SECRETARY STANTON'S REPORT OF AFFAIRS. 497 the North Anna River without serious opposition. During that night he destroyed the enemy's dépôt at Beaver Dam, three large trains of cars, and one hundred cars, two fine locomotives, two hundred thousand pounds of bacon, and other stores, amounting in all to a million and a half of rebel rations; also, the telegraph and railroad track for about ten miles, embracing several culverts, and recaptured three hundred and seventy-eight of our men, including two colonels, one major, and several other officers. On the morning of the 10th, he resumed operations, crossing the South Anna at Grand Squirrel Bridge, and went into camp about daylight. On the 11th he captured Ashland Station. At this point he destroyed one locomotive and a train of cars, an engine-house, and two or three government buildings, containing a large amount of stores. He also destroyed six miles of railroad, embracing six culverts, two trestle bridges, and the telegraph wires. About seven o'clock, A. M., of the 11th, he resumed the march on Richmond. He found the rebel Stuart with his cavalry concentrated at Yellow Tavern, and immediately attacked him. After an obstinate contest, he gained possession of the Brockle Turnpike, capturing two pieces of artillery, and driving the enemy's forces back toward Ashland and across the north fork of the Chickahominy-a distance of four miles At the same time a party charged down the Brock road and captured the first line of the enemy's works around Richmond. During the night he marched the whole of his command between the first and second line of the enemy's works, on the bluffs overlooking the line of the Virginia Central Railroad and the Mechanicsville Turnpike. After demonstrating against the works and finding them very strong, he gave up the intention of assaulting, and determined to recross the Chickahominy at Meadow Bridge. It had been partially destroyed by the enemy, but was repaired in about three hours, under a heavy artillery fire from a rebel battery. General Merritt made the crossing, attacked the enemy, and drove him off handsomely, the pursuit continuing as far as Gaines's Mill. The enemy, observing the recrossing of the Chickahominy, came out from his second line of works. A brigade of infantry and a large number of dismounted cavalry attacked the divisions of Generals Gregg and Wilson; but, after a severe contest, were repulsed and driven behind their works. Gregg and Wilson's divisions, after collecting the wounded, recrossed the Chickahominy on the afternoon of the 12th. The corps encamped at Walnut Grove and Gaines's Mill. At nine o'clock, A. M., of the 13th, the march was resumed, and our forces encamped at Bottom Bridge. The command is in fine spirits. The loss of horses will not exceed one hundred. All the wounded were brought off except about thirty cases of mortally wounded, and these were well cared for in the farm-houses of the country. The wounded will not exceed two hundred and fifty, and the total loss not over three hundred and fifty. The Virginia Central Railroad bridges over the Chickahominy, and other trestle-bridges, one sixty feet in length, one thirty feet, and one twenty feet, and the railroad for a long distance south of the Chickahominy, were destroyed. Great praise is given the division commanders, Generals Gregg, Wilson, and Merritt, Generals Custer, and Davies, and Colonels Gregg, Divine, Chapman, McIntosh, and Gibbs, brigade commanders. All the officers and men behaved splendidly. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. Such was the posture of affairs when the Secretary rereceived over the wires, trembling to the messages of a nation's struggle for life, "at noon of night," the words of cheer from the heroes of the battle-field. Friday, May 14th, the opposing armies again met in the shock of battle. The corps of Burnside and Hancock advanced upon Lee's right wing, covering Spottsylvania Court-House. Over a broken, hilly, piny wilderness, where no man could walk erect, and crowded with rifle-pits, with unfaltering steps the "boys" moved forward, pushing the enemy backward to his main line of intrenchments. There were deeds of unrivaled valor before the sun of Friday set. Three regiments of Hartrauft's brigade were flanked on the left, and nearly surrounded; but upon the demand to surrender, refused, and fought hand-to-hand for their colors, until resistance was in vain, and a part of the troops were taken prisoners. Three thousand Union troops had fallen in this engagement. Saturday was a pause after the strife of eight long hours, while General Grant's sleepless watch of his great antagonist made the comparative quiet most valuable to him in the modification of his plans, to meet the changed aspect of the field. Both armies were busy burying those who had fought their last battle, and heeded not the war of elements which drenched but could not cleanse the crimsoned soil. Intrenchments were thrown up, and, excepting a little skirmishing, the embattled hosts rested from the harvest of death. ARRIVAL OF RE-ENFORCEMENTS. 499 CHAPTER XXIV THE DEEPENING CONFLICT. The Struggle renewed.-General Grant's skillful Movements of his Army.-Cold Harbor. The grand March to the James River.-Assault on PetersburgIncidents.-Burnside's Mines.-Naval Victories.-General Grant and the Grandmother of General McPherson.