“Yours, truly, U. S. GRANT.”
BATTLES ALONG THE WELDON RAILROAD.
The summer of 1864 was exceedingly hot; and, for that reason, the enterprise of military life somewhat flagged with the besiegers of the rebel citadel. Yet many skirmishes, and several heavy engagements, took place; and the rebels were watched with unceasing vigilance, and were pressed wherever a point of attack seemed to offer the chance of gaining desirable advantage. On the 14th, 15th, and 16th of August there was some fighting in the vicinity of Deep Bottom, the Union loss being between four and five hundred men. This engagement was brought on for the purpose of distracting the enemy’s attention from the other extreme of operations and to draw his forces partially away from Petersburg. The feint succeeded; and, the Weldon railroad being left exposed, the Fifth corps advanced, on the 18th of August, and took possession of Reams’s Station, surprising a body of the enemy that was guarding it, but losing, in the incidental fight, about three hundred men. The track was torn up for about one mile. Next day, the 19th, the rebels made a furious attack upon the National forces holding Reams’s Station, and a bloody battle ensued. The Union line, being extended to a great length, was quite thin in the centre. It had been hoped that the rebels would not discover this weakness; but they did, and their first charge broke through and divided the Union forces. The conflict that followed was characterized by the most desperate bravery. Reinforcements arriving—the First and Second divisions of the Ninth corps—the rebels were finally repulsed. The most notable feature of this fight was, that, in the course of events, it became necessary to train the Union artillery upon a struggling mass of patriots and rebels, and sacrifice friends as well as foes, in order to hold the position originally taken by the Fifth corps. This position was held; but the rebels recovered the railroad as far as Yellow Springs. The loss, on the Union side, including prisoners, was three thousand seven hundred and sixty-nine.
CHARGING A BATTERY ON THE WELDON RAIL ROAD.
CAPTURE OF A RAILROAD TRAIN.
THE BATTLE OF REAMS’S STATION.
August 28, 1864.
A desperate battle was next fought, on the 28th of August, a little southward of Reams’s Station. It was brought on by an effort, on the part of the enemy, to break and disperse the Second corps, under General Hancock, posted at that point. The attack was made at about half past five in the afternoon, against Hancock’s centre, by the rebels under Wilcox: and against his left, by the rebels under Heth. It was met with great bravery, and vigorously resisted; but at length the enemy succeeded in breaking the line opposed to them. Happily, no permanent advantage was gained by this turn of fortune to the rebels. A portion of General Gibbon’s division was brought forward to repair the damage done to the National line. The enemy then fell upon General Hancock’s extreme left, but were severely repulsed by a dismounted cavalry force, under General Gregg, who handled his men with great skill—the cavalry, on their part, behaving with the utmost gallantry. At different points along the line the fighting continued briskly until dark, when the battle ended in the enemy’s signal defeat. The rebels then withdrew, leaving their dead and wounded on the field. Many prisoners were captured from the divisions of both Heth and Wilcox, and the enemy’s loss was very heavy. The National loss in killed and wounded did not exceed twelve hundred.
Few battles of this war have been more determined or sanguinary than this one. In his official report, General Hancock says: “This has been one of the most desperate fights of the war, resembling Spottsylvania in its character, though the numbers engaged gave less importance to it.” The field of battle, when the conflict was over, has been described as hideously and repulsively awful to look upon. Such scenes as these, throughout the whole civil war, bore eloquent testimony to the bravery and noble self-sacrifice of the gallant men who laid down their lives in defence of their country.