Books: With Lee in Virginia; A Story Of The American Civil War

G >> G.A. Henty >> With Lee in Virginia; A Story Of The American Civil War

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27

Tired of standing always on the defensive, the Confederate
authorities determined to carry out the stop that had been so
warmly advocated by Jackson earlier in the war, and which might
at that time have brought it to a successful termination. They
decided to carry the war into the enemy's country. By the most
strenuous efforts Lee's army was raised to 75,000 men, divided
into three great army corps, commanded by Longstreet, Ewell, and
Hill. Striking first into Western Virginia, they drove the Federals
from Winchester, and chased them from the State with the loss of
nearly 4,000 prisoners and 30 guns. Then they entered Maryland
and Pennsylvania, and concentrating at Gettysburg they met the
Northern army under Meade, who had succeeded Hooker.
Although great numbers of the Confederates had seen their homes
wasted and their property wantonly destroyed, they preserved the
most perfect order in their march through the North, and the
Federals themselves testify to the admirable behavior of the troops,
and to the manner in which they abstained from plundering or
inflicting annoyance upon the inhabitants.

At Gettysburg there was three days' fighting. In the first a portion
only of the forces were engaged, the Federals being defeated and
5,000 of their men taken prisoners. Upon the second the
Confederates attacked the Northerners, who were posted in an
extremely strong position, but were repulsed with heavy loss. The
following day they renewed the attack, but after tremendous
fighting again failed to carry the height. Both parties were utterly
exhausted. Lee drew up his troops the next day, and invited an
attack from the Federals; but contented with the success they had
gained they maintained their position, and the Confederates then
fell back, Stuart's cavalry protecting the immense trains of wagons
loaded with the stores and ammunition captured in Pennsylvania.

But little attempt was made by the Northerners to interfere with
their retreat. On reaching the Potomac they found that a sudden
rise had rendered the fords impassable. Intrenchments and
batteries were thrown up, and for a week the Confederate army
held the lines, expecting an attack from the enemy, who had
approached within two miles; but the Federal generals were too
well satisfied with having gained a success when acting on the
defensive in a strong position to risk a defeat in attacking the
position of the Confederates, and their forces remained impassive
until pontoon bridges were thrown across the river, and the
Confederate army, with their vast baggage train, bad again crossed
into Virginia. The campaign had cost the Northern army 23,000
men in killed, wounded, and prisoners, besides a considerable
number of guns. The Confederates lost only two guns, left behind
in the mud, and 1,500 prisoners, but their loss in killed and
wounded at Gettysburg exceeded 10,000 men. Even the most
Sanguine among the ranks of the Confederacy were now
con-scions that the position was a desperate one. The Federal
armies seemed to spring from the ground. Strict discipline bad
taken the place. of the disorder and insubordination that had first
prevailed in their ranks. The armies were splendidly equipped.
They were able to obtain any amount of the finest guns, rifles, and
ammunition of war from the workshops of Europe; while the
Confederates, cut off from the world, had to rely solely upon the
makeshift factories they had set up, and upon the guns and stores
they captured from the enemy.

The Northerners had now, as a blow to the power of the South,
abolished slavery, and were raising regiments of negroes from
among the free blacks of the North, and from the slaves they took
from their owners wherever their armies penetrated the Southern
States. Most of the Confederate ports had been either captured or
were so strictly blockaded that it was next to impossible for the
blockade-runner to get in or out, while the capture of the forts on
the Mississippi enabled them to use the Federal flotillas of
gunboats to the greatest advantage, and to carry their armies into
the center of the Confederacy.

Still, there was no talk whatever of surrender on the part of the
South, and, indeed, the decree abolishing slavery, and still more
the action of the North in raising black regiments, excited the
bitterest feeling of animosity and hatred. The determination to
fight to the last, whatever came of it, animated every white man in
the Southern States, and, although deeply disappointed with the
failure of Lee's invasion of the North, the only result was to incite
them to greater exertions and sacrifices. In the North an act
authorizing conscription was passed in 1863, but the attempt to
carry it into force caused a serious riot in New York, which was
only suppressed after many lives had been lost and the city placed
under martial law.

