque to the eye, grand to the
thought! Had we not smiled at them — the huge
dromedary caravans, struggling along the road, or
sliding, leviathan-like, down the slopes of half-
sheltered river-coves, launching out to their peril-
ous, importunate calling? Did not the waters of
all Virginia's rivers know of their bulk and burden?
Had we not seen them — not smiling — time and time
again, spanning the dark Rappahannock? — as in
December, 1862, Sumner and Howard launched
them from the exposed bank opposite Fredericks-

The Last Review 335

burg into the face of Lee's army — vainly opposing,
■ — bridging the river of death, into the jaws of hell!
Had we not a little later, a mile below, crowded
over the hurriedly laid, still swaying, boat-bridge,
raked and swept by the batteries on Marye's
Heights, and rushed up the bloody, slippery slopes
to the dead-line stone wall? And on the second
midnight after, shall we forget that forlorn recross-
ing, in murk and rain, on the last pontoon bridge
left, and this muffled with earth to dull our stealthy,
silent tread, and already half -loosened, and ready
to cut free and swing from the touch of that fateful
shore? And what of that rear-guard covering the
retreat from Chancellorsville in 1863, seeking the
bridge-end in utter blackness of darkness and
driving storm of rain and rushing river, not finding
it because the swelling torrent was roaring twenty
feet between it and the shore ; and when gained by
manly resolution or demoniac instinct, already half
a ruin, the lashings of chess and rail loosened by
rush and pressure of previous passers; crowded
plank in heaps and gaps yard wide, amid the yawn-
ing, dizzying surges in the pitchy blackness, where
only the sagacious horse could smell the distances
and leap the chasms, followed by the trusting
"brotherhood" of man! "Great arks" indeed
they were, these boats, borne above the waters of
desolation, and bearing over manhood fit to re-
plenish and repeople the war- whelmed earth!

Last, looming above the broad waters of the
James, your thread-like bridge swaying beneath
the mighty tread, our horses hardly able to keep

336 The Passing of the Armies

their feet, bearing us over to the gloomy tests of
Petersburg, the long beginning of the end.

And where are the brave young feet that pressed
your well-laid plank at Germanna and Ely's Ford
of the Rapidan on that bright morning a summer
ago? To what shores led that bridge?

No, we do not smile to-day at the ungainly pon-
toons! God rest their bodies now! if perchance
they have no souls except what have gone into the
men who bore them, and whom in turn they bore.

Now rises to its place the tried and tested old
Ninth Corps, once of Burnside and Reno, now led
by Parke, peer of the best, with Willcox and Griffin
of New Hampshire and Curtin leading its divisions,
• — Potter still absent with cruel wounds, and
Hartranft detached on high service elsewhere, —
and its brigade commanders. General McLaughlen
and Colonels Harriman, Ely, Carruth, Titus,
McCalmon, and Matthews. These are the men of
the North Carolina expedition, of Roanoke and
New Berne, who came up in time of sore need to
help our army at Manassas and Chantilly, and
again at South Mountain and Antietam. After
great service in the west, with us again in the
terrible campaign of 1864; then in the restless, long-
drawn, see-saw action on the Petersburg lines;
through the direful "crater"; at last in the gallant
onset on the enemy's flank and the pressing South-
side pursuit ; — part of us until all was over.

So they are ours, these men of the Ninth Corps,
and our proud hearts yearn forward to them as they
are whelmed in tumultuous greeting along the

The Last Review 337

thronging avenue. Noble men! As they move
out past the head of our waiting column, I look at
them with far-running thought. Earnestly re-
membered by the older regiments of my division;
for, sent to support the Ninth Corps at the Burnside
Bridge when it was so gallantly carried at the
bayonet point by Potter's 51st New York and
Hartranft's 51st Pennsylvania, Burnside pushed
across the Antietam our single division to replace
that whole corps on those all-important heights
where he was expecting a heavy attack. How full
the intervening years have been! How strained
and sifted the ranks! Of those two remembered
regiments to-day, there stand: the 51st New York,
one hundred and twenty men; the 51st Pennsyl-
vania, forty men!

Here, too, a remnant, the 36th Massachusetts,
long ago shipmates with us of the 20th Maine on
the transport that bore us forth in 1 862 to fields and
fortunes far apart, now at last united again. We
remember how that splendor of equipment and
loftiness of bearing made us feel very green and
humble, but we are somehow equalized now!
Of them was Major Henry Burrage, now proudly
riding, acting asistant adjutant-general of his
brigade, — foretokening his place and part in the
Loyal Legion of Maine!

Here comes our 31st Maine, brave Daniel
White's; consolidated with it now the 32d, those
left from its short, sharp experience with Went-
worth and John Marshall Brown, at such dear cost
leading, — both Bowdoin boys, one the first adju-

338 The Passino^ of the Armies

tant of the 20th, Here passes steadily to the front
as of yore the 7th Maine Battery, Twitchell, my
late college friend, at the head: splendid reces-
sional, for I saw it last in 1864 grimly bastioning
the slopes above Rives' Salient, where darkness
fell upon my eyes, and I thought to see no more.

Following, in Dwight's Division of the Nine-
teenth Corps, other brave men, known and dear:
a battalion of the ist Maine Veterans, under
Captain George Brown; the brigades of stalwart
George Beal and clear-eyed "Jim" Fessenden, my
college classmate; the sturdy 15th Maine from its
eventful experiences of the Gulf under steadfast-
hearted Isaac Dyer, Murray, and Frank Drew;
soldierly Nye with the 29th, made veterans on the
Red River and Shenandoah; royal Tom Hubbard,
with his 30th, once Frank Fessenden's, whom
Surgeon Seth Gordon saved; a third of them now
of the old 13th, — these, too, of the Red River,
Sabine Cross-Roads, and Grand Ecore, and thence
to the Virginia valleys; rich in experiences, roman-
tic and Roman!

And now it is the Fifth Corps. The signal
sounds. Who is that mounting there? Do you
see him? It is Charles Griffin. How lightly he
springs to the saddle. How easy he sits, straight
and slender, chin advanced, eyes to the front,
pictured against the sky! Well we know him.
Clear of vision, sharp of speech, true of heart, clean
to the center. Around him group the staff, pure-
souled Fred Locke at their head.

My bugle calls. Our horses know it. The staff

The Last Review 339

gather, — Colonel Spear, Major Fowler, Tom
Chamberlain, my brave young brother, of the first.
The flag of the First Division, the red cross on its
battle-stained white, sways aloft; the hand of its
young bearer trembling with his trust, more than
on storm-swept fields. Now they move — all —
ten thousand hearts knitted together. Up the
avenue, into that vast arena, bright with color —
flowers, garlands, ribbons, flags, and flecked with
deeper tones. Windows, balconies, house-tops,
high and far, thronged with rich-robed forms,
flushed faces, earnest eyes. Now it seems a
tumult of waters; we pass like the children of
Israel walled by the friendly Red Sea. Around us
and above, murmurs, lightnings, and thunders of
greeting. The roar of welcome moves forward
with our column. Those in the streetways press
upon us; it almost needs the provost guard to
clear our way.

Now a girlish form, robed white as her spirit,
presses close; modest, yet resolute, eyes fixed on
her purpose. She reaches up towards me a wreath
of rare flowers, close-braided, fit for viking's arm-
ring, or victor's crown. How could I take it?
Sword at the "carry" and left hand tasked, trying
to curb my excited horse, stirred by the vastness,
the tumult, the splendor of the scene. He had
been thrice shot down under me; he had seen the
great surrender. But this unaccustomed vision —
he had never seen a woman coming so near before
— moved him strangely. Was this the soft death-
angel — did he think? — calling us again, as in other

340 The Passing of the Armies

days? For as often as she lifted the garland to the
level of my hand, he sprang clear from earth —
heavenwards, doubtless, — but was not heaven
nearer just then? I managed to bring down his
fore-feet close beside her, and dropped my sword-
point almost to her feet, with a bow so low I could
have touched her cheek. Was it the garland's
breath or hers that floated to my lips? My horse
trembled. I might have solved the mystery,
could I have trusted him. But he would not trust
me. All that was granted me was the Christian
virtue of preferring another's good and passing
the dangerous office of receiving this Mizpah token
to the gallant young aide behind me. And I must
add I did not see him again for some time! All
this passed like a flash in act ; but it was not quite
so brief in effect. From that time my horse was
shy of girls — sharp eyes out for soft eyes — I dare
say for his master's peace and safety!

All the way up the Avenue a tumult of sound
and motion. Around Griffin is a whirlpool, and
far behind swells and rolls the generous acclaim.
At the rise of ground near the Treasury a backward
glance takes in the mighty spectacle: the broad
Avenue for more than a mile solid full, and more,
from wall to wall, from door to roof, with straining
forms and outwelling hearts. In the midst, on-
pressing that darker stream, with arms and colors
resplendent in the noon-day sun, an army of
tested manhood, clothed with power, crowned with
glory, marching to its dissolution!

At this turn of the Avenue, our bugle rings out the

The Last Review 341

signal: "Prepare for Review!" The bands strike
the cadenced march; the troops take up the step;
the lines straighten; the column rectifies dis-
tances; the company fronts take perfect "dress,"
guide left, towards the side of the reviewing stand
ahead, arms at the ceremonial "carry."

