Headquarters in the field, May 11, 1864, 9.30 P. M.A movement will be made to-morrow morning at daybreak of the troops in the manner following: General Smith will take all of his corps that can be spared from his line with safety, and will demonstrate against the enemy up the turnpike, extending his line of advance to the left, with his right resting, at the beginning of the movement, on the river at or near Howlett's house, pressing the enemy into their intrenchments with the endeavor to turn them on the left, if not too hotly opposed. General Gillmore will order one division of his corps to report to General Smith with two days rations ready to march at any time at or after daylight, at General Smith's order. General Gillmore will make such dispositions with the remainder of his corps as to hold the enemy in check if any movement is made upon the rear of General Smith or upon our lines from the direction of Petersburg, holding such troops as may not be necessary to be thrown forward by him upon the turnpike, in reserve, ready to reinforce any point that may be attacked. Of course, General Smith's demonstration will cover the right of General Gillmore's line of works, unless he [General Smith] is forced back. General Kautz has orders to proceed as soon as the demonstration of General Smith's troops has masked his movements from, at, or near Chester Station, to make demonstrations upon the Danville railroad for the purpose of cutting it. It is intended to develop [by this movement] the entire strength of the enemy in the direction of Richmond, and, if possible, either to force them within their intrenchments or turn them, as the case may be. If successful, it is supposed that the troops will occupy, during the night, the line of advance secured. General Hincks has orders to seize and hold a point [on the Appomattox] opposite General Smith's headquarters pending this movement. The commanding general fails to make further orders in detail because of personal explanation given to each corps commander of the movement intended. Respectfully,
Major-General Gillmore, Commanding Tenth Army Corps:Benj. F. Butler, Major-General Commanding.
This text is part of:
Table of Contents:
[650]
contemplated movement I gave them rest, and to put the lines in the best possible order to be held with a small force, I rested on the 11th, making ready to move by daylight on the 12th.
On the 11th the following orders were issued to the corps commanders and preparations were made to carry them out:--
A. M. Thayer and Co. 1892.
Tufts University provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.