While the guns of Gettysburg were still thundering, a Federal army
of 18,000 men under General Gillmore, assisted by the fleet, had
laid siege to Charleston. It was obstinately attacked and defended.
The siege continued until the 5th of September, when Fort Wagner
was captured; but all attempts to take Fort Sumter and the town of
Charleston itself failed, although the city suffered greatly from the
bombardment. In Tennessee there was severe fighting in the
autumn, and two desperate battles were fought at Chickamauga on
the 19th and 20th of September, General Bragg, who commanded
the Confederate army there, being reinforced by Longstreet's
veterans from the army of Virginia. After desperate fighting the
Federals were defeated, and thirty-six guns and vast quantities of
arms captured by the Confederates. The fruits of the victory,
however, were very slight, as General Bragg refused to allow
Longstreet to pursue, and so to convert the Federal retreat into a
rout, and the consequence was that this victory was more than
balanced by a heavy defeat inflicted upon them in November at
Chattanooga by Sherman and Grant. At this battle General
Longstreet's division was not present.

The army of Virginia had a long rest after their return from
Gettysburg, and it was not until November that the campaign was
renewed. Meade advanced, a few minor skirmishes took place,
and then, when he reached the Wilderness, the scene of Hooker's
defeat, where Lee was prepared to give battle, he fell back again
across the Rappahannock.

The year had been an unfortunate one for the Confederates. They
had lost Vicksburg,' and the defeat at Chattanooga had led to the
whole State of Tennessee falling into the hands of the Federals,
while against these losses there was no counterbalancing success
to be reckoned.

In the spring of 1864 both parties prepared to the utmost for the
struggle. General Grant, an officer who had shown in the
campaign in the West that he possessed considerable military
ability, united with immense firmness and determination of
purpose, was chosen as the new commander-in-chief of the whole
military force of the North. It was a mighty army, vast in numbers,
lavishly provided with all materials of war. The official
documents show that on the 1st of May the total military forces of
the North amounted to 662,000 men. Of these the force available
for the advance against Richmond numbered 284,630 men. This
included the army of the Potomac, that of the James River, and the
army in the Shenandoah Valley-the whole of whom were in
readiness to move forward against Richmond at the orders of
Grant.

To oppose these General Lee had less than 53,000 men, including
the garrison of Richmond and the troops in North Carolina. Those
stationed in the seaport towns numbered in all another 20,000, so
that if every available soldier had been brought up Lee could have
opposed a total of but 83,000 men against the 284,000 invaders.

In the West the numbers were more equally balanced. General
Sherman, who commanded the army of invasion there, had under
his orders 230,000 men, but as more than half this force was
required to protect the long lines of communication and to keep
down the conquered States, he was able to bring into the field for
offensive operations 99,000 men, who were faced by the
Confederate army under Johnston of 58,000 men. Grant's scheme
was, that while the armies of the North were, under his own
command, to march against Richmond, the army of the West was
to invade Georgia and march upon Atlanta.

His plan of action was simple, and was afterward stated by himself
to be as follows: "I determined first to use the greatest number of
troops practicable against the main force of the enemy, preventing
him from using the same force at different seasons against first one
and then another of our armies, and the possibility of repose for
refitting and producing necessary supplies for carrying on
resistance. Second, to hammer continuously against the armed
force of the enemy and his resources until, by mere attrition if in
no other way, there should be nothing left to him but submission."

This was a terrible programme, and involved an expenditure of life
far beyond anything that had taken place. Grant's plan, in fact, was
to fight and to keep on fighting, regardless of his own losses, until
at last the Confederate army, whose losses could not be replaced,
melted away. It was a strategy that few generals have dared to
practice, fewer still to acknowledge.

On the 4th of May the great army of the Potomac crossed the
Rapidan and advanced toward Chancellorsville. Lee moved two
divisions of his army to oppose them. Next morning the battle
began at daybreak on the old ground where Lee had defeated
Hooker the year before. All day long tho division of Ewell
supported the attack of the army corps of Sedgwick and Hancock.
Along a front of six miles, in the midst of the thick forest, the
battle raged the whole of the day. The Confederates, in spite of
the utmost efforts of the Northerners, although reinforced in the
afternoon by the army corps of General Burnside, held their
position, and when night put an end to the conflict the invaders
had not gained a foot of ground.