All is steadiness, dignity, order now. We are
to pass in final review. The culminating point is
near; the end for us nearing; a far-borne vision
broods upon our eyes; world-wide and years-long
thought, — deep, silent, higher than joy!

Still there is some marching more, in this re-
strained, cadenced order. We approach the region
of the public offices and higher residential quarter,
welcomed by yet fairer forms and more finely
balanced salutations. Ah! women sitting at the
balconied windows, with straining eyes and hand-
kerchiefs now waving, then suddenly, at some face
seen, or not seen where once belonging, pressed
to faces bowed and quivering. Some of you I
have seen where the earth itself was trembling,
beneath the greetings wherewith man meets man
with wrath and wreck — you and those like you,
for heaven, too, is wide, — searching under the
battle smoke to find a lost face left to be unknown,
bending to bind up a broken frame made in God's
image, or skillfully, as divinely taught, fashioning
the knot to check an artery's out-rushing life,
nay, even pressing tender fingers over it till what
you deemed better help could come; to catch a
dying message, or breathe a passing prayer, or
perchance no more than give a cup of water to men

342 The Passing of the Armies

now of God's "little ones," — so done unto his
Christ!

You in my soul I see, faithful watcher by my
cotside long days and nights together through the
delirium of mortal anguish, — steadfast, calm, and
sweet as eternal love. We pass now quickly from
each other's sight ; but I know full well that where
beyond these passing scenes you shall be, there will
be heaven!

But now we come opposite the reviewing stand.
Here are the President, his Cabinet, ambassadors
and ministers of foreign lands, generals, governors,
judges, high officers of the nation and the states.
But we miss the deep, sad eyes of Lincoln coming
to review us after each sore trial. Something is
lacking to our hearts now, — even in this supreme
hour. Already the simple, plain, almost thread-
bare forms of the men of my division have come
into view, and the President and his whole great
company on the stand have risen and passed to
the very front edge with gracious and generous
recognition. I wheel my horse, lightly touching
rein and spur to bring his proud head and battle-
scarred neck to share the deep salutation of the
sword. Then, riding past, I dismount at the
President's invitation, and ascend the stand.
Exchanging quick greetings, I join those at the
front. All around I hear the miuraured exclama-
tions: "This is Porter's old Division!" "This is
the Fifth Corps!" "These are straight from Five
Forks and Appomattox!" It seemed as if all
remained standing while the whole corps passed.

The Last Review 343

Surely all of them arose as each brigade commander
passed, and as some deep-dyed, riven color drooped
in salutation ; and the throng on the stand did not
diminish, although for more than three hours the
steady march had held them before ours came to
view.

For me, while this division was passing, no other
thing could lure my eyes away, whether looking on
or through. These were my men, and those who
followed were familiar and dear. They belonged
to me, and I to them, by bonds birth cannot create
nor death sever. More were passing here than the
personages on the stand could see. But to me so
seeing, what a review, how great, how far, how
near ! It was as the morning of the resurrection !

The brigades to-day are commanded by General
Pearson, General Gregory, and Colonel Edmunds,
veterans of the corps. First is the Third Brigade,
bearing the spirit and transformed substance of
Porter' old division of Yorktown, and Morell's at
Gaines' Mill and Malvern Hill. These are of the
men I stood with at Antietam and Fredericksburg,
and Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. Of that
regiment — the 20th Maine — a third were left on
the slopes of Round Top, and a third again in the
Wilderness, at Spottsylvania, the North Anna,
Cold Harbor, and the Chickahominy ; to-day min-
gling in its ranks the remnants of the noble 2d
and 1st Sharpshooters. Beside it still, the 11 8th
Pennsylvania, sharing all its experiences from the
day when these two young regiments took ordeal
together in the floods of waters beneath and of

344 The Passing of the Armies

fiery death above in the testing passage of Shepards-
town Ford in 1862. More Pennsylvania veterans
yet, the storied 83d and 91st, and brilliant 155th
Zouave, and the shadow of the stalwart 626., gone,
and 2 1st Cavalry passed on. With these the ist
and 1 6th Michigan, ever at the front, the keen-
eyed 1st and 2d Sharpshooters and proud relics of
the 4th, left from the wheat-field of Gettysbtirg.
Here is the trusted, sorely-tried 32d Massachusetts,
with unfaltering spirit and ranks made good from
the best substance of the i8th, wakening heart-held
visions. These names and numbers tell of the men
who had opened all the fiery gateways of Virginia
from the York River to the Chickahominy, and
from the Rapidan to the Appomattox.

Now Gregory's New York Brigade — the 187th,
1 88th, and 189th, — young in order of number, but
veteran in experience and honor; worthy of the
list held yet in living memory, the 12th, 13th, 14th,
17th, 25th, and 44th, — one by one gone before.

One more brigade yet, of this division; of the
tested last that shall be first: the splendid 185th
New York, and fearless, clear-brained Sniper still
at their head; the stalwart fourteen-company
regiment, the 198th Pennsylvania, its gallant field
officers gone: brave veteran Sickel fallen with
shattered arm, and brilliant young Adjutant
Maceuen shot dead, both within touch of my
hand in the sharp rally on the Quaker Road; and
Major Glen, since commanding, cut down on the
height of valor, colors in hand, leading a charge I
ordered in a moment of supreme need. Captain

The Last Review 345

John Stanton, lately made major, leads to-day.
These also coming into the bloody field of the dark
year 1864, but soon ranked with veterans and
wreathed with honor: In the last campaign
opening with the brilliant victory on the enemy's
right flank; of the foremost in the cyclone sweep
at Five Forks; and at Appomattox first of the
infantry to receive the flag of truce which bespoke
the end. Each of these brigades had been severally
in my command; and now they were mine all
together, as I was theirs. So has passed this First
Division, — and with it, part of my soul.

But now comes in sight a form before which the
tumult of applause swells in mightier volume. It
is Ayres, born soldier, self-commanding, nerve of
iron, heart of gold, — a man to build on. What
vicissitudes has he not seen since Gettysburg! Of
those three splendid brigades which followed the
white Maltese cross to the heights of Round Top,
compact in spirit and discipline and power, only
two regiments now hold their place, the 140th and
146th New York, — and of these both colonels killed
at the head of their heroes: O'Rorke at Gettysburg
and Jenkins in the Wilderness. Where are the
regulars, who since 1862 had been ever at our side,
— the ten iron-hearted regiments that made that
terrible charge down the north spur of Little Round
Top into the seething furies at its base, and brought
back not one-half of its deathless offering? Like
Ayres it was — in spirit and in truth, — when asked
at the Warren Court, years after, then reviewing
the Five Forks battle, "Where were your regulars

34^ The Passing of the Armies

then?" to answer with bold lip qmvering, "Buried,
sir, at Gettysburg ! " Whereat there was silence, —
and something more. And of what were not then
buried, fifteen hundred more were laid low beneath
the flaming scythes of the Wilderness, Spottsyl-
vania, and the other bloody fields of that campaign.
And the Government, out of pride and pity, sent
the shredded fragments of them to the peaceful
forts in the islands of New York harbor, — left
there to their thoughts of glory. ^

Their places had been taken by two brigades
from the old First Corps, dearly experienced
there: the thrice-honored Maryland Brigade, ist,
4th, 7th, and 8th, in whose latest action I saw two
of its brigade commanders shot down in quick
succession ; and the gallant little Delaware Brigade,
with its proud record of loyalty and fidelity, part of
the country's best history. Brave Dennison and
Gwyn, generals leading these two brigades to-day;
both bearing their honors modestly, as their
hardly healed wounds manfully

Now the First Brigade: this of New York,—
the superb 5th, 140th, and 146th, and the 15th
Artillery, their equal in honor. At the head of
this, on the fire-swept angle at Five Forks the high-
hearted Fred Winthrop fell; then Grimshaw and
Ayres himself led on to the first honors of that great
day. At its head to-day rides the accomplished

' The losses of the regulars must in honor be here recalled :

At Gettysburg, 829; The Wilderness, 295 ; Spottsylvania, 420; North

Anna, 44; Bethesda Church, 165; The Weldon Road, 480; Peebles'

Farm, 76; a total of 2309.

The Last Review 347

General Joe Hayes, scarcely recovered from dan-
gerous wounds. It was a hard place for brigade
commanders — the Fifth Corps, in those "all sum-
mer" battles — and for colonels too.

So they pass, those that had come to take the
place of the regulars; they pass into immortal
history. Oh! good people smiling, applauding,
tossing flowers, waving handkerchiefs from your
lips with vicarious suggestion, — what forms do you
see under that white cross, now also going its long
way?

But here comes the Third Division, with Craw-
ford, of Fort Sumter fame; high gentleman, punc-
tilious soldier, familiar to us all. Leading his
brigades are the fine commanders, dauntless Mor-
row, of the "Iron Brigade," erect above the scars
of Gettysburg, the Wilderness, and Petersburg;
resolute Baxter, and bold Dick Coulter, — veterans,
marked, too, with wounds. Theirs is the blue
cross, — speaking not of the azure heaven, but of
the down-pressing battle smoke. And the men
who in former days gave fame to that division, —
the Pennsylvania Reserves of the Peninsula, An-
tietam, and Gettysburg, with their strong ^^ esprit
de corps ^' and splendor of service, — only the shadow
of them now. But it is of sunset gold.

