[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ][Footnote: On the morning of the 12th, Hancock's corps, hidden by a dense fog, charged upon the Confederate
line, broke the abattis, surrounded a division, and took three thousand prisoners, including two generals. So
complete was the surprise, that the officers were captured at breakfast. Lee, however, rallied, and the fighting
was so fierce to regain this lost position, that "a tree eighteen inches in diameter was cut in two by the bullets
which struck it. Ten thousand men fell on each side. Men in hundreds, killed and wounded together, were
piled in hideous heaps, some bodies, which had lain for hours under the concentric fire of the battle, being
perforated with wounds. The writhing of the wounded beneath the dead moved these masses at times; while
Brief History of the United States 129
often a lifted arm or a quivering limb told of an agony not quenched by the Lethe of death around."]
[Footnote: It was during this terrible battle that Grant sent his famous despatch, "I propose to fight it out on
this line if it takes all summer."]
BATTLE OF COLD HARBOR (June 3).--Lee, however, moving on the inner and shorter line, reached the
North Anna first. Here some severe fighting occurred, when, Grant moving to flank again, Lee slipped into the
intrenchments of Cold Harbor. At daybreak a general assault was made. "Twenty minutes after the first shot
was fired, ten thousand Union men were stretched writhing on the sod or still and calm in death, while the
enemy's loss was little over one thousand." The army, weary of this useless slaughter, refused to continue the
attack.
[Footnote: Grant had arranged, in the general plan of the campaign, for three co-operative movements to
attract the attention and divide the strength of the Confederate army before Richmond: 1. General Sigel, with
ten thousand men, was to advance up the Shenandoah Valley and threaten the railroad communication with
Richmond. He was, however, totally routed at New Market (May 15). General Hunter, who superseded him,
defeated the Confederates at Piedmont (June 5), but pushing on to Lynchburg with about twenty thousand
men, he found it too strong, and prudently retired into West Virginia. 2. On the night that the Army of the
Potomac crossed the Rapidan, General Butler, with thirty thousand men, ascended the James River, under the
protection of gunboats, and landed at Bermuda Hundred. After some trifling successes, he was surprised in a
dense fog by Beauregard, and driven back into his defences with considerable loss. Beauregard then threw
intrenchments across the narrow strip which connects Bermuda Hundred with the main land, and, as Grant
tersely said, "hermetically sealed up" the Union force from any further advance. 3. General Sheridan, while
the army was at Spottsylvania, passed in the rear of the Confederate position, destroyed miles of railroad,
recaptured four hundred prisoners en route, and defeated a cavalry force with the loss of their leader, General
J. E. B. Stuart, the best cavalry officer in the South.]
[Illustration: GRANT'S CAMPAIGN AROUND RICHMOND.]
ATTACK ON PETERSBURG.--Grant now rapidly pushed his army over the James, and fell upon
Petersburg; but here again Lee was ahead, and the works could not be forced. Grant was therefore compelled
to throw up intrenchments and sit down in front of the Confederate lines. The campaign now resolved itself
into a siege of Richmond, with Petersburg as its advanced post.
The Effect.--The campaign had cost the Union army at least seventy thousand men, and the Confederates
about forty thousand.
[Footnote: The above statement of losses is founded upon the generally-accepted authorities; but Grant has
lately asserted that his total loss was only about 39,000, while Southern writers place Lee's at 18,000.]
The weakened capabilities of the South were now fairly pitted against the almost exhaustless resources of the
North. Grant's plan was to keep constantly hammering Lee's army, conscious that it was the last hope of the
Confederacy. The idea of thus annihilating an army was terrible, yet it seemed the only way of closing the
awful struggle.
THE SIEGE OF RICHMOND continued until the spring campaign of 1865. It was marked by two important
events:
1. Mine Explosion (July 30).--From a hidden ravine in front of Petersburg, a mine had been dug underneath a
strong Confederate fort. Just at dawn, the blast of eight thousand pounds of powder was fired. Several cannon,
the garrison of three hundred men, and huge masses of earth, were thrown high in air. The Federal guns
opened fire at once along the entire line. An assaulting column rushed forward, but stopped in the crater
Brief History of the United States 130
produced by the explosion. The Confederates, rallying from their confusion, concentrated from every side and
poured shot and shell upon the struggling mass of men huddled within the demolished fort. To retreat was
only less dangerous than to stay, yet many of the soldiers jumped out of this slaughter-pen and ran headlong
back to the Union lines. The Federals lost about four thousand men in this ill-starred affair.
2. Attack upon the Weldon Railroad (August 18).--By threatening Richmond upon the north, Grant induced
Lee to move troops to that city from Petersburg. The opportunity was at once seized, and the Weldon Railroad
captured. Lee, aware of the great importance of that means of communication with the South, for several days
made most desperate attempts for its recovery. They were, however, unsuccessful, and the Union lines were
permanently advanced to this point.
[Footnote: An attempt was made by Grant to take this road when he first swung south of Richmond, but he
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