1864.] LINCOLN'S VIEW OF THE SITUATION. 413 CHAPTER XXXIV. BEFORE PETERSBURG. DURING the long June days, while Grant confronted Lee at Cold Harbor, Meade had the misfortune to excite the ire of the journalists. A Philadelphia correspondent wrote, that on the second night of the Wilderness battle he would have retreated had not Grant prevented it. Meade, with natural anger at this injurious statement, arrested its author, and, after compelling him to ride through the camps bearing the placard, "A Libeler of the Press," expelled him from the army. Other journalists, though not at all excusing the offender, were so indignant at this degrading penalty, that by common impulse, both those in the field and those at Washington omitted Meade's name for months from all their dispatches. If he issued an order, they spoke of it merely as "from head-quarters." If he directed a movement, they gave credit to the officer commanding in person. A stranger reading the papers would have been almost ignorant of Meade's existence. One day the Lieutenant-General told the President that he proposed to keep Lee in the vicinity of Richmond, while Sherman marched, destroying the confederacy. LINCOLN. "I don't know much about military technicalities, but, as near as I can understand, you propose to hold the leg, while Sherman takes off the skin !” GRANT.-"Yes, that's exactly what I mean.” A national convention of the Union republican party met at Baltimore to select a Presidential candidate. In vain did the politicians labor for Chase, and other eminent leaders; the people would have their favorite. When the roll was called, every State but one cast its entire vote for Abraham Lincoln. The Missouri delegation-under instructions 414 GRANT CHANGES HIS BASE TO THE JAMES. [1864. from their radical constituents, who fancied that the President had not supported them zealously against the conservatives of the same party-gave their votes for Grant; but afterward changed them, making Lincoln's nomination unanimous. A rumor was mentioned to the General that McClellan would be ordered to duty under him. He replied: "I would as soon have him for a corps commander as any officer I know." Grant's final report says: "My idea from the start had been to beat Lee's army north of Richmond, if possible; then, after destroying communications north of the James River, to transport the army to the south side and besiege Lee in Richmond, or follow him south if he should retreat." It had not proved "possible;" so, leaving Warren to hold Lee by a vigorous show of attacking, on the night of Sunday, June twelfth, Meade's troops moved swiftly across the Chickahominy, and over ground familiar to the surviving veterans of McClellan's sanguinary battles. This most skillful and difficult of all the flanking movements completely surprised Lee. At first he supposed it a blow against Richmond from the north side. The moment he discovered that it was not, he fell back into the city. After a march of fifty-five miles, which occupied two days, our troops were across the peninsula, and struck the James near Charles City Court-House. The pontoons were laid, and Grant directed Meade to push Hancock forward to aid Butler's army in surprising and capturing Petersburg-an important point at the head of navigation on the Appomattox, twenty-two miles from Richmond, and the focus of all the railways entering it from the south. He telegraphed to Halleck on the fourteenth : "Our forces will commence crossing the James to-day. The enemy shows no signs of yet having brought troops to the south side of Richmond. I will have Petersburg secured, if possible, before they get there in much force. Our movement from Cold Harbor to the James River has been made with great celerity, and, so far, without loss or accident." Abraham Lincoln replied with his own hand :— 1864.] SMITH'S FAILURE AT PETERSBURG. 415 "I have just received your dispatch of one P. M. yesterday. I begin to see it. You will succeed. God bless you all!” Butler's orders were, to take Petersburg immediately. At seven P. M., on the fifteenth, W. F. Smith attacked the northeast defenses, capturing a line of rifle-pits and several field-pieces, and dashing into the main works, where he secured three hundred prisoners and sixteen guns. Smith had delayed his attack until that late hour, awaiting Hancock's arrival; but, through some misunderstanding, Hancock received no order from Meade to advance until he had waited idly for several precious hours on the south bank of the James. When it came, he moved rapidly and was soon at the front. Being unacquainted with the region, he waived rank, and placed his corps under Smith's orders. It was bright moonlight, but Smith was ignorant of what lay beyond the captured works, and with a lack of continuous enterprise marvellous in so brilliant a soldier, he halted. He might have gone straight into Petersburg! Not only did he spend the night there, but the next morning he even waited for his men to breakfast. Then it was too late. Lee, learning by telegraph of his assault, instantly put every car to be found in Richmond upon the