Richmond and Petersburg were lost to the rebels!
No tidings of these terrific conflicts had reached Richmond. The people still believed, as Jeff. Davis had taught them, that Richmond could hold out for twenty years before any force operating against it. Lee sent a message to the obstinate "president" of the Confederacy that the battle was lost, and that the army must flee from its strongholds. The despatch was handed to Davis while he was at church. He read it, hastily rose, and went out. He was ghastly pale, and his face revealed the disaster to all who saw it. He was alarmed for his personal safety, and perhaps trembled in view of the halter that hung to the allegorical "sour apple tree," which had been celebrated in song all over the loyal land. Taking a train to the south, he left Richmond, which he was to enter again only as an indicted traitor. That night the city was evacuated in hot haste and set on fire by its late defenders, disappointed and desperate at the grand finale of Rebellion. General Weitzel entered and took possession the next morning. The flag of the redeemed Union waved triumphantly over the capital of Virginia.
Grant was not looking after Richmond just now. I do not know that he made any mention of the place in his documents, but in his despatch to Sherman, on the 5th of April, he says, "Rebel armies are now the only strategic points to strike at." Acting on this view, he ordered the most vigorous pursuit of Lee. Sheridan was sent forward with his cavalry, and the Sixth Corps, now temporarily under his command. He continued to "hammer" whenever an opportunity offered. At Sailor's Creek he struck the enemy a heavy blow, which resulted in the capture of sixteen guns, four hundred wagons, and seven thousand prisoners.
The pursuit then became a hunt. Lee had lost his supplies, or had been cut off from them. On his arrival at Amelia Court House, he was compelled to halt, to rest his men, and gather up food for their support from the country. This delay afforded the Union cavalry time to get ahead of him and destroy the Danville Railroad, his chosen means of retreat to effect a junction with Johnston.
The whole army of the Potomac was concentrated at Jettersville to attack Lee at Amelia, but he had fled, now bent upon reaching the mountains beyond Lynchburg. The pursuit was hurried up, Confederate supply trains captured, and the enemy reduced to desperate straits. Their sufferings were intensely severe, hundreds of them dropping with sheer exhaustion, for the want of rest and food, while the majority were no longer able to carry their muskets. Crossing the river, Lee had dragged his weary way to Appomattox Court House. On the night of April 6, a number of his officers informally met, and agreed that surrender was all that was left to the miserable army, worn out, starved, and thinned by wholesale desertion. One of them informed Lee of their conclusion; but whatever he thought, he did not adopt their suggestion.
The excellent Pollard does not hesitate to hint that Grant was a "butcher;" but it is acknowledged that Lee had no hope of the campaign in which he had engaged a week before, and had only persisted in fighting to please Davis. He waived his own opinion, and fought those bloody battles from Petersburg to Sailor's Creek, when he was satisfied there was no hope. What was he but a "butcher"? Is he not responsible for every life sacrificed at his order after he knew that the strife was hopeless? Lee was a skilful soldier, and if we could wipe out the fact that he was a traitor, that he fought against the government which had educated him to support it, and which he had sworn to defend; if we could forget that his influence might have removed the stains of Andersonville, Belle Island, and other rebel prisons from the annals of the miserable Confederacy; if he had ceased to shed blood when his conscience assured him treason could no longer flourish upon the sacrifice,—we might hold him up as a hero. As it is, he deserves the infamy he has won.
It was left for Grant to obey the promptings of humanity—for the "butcher" to make the overtures to stay the further useless flow of blood.