-General Sherman and Affairs in the Southwest. THE interlude of quiet had its own unwritten history of sad and cheerful scenes-the erection and marking of headboards to many graves; the painful transmission of the fate of the killed, wounded, and captured, to the scattered homes they left in the strength of manhood; the messages of love from the uninjured; the chapel-tent scenes of prayer and praise-all filled up the soldier's leisure moments. The 18th of May broke the rest of the great armies. General Grant had prepared, during the previous night, for an attack upon his unyielding antagonist, by massing his forces on Lee's left, to break it, if possible, and turn it -a bold movement, the more hopeful because unexpected from that quarter by the foe, who supposed that portion of the line to have been quite abandoned for any decisive work. On this early spring morning the assault began; but the enemy was not unprepared for it. The rifle-pits captured on the 12th were retaken, and then came the stern resistance which opened again the sanguinary contest. General Wright's Sixth Corps was on the right, and next the Second Corps, and, further to the left, a portion of Burnside's corps. The useless havoc of the attempt to scale the works in the fire of the rifle-pits was abandoned, and a few days of rest followed, during which twenty-five thousand fresh and excellent troops were added to the Army of the Potomac. May 20th, the army was once more in motion. The unequaled flanker was again upon his enemy, and soon forced him out of Spottsylvania Court-House, making a retreat toward his capital behind North Anna River. Our pursuit was close, and attended by an attack resulting in but little loss to us, and a repulse to the rebels. Lee, finding he was fairly flanked again, retired to the South Anna, where he was protected by strong fortifications. Avoiding collisions by another flank movement, in the direction of Hanover Junction, the thwarted chief was compelled to evacuate his stronghold. The 27th, General Sheridan, with two divisions of cavalry, seized Hanover Ferry and Hanovertown, the crossing-places on Pamunkey River. Two days later, the whole army was over the stream, and in position three miles from its banks. Thus was another of General Grant's brilliant and daring maneuvers crowned with complete success. On Sunday, the 29th, his army was encamped in a fertile country, within fifteen miles of Richmond. By this admirable movement, he not only turned Lee's works on the Little River and the South Anna, and avoided the hazard of crossing those two strongly defended rivers, but made himself master of the situation with regard to his new base of supplies. He was furthermore left entirely free as to the route by which he would attack Richmond, and be in full communication and co-operation with the column under General Butler. All this was accomplished within twenty-four days from the day when he struck tents at Culpepper Court-House. What enormous strides he made toward the heart of the rebellion within that brief period, and all by disembar rassing his movements of the necessity of looking back to one inflexible line of communications and one unchanging base of supplies. This was his simple strategy, though the execution of it was as brave and brilliant as its conception was bold and original. It was this same strategy that made the march from Bruinsburg to Vicksburg one unbroken series of victories. He was master of the Peninsula without having uncovered Washington for a single hour, and without having created the necessity of leaving one-fourth of his army be THE CONDITION AT THE END OF MAY. 501 hind for the defense of that city. He had uncontrolled choice of a line of attack on Richmond on every side but one. His cavalry had traversed the whole country, and knew all the roads and all the topography. He had communication with General Butler's force, and could unite the two armies whenever the occasion demanded. And finally he could supply his troops by the Pamunkey or the James at his own option. These results were the achievements of a master hand in the art of war. This removal of the seat of war from the Orange and Alexandria Railroad to the very walls of Richmond completed a cycle of two years in the history of the rebellion. Hanover, White House, Cold Harbor, Shady Grove Church, are names with which we were familiar on the 31st of May, 1862. Then, however, every stream, every swamp, every line of rifle-pits brought our forces to a halt, until days ran into weeks, and weeks into weary months of waiting. But now the great column moved irresistibly on, for at its head there was a skillful and active soldier, a man who knew no such word as halt after he once was in motion, and was appalled by no obstructions, and least of all by phantoms. Such was the posture of the contending armies at the close of the great battle-month of May. General Lee's anticipated path of march for General Grant was undisturbed by the tramp of the legions of the Republic, and the Napoleon of the rebellion was compelled to see his visions of victory fade before the humiliation of a new and more doubtful field of contest, nearer than ever the walls of Richmond. During the month of sanguinary progress by the Potomac Army, General Sherman's splendid columns had been sweeping down upon Atlanta, in the Southwest, making Buzzard's Roost, Dalton, and Resaca, historical names by the victories and the strategy of the resistless advance toward the Georgia stronghold. With June came the fiercely-fought battles of Cold Harbor. On the 4th, General Grant telegraphed to the War Department the following statement :-"About seven P. M., of Friday, June 31, the enemy suddenly attacked |