railway, and spent the night in throwing forward his troops to Petersburg. The next morning, from the strong fortifications, his veterans made our second attempt an utter failure. At six that evening, Grant having returned from the Army of the Potomac, which he had gone back to hurry up, Meade attacked again with two corps. Fighting continued through the night, with the capture of a few rebel works, some artillery, and four hundred prisoners, but without any decisive result. The remainder of the army coming up, the attempt was renewed on the seventeenth and eighteenth: but it proved impossible to dislodge Lee, and our baffled army sat down before Petersburg. Grant was sorely disappointed. Butler-a volunteer officer-on first approaching the city, had given up his own project for attacking on the north side, in deference to the earnest counsel of two West Point subordinates. Actually, 416 BUTLER "IN A BOTTLE, STRONGLY CORKED." [1864. only two rebel regiments defended the town on that side, and it could have been carried easily. Shortly afterward the rallying enemy drove Butler back into his works, within the triangle between the James and the Appomattox, and intrenched strongly upon his front, protecting the railway and the city. Of his position, thus cribbed, coffined, and confined, Grant's final report says: "His army, therefore, though in a position of great security, was as completely shut off from further operations directly against Richmond, as if he had been in a bottle strongly corked. It required comparatively a small force of the enemy to hold him there." The expression "bottled up" had been frequently applied to Butler's condition. It did not originate with the chief, but he used it as the most fitting. Just after the Lieutenant-General arrived, Lee withdrew a part of his troops from Butler's front to help defend Petersburg. The rebel regiments which were to replace them did not get in promptly, and Butler pushed forward, tearing up half a mile of railway. Grant directed him to hold the position at whatever cost, and gave orders to throw in the whole army if necessary. But on the afternoon of the seventeenth the rebels rallied and recaptured their works. We never again broke their line between Petersburg and Richmond, until just before the final surrender. Since starting from Culpepper Court-House, Grant's losses had been heavy, but he had inflicted incalculable injury upon the enemy in killed and wounded, besides capturing thirteen thousand prisoners. Rebel journalists, whistling to keep their courage up, exaggerated enormously the number of his casualties, but regarded him in their hearts as a relentless Fate, whose brooding shadow covered, inch by inch, more and more of their political firmament. Northern peace editors echoed their statements, and declared the change of base to the James a confession of the failure of Grant's plan, and the wisdom of McClellan's, attempted two years' earlier. But friend and foe alike 1864.] HEAD-QUARTERS AT CITY POINT. 417 conceded that he had conducted his marching and flanking movements with rare skill. During much of the time, he supplied more than a hundred thousand soldiers over roads so narrow that one wagon could not pass another, yet his men never suffered for food, nor did he lose a single wagon. He now established his head-quarters on the promontory, at the junction of the Appomattox and the James, known as City Point. There they were to remain nine months. Wharves and storehouses were built, and fleets of transports brought up supplies, ammunition, and bountiful stores from the Sanitary and Christian commissions. For a few days there was active work. The rebels attacked north and south of the James, but were easily repulsed. They fell upon Sheridan--on his return from tearing up railways near Gordonsville, and fighting Wade Hampton's cavalry-but, as usual, found him an ugly customer, and were glad to withdraw after losing five hundred prisoners. They attacked another cavalry general—J. H. Wilson-who had been destroying the Weldon, Southside, and Danville railroads, with better fortune. They captured his artillery and supply wagons, many prisoners, and a large number of negroes who were following him-but not until he had punished them severely, and had so broken their railways that it took two months to re-open them. An infantry movement by Meade to grasp and hold the Weldon road was repulsed, after hard fighting. The enemy, getting into a gap between two corps of the Union army, captured standards and guns, and twenty-five hundred prisoners, compelling the contraction of our left, and placing us on the defensive there for several weeks. A lull followed. After two months of terrible work the old troops wanted rest, and the re-enforcements required disciplining. On Grant's right, near Petersburg, he had already begun siege operations, and it was understood about head-quarters that no more general assaults would be made until the strength of the army should be greatly augmented. An officer writes of the early days of July : "Captains were sometimes commanding regiments, and majors brigades. CC |