Here draws near a moving spectacle indeed, the
last of the dear old First Corps; thrice decimated
at Gettysburg in action and passion heroic, martyr-
like, sublime; then merged into the Fifth, proudly
permitted to bear its old colors, and in the crimson
campaign of 1 864 fought down to a division ; in the

348 The Passing of the Armies

last days the ancient spirit shining in the ranks
where its scattered regiments are absorbed in other
brigades, — shining still to-day ! But where are my
splendid six regiments of them which made that
resolute, forlorn-hope charge from the crest they
had carried fitly named "Fort Hell," down past
the spewing dragons of "Fort Damnation" into
the miry, fiery pit before Rives' Salient of the dark
June 1 8th? Two regiments of them, the 121st
Pennsylvania, Colonel Warner, and 1426. Pennsyl-
vania, Colonel Warren, alone I see in this passing
pageant, — worn, thin, hostages of the mortal. I
violate the courtesies of the august occasion. I
give them salutation before the face of the review-
ing officer — the President himself, — asking no
permission, no forgiveness.

Here, led by valiant Small, that i6th Maine,
which under heroic Tilden held its appointed
station on the fierce first day of Gettysburg, obed-
ient to the laws, like Spartans, for their loyalty
and honor's sake; cut through, cut down, swept
over, scattered, captured; so that at dreary night-
fall the hushed voices of only four officers and
thirty-eight men answered the roll-call. With
them the 94th New York, which under Colonel
Adrian Root shared its fate and glory.

And here are passing now those yet spared from
earth and heaven of that "Iron Brigade," of
Meredith's, on whose list appear such names as
Lucius Falrchild, Henry Morrow, Rufus Dawes,
and Samuel Williams, and such regiments as the
19th Indiana, 24th Michigan, and 2d, 6th, and 7th

The Last Review 349

Wisconsin, which on the first day's front line with
Buford and Reynolds, in that one fierce onset at
Willoughby's Run, withstood overwhelming odds,
with the loss of a thousand, a hundred and fifty-
three of highest manliness ; that of the 24th Michi-
gan largest of all, — three hundred and sixty-five,
— eighty-one out of every hundred of that morning
roll-call answering at evening, otherwhere. One
passing form to-day holds every eye. Riding
calmly at the head of the 7th Wisconsin is Hollon
Richardson, who at Five Forks sprang to take on
himself the death-blow struck at Warren as he
leaped the flaming breastworks in the lurid sunset
of his high career.

Pass on, men, in garb and movement to some
monotonous; pass on, men, modest and satisfied;
those looking on know what you are !

And now, Wainwright, with the artillery of the
corps, guns whose voices I should know among a
hundred: ''D" of the Fifth Regular, ten-pounder
guns, which Hazlett lifted to the craggy crest of
Little Round Top, its old commander. Weed,
supporting; whence having thundered again his
law to a delivered people, God called them both to
their reward. "L" of the ist Ohio, perched on
the western slope, hurling defiance at deniers. I
see not Martin of the 3d Massachusetts, whose
iron plowed the gorge between Round Top and the
Devil's Den. But "B " of the 4th Regular is here,
which stood by me on the heart-bastioned hillock
in the whirlwind of the Quaker Road. And here
the 5th Massachusetts, which wrought miracles of

350 The Passing of the Armies

valor all the way from the Fifth Corps right, across
the valley of death at Gettysburg, to the North
Anna; where, planted in my very skirmish line,
Phillips, erect on the gun-carriage, launched per-
cussion into buildings full of sharpshooters picking
off my best men. And where is Bigelow of the 9th
Massachusetts, who on the exposed front fell back
only with the recoil of his guns before the hordes
swarming through the Peach Orchard, giving back
shot, shrapnel, canister, rammer, pistol, and saber,
until his battery — guns, limbers, horses, men —
and he himself were a heap of mingled ruin?
Which, also, a year after, with Mink's ist New
York and Hart's 15th, came to support the charge
at the ominous Fort Hell; whence Bigelow, with
watchful eyes, sent his brave men down through
hissing canister, and enfilading shell, and blinding
turf and pebbles flying from the up-torn earth,
to bring back my useless body from what else
were its final front.

Roar on, ye throngs around and far away; there
are voices in my ear out-thundering yours!

All along in the passing column I have exchanged
glances with earnest, true-hearted surgeons, re-
membered too well, but never too much loved and
honored; with faithful chaplains, hospital attend-
ants, and ambulance men, never to be forgotten, of
the few who know something of the unrecorded
scenes in the rear of a great battle. I have caught
glances also from bright-eyed young staff officers
who in the kaleidoscope changes of eventful years
had been of my field family. Their look was some-

The Last Review 35 1

times confidential, as if slyly reminding me of the
salutary discipline of camp, when they were turned
out at reveille roll-call to "get acquainted with the
men"; and after guard-mounting, the college men
of them called up to demonstrate Euclid's ^^ pons
asinorum" with their scabbards in the sand; and
for those who were not men of Bowdoin or Amherst
or Yale or Columbia, the test commuted to shiver-
ing with pistol shot the musty hard-tack tossed in
air, or at race-course gallop, spitting with saber-
point the "Turk's head " of a junk of "condemned "
pork on the commissary's hitching-post, or picking
up a handkerchief from the ground, riding headlong
at Tartar speed. Other pranks, of spontaneous
and surreptitious discipline, when they thought it
necessary to teach a green quartermaster how to
ride, by deftly tucking dry pine cones under his
saddle-cloth. You are ready to do it again, I see,
you demure pretenders, or something the se-
quence of this skill, more useful to your fellow-man!
Have they all passed, — the Fifth Corps? Or will
it ever pass? Am I left alone, or still with you all?
You, of the thirteen young colonels, colleagues
with me in the courts-martial and army schools of
the winter camps of 1862: Vincent, of the 83d
Pennsylvania, caught up in the fiery chariot from
the heights of Round Top; O'Rorke, of the 140th
New York, pressing to that glorious defense, swiftly
called from the head of his regiment to serener
heights; Jefifords, of the 4th Michigan, thrust
through by bayonets as he snatched back his lost
colors from the deadly reapers of the wheat-field;

352 The Passing of the Armies

Rice, of the 44th New York, crimsoning the har-
rowed crests at Spottsylvania with his Hfe-blood, —
his intense soul snatched far otherwhere than his
last earthly thought — "Turn my face towards the
enemy!"; Welch, of the i6th Michigan, first on
the ramparts at Peebles' Farm, shouting "On,
boys, and over!" and receiving from on high the
same order for his own daring spirit; Prescott, of
the 32d Massachusetts, who lay touching feet with
me after mortal Petersburg of June i8th, under the
midnight requiem of the somber pines, — I doomed
of all to go, and bidding him stay, — but the weird
winds were calling otherwise; Winthrop, of the
1 2th Regulars, before Five Forks just risen from a
guest-seat at my homely luncheon on a log, within
a half hour shot dead in the fore-front of the
whirling charge. These gone, — and of the rest:
Varney, of the 2d Maine, worn down by prison
cruelties, and returning, severely wounded in the
head on the storm-swept slopes of Fredericksburg,
and forced to resign the service; Hayes, of the i8th
Massachusetts, cut down in the tangles of the Wil-
derness; Gwyn, of the 11 8th Pennsylvania, also
sorely wounded there; Herring, of the same regi-
ment, with a leg off at Dabney's Mill; Webb, then
of the corps staff, since, highly promoted, shot in
his uplifted head, fronting his brigade to the leaden
storm of Spottsylvania ; Locke, adjutant-general of
the corps, — a bullet cutting from his very mouth
the order he was giving on the flaming crests of
Laurel Hill!
You thirteen — seven, before the year was out —

The Last Review 353

shot dead at the head of your commands; of the
rest, every one desperately wounded in the thick
of battle ; I last of all, but here to-day, — with you,
earthly or ethereal forms.

"Waes Haeir' — across the rifts of vision — "Be
Whole again. My Thirteen!"

What draws near heralded by tumult of applause,
but when well-recognized greeted with mingled
murmurs of reverence? It is the old Second Corps
— of Sumner and of Hancock, — led now by one no
less honored and admired, — Humphreys, the ac-
complished, heroic soldier, the noble and modest
man. He rides a snow-white horse, followed by his
well-proved staff, like-mounted, chief of them the
brilliant Frank Walker, capable of higher things,
and "Joe Smith," chief commissary, with a medal
of honor for gallant service beyond duty, — a
striking group, not less to the eye in color and
composition, than to the mind in character.
Above them is borne the corps badge, the clover-
leaf, — peaceful token, but a triple mace to foes, —
dear to thousands among the insignia of our army,
as the shamrock to Ireland or rose and thistle of the
British Empire.

Here comes the First Division, that of Richard-
son and Caldwell and Barlow and Miles; but at
its head to-day we see not Miles, for he is just
before ordered to Fortress Monroe to guard "Jeff
Davis" and his friends, — President "Andy John-
son" declaring he "wanted there a man who would
not let his prisoners escape. " So Ramsay of New

354 The Passing of the Armies

Jersey is in command on this proud day. Its
brigades are led by McDougal, Fraser, Nugent, and
Mulholland — whereby you see the shamrock and
thistle are not wanting even in our field. These
are the men we saw at the sunken road at Antietam,
the stone wall at Fredericksburg, the wheat-field
at Gettysburg, the bloody angle at Spottsylvania,
the swirling fight at Farmville, and in the pressing
pursuit along the Appomattox before which Lee was
forced to face to the rear and answer Grant's first
summons to surrender. We know them well. So
it seems do these thousands around.