As soon as the first gleam of light appeared in the morning the
battle recommenced. The Federal generals, Sedgwick, Warren,
and Hancock, with Burnside in reserve, fell upon Hill and Ewell.
Both sides had thrown up earthworks and felled trees as a
protection during the night. At first the Confederates gained the
advantage; but a portion of Burnside's corps was brought up and
restored the battle, while on the left flank of the Federals Hancock
had attacked with such vigor that the Confederates opposed to him
were driven back.

At the crisis of the battle, Longstreet, who had marched all night,
appeared upon the ground, drove back Hancock's men, and was on
the point of aiding the Confederates in a decisive attack upon the
enemy, when, riding rapidly forward into the wood to reconnoiter,
he was, like Jackson, struck down by the fire of his own men. He
was carried to the rear desperately, and it was feared for a time
morally wounded, and his loss paralyzed the movement which lie
had prepared. Nevertheless during the whole day the fight went on
with varying success, sometimes one side obtaining a slight
advantage, the other then regaining the ground they had lost.

Just as evening was closing in a Georgia brigade, with two other
regiments, made a detour, and fell furiously upon two brigades of
the enemy, and drove them back in headlong rout for a mile and a
half, capturing their two generals and many prisoners. The
artillery, as on the previous day, had been little used on either side,
the work being done at short range with the rifle, the loss being
much heavier among the thick masses of the Northerners than in
the thinner lines of the Confederates. Grant had failed in his
efforts to turn Lee's right and to accomplish his direct advance; he
therefore changed his base and moved his army round toward
Spotsylvania.

Lee soon perceived his object, and succeeded in carrying his army
to Spotsylvania before the Federals reached it.

On the afternoon of Monday, the 9th, there was heavy fighting and
on the 10th another pitched battle took place. This time the ground
was more open, and the artillery was employed with terrible effect
on both sides. It ended, however, as the previous battles had done,
by the Confederates holding their ground.

Upon the next day there was but little fighting. In the night the
Federals moved quietly though the wood, and at daybreak four
divisions fell upon Johnston's division of Ewell's corps, took them
completely by surprise, and captured the greater part of them.

But Lee's veterans soon recovered from their surprise and
maintained their position until noon. Then the whole Federal army
advanced, and the battle raged till nightfall terminated the
struggle, leaving Lee in possession of the whole line lie had held,
with the exception of the ground lost in the morning.

For the next six days the armies faced each other, worn out by
incessant fighting, and prevented from moving by the heavy rain
which fell incessantly. They were now able to reckon up the
losses. The Federals found that they had lost, in killed, wounded,
or missing, nearly 30,000 men; while Lee's army was diminished
by about 12,000.

While these mighty battles had been raging the Federal cavalry
under Sheridan had advanced rapidly forward, and, after several
skirmishes with Stuart's cavalry, penetrated within the outer
intrenchments round Richmond. Here Stuart with two regiments
of cavalry charged them and drove them back, but the gallant
Confederate officer received a wound that before night proved
fatal. His loss was a terrible blow to the Confederacy, although his
successor in the command of the cavalry, General Wade Hampton,
was also an officer of the highest merit.

In the meantime General Butler, who had at Fort Monroe under his
command two corps of infantry, 4,000 cavalry, and a fleet of
gunboats and transports, was threat cuing Richmond from the east.
Shipping his men on board the transports he steamed up the James
River, under convoy of the fleet, and landed on a neck of land
known as Bermuda Hundred. To oppose him all the troops from
North Carolina had been brought up, the whole force amounting to
19,000 men, under the command of General Beauregard. Butler,
after various futile movements, was driven back again to his
intrenched camp at Bermuda Hundred, where he was virtually
besieged by Beauregard with 10,000 men, the rest of that general's
force being sent up to reinforce Lee.

In western Virginia, Breckenridge, with 3,500 men, was called
upon to hold in check Sigel, with 15,000 men. Advancing to
Staunton, Breckenridge was joined by the pupils of the military
college at Lexington, 250 in number, lads of from 14 to 17 years of
age. He came upon Sigel on the line of march, and attacked him at
once. The Federal general placed a battery in a wood and opened
fire with grape. The commander of the Lexington boys ordered
them to charge, and, gallantly rushing in through the heavy fire,
they charged in among the guns, killed the artillerymen, drove
back the infantry supports, and bayoneted their colonel. The
Federals now retired down the valley to Strasburg, and
Breckenridge was able to send a portion of his force to aid Lee in
his great struggle.

