Reinforcements of Hunton’s brigade, and Lieutenant-General R. H. Anderson with the other brigades of B. R. Johnson, were sent him too late, and a telegram came for me at Richmond to march a division to Petersburg to report to General Lee. The hour at which the telegram was received was not noted. As the operations at Five Forks were not decisive until after five o’clock, the telegram may have been received about seven P.M. Field’s division was ordered to the railway station, and the quartermaster was sent in advance to have the cars ready to move it.
To give the troops the benefit of our limited transportation I rode with the staff by the dirt road.
CHAPTER XLII.
PETERSBURG.
The Fierce Concerted Assault by the Federals—Death of A. P. Hill—General Lee announces to Richmond Authorities that he must retreat—Reception of the News by President Davis at Church Service—Federals take Forts Gregg and Whitworth—The Retreat harassed by Continuous Fighting—Longstreet saves High Bridge, a Vital Point—Ewell and Others compelled to surrender—General Mahone’s Account of Interesting Scenes—Magnitude of the Disaster—“Is the Army dissolving?”—General Reed mortally wounded—Panic occurs, but Order is restored—General Gregg and Part of his Cavalry Command captured by Rosser and Mumford.
The darkness of night still covered us when we crossed over James River by the pontoon bridge, but before long land and water batteries lifted their bombs over their lazy curves, screaming shells came through the freighted night to light our ride, and signal sky-rockets gave momentary illumination. Our noble beasts peered through the loaded air and sniffed the coming battle; night-birds fluttered from their startled cover, and the solid pounding upon Mahone’s defensive walls drove the foxes from their lairs. If tears and prayers could have put out the light it would not have passed Petersburg,—but it passed by twenty miles. A hundred guns and more added their lightning and thunder to the storm of war that carried consternation to thousands of long-apprehensive people.
The cause was lost, but the end was not yet. The noble Army of Northern Virginia, once, twice conqueror of empire, must bite the dust before its formidable adversary.
The impulse was to stop and guard Mahone, but some of his men had been called to assist in guarding elsewhere, which, with our imperative orders, admonished us that he must be left to his fate, and Weitzel’s fire upon the lines we had just left told of his orders to be prepared for the grand enveloping charge. But the order for Weitzel’s part in the general charge was afterwards suspended until enough troops could be sent to assure success. Had General Grant known that Field’s division was withdrawn during the night, Weitzel’s assault would have gone in the general move of the morning of the 2d, and Richmond, with the Confederate authorities, would have been taken before noon.