These pass, or rather do not pass, but abide
with us; while crowd upon our full hearts the stal-
wart columns of the Second Division — the division
of the incisive Barlow, once of Sedgwick and
Howard and Gibbon. These men bring thoughts
of the terrible charge at the Dunker church at
Antietam, and that still more terrible up Marye's
Heights at Fredericksburg, and the check given
to the desperate onset of Pickett and Pettigrew in
the consummate hour of Gettysburg. We think,
too, of the fiery mazes of the Wilderness, the death-
blasts of Spottsylvania, and murderous Cold
Harbor; but also of the brilliant fights at Sailor's
Creek and Farmville, and all the splendid action
to the victorious end. Here is the seasoned rem-
nant of the "Corcoran Legion," the new brigade
which, rushing into the terrors of Spottsylvania,
halted a moment while its priest stood before the
brave, bent heads and called down benediction.

Webb's Brigade of the Wilderness is commanded

The Last Review 355

to-day by Olmstead; the second, by Mclvor — ■
veteran colonels from New York; the third by
Colonel Woodall of Delaware. This brigade knows
the meaning of that colorless phrase, "the casual-
ties of the service," showing the ever shifting
elements which enter into what we call identity.
Here are all that is left of French's old division at
Antietam, and Hays' at Gettysburg, who was
killed in the Wilderness, Carroll's Brigade at Spott-
sylvania, where he was severely wounded ; Smyth's
at Cold Harbor, killed at Farmville. Into this
brigade Owen's, too, is now merged. They are a
museum of history.

Here passes, led by staunch Spaulding, the ster-
ling 19th Maine, once gallant Heath's, conspicuous
everywhere, from the death-strewn flank of Pick-
ett's charge, through all the terrible scenes of
"Grant's campaign," to its consummation at
Appomattox. In its ranks now are the survivors
of the old Spartan 4th, out of the "Devil's Den,"
where Longstreet knew them.

Heads uncover while passes what answers the
earthly roll-call of the immortal 5th New Hamp-
shire, famed on the stubborn Third Corps front
at Gettysburg, where its high-hearted Colonel
Cross fell leading the brigade, — among the foremost
in the sad glory of its losses, two hundred and
ninety-five men having been killed in its ranks.

What is that passing now, the center of all eyes,
— that little band so firmly poised and featured
they seem to belong elsewhere? This is what was
the 1st Minnesota, sometimes spoken of, for

356 The Passing of the Armies

valid reasons, as the ist Maine; more deeply
known as of Gettysburg, where in the desperate
counter-charge to stay an overwhelming onset,
they left eighty- three men out of every hundred!
With ever lessening ranks but place unchanged at
the head of its brigade from Bull Run to Appomat-
tox, to-day a modest remnant. Colonel Hausdorf
proudly leads on its last march the ist Minnesota.

What wonder that, as such men pass, the out-
poured greetings take on a strangely mingled tone.
You could not say from what world they come, or
to what world they go. Not without deep throb-
bings under our breath, — ours who in heart belong
to them, — as if answering some far-off drum-beat
"assembly" summons.

But now comes on with veteran pride and far-
preceding heralding of acclaim, the division which
knows something of the transmigration of souls:
having lived and moved in different bodies and
under different names; knowing, too, the tests of
manhood, and the fate of suffering and sacrifice,
but knowing most of all the undying spirit which
holds fast its loyalty and faces ever forward.
This is the division of Mott, himself commanding
to-day, although severely wounded at Hatcher's
Run on the sixth of April last. These are all that
are left of the old commands of Hooker and Kearny,
and later, of our noble Berry, of Sickles' Third
Corps. They still wear the proud " Kearny patch "
— the red diamond. Birney's Division, too, has
been consolidated with Mott's, and the brigades are
now commanded by the chivalrous De Trobriand

The Last Review 357

and the sterHng soldiers, Pierce of Michigan and
McAllister of New Jersey. Their division flag now
bears the mingled symbols of the two corps, the
Second and Third, — the diamond and the trefoil.

Over them far floats the mirage-like vision of
them on the Peninsula, and then at Bristow, Man-
assas, and Chantilly, and again the solid substance
of them at Chancellors ville, and on the stormy
front from the Plumb Run gorge to the ghastly
Peach Orchard, where the earth shone red with the
bright facings of their brave Zouaves thick-strewn
amidst the blue, as we looked down from smoking
Round Top. Then in the consolidation for the
final trial bringing the prestige and spirit and
loyalty of their old corps into the Second, — making
this the strongest corps in the army, — adding their
splendid valor to the fame of this in which they
merged their name.

Now come those heavy artillery regiments which
the exigencies of the service drew suddenly to
unexpected and unfamiliar duty, striking the fight
at its hottest in the cauldron of Spottsylvania, and,
obeying orders literally, suffered loss beyond all
others there: the ist Massachusetts losing three
hundred, and the ist Maine four hundred and
eighty-one officers and men in that single action.
This same ist Maine, afterwards in the rashly-
bidden charge at Petersburg, June 18, 1864, added
to its immortal roll six hundred and thirty-two
lost in that futile assault. Proudly rides Russell
Shepherd at their head, — leaving the command of a
brigade to lead these men to-day. Deep emotions

35^ The Passing of the Armies

stir at the presence of such survivors, — cherishing
the same devotion and deserving the same honor
as those who fell.

Here passes the high -borne, steadfast-hearted
17th Maine from the seething whirlpool of the
wheat-field of Gettysburg to the truce-compelling
flags of Appomattox. To-day its ranks are hon-
ored and spirit strengthened by the accession of
the famous old 3d Regiment, — that was Howard's.
Some impress remains of firm-hearted Roberts,
brave Charley Merrill, keen-edged West, and
sturdy William Hobson; but Charley Mattocks is
in command in these days, — a man and a soldier,
with the unspoiled heart of a boy. Three of these,
college mates of mine. What far dreams drift
over the spirit, of the days when we questioned
what life should be, and answered for ourselves
what we would be!

Now passes the artillery, guns all dear to us;
but we have seen no more of some, familiar and
more dear: Hall's 2d Maine, that was on the cav-
alry front on the first day of Gettsyburg, grand in
retreat as in action, afterwards knowing retreat
only in sunset bugle-call; Stevens' 5th Maine,
that tore through the turmoil of that tragic day,
and gave the Louisiana "Tigers" another cemetery
than that they sought on the storied hill; roaring
its way through the darkness of 1864, holding all
its ancient glory. Most of the rest we knew had
gone to the "reserve."

The pageant has passed. The day is over. But
we linger, loath to think we shall see them no more

The Last Review 359

together, — these men, these horses, these colors
afield. Hastily they have swept to the front as of
yore ; crossing again once more the long bridge and
swaying pontoons, they are on the Virginia shore,
waiting, as they before had sought, the day of the
great return.

We were to have one great day more. The Sixth
Corps had come up from its final service of perfect-
ing the surrender, and on this bright morning of
June 8th was to be held in review by honoring
thought and admiring eyes. We who had passed
our review were now invited spectators of this.
But there was something more. Something the
best in us would be passed in review to-day.

The military prestige of this corps was great, and
its reputation was enhanced by Sheridan's late
preference, well-known. The city, too, had its
special reasons for regard. The Sixth Corps had
come up from its proud place in the battle lines in
days of fear and peril, to save Washington. Be-
sides, this corps was part of the great Army of the
Potomac.

The President and all the dignitaries were on the
reviewing stand as before. Multitudes were filling
the streets, and the houses bloomed their welcome
from basement to summit. The ordering was
much as before. Column of companies; files
equalized. Space now permits some features of a
regular review. Instead of close order, the column
moves at wheeling distance of its subdivisions;
all commissioned officers salute; division and bri-

360 The Passing of the Armies

gade commanders after passing the reviewing
stand, turn out and join the reviewing officer; the
bands also at this point wheel out and continue
playing while their brigade is passing. The am-
bulances, engineers, and artillery follow as before.

The symbol of the flag of this corps is the Greek
cross — the "square" cross, of equal arms. Sym-
bol of terrible history in old-world conflicts —
Russian and Cossack and Pole; token now of
square fighting, square dealing, and loyalty to the
flag of the union of freedom and law.

These are survivors of the men in early days with
Franklin and Smith and Slocum and Newton.
Later, and as we know them best, the men of Sedg-
wick; but alas, Sedgwick leads no more, except
in spirit! Unheeding self he fell smitten by a
sharpshooter's bullet, in the midst of his corps.
Wright is commanding since, and to-day, his
chief-of-staff, judicial Martin McMahon. These
are the men of Antietam and the twice wrought
marvels of courage at Fredericksburg, and the long
tragedy of Grant's campaign of 1864; then in the
valley of the Shenandoah with Sheridan in his rally-
ing ride, and in the last campaign storming the
works of Petersburg — losing eleven hundred men
in fifteen minutes; masters at Sailor's Creek, four
days after, taking six thousand prisoners, with
Ewell and five of his best generals, — of them the
redoubtable Kershaw ; in the van in the pursuit of
Lee, and with the Second Corps pressing him to a
last stand, out of which came the first message of
surrender.

