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Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, The Passing of the Armies: The Last Campaign of the Armies., Chapter 5: the week of flying fights. (search)
t daylight 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, Mis 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 official 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 turn his back on Miles on the very
John Esten Cooke, Wearing of the Gray: Being Personal Portraits, Scenes, and Adventures of War., Lee's last battles. (search)
whole country agreed that in this man and his army lay the only hope of the Southern Confederacy. If the reader realizes what I have thus tried to express, he may form some idea of the crushing ordeal through which General Lee was, on the 2d of April, called upon to pass. The brief particulars about to be set down may furnish the candid historian of the future with material to form an unbiassed judgment of General Lee and his retreat. I am mistaken if the narrative, however brief and the great proportions and noble character of the individual-his constancy under heavy trials, and his majestic equanimity in face of a misfortune the most cruel, perhaps, which a soldier can be called on to bear. Soon after sunrise on the 2d of April the Federal columns, in heavy mass, advanced from the outer line of works, which they had carried at daybreak, to attack General Lee in his inner intrenchments near Petersburg. When the present writer reached the vicinity of army headquarters
The Annals of the Civil War Written by Leading Participants North and South (ed. Alexander Kelly McClure), Confederate negro enlistments. (search)
and T. B. Turner, to raise a company or companies of negro volunteers at Richmond, and muster them into the service. These volunteers were called for under the several acts of the Confederate Congress and the Legislature of Virginia, and every man was called upon to constitute himself a recruiting officer. The rendezvous was established at Smith's factory, Twenty-first street, between Main and Carey streets. But this call was only made on the 10th of March, and Richmond was evacuated on April 2d, while Lee's surrender took place on the 9th. The Confederate Congress adjourned sine die on the 17th, and the last issue of the Richmond Sentinel, my authority in these matters, is dated April 1st, when Sheridan had already forced Lee's lines. Mr. Lincoln, apparently, did not think much of the impressment and enlisting of slaves. He said, in a speech made at Washington on the 17th of March, that the negro could not stay at home and make bread and fight at the same time, and he did not c
The Annals of the Civil War Written by Leading Participants North and South (ed. Alexander Kelly McClure), How Jefferson Davis was overtaken. (search)
Secret History of the Southern Confederacy, Gathered Behind the Scenes in Richmond, by Edward A. Pollard, author of The lost cause, etc., an octavo volume bearing the imprint of the National Publishing Company, 1869: In the morning of the 2d of April, General Lee saw his line broken at three points, at each of which a whole Federal corps had attacked, and all day long the enemy was closing on the works immediately enveloping Petersburg. But the work, decisive of the war, was done in two he thousand strong, an aggregate of nearly fifteen thousand men, all splendidly mounted, armed, and equipped, and, what was better still, inspired by the belief that they were invincible. It will be remembered that after the capture of Selma, on April 2d (which took place at nightfall of the very Sunday that Davis fled from Richmond), and the passage of the victorious cavalry to the south side of the Alabama, their march was directed to the eastward by the way of Montgomery, Columbus, West Point
The Annals of the Civil War Written by Leading Participants North and South (ed. Alexander Kelly McClure), The battle of Shiloh. (search)
ust or not, can hereafter, perhaps, be better determined. General Sherman says the camp was chosen by General Smith, and by his orders he (Sherman and Hurlbut) took position. He further says: I mention for future history that our right flank was well guarded by Owl and Snake creeks, our left by Lick creek, leaving us simply to guard our front. No stronger position was ever held by any army. --(Record of court-martial, Memphis, Tennessee, August, 1862.) When the writer reached Shiloh (April 2d) he found the impression general that a great battle was imminent. Experienced officers believed that Beauregard and Johnston would strike Grant or the Army of the Tennessee before Buell could unite the Army of the Ohio. We found the army at Shiloh listless of danger, and in the worst possible condition of defense. The divisions were scattered over an extended space, with great intervals, and at one point a most dangerous gap. Not the semblance of a fortification could be seen. The ent
Thomas C. DeLeon, Four years in Rebel capitals: an inside view of life in the southern confederacy, from birth to death., Chapter 37: dies irae-dies illa. (search)
