CHAPTER X.

Opening of the great campaign of 1864.-Precise account of Gen. Lee's plans.-He acts with his accustomed boldness, and takes the offensive.-Actions of the 5th and 6th May.-General Lee determines to lead a critical assault.-Protest of the soldiers.-Grant resorts to manœuvre.—Spottsylvania Court-House.-—General Lee again in the extreme front of his men.—A thrilling spectacle.-Heroic action of Gordon.-" Gen. Lee to the rear!"-Account of the strategy from Spottsylvania Court-House to the vicinity of Richmond.—Grant on the old battle-field of McClellan. His army defeated in ten minutes at Cold Harbour.-His losses in one month exceed Lee's whole army.-Precise statement of the odds against Gen. Lee.-Reflections on the nature and degrees of generalship.-Comparison of the two rival commanders of the North and South.

THE most terrible campaign that had yet happened in Virginia took place when the Federal army, numbering from one hundred and fifty to two hundred thousand men, under U. S. Grant, now acclaimed the hero of the North, and the little army of Lee, consisting of not one-third of that number, of all arms, with diminished strength, but unabashed front, came into the grand collision of the war, and upstarting in the days of spring, faced each other on the lines of the Rapidan.

At midnight of the 3d May, 1864, Grant commenced his advance in two columns, crossing the river at Germanna and Ely's Fords, and designing a turning movement on the right flank of the Confederate line. The passage of the Rapidan was not disputed by Lee. His army was positioned in echelon from the river to Gordonsville-the corps of Longstreet being near the latter place, that of Hill in the vicinity of Orange Court-House, and that of Ewell stretching thence towards the Rapidan, in the direction of Raccoon Ford and he immediately determined on a rapid concentration of his forces so as to give battle before the enemy emerged from the Wilderness, thus taking the offensive where Grant had expected him to fall back. The movement was characteristic of Gen. Lee, and displayed his accustomed boldness in seizing the opportunity of attack; there was no hesitation when he found his flank turned,

no thought of retreat; but an instant determination to make a rapid change of front, and fall upon the enemy before he should have time, by a march beyond the Wilderness, to lay hold of the Confederate communications with Richmond.

Such was the theory of the battle. In the morning of the 5th May, Ewell's corps, moving by the old turnpike, and Hill's by the plank-road, were in close proximity to the enemy's line of march. The action commenced by Ewell's advance, consisting of Johnson's division, making an impetuous attack on the enemy on the turnpike; it was momentarily repulsed; but joined by Ewell's other divisions, it resumed the offensive, broke Warren's corps, and gave a severe shock to the enemy's column, entailing upon it a loss of above 3,000 men. Later in the day the enemy concentrated against Hill, who, with his own and Wilcox's divisions, successfully resisted the repeated and desperate assaults, which continued until eight o'clock in the night.

Satisfied with the work of the day, Gen. Lee did not press his advantage, and awaited during the night the arrival of Longstreet's corps, which had to march from Gordonsville-forty milesto the scene of battle. It was appointed that Longstreet, on his arrival, should come upon the right flank of Hill's corps; but before he got into position, the enemy renewed his heaviest attack on that part of the line, and for a time carried away the whole hostile front, throwing Hill's division into confusion, and driving them back more than a mile. It appeared that the enemy was about to snatch a great victory; but, at the height of Hill's confused retreat, the head of Longstreet's division came upon the ground. There was now a pause on the enemy's side; a rehabilitation of the Confederate line, and then again, with a new breadth and weight, the battle was restored. But in the fury of the onset, which drove Hancock's corps back, and while Longstreet prepared for a decisive blow on his flank, he fell severely wounded, as he rode forward in front of his column, from a musketry fire of his own flanking force. The attack was stayed; Gen. Lee arrived to take charge of this critical part of the field, but precious time was obtained by Hancock to thoroughly reëstablish his position, now strengthened by fresh troops sent to him.

It was not until four o'clock in the afternoon that any new demonstration was made on the part of the Confederates. About

that time, Gen. Lee, having got well in hand the troops of Longstreet and Hill, prepared to make a desperate assault upon the enemy's intrenched position, where Hancock had taken refuge under the pressure of the former attack. At this anxious moment he expressed a determination to lead the assault himself; but as he moved forward to take his place at the head of the troops, an anxious murmur ran along the lines, and grim and ragged soldiers refused to advance unless their beloved commander retired to a place of safety. The protest was one of touching solicitude; the troops would not move while their commander was in the advance, but with shouts declared that they were ready to drive the enemy, and only waited for the word of command. It was given, and nobly did the men redeem the promise by which they had urged Gen. Lee's withdrawal from the post of danger. Within less than a hundred yards of the enemy's breastwork of logs, they delivered their fire, got temporary possession of the intrenchments, and only retired a little space under the heat and smoke of a conflagration which had sprung up in the woods, and was now communicated to the logs behind which the enemy had fought.