After his six days' pause in front of Lee's position at Spotsylvania,
Grant abandoned his plan of forcing his way through Lee's army to
Richmond, and endeavored to outflank it; but Lee again divined
his object, and moved round and still faced him. After various
movements the armies again stood face to face upon the old
battle-grounds on the Chickahominy. On the 3d of June the battle
commenced at half-past four in the morning. Hancock at first
gained an advantage, but Hill's division dashed down upon him
and drove him back with great slaughter; while no advantage was
gained by them in other parts of the field. The Federal loss on this
day was 13,000, and the troops were so dispirited that they refused
to renew the battle in the afternoon.

Grant then determined to alter his plan altogether, and sending
imperative orders to Butler to obtain possession of Petersburg,
embarked Smith's corps in transports, and moved with the rest of
his army to join that general there. Smith's corps entered the James
River, landed, and marched against Petersburg. Beauregard had at
Petersburg only two infantry and two cavalry regiments under
General Wise, while a single brigade fronted Butler at Bermuda
Hundred. With this handful of men he was called upon to defend
Petersburg and to keep Butler bottled up in Bermuda Hundred
until help could reach him from Lee. He telegraphed to Richmond
for all the assistance that could be sent to him, and was reinforced
by a brigade, which arrived just in time, for Smith had already
captured a portion of the intrenchments, but was now driven out.

The next day Beauregard was attacked both by Smith's and
Hancock's corps, which had now arrived. With 8,000 men he kept
at bay the assaults of two whole army corps, having in the
meantime sent orders to Gracie, the officer in command of the
brigade before Butler, to leave a few sentries there to deceive that
general, and to march with the rest of his force to his aid. It
arrived at a critical moment. Overwhelmed by vastly superior
numbers, many of the Confederates had left their posts, and
Breckenridge was in vain trying to rally them when Gracie's
brigade came up. The position was reoccupied and the battle
continued.

At noon Burnside with his corps arrived and joined the assailants;
while Butler, discovering at last that the troops in front of him
were withdrawn, moved out and barred the road against
reinforcements from Richmond. Nevertheless the Confederates
held their ground all the afternoon and until eleven o'clock at
night, when the assault ceased.

At midnight Beauregard withdrew his troops from the defenses
that they were too few to hold, and set them to work to throw up
fresh intrenchments on a shorter line behind. All night the men
worked with their bayonets, canteens, and any tools that came to
hand.

It was well for them that the enemy were so exhausted that it was
noon before they were ready to advance again, for by this time
help was at hand. Anderson, who had succeeded to the command
of Long street's corps, and was leading the van of Lee's army,
forced his way through Butler's troops and drove him back into the
Bermuda Hundred, and leaving one brigade to watch him marched
with another into Petersburg just as the attack was recommenced.
Thus reinforced Beauregard successfully defeated all the assaults
of the enemy until night fell. Another Federal army corps came up
before morning, and the assault was again renewed, but the
defenders, who had strengthened their defenses during the night,
drove their assailants back with terrible loss. The whole of Lee's
army now arrived, and the rest of Grant's army also came up, and
that general found that after all his movements his way to
Richmond was barred as before. He was indeed in a far worse
position than when he had crossed the Rapidan, for the morale of
his army was much injured by the repeated repulses and terrible
losses it had sustained. The new recruits that had been sent to fill
up the gaps were far inferior troops to those with which he had
commenced the campaign. To send forward such men against the
fortifications of Petersburg manned by Lee's veteran troops was to
court defeat, and he therefore began to throw up works for a
regular siege.