The Last Review 361

First comes the division of Wheaton ; at its head,
under Penrose, the heroic New Jersey Brigade which
at the Wilderness and Spottsylvania lost a thou-
sand one hundred and forty-three officers and men.
Next, and out of like experiences, the brigades of
Edwards and Hamblen, representing the valor of
Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Penn-
sylvania, and Wisconsin.

Now passes Getty's Division. Leading is War-
ner's Brigade, from its great record of the Wilder-
ness, Spottsylvania, and Cold Harbor; then the
magnificent First Vermont Brigade, under that
sterling soldier. General Lewis Grant; as their
proud heads pass, we think of the thousand six
hundred and forty-five laid low at the Salient
of Spottsylvania. Now we think we see the
shadow of that "Light Division" with Burnham
storming Marye's Heights in the Chancellors-
ville campaign of 1863. For here, last, is the
Third Brigade, once of Neil and Bidwell, with
the fame of its brave work all through Grant's
campaign, led now by Sumner's ist Maine Vet-
erans, of which it is enough to say it is made up
of the old 5th, and 6th, and 7th Maine, — the hearts
of Edwards and Harris and Connor still beating
in them. Can history connote or denote anything
nobler in manliness and soldiership, than has been
made good by these? Commanding is the young
general, Tom Hyde, favorite in all the army, prince
of staff officers, gallant commander, alert of sense,
level of head, sweet of soul.

The infantry column is closed by Ricketts'

362 The Passing of the Armies

Division, its brigades commanded by Tnieman
Seymour and Warren Keifer, names known be-
fore and since. These men too, knowing what
was done and suffered — shall we say in vain? —
in that month under fire from the Wilderness to
Cold Harbor; in these two battles losing out of
their firm-held ranks a thousand eight hundred and
twenty-five men; knowing also of the valley of
the Shenandoah and the weary windings of the
Appomattox. Of the heart of the country, these
men: Vermont, New York, New Jersey, Ohio,
Pennsylvania, Maryland. These twelve regiments
were to close that grand procession of muskets,
tokens of a nation's mighty deliverance, now to be
laid down ; tokens also of consummate loyalty and
the high manhood that seeks not self but the larger,
deeper well-being which explains and justifies
personal experience.

Now follows the artillery brigade, under Major
Cowan; eight batteries representing all the varie-
ties of that field service, and the contributions of
Rhode Island, Vermont, New York, and New
Jersey, and the regulars. What story of splendors
and of terrors do these grim guns enshrine !

Now, last of all, led by Major van Brocklin, the
little phalanx of the 50th New York Engineers,
which had been left to help the Sixth Corps, pass
once more the turbid rivers of Virginia. Here
again, the train of uncouth pontoons, telling of the
mastery over the waters as of the land. This last
solemn passage now, waking memories of dark
going and dark returning, deep slumbering in our

The Last Review 363

souls. Thanks and blessing, homely pontoons!
Would to God we had a bridge so sure, to bear us
over other dark waters — out of the pain — into the
Peace !

Home again. Sixth Corps ! Home to your place
in our hearts! Encamp beside us once more; as
for so long we have made sunshine for each others'
eyes, and watched with hushed voices guarding
their rest; and wakened to the same thrilling call,
guided on each other through maze of darkness to
fronts of storm and over walls of flame !

Sit down again, Sixth Corps! with the Fifth and
Second, holding dear to thought the soul and sym-
bol of the vanished First and Third. Sit down again
together. Army of the Potomac! all that are left of
us, — on the banks of the river whose name we bore,
into which we have put new meaning of our own.
Take strength from one more touch, ere we pass
afar from the closeness of old. The old is young
to-day; and the young is passed. Survivors of the
fittest, — for the fittest, it seems to us, abide in the
glory where we saw them last, — take the grasp of
hands, and look into the eyes, without words!
Who shall tell what is past and what survives?
For there are things born but lately in the years,
which belong to the eternities.

CHAPTER X

SHERMAN S ARMY

THE day after the review of our Second and
Fifth Corps of the Army of the Potomac
was appointed for a review on the same
ground of Sherman's famous Army of the West.
A feeling of comradeship and admiration rather
than anything of jealousy or disposition for invid-
ious comparison took many of us over to witness
that grand spectacle. It was well worth a day's
devotion to see the men who had fought those
tremendous battles of the West and had marched
nearly two thousand miles, cutting through the
midst of an enemy's country with such demonstra-
tion of power that all obstacles fled before them.
And our admiration of the brilliant soldier who had
the ability to plan and the resolution to execute
a movement so masterly in strategy and tactics
lent a certain awe to our emotion.

The preparations for the review and the forma-
tion of the column were much as they were for the
Army of the Potomac. The sky was wonderfully
beautiful and the earth gave good greeting under
foot. As before, the streets were lined and thronged

364

Sherman's Army 3^5

with people, and the houses and especially the
stands in the vicinity of the President's House
were even more crowded than the day before.
The prestige of this army that had marched from
the Great River to the Sea, and thence up half the
Atlantic coast, bringing the fame of mighty things
done afar, stirred perhaps more the hearts and
imaginations of the people than did the familiar
spectacle of men whose doings and non-doings had
been an e very-day talk, and who so often had
walked their streets in hurrying ranks or pitiful
forlornness and thronged their hospitals, year
after year, in service and suffering, unboastful and
uncomplaining. But not a craven thought was in
our spirits because these that came after us were
preferred before us. We rejoiced in the recognition
given them and led in the applause.

Down the avenue poured the shining river of
steel, gay with colors and rippling with cascades of
mounted staff and burnished cannon. At the head
proud, stern Sherman, who with thoughtful kind-
ness had brought brave Howard, now ordered to
other important duty, to ride by his side in this
pageant. Following next is swarthy John Logan,
leading the Army of the Tennessee, and Hazen with
the Fifteenth Corps. Each division is preceded
by its corps of black pioneers, shining like polished
ebony, armed with pick and spade, proud of their
perfect alignment, keeping step to the music with
inborn stress. Significant frontispiece. Almost
equally interesting was the corps of foragers,
familiarly known as Sherman's "bummers, " follow-

366 The Passing of the Armies

ing each brigade. These were characteristic repre-
sentatives of the career of that army, and they
tried to appear as nearly as possible like what they
were in that peculiar kind of service. Their dress,
and free and easy bearing, as well as their pack-
mules and horses with rope bridles, laden with such
stores as they had gathered from the country
through which they passed, was a remarkable
feature in a military review.

We were told that General Sherman witnessing
our review had told his leading commanders that
our military appearance and even marching could
not be surpassed or even equalled by their own
men, and it was resolved that they would not make
the attempt to rival us in this regard but would
appear as nearly as possible as they looked while
"marching through Georgia. " But they did both.
As was to be expected, their marching was superb,
both steady and free, not as if forced for the
occasion, but by habit or second nature : distances
maintained; lines perfectly "dressed" on the
"guide left"; eyes steady to the front.

Further evidence of the liberality of their
commanders in yielding something to the spirit of
liberty, or at least to the instinct so significantly
planted in man to establish relations with the
kingdoms or subjects of nature supposed to be
below him, appeared in the tokens of personal
freedom allowed the men in the midst of their
military discipline and the formalities of this
occasion. The monotony of these formalities was
strangely relieved by what seemed to us Army of

Sherman's Army 367

the Potomac men hazardous breach of discipHne.
A comical medley of pets had their part in the
parade and the applause: in one of the regiments
an eagle borne on a perch beside the colors; in
others, a cat, or a coon, favorably mounted for
reciprocal inspection, as well as the pack-mules,
laden, as was their wont, with stores, — but mostly
quite a variation upon those issued by the com-
missary or quartermaster, symbols of extin-
guished domestic dynasties, and lost civilizations.
In another place, a genre picture of the farmyard :
milch-cows, ponies, goats, and figuring proudly
in the center Chanticleer, loudly defying his mates,
— no longer rivals, — responding lustily from some
corresponding elevation, whether allies or aliens.
As a climax, with significance which one might
ponder, whole families of freed slaves, as servants,
trustfully leading their little ones, obedient to fate,
silent, without sign of joy; more touching in some
ways than the proud passing column; more touch-
ing in some deep ways than the spectacle of captive
kings led in the triumph of imperial Rome.

So pass in due order of precedence all the corps
of that historic army, — the men of Shiloh, of
Corinth, of Vicksburg, of Missionary Ridge, of
Chattanooga, Chickamauga, and Altoona. We
cannot name them familiarly, but we accord them
admiration.

And now comes a corps which we of the Army of
the Potomac may be pardoned for looking on with
peculiar interest. It is the Twentieth Corps, led
by Mower, the consolidation of our old Eleventh

368 The Passing of the Armies

and Twelfth (Howard's and Slocum's), reduced
now to scarcely more than two divisions, those of
Williams and Geary. We recognize regiments that
had last been with us on the hard-pressed right
wing at Gettysburg: the 26. Massachusetts; 5th
and 20th Connecticut; 6oth, I02d, 107th, 123d,
137th, 149th, 150th New York; the 13th New Jer-
sey; the nth, 28th, 109th, 147th Pennsylvania;
the 5th, 29th, 6 1st, 66th, 82d Ohio; and the 3d
Wisconsin. We also gladly see the 33d Massa-
chusetts, with the gentle and chivalrous Under-
wood. Leading one of the brigades we recognize
the manly Coggswell of Massachusetts. These were
the men with Hooker on Lookout Mountain, in
"the battle above the clouds," whither also their
fame has risen. Not cloyed nor stinted is the
greeting we give to these returning men, — for
them, as for those that have passed on. Strong is
the brotherhood of a common experience, — the
kinship of a new birth to the broader life of a
regenerated country.