on. Then it would down, down again, lower than before. With the end of March the enemy made new combinations. His whole disjointed attacks had been against the South Side road, the main artery of supply and retreat. He had ceased organized attacks on the works, and sought only to strike the communications. Now, Sheridan, with a formidable force, was sent to Five Forks; and Richmond heard, on the first day of April, of desperate fighting between him and Pickett. Next morning, the 2d April, rose as bright a Sunday as had shone in all Richmond that spring. The churches were crowded, and plainly-dressed women-most of them in mourning-passed into their pews with pale, sad faces, on which grief and anxiety had both set their handwriting. There were few men, and most of these came in noisily upon crutches, or pale and worn with fever. It was no holiday gathering of perfumed and bedizened godliness, that Sunday in Richmond. Earnest men and women had come to the house of God,
Fitzhugh Lee, General Lee, Chapter 14: siege of Petersburg. (search)
. Colonel Horace Porter, his aid-de-camp, first gave him the news of Sheridan's success at 9 P. M. that night as he was sitting before a blazing camp fire with his blue cavalry overcoat on and the ever-present cigar in his mouth. He sent over the field-wires at once orders for an immediate assault along the lines, but subsequently directed the attack to be made at 4 A. M. the next day. All during the night a bombardment was kept up on all portions of the Confederate lines. At dawn on Sunday, April 2d, Parke and Wright, with the Ninth and Sixth Corps, and Ord, with the Army of the James, successfully assaulted the attenuated lines in their front. The task was easy, and while handfuls of brave men heroically resisted, like shooting stars their course was brilliant but brief. The storming pioneer parties everywhere cut away the abatis and chevaux-de-frise, and through the opening the blue masses poured into the works. There were high parapets and high relief and deep ditches; but th
Fitzhugh Lee, General Lee, Chapter 15: evacuation of Richmond and the Petersburg lines.--retreat and surrender. (search)
Chapter 15: evacuation of Richmond and the Petersburg lines.--retreat and surrender. General Lee on the morning of April 2d telegraphed Breckinridge, Secretary of War, that it was necessary his position should be abandoned that night, or run the risk of being cut off in the morning; it will be a difficult but I hope not an ilved the evacuation of its position; but he was not prepared for a precipitate announcement to that effect, or indeed for any change of affairs for two weeks. On April 2d he occupied his accustomed seat, about the center of the middle aisle, in St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Richmond, much interested as usual in the services conductrections, but by the remaining one Johnston might be reached, and his communications by the Danville Railroad with the South be maintained. On the afternoon of April 2d Lee issued orders for his troops to leave their lines everywhere at 8 P. M., and take up the line of march for Amelia Court House. This little village is on
Ulysses S. Grant, Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Struck by a bullet-precipitate retreat of the Confederates--intrenchments at Shiloh--General Buell-General Johnston--remarks on Shiloh (search)
out in an offensive campaign which would restore all that was lost, and if successful accomplish still more. We have the authority of his son and biographer for saying that his plan was to attack the forces at Shiloh and crush them; then to cross the Tennessee and destroy the army of Buell, and push the war across the Ohio River. The design was a bold one; but we have the same authority for saying that in the execution Johnston showed vacillation and indecision. He left Corinth on the 2d of April and was not ready to attack until the 6th. The distance his army had to march was less than twenty miles. Beauregard, his second in command, was opposed to the attack for two reasons: first, he thought, if let alone the National troops would attack the Confederates in their intrenchments; second, we were in ground of our own choosing and would necessarily be intrenched. Johnston not only listened to the objection of Beauregard to an attack, but held a council of war on the subject on th
Ulysses S. Grant, Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Interview with Sheridan-Grand movement of the Army of the Potomac-Sheridan's advance on five Forks-battle of five Forks-Parke and Wright storm the enemy's line-battles before Petersburg (search)
, either designedly on their part or because they could not help it. Sheridan with the cavalry and 5th corps is above them. Miles's division, 2d corps, was sent from the White Oak Road to Sutherland Station on the South Side Railroad, where he met them, and at last accounts was engaged with them. Not knowing whether Sheridan would get up in time, General Humphreys was sent with another division from here. The whole captures since the army started out gunning will amount to not less than twelve thousand men, and probably fifty pieces of artillery. I do not know the number of men and guns accurately however. * * * I think the President might come out and pay us a visit to-morrow. U. S. Grant, Lieutenant-General During the night of April 2d our line was intrenched from the river above to the river below. I ordered a bombardment to be commenced the next morning at five A. M., to be followed by an assault at six o'clock; but the enemy evacuated Petersburg early in the morning.
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