William Swinton, Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac

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[576] right would cause the retirement of his left flank, where was the greater accumulation of force, and that thus the Cox road would be rendered entirely free. The morning of the 25th of March was appointed for the attack. It was to be made by two divisions under Gordon; but to render it as forcible as possible, all the additional troops available (about twenty thousand men) were disposed ready to support it.

The opposing lines were, at the locality of Fort Steadman, very close—that work being on a considerable salient: so that the interval was not above one hundred and fifty yards. This part of the line was garnished by troops of the Ninth Corps. In the gray dawn the Confederate column of attack, having previously formed, moved out noiselessly from the works. The space to be overpassed being not great, a rush of a few moments brought the Confederates to the Union intrenchments, which must have been guarded with little vigilance; for Fort Steadman was surprised and taken by a coup de main. Of the garrison of the Fort, which was the Fourteenth New York foot-artillerists, many were taken prisoners and the rest fled. The Third brigade of the First division of the Ninth Corps met a similar fate. The guns of the captured redoubt were immediately turned by the Confederates on the neighboring works, and in consequence batteries Nine, Ten, and Eleven, on its flanks, were abandoned by the Union troops and occupied by the enemy.

Thus far the triumph; but it was destined to be shortlived. To rift open the system of Union works it was necessary that the wedge thus entered should be driven home; or, in other words, it was needful that the storming-party should be followed up and sustained by a powerful column to pass beyond and seize the commanding crest in rear of the Federal line. Till this was done nothing was gained; for in the system of fortification on which the Federal line was constructed, a partial break in the line was not an irretrievable loss—each work being so well commanded by those on its flanks that to make any one point tenable by an enemy every thing on its right and left must be cleared.