And now the shadows draw around us; for the
long summer day is scarcely long enough for the
mighty march of these far-marched men. General
Sherman has told us he mustered in these armies
when last gathered more than fifty-seven thousand
men. Well might the passing of so many fill all
the hours since the well advanced morning of the
start.

The shadows deepen. It has passed, — the
splendid pageant; it is gone forever, — the magnifi-
cent host that streamed from the mountains to the

Sherman's Army 369

sea; that flaming bolt which cut the Confederacy
in two, — or shall we say that left its deep track
upon the earth to mark the dark memories of those
years; or to shine forever as a token of saving
grace in the galaxy of the midnight sky?

The same high personages were on the reviewing
stand with the President as on the day before, — a
distinguished and august company. As General
Sherman with Howard and Logan after saluting
at the head of the column mounted the reviewing
stand and exchanged warm greetings with all,
Sherman took pains to make it manifest that he
refused to take Stanton's offered hand. This was
surprising to many, but those of us who while
encamped along the Southside Railroad after Lee's
surrender had occasion to know about the circum-
stances attending Sherman's negotiations with
Johnston for surrender, could not wonder at it.
When Sherman, supposing he was acting in accord-
ance with the policy of the government as he had
understood it from Lincoln, made terms for the
surrender of Johnston's army, involving matters
pertaining to the political status of the Southern
people and a policy of reconstruction, — undoubt-
edly therein exceeding any prerogatives of a mili-
tary commander, — the President disapproved of
them and gave directions for hostilities to be re-
sumed. But in carrying these into effect, Secretary
Stanton took an equally unwarrantable course in
his orders to Meade and Sheridan, and to Wright
(then at Danville), to pay no attention to Sher-
man's armistice or orders, but to push forward and

370 The Passing of the Armies

cut off Johnston's retreat, while in fact Johnston
had virtually surrendered already to Sherman.
Halleck repeated this with added disrespect; and
still more to humiliate Sherman, Stanton gave
sanction by his name officially signed to a bulletin
published in the New York papers entertaining
the suggestion that Sherman might be influenced
by pecuniary considerations to let Jeff Davis get
out of the country. This was not short of infamous
on Stanton's part. Sherman meant so to stigma-
tize it, and he did, in the face of all on a supreme
public occasion. With our experience of discipline,
we wondered what the next move of Stanton
would be. Sherman might have declined the
President's hand; but President Johnson had
assured him that he knew nothing about the
bulletins, as Stanton had not consulted anybody
nor shown them to any member of the Cabinet.
Had the President sanctioned them, I doubt not
Sherman would have resented the act from whom-
soever coming. Sherman was a "hale fellow
well met," but a hard fellow when unfairly
treated.

For all General Sherman's compliments on the
appearance of our army, he was quite sensitive
about the comparison of the intrinsic merits of his
army and ours. He did not hesitate to affirm that
his army was superior to ours in drill and discipline.
In precisely these points we could not agree with
him. It is true that his troops in passing in review
did keep their relative distances well, and their
shoulders square and eyes steady to the front,

Sherman's Army 371

while it may be possible that some of our men may
have turned their eyes towards the personages
they were honoring, — as surely is the rule of
courtesy in civil society, with which these men
might be more familiar. But I think the General
made too wide an inference from the narrow field
of his observed instances. If comparisons are to be
instituted, it may be that in marching his troops
surpassed ours. That had been a large part of their
business; our occupations had been more varied.
We had done some running on several occasions,
and a good deal of fighting. As to drill and
discipline, the direct comparative evidence was
scanty. But the probability "that the Army of the
Potomac would be deficient in these respects is
negatived by the presumption from the nature of
the case: in the military character of our com-
manders, and the exigency of the situation, which
demanded that the men should be made proficient
for their pressing need, and by every possible
means drilled, instructed, and inured to the dis-
cipline of the field; as also our proximity to the
capital and the eyes of exacting critics. Foreign
military observers had pronounced our drill and
discipline to be of the highest order.

It is possible that General Sherman may have
felt the usefulness of bold assertion on this subject
of his superiority in drill and discipline. We do not
deem the decision a vital matter for our fame; but
when invidious comparisons are announced by
high authority, we may justly call attention to the
evidence. In the qualities which make up human

372 The Passing of the Armies

nature our Western compatriots were certainly
our equals.

After this review, things were not so pleasant
as they might be in our big camps along the river.
At first the greetings were such as good-fellowship
and novelty of intercourse prompted. But we
were soon made aware of a feeling we had not before
suspected on the part of many of our comrades of
the Western army. We certainly had never had an
intimation of it among the many Western men in
our own army. There seemed to be a settled dislike
to us, latent at least, among Sherman's men. In a
certain class their manner was contemptuous and
bullying. They threatened to come over and
"burst us up, " and "clean us out. " Some directed
their objurgations upon the whole "East," — the
Yankees generally; and more against the Army of
the Potomac in particular. "You couldn't fight. "
— "You are babies and hospital cats." — "We did
all the marching and all the fighting. " — "We had to
send Grant and Sheridan up to teach you how to
fight." — "Lee licked you, and was running away
to get something to eat, poor fellow." — "You
wouldn't have caught him if we hadn't marched
two thousand miles to drive him into the trap."
On some of these points we might be a little tender;
though on the whole we thought the charge a
perversion of fact.

But we had some "Bowery Boys" and Fire
Zouaves in our army too; and what they wanted
was to get at these "Sherman's Bummers" and
settle the question in their own Cossack and Tartar

Sherman's Army 373

fashion. In fact, so serious did the discord grow
that the division commanders had to take positive
measures for defense, — as thoroughly as before on
the flanks of the Petersburg lines. We doubled
all camp guards, and detailed special reserves
ready for a rush; sleeping ourselves some nights
in our boots, with sword and pistol by our sides.
This was a serious condition of things. No wonder
Sherman asked to move his army to the other side
of the river. But the national authorities thought
this would savor too much of recognition of a new
secession, between the East and West. Such is the
strange nature, — the human, likeness of interest
holding masses together for the attainment of a
great common cause, in which they show both
loyalty and amity; but differences on a narrower
scale, quickly throw men into an attitude quite
antagonistic. It must be said that this hostile
feeling towards the East was not a general senti-
ment among our Western comrades, but only of a
certain class accustomed to put their individu-
alistic sentiments into execution more frequently
and energetically than their sense of loyalty to the
country. For our part, surely, we had no dislike
to Western men, but quite the contrary, as very
many of them bore close relationship to our New
England families ; and as to the merits of Sherman's
army we did not hesitate to do it justice or give it
sincere and generous praise. The taunts thrown
at us by men on that side met the retort from simi-
lar characters on our side that in their boasted
march to the sea they met only fat turkeys and

374 The Passing of the Armies

sucking pigs. What Httle truth there might have
been under this satire we were not disposed to
inquire, but did our best to rebuke such expressions
and cultivate all around a spirit of broad loyalty
and common good-will; as to the claim that
"Sherman's army did all the fighting," we rested
on the testimony of official figures, which showed
the losses of Sherman's army from Chattanooga
to Atlanta, 31,687 men; Meade's losses for the same
period, from the Rapidan to Petersburg, 88,387.
Time, however, soon settled these bickerings by
separation and return to the duties of a common
citizenship.

CHAPTER XI

THE DISBANDMENT

THE last days of our encampment before
Washington gave us plenty of work, es-
pecially for the officers, making up returns
of government property: arms, clothing, tents,
supplies of all kinds, for which they were re-
sponsible and must give satisfactory account before
they could be honorably discharged. For the most
part the men were to take their equipments
with them, as a matter of courtesy, I suppose,
as these belonged to the United States. It was
fair that these veterans should be allowed to take
to their homes the arms they had honored, and
permission was given them to purchase at a nom-
inal value, it would not have been too much if
the Government had granted these with such
proud associations, to cheer the soldier in his re-
sumed citizenship, rather than consign them to
rust and oblivion in government stores. What I
think very reprehensible was the practice per-
mitted of selling overcoats at a cheap rate
among workmen willing to buy them. This was a
degradation of the uniform and of the men, and

375

Zl^i The Passing of the Armies

should never have been permitted. A soldier's
overcoat should stand for honor and not for
poverty.

The men were kept at such work, whether of
drill or other military duty, as the situation
allowed. But it will be understood that it was no
easy matter to keep things smooth, when so many
men were congregated, and the imperative motive
for discipline and good order was overpassed.
The visitors became embarrassing. It was well
and it was pleasant to afford to soldiers and
their friends an opportunity to compare the
methods of army life and home life. But these
"friends" became a very extensive immigration,
and some of them disturbed our soldiers with
temptations of things that could not be tolerated
either in camp or home. It was necessary to
send some of these out of camp limits under escort
and sometimes to greater distance; and finally to
establish rigorous regulations about visitors.

