A Desperate Struggle
AFTER Lee's effort to break through the National line at Fort Steadman, it was resolved to make a grand movement against the Confederate right. Large bodies of troops were drawn from the Army of the James, under General Ord. General Sheridan, with ten thousand horsemen, was placed on the extreme left of the National army. The Ninth corps, under General Parke, and the force commanded by General Weitzel, were left on the north side of the James to hold the extended line of the National intrenchments, then full thirty-five miles in length; and General Grant gave wide discretion to the commander on the left, concerning attacks upon the Confederate line during the contemplated grand movement. "I would have it particularly enjoined upon corps commanders," he said, "that in case of an attack from the enemy, those not attacked are not to wait for orders from the commanding officers of the army to which they may belong, but that they will move promptly, and notify the commander of their action." General Benham was in charge of the immense depository of supplies at City Point.
Two days after Sheridan's return from his great raid at the close of March, the forward movement was begun. Lee perceived his own imminent peril; and leaving Longstreet with eight thousand men to protect Richmond, he massed the remainder of his army at the point of most apparent danger. Then began a fierce and desperate struggle for the mastery. It was made on the part of the Nationals chiefly by the Fifth corps, under Warren, with the co-operation of Sheridan. The latter, holding a position called the Five Forks, was struck so suddenly and severely by troops under Pickett and Bushrod Johnson, that his force was driven back to Dinwiddie Court-House, in great confusion, hotly pursued. Warren was sent to Sheridan's aid; and near Five Forks a sanguinary battle was fought on the Ist of April. The Confederates were defeated and fled westward in great disorder, leaving five thousand of their comrades behind as prisoners of war. Many of the Confederates perished in the battle; and the loss of the Nationals was about a thousand men.
On the evening of the battle at the Five Forks, and before the shouts of victory there had reached the National line before Petersburg, General Grant had ordered his great guns all along that line to open a destructive cannonade upon the city and the Confederate works. The assault was kept up until four o'clock in the morning. It was an awful night for the few inhabitants remaining in Petersburg, and for the soldiers in the trenches. At dawn the works were assailed by infantry. Parke, with the Ninth corps, carried the outer works on his front, but was checked at an inner line; and the Nationals were successful on their extreme left, in crushing Lee's right wing. Longstreet had hastened down from Richmond to assist him, but he was too late. The Confederate right was shattered beyond recovery; and the Southside Railway, on which Lee placed great dependence, was struck by Sheridan at three different points.
Lee now perceived that he could no longer hold Petersburg, or the capital, with safety to his army, then reduced, by enormous losses in the space of a few days, to about thirty-five thousand men, and he resolved to maintain his position, if possible, until night, and then retreat with the hope of making his way to Johnston, in North Carolina, by way of the Danville railroad. He telegraphed to Davis at Richmond, in substance: "My lines are broken in three places; Richmond must be evacuated this evening." It was Sabbath morning, the 2d of April, and the message was delivered to Davis in St. Paul's Church. He quietly left the fane with deeply anxious features, and for a moment a painful silence prevailed. The religious services were closed; and before Dr. Minnegerode, the rector, dismissed the congregation, he gave notice that General Ewell, the commander in Richmond, desired the local forces to assemble at three o'clock in the afternoon.