April 1st, 1865.—Before eight o’clock this morning the 5th Corps was again in connection with the cavalry Corps, and both were placed under the orders of General Sheridan. In fact, for the ensuing eight days, we became a sort of foot cavalry—if there be any such arm known to the service.
It was afternoon before there seemed to be any real resistance to our onward progress, but then there was the sound of heavy firing in front, and we soon came upon what was to be the field of the battle of Five Forks. The cavalry, dismounted, were sharply prodding the enemy with artillery and carbines, and the 5th Corps was brought up and formed on their right, and pushed rapidly forward.
We found no enemy in our front, but soon discovered that we had passed beyond the line of his formation; whereupon, by a wheel to the left and a rapid dash, we came in upon his flank and rear, surprising, overwhelming, and entirely routing his forces, more than one-half of whom were made prisoners. The fighting was sharp but short, and our success complete.
It is impossible to overrate the exhilaration of the men in and after this action. With small loss to themselves, they had taken four or five thousand prisoners, and the ground was strewn with the arms and equipments which the enemy had thrown away in his hasty attempt at flight. The feeling was general that now, at last, the superior numbers and power of the North were beginning to tell, the days of digging and burrowing were over, and the day of triumph near at hand.
That night, by order of General Sheridan, General Warren was relieved, and General Griffin (our “Old Griff“) was placed in command of the 5th Corps. It is not easy to see what default in duty could have been ascribed to Warren, and it is probable that the real explanation of the change was merely Sheridan’s preference or partiality for Griffin, who was patterned more after Sheridan’s taste.
That night, too, Colonel Cunningham was placed in command of a brigade of skirmishers, consisting of one regiment from each brigade in the 1st Division, with orders to deploy them at eight o’clock the next morning, and advance directly west. The 32d was, of course, one of these regiments, and its command devolved upon Captain Bancroft.
April 2d, Sunday.—Promptly at eight o’clock, while the dull muttering of the great guns told us of the last struggle far away in front of Petersburg, Cunningham deployed his brigade of skirmishers under the eye of General Sheridan, and we moved on, up hill and down dale, for the most part through a region covered with woods and but little inhabited.
Moving west, as ordered, we came at 11 A. M. to the South Side Railroad, where we captured a train filled with wounded and sick Confederates, and also gobbled up a large number of sound rebels and quantities of army stores, and then pressed on, still westward, for two miles farther.
From women and from our prisoners, information was obtained to the effect that the remains of two divisions of the enemy had passed in this direction on their retreat from Five Forks, and also that General Lee, with the Army of Virginia, was then moving out of Petersburg and heading towards the south; and, indeed, we could plainly see the clouds of dust which marked their line of march. This information was communicated to General Sheridan, but at 4 P. M. we were drawn back to the railroad and thence marched eight miles in the direction of Petersburg, and there bivouacked for the night.
The next five days were occupied in a most exciting chase. Sheridan’s command, consisting of the 5th Corps and the cavalry, entirely detached from the army, was hastening to bar Lee’s line of retreat. On the 3d and 4th we marched twenty miles each day; abandoned wagons, forges, guns, and caissons were seen quite frequently. By our seizing the railway at Jettersville on the 4th, Lee lost the only railroad line by which his escape could be facilitated. On the 8th we marched all the day and half of the night to bivouac near Pamplin’s Station, on the South Side Railroad.