Adam Badeau, Military history of Ulysses S. Grant from April 1861 to April 1865. Volume 2

When Crook received his orders to rejoin Sheridan, he was very unwilling to obey, and went in person to Grant to complain. His troops, he said, were tired and worn; they had marched all day, forded the river, and fought a battle, in which they had been repelled. Not a thousand men were fit to move. But Grant was peremptory; the emergency was immediate; Sheridan had asked, and Crook was obliged to conform. Accordingly, the cavalry crossed the stream again in the night, and set out to rejoin Sheridan.

At the same time Grant sent directions to Ord to hasten on the heels of Sheridan, picking up Griffin's corps at Prince Edward on the way, and with both corps to attack the head and front of Lee.

To Sheridan himself he said: ‘The Second and Sixth corps will press the enemy to-morrow on the north side of the river, the Sixth corps keeping next to the river. The Fifth and Twenty-fourth corps will push up by Prospect station, and will be ready to turn upon the enemy at any time. I will move my Headquarters up by the south bank in the morning.’ At 9.30 P. M., he instructed Meade to the same effect, and added: ‘The enemy cannot go to Lynchburg, possibly. I think there is no doubt but that Stoneman entered that city this morning. I will move my Headquarters up with the troops in the morning, probably to Prospect station.’

Stoneman had indeed started, in the last days of March, from East Tennessee, in obedience to the orders of Grant, and was at this time moving against