On the other hand, visits of our officers and men
to the city soon became a feature of importance.
Fair attractions across the river, dinners, parties,
receptions, and other social entertainments, broke
in upon the monastic habits of even the higher
officers. A pleasant evening found most of them
on the civil side of the river. Applications for leave
of absence swelled to an inundation, and had to
be met with restrictions. At last the War Depart-
ment took notice of it ; and one night at about two
o'clock an order came from Stanton requiring
every commanding officer to sign a receipt, on

The Disbandment 2>T7

the order presented; and the result showed that
only two generals of our camp were in their
quarters.

Now that the approaching close of our long and
eventful career brought upon us a mood of reflec-
tion, we gave more free thought to many things
we had "pondered in our hearts." Our minds
were still affected by disturbing impressions as to
the peculiar management of tactics in our cam-
paign of the Appomattox. We could not under-
stand why the Army of the Potomac was so broken
up and buffeted about. No merely military reasons
for this could be conceived by us who certainly
were interested parties, and competent witnesses,
if not admissible as judges. This latter function
was not part of our duty, but to some degree our
privilege, and perhaps our right. We would not
criticize our orders when received, but were not
readily reconciled to measures which contradicted
common sense and, as we thought, military
economics. Why was the Army of the James
marched a long, hard jaunt from its position on the
right of the Petersburg lines and put in between the
Sixth and Second Corps of the Army of the Poto-
mac? Why not hold that army where it was next
to the James River, and let our Sixth and Ninth
Corps close in upon its left, and thus bring the
Army of the Potomac together, instead of wedging
it apart, and breaking up its continuity and
identity? And why, in the early operations of the
campaign, were matters so managed that the Fifth
Corps, which had by hard fighting made an impor-

378 The Passing of the Armies

tant break on the right of the enemy's defenses,
should in the midst of this success be suddenly
withdrawn, abandoning all its advantages to go to
the support of Sheridan's cavalry, which was not at
any strategic front, — instead of having this cavalry
support and follow up our infantry advance as the
exigencies of the situation, specific field orders, and
the main objective of the campaign justified and
required? And why, in the pursuit of the broken
enemy, were the Fifth and Sixth Corps time and
again transposed from extreme right to extreme
left, and the converse, now under Meade, now
under Sheridan, they hardly knew at any moment
which? And why was the Fifth Corps halted six
miles short of Appomattox Station, to let the
Army of the James pass it to join Sheridan at the
front? There was another matter which perplexed
our thought, although it brought honor rather than
injury to the Fifth Corps. Why did Grant leave
the front of Meade and the Army of the Potomac
where the principal negotiations with Lee had
already begun, make the journey to Sheridan's
front where Ord of the Army of the James was
in chief command, and arrange for the formal
surrender to be carried out at this point? And
why were the two remaining corps of the Army of
the Potomac dispersed and detailed elsewhere,
leaving its commander to exercise the functions
of a mere adjunct office? Was this because the
sterling Humphreys and Wright could not be
made prominent without bringing in Meade,
already doomed to the shades? We were left to

The Disbandment 379

our own opinions on these unanswered questions, —
and we took them home with us.

One question frequently brought to our minds
by outside inquirers was whether from our observa-
tion and experience we regarded Grant as a great
general, — particularly in comparison with Lee.
While our opinion could in no degree affect the
reputation of either of these generals, it might
disclose our own competency as judges. Hence, as
these memoirs are supposed to reflect the intellec-
tual as well as the military character of our soldiers,
it may be proper to express what I understood to be
their sentiment on this question.

But first let us understand the meaning of our
principal term. There are two conceptions of
great generalship : one regarding practical material
effects; the other essential personal qualities.
In the former view we regard Attila, Genghis Khan,
and Tamerlane as great generals. In the latter
conception, — that of intrinsic qualities, — there are
two views to be taken. This rank may be accorded
to one who has the ability to accomplish great
things with moderate means, and against great
disadvantages; of this William of Orange is an
example. Or, on the other hand, it may be applied
to one who can command the situation, gather
armies, control resources, and conquer by main
force. Examples of this are familiar in history:
Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon.

A current and I think correct definition of great
generalship regards not so much the power to
command resources, or the conditions of a grand

380 The Passinof of the Armies

theater of action, as the ability to handle success-
fully the forces available, be they small or great.
And this, it will be seen, involves many qualities
not readily thought of as military. Among these
is economy in the expenditure of force. Another
is foresight, the ability to count the cost before-
hand and to discriminate between probabilities
and possibilities, — prudence might be the word
for this, did it not border on hesitation, which has
wrecked some reputations, if it has made others.
There is also astuteness, the ability to judge
characters and the probable action of an adversary
in given conditions. And we may add htimanity,
regard for the well-being of the men employed in
military operations, which might come also under
the head of economics.

Having thus considered the qualities involved
in the term generalship, we will take up our opinion
of the title to it on the part of the two opposing
generals.

Grant was a strategist; he was not an economist.
He saw what was to be done, and he set himself to do
it, without being much controlled by consideration
of cost or probabilities. His mechanical calculations
often failed to hold good, — flank movements were
often belated, and so anticipated and neutralized
by the enemy's vigilance and celerity; direct front
attacks often proved direful miscalculation and
murderous waste. Great cost of human life in-
volved in a proposed plan was not taken into the
reckoning beforehand ; though regretted afterwards,
it was not given weight in laying plans following.

The Disbandment 381

Though he studied lines of operations, foresight
was not a characteristic of his; the resolve to do
overbore all negations, and obliterated the limits
of the possible. He so bent his energies on the
main object ahead that he did not consider the
effect of subordinate movements. He never seized
the moment to turn disaster into victory. He
seemed to rely on sheer force, rather than skillful
manoeuvre. Grant kept his own counsel, almost
to the extent of stolidity. He was rather critical
in his estimates of subordinates; but did not
study sufficiently the abilities and temperaments
of his antagonists; so he was sometimes out-
generaled— we do not like to say outwitted — by
them. We would rather say he was checkmated
by his own moves. He was tender-hearted, but
did not admit that sentiment into his military
calculations. We could see why he wanted Sheri-
dan and not Meade for his executive officer.

But for all this, and perhaps because of it,
Grant was necessary to bring that war to a close,
whether by triumph of force or exhaustion of
resources. His positive qualities, his power to
wield force to the bitter end, must entitle him to
rank high as a commanding general. His concen-
tration of energies, inflexible purpose, unselfishness,
patience, imperturbable long-suffering, his masterly
reticence, ignoring either advice or criticism, his
magnanimity in all relations, but more than all his
infinite trust in the final triumph of his cause, set
him apart and alone above all others. With these
attributes we could not call him less than great.

382 The Passing of the Armies

Then looking at the question on another side,
the great scale of action and its incalculable results,
we shall find this judgment abundantly cor-
roborated. He had a great problem before him,
involving issues which the wrestlings of nations
and of ages had left unsolved, — the confirmation of
a new world in its service to mankind and the
purposes of God. Grant was a chosen minister
of the Divine will, and in a manner was the re-
sponsible agent for the executionof this vast design.
He doubtless felt this.

And what was revealed from on high he realized
in fact. What other men could not do, he did.
And to one who did this, to one who led these
mighty hosts to mighty ends, we must accord the
rank of great, whether as general or as man. This
is the verdict of those who were witnesses, —
servants and sufferers, — and it is our proud
remembrance.

Our estimate of General Lee was that he exem-
plified remarkable ability as a commander. In
military sagacity and astuteness we recognized his
superiority. In singleness of purpose, and patient
persistence, like our own great commander, he was
remarkable. In his constant care for his men, and
especially in conduct after disaster, he won our
respect and in some ways our sympathy. We
regarded him as a master in military economy,
making best use with least waste of material.
And in defensive operations we looked upon him
as a skilful tactician, taking best advantage of a
situation.

The Disbandment 383

In offensive operations, however, involving
strategic considerations, he seemed to us not to
reach the ideal of generalship. His two positive
operations in Maryland and Pennsylvania, cul-
minating in the Antietam and Gettysburg cam-
paigns, must be accounted at best as failures,
detracting, we must say, from the highest concep-
tion of military ability.

At Antietam, where he made us the attacking
party, he showed his tactical skill in subjecting us
to terrible losses; at Gettysburg, where he chose
to take the offensive, he showed much less of that
skill ; and the result in each instance reflects on his
strategic ability, in not taking into account the
probabilities in such an enterprise. However, in
the main, considering the great responsibilities
with which he was charged and the great difflculties
which he had to meet and did meet so successfully
and for so long a time, we cannot consider him as
ranking less than great among generals, and of the
best of them.

As to personal qualities, Lee's utter unselfish-
ness, in fact his whole moral constitution, appeared
to us singularly fine. In his high characteristics
as a man he compelled admiration among those
who knew him, — even as we did, — and he will
command it for all the future.

We do not consider these statements of charac-
teristics as complete or conclusive. Whatever
may be the general or permanent estimate as to the
place of these great commanders, we simply record
this testimony from our own point of view.

384 The Passing of the Armies

A consideration which had great influence on the
habits of thought which go to confirm character,
was the cause in which each side was engaged. On
both sides we had been fighting for what we re-
spectively held to be the nature of our political
life as a people. On the Confederate side they were
fighting for existing institutions, having historic
warrant, and, as they claimed, constitutional
warrant also. As the war had to be carried on in
the territory whence the challenge came, there was
opportunity to make the gist of their cause very
clear and expressible in quite concrete terms. They
could say, for instance, that they were fighting for
their homes.