This closed the main action of the day. But on the Confederate left, about dark, Ewell gained the last success, moving a force around the right flank of the wing held by a portion of the Sixth corps, driving the enemy in confusion through the forest, and capturing Brig.-Gens. Seymour and Shaler, and the greater part of their commands.

The next day (7th May) the Confederates were found standing at bay behind their intrenchments; and Grant, now despairing, after two days of bloody battle, of finishing his adversary by the application of brute masses in rapid and remorseless blows, i.e., "bammering continuously," determined to resort to manœuvre, and to plant himself between Lee's army and Richmond, by a movement upon Spottsylvania Court-House. When darkness came he began his march to this new trial of fortune. Although in the battles of the Wilderness Lee had not obtained a positive victory, yet the result was a grievous disappointment to Grant, who had hoped to destroy his antagonist, and who, coming to the command of the Army of the Potomac with the declared opinion that it had never fought its successes out, had expected at one blow of his immensely superiour numbers, and without the aid of strategy, to

accomplish his work, and clear the road to Richmond. Disillusionized by the bloody experience of two days, he was now content to essay a new route, to attempt a strategic operation, and yet, in the end, to repeat the dreadful experiment of the application of brute masses and the competitive destruction of human life in the decision of the contest.

At Spottsylvania Court-House he found Lee ready to receive him and his entire army, right across the path by which he must march to get to Richmond. It was the repetition of the slaughter of the Wilderness. Of the battle which took place here, and its monument of carnage, the Richmond Examiner had the following

account:

"Grant attempted no manoeuvre; he relied on main strength; bringing up his ten lines at a run, each one close behind another, and dashing them like the waves of the sea against the rocks, on the breast works of the South. By these tactics, either a perfect victory is won, or an attacking army is lost. The first rush was successful on one point. The enemy broke through the blaze of the living volcano upon Johnson's men, leaped the works, took 2,000 men and 10 guns. But reserves were ready, and a charge of greater fury than their own drove them out in brief time. On all other parts of the line they were entirely unsuccessful; they were utterly repulsed with scarcely any loss to the Confederates, who fired with the advantages of rest, aim, and cover, but with a slaughter of the foe which is represented by universal testimony to have been the most terrible of modern warfare.

"The Confederate loss, killed, wounded, and missing, in all these battles, beginning with the Wilderness, and including that at Spottsylvania Court-House, was under 15,000. The Washington Chronicle, the organ of Lincoln, that sees all these things in the rose's colour, announces the depletion of Grant's army, by the battle of the Wilderness and other causes,' to have been on Tuesday evening ascertained at 35,000. To this awful figure must now be added the two days of unsuccessful assault on the breastworks of Spottsylvania-assault without manœuvre, full in front, with deep columns, each forcing the other on the muzzle of the guns.

"There are butchers of humanity, to whom the sight of their fellow-creatures' blood affords an intoxicating pleasure. They are indifferent whose blood it is, so it does not come from their veins.

And Grant is one of those charming individuals. His government and his Generals will not baulk him in the present instance. A large part of the army now in his hands is composed of the regiments enlisted for three years, and their time expires in this coming summer. They have resisted every inducement to re-enlist, and have formally notified the Secretary of War that they will obey orders so long as they are legally given, but no longer. The government is entirely willing that Grant should save it the trouble and mortification of giving the discharge to these veterans. He will use them, and he is using them."

At one time in the terrible contest of Spottsylvania, it seemed that the fate of Lee's army hung in the balance-the time when the enemy had taken a salient of the works and overrun Johnson's division, when Hancock sent to Grant his laconic dispatch: "I have finished Johnson, and am going into Early" (meaning A. P. Hill's corps, then commanded by Gen. Early). It was at this time that the quick and impetuous Gordon, commanding two brigades, Evans' Georgians and Pegram's Virginians, saw his opportunity and determined to check the enemy. His brigades were too short to extend across the front of attack; but he had determined to make a counter-charge, and by sheer audacity stem the current of the battle. At this fearful moment, when the men waiting the word of command could hear the pulses in their hearts, Gen. Lee himself was suddenly seen to ride out in front of the line, as if to lead the desperate charge. He took a position near the colours of the Fifty-ninth Virginia regiment. Not a word did he say. He simply took off his hat, as he reined up his gray charger. It was a spectacle that thrilled the senses of the men. But at this moment Gordon spurred his foaming horse to the front, seized the bridle-rein in the hand of his Commanding General, and exclaimed with passionate anxiety: "Gen. Lee, this is no place for you: go to the rear. These are Virginians and Georgians, sir-men who have never failed. Men, you will not fail now!" Loud cries of "No, no! Gen. Lee to the rear! Gen. Lee to the rear!" burst along the line. As his horse was guided a little way to the rear, his speaking eyes yet turned upon the men who carried upon their arms the trembling issues of the day, the command, "Forward! Charge!" rang out, and well did Gordon's brave troops redeem their promise; rushing through bush and swamp, coming so suddenly on the first