Fighting went on incessantly between the outposts, but only one
great attempt was made during the early months of the siege to
capture the Confederate position. The miners drove a gallery
under the works, and then drove other galleries right and left under
them. These were charged with eight thousand pounds of powder.
When all was ready, masses of troops were brought up to take
advantage of the confusion which would be caused by the
explosion, and a division of black troops were to lead the assault.
At a quarter to five in the morning of the 30th of July the great
mine was exploded, blowing two guns, a battery, and its defenders
into the air, and forming a huge pit two hundred feet long and sixty
feet wide. Lee and Beauregard hurried to the scene, checked the
panic that prevailed, brought up troops, and before the great
Federal columns approached the breach the Confederates were
ready to receive them. The assault was made with little vigor, the
approaches to the breach were obstructed by abattis, and instead of
rushing forward in a solid mass they occupied the great pit, and
contented themselves with firing over the edge of the crater, where
regiments and divisions were huddled together. But the
Confederate batteries were now manned, and from the works on
either side of the breach, and from behind, they swept the
approaches, and threw shell among the crowded mass. The black
division was now brought up, and entered the crater, but only
added to the confusion, There was no officer of sufficient
authority among the crowded mass there to assume the supreme
command. No assistance could be sent to them, for the arrival of
fresh troops would but have added to the confusion. All day the
conflict went on, the Federals lining the edge of the crater, and
exchanging a heavy musketry fire with the Confederate infantry,
while the mass below suffered terribly from the artillery fire.
When night closed the survivors of the great column that had
marched forward in the morning, confident that victory was
assured to them, and that the explosion would lay Petersburg open
to capture, made their retreat, the Confederates, however, taking a
considerable number of prisoners. The Federal loss in killed,
wounded and captured was admitted by them to be 4,000; the
Confederate accounts put it down at 6,000.

After this terrible repulse it was a long time before Grant again
renewed active operations, hut during the months that ensued his
troops suffered very heavily from the effects of fever, heightened
by the discouragement they felt at their want of success, and at the
tremendous losses they had suffered since they entered Virginia on
their forward march to Richmond.

CHAPTER VIII. A PERILOUS UNDERTAKING.

VINCENT WINGFIELD had had an arduous time of it with his
squadron of cavalry. He had taken part in the desperate charge
that checked the advance of Sheridan's great column of cavalry
which approached within three miles of Richmond, the charge that
had cost the gallant Stuart his life; and the death of his beloved
general had been a heavy blow for him. Jackson and Stuart, two of
the bravest and noblest spirits of the Confederate army, were gone.
Both had been personally dear to Vincent, and he felt how
grievous was their loss to the cause for which he was fighting; but
he had little time for grief. The enemy, after the tremendous
battles of the Wilderness, swung their army round to Cold Harbor,
and Vincent's squadron was called up to aid Lee in his struggle
there. Then they were engaged night and day in harassing the
enemy as they marched down to take up their new base at
Petersburg, and finally received orders to ride round at full speed
to aid in the defense of that place.

They had arrived in the middle of the second day's fighting, and
dismounting his men Vincent had aided the hard-pressed
Confederates in holding their lines till Long-street's division
arrived to their assistance. A short time before the terrible disaster
that befell the Federals in the mine they exploded under the
Confederate works, he was with General Wade Hampton, who had
succeeded General Stuart in the command of the cavalry, when
General Lee rode up.

"They are erecting siege works in earnest," General Lee said. "I do
not think that we shall have any more attacks for the present. I
wish I knew exactly where they are intending to place their heavy
batteries. If I did we should know where to strengthen our
defenses, and plant our counter batteries. It is very important to
find this out; but now that their whole army has settled down in
front of us, and Sheridan's cavalry are scouring the woods, we shall
get no news, for the farmers will no longer be able to get through
to tell us what is going on.

"I will try and ride round, if you like, general," Vincent said. "By
making a long detour one could get into the rear of their lines and
pass as a farmer going into camp to sell his goods."

"It would be a very dangerous service, sir," General Lee said.
"You know what the consequence would be if you were caught?"

"I know the consequence," Vincent said; "but I do not think, sir,
that the risk is greater than one runs every time one goes into
battle."

"Perhaps not," General Lee replied; "but in one case one dies
fighting for one's country by an honorable death, in the other-" and
he stopped.

"In the other one is shot in cold blood," Vincent said quietly. "One
dies for one's country in either case, sir; and it does not much
matter, so far as I can see, whether cue is killed in battle or shot in
cold blood. As long as one is doing one's duty, one death is surely
as honorable as the other."

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27