On our side the same general principles were
affirmed; but their application was not limited to
the existing status or institutions ; rather to guiding
and germinant ideals: the expressed intent and
purpose of our fathers in establishing the govern-
ment of one great people, and the inborn right of
every human being to make the best of himself,
and the duty of all to help him to this. That is
indeed a high ideal.

It was night around us; but overhead were the
stars. Things were in a chaos of transition; but
the forward look was clear. If in these later days
they have not yet been fully realized, these
principles have been clearly reaffirmed, and our
consecration has been made more binding by the
priceless cost of the vindication.

This vast concourse of citizen soldiers was now
about to be broken up, its individual constituents

The Disbandment 385

scattered widely over the land, to resume their
part in the wholesome and helpful activities of social
life. Going forth from their homes at the call of a
supreme duty, should they return home better or
worse men than they went? It had been a careful
and congenial effort of those charged with the
care of the men in the field, not only to provide
for their personal material comfort and well-being
as far as possible under the circumstances, but
also to encourage the keeping up and even the
growth of the nobler qualities of character. The
narrow and rude life of the field in warfare, so far
from the saving and salutary influences of home,
does not tend to promote the highest personal
elements of character. Not that this life neces-
sarily leads to vice; but no doubt it gives place to
negligence of the better social instincts, and thus
tends to narrow and harden the better sensibilities.
Hence the great care that should be taken that our
young men who sacrifice so much for the country's
well-being shall suffer no detriment to their manly
worth. Such care was manifest in the army life
within our knowledge, — both in our army and
Lee's, and presumably in others.

Then as to the reactionary effect of warfare on the
participants, — in the first place we cannot accept
General Sherman's synonym as a complete con-
notation or definition of war. Fighting and de-
struction are terrible; but are sometimes agencies
of heavenly rather than hellish powers. In the
privations and sufferings endured as well as in the
strenuous action of battle, some of the highest

2S

386 The Passing of the Armies

qualities of manhood are called forth, — courage,
self-command, sacrifice of self for the sake of
something held higher, — wherein we take it
chivalry finds its value; and on another side
fortitude, patience, warmth of comradeship, and
in the darkest hours tenderness of caring for the
wounded and stricken — exhaustless and unceasing
as that of gentlest womanhood which allies us to
the highest personality. Such things belong to
something far different from the place or sphere
assigned in the remark of the eminent exemplar
of the aphorism. He was doubtless speaking of
war in its immediate and proximate effects as
destruction. He did not mean to imply that its
participants are demons. As to that, we may say
war is for the participants a test of character; it
makes bad men worse and good men better.

After a while we were not looked upon with such
wondering interest as at first. Nay, — we began to
be feared as likely to be in the way of those who
had a preemption right to civil favors. Now our
camps were thinning ; our army was melting away.
We too, in this fading camp, had opportunity to
observe many things. Most manifest and largely
shown it was that not a few about the capital
were sorry the war was over; for this took the
"soft snaps" away from them, and the soft spots
out from under them. These persons soon pre-
tended to be sole judges and champions of loyalty.
There was a certain Demetrius once who made
silver shrines for Diana, and did not like Paul
because his teaching disturbed this sinecure. He

The Disbandment 387

skillfully therefore turned the issue upon religious
loyalty. "Not only is this, our craft, in danger to
be set at nought," he cries, "but also the temple
of the great goddess Diana would be despised, and
her magnificence destroyed, whom all Asia and
the world worshipeth. " And they all cried,
''Great is Diana of the Ephesians. " There were
some loud -mouthed "patriots" about the capital
whose zeal was rooted in the opportunity given by
the country's distress for their own personal greed,
and whose part in the service had been to get
government contracts, and furnish cheap meats and
musty and wormy hardtack and shoddy clothing
to our worn, suffering soldiers, and even defective
arms elsewhere rejected, to fail them in the des-
perate moment of the country's defense. There
were concerns there and in some of the loyal States
who made it their business to furnish even "bogus "
men, — men never born, and christened only by
them in lists of fictitious names, sold to recruiting
agents for towns trying to fill their quota of men
for the depleted army in the darkest moment of
the country's need, — and appropriate to themselves
the high bounties paid by towns to "avoid the
draft." Under the loud professions of such as
these, it was easy to see the real regret and disgust
they felt when the country had won its deliverance
and the war was over, and their opportunity gone,
■ — until they could get a chance at new commissions
and agencies in the whirlpool of reconstruction
then setting in.

Disturbed at the thought that some deserving

388 The Passing of the Armies

soldiers might be found by the Government for
places of trust and honor, these patriots began to
detract and undermine, by suggestions of "dis-
loyalty, " — an ambiguous phrase, meaning to them
not blind following of some party chief and boss.

The story that could be written of these things —
will not be written. Even the proofs have dis-
appeared in the free opportunities for this so easily
obtained. It was well known to some of us that
the records at the War Department had been
rummaged and that documents important for
truth and dangerous for pretenders had been with-
drawn and doubtless destroyed. It came to our
knowledge that even Treasury vouchers had been
tampered with and the rascality undetected.

The Government was kind : it meant to be just.
But in its great burden of responsibilities it could
not consider minor matters. The country had
been saved; other interests must adjust themselves
as best they could.

I feel that I must not omit to mention here a
species of injustice which affected us within
strictly military aspects. I refer to the incon-
siderate or reckless bestowal of brevets. This was
very unjust to merit as well as injurious as policy.
We had seen considerable lack of equity in this
matter before the close of the war in the unevenness
of scale on which different commanders secured
brevets for their subordinates. One result of this
was the relative injustice among those holding
similar commands in different corps. Warm-
hearted generals like Sheridan would be generous

The Disbandment 389

in their recommendation. Others of a severer
temperament would move more slowly. Clear-
seeing Humphreys, just and zealous for truth,
protested against this inequality and tried to
resist it, by recommending only for distinguished
merit. But the key-note had been set; and to
grant brevets for merit only would work practical
injustice considering that others had been so
promoted on other grounds. I have to confess that
in some vexation of spirit I resolved to keep up
with the best in recommending this honor for the
officers of my division at the close of the war.
But in the meantime the Government at Washing-
ton was adopting this sweeping policy. Everybody
was breveted one grade who asked for it, —
one general order embracing very many ranking
at one and the same date, which being arbitrarily
fixed at a time previous to the heavy fighting of
the last campaign, antedated the commissions of
several who had won that honor as a special dis-
tinction in battle. The meaning of the brevet is
honorable distinction; this leveled all distinction.
It destroyed the value of the brevet as recognition
of past service or incentive for the future. There
were those who had won their brevets while the
life blood ran from their veins, at the deadly front,
only to find themselves now equaled, parodied,
outranked even, by their own subordinates and
men who had scarcely seen the field at all.

I may remark that being included in that general
list referred to, although I had not asked for it
or in any manner suggested it, I declined this

390 The Passini^ of the Armies

brevet, but in the first battle of the last campaign
receiving the brevet of Major-General for special
service reported by my corps commander, I did
not officially accept the latter until we reached
Washington, and the army was about to be mus-
tered out. So this brevet was not officially recog-
nized by the Government in the final orders for the
disbandment of the army and my assignment to
another corps. In truth I did not feel it now as a
token of honor or an object of desire. The Govern-
ment, however, thereupon sent me the later com-
mission, which purported to be something worth
receiving with responsive regard.

Only the "Congressional Medal of Honor" had
been held sacred, — not to be bought or sold, or
recklessly conferred. It was held to be the highest
honor, — recognition of some act of conspicuous
personal gallantry beyond what military duty re-
quired. Knowing what has happened with the
cross of the " Legion of Honor" in France, and how
sacred the "Victoria Cross" is held in England, we
trust that no self-seeking plea nor political pressure
shall avail to belittle the estimation of this sole-
remaining seal of honor whose very meaning and
worth is that it notes conduct in which manhood
rises above self. May this award ever be for
him who has won it, at the peril of life, in storm
of battle, but let us not behold the sublime spec-
tacle of vicarious suffering travestied by the im-
position of vicarious honors.

To resume the narrative, on the first day of
July, while encamped before Washington, we re-

The Disbandment 391

ceived an order, which, though expected, moved
us most deeply. The first paragraph was this:

" Headquarters, Army of the Potomac,

"June 28, 1865.

"By virtue of special orders, No. 339, current
series, from the Adjutant General's office, this
army, as an organization, ceases to exist."

What wonder that a strange thrill went through
our hearts.

Ceases to exist ! Are you sure of that? We had
lately seen the bodily form of our army, or what
remained of it, pass in majesty before the eyes of
men ; while part of it was left planted on the slopes
of the Antietam, on the heights of Gettysburg,
in the Wilderness, on the far-spread fields and
lonely roadsides of all Virginia, — waiting the
Resurrection.

The splendor of devotion, glowing like a bright
spirit over those dark waters and misty plains,
assures us of something that cannot die! The
sacrifice of the mothers who sent such sons was of
the immortal. All this must have been felt by
those who gave the order. The War Department
and the President may cease to give the army
orders, may disperse its visible elements, but
cannot extinguish them. They will come to-
gether again under higher bidding, and will
know their place and name. This army will
live, and live on, so long as soul shall answer
soul, so long as that flag watches with its stars

392 The Passing of the Armies

over fields of mighty memory, so long as in its
red lines a regenerated people reads the charter
of its birthright, and in its field of white God's
covenant with man.

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