There was nothing left to the Federal commander except to besiege Richmond, either directly on the north and east, or indirectly by way of Petersburg, twenty-two miles south and commanding the main lines of Confederate military communication.
Butler already lay on the south side of the James River with a strong detachment and within easy striking distance of Petersburg, a city defended by an exceedingly inadequate force under Beauregard. Grant ordered Butler to seize upon Petersburg quickly, before the place could be defended. If that plan had been successful, Richmond must have surrendered or been evacuated, and the war must have ended in the early summer of 1864, instead of dragging its slow length along for nearly a year more. But Beauregard’s extraordinary alertness and vigour baffled Butler’s purpose. In spite of the exceeding meagreness of the Confederate defending force, before Grant could push the head of his column into Petersburg, Lee was there; and within a few hours the Army of Northern Virginia, equally skilled in the use of bayonet and spade, had created that slender line of earthworks behind which Lee’s thin and constantly diminishing force defended itself for two thirds of a year to come.
X
THE LAW OF LOVE
“MRS. BRENT—” Kilgariff so began a sentence one morning.
But Dorothy interrupted him, quickly.
“Why do you persist in addressing me in that way?” she asked. “Are we not yet sufficiently friends for you to call me ‘Dorothy,’ as all my intimates do? You know, I exacted that of Evelyn in the first moment that I found myself fond of her and knew that she loved me.”
“But there is a difference,” answered Kilgariff. “You see—”