Battery L, 1st Artillery Regiment (Light) - George Breck Columns: Chapter 30: “The Rebellion Is Played Out!” Road To Appomattox, April 4, 1865 – April 27, 1865
Breck’s comrades were correct: Lee had to do something quickly. On March 25 he launched a surprise attack against Fort Stedman, hoping to set Grant’s army back on its heels and gain enough breathing space to slip away and join Gen. Joseph Johnston’s army in North Carolina. The Confederates overran the fort in the predawn darkness, but Union reinforcements converged on the scene and the attack was beaten off. Hard-driving Gen. Phil Sheridan, in the meantime, rejoined Grant from the Shenandoah Valley with two divisions of cavalry. Grant now had a powerful, mobile arm to reach beyond the end of Lee’s lines west of Petersburg and cut the vital Southside Railroad. On March 29, Grant set II and V Corps and Sheridan’s cavalry in motion. Lee tried to counter by sending a force of 10,000 men under Maj. Gen. George Pickett to occupy the vital crossroads at Five Forks, beyond the right end of the Confederate line. On April 1, Sheridan’s cavalry and Warren’s infantry overwhelmed Pickett’s men. The next day, Grant ordered an assault all along the Petersburg front. Lee’s men were stretched too thin. VI Corps broke through south and west of Petersburg. Lee evacuated Petersburg and Richmond that night, retreating westward in a desperate attempt to elude Grant’s pursuing army, swing south and link up with Johnston. Breck was on a 15-day leave when all of this transpired; he returned just in time to join in the celebrations…
Before Petersburg
April 4, 1865
(Appeared Wednesday, April 12, 1865)
“Petersburg is ours! Richmond is evacuated! We have captured twelve thousand prisoners! Lee’s army is gone up! The rebellion is played out!” With such and kindred replies your correspondent was greeted on arriving at City Point and inquiring for the news. Was’nt all this intelligence enough to thoroughly electrify a returned Union soldier and officer to the army, and send thrilling through soul and body emotions of joy too deep for utterance.
Glorious news! Magnificent news! Halleluiah! Let the people rejoice! Petersburg ours! Richmond ours! Surely, enthusiasm over the consummation of such events is perfectly allowable whether manifested by speakers or writers, and whose enthusiasm ought to be greater than the men who for nearly nine long, weary, perilous months kept watch before Petersburg and tried, time and again, to take the city, and who for nearly four years essayed the capture of Richmond! The herculean labors of the Army of the Potomac have at last been crowned with success, and the heart of the rebellion has been reached. The “Confederacy” has received its death stroke, and when Europe hears of the fall of Petersburg and Richmond, the Southern Confederacy, which so long and earnestly yearned for “acknowledgement” by European powers, will unquestionably be acknowledged by them, as a failure.
On my way to City Point up the James, several large transport boats were met, en route to Washington, crowded with prisoners captured in the recent victorious battles of Petersburg. On the wharf at City Point, thousands of more prisoners were guarded awaiting shipment northward. Of course the sight of such vast numbers of the enemy confirmed the reality of the reports pertaining to their capture. Between fifteen and twenty thousand rebels are said to have been captured by our forces during the week’s operations which culminated in the fall of Petersburg, and as to the capture of guns their number must exceed one hundred, or not far short of it.
On my arrival at City Point all was excitement, but of a very joyous and orderly kind. The news promulgated to the passengers arriving in the steamer I took passage in seemed too good to be true, but it came from such reliable sources that it was not to be doubted. As to the capture of Petersburg, I soon had the gratification of seeing and visiting the city myself, to which I will refer more particularly before I close my letter. My first inquiry was for Battery L. I saw General Warren at City Point, and immediately accosted him as to the whereabouts of the Fifth Corps. It was under command of General Sheridan, and moving with his cavalry in hot pursuit of Lee’s army, north of the Southside Railroad. Not very flattering prospect of reaching the Battery that night, but I must overtake it speedily as possible. General Warren was in command, and is now of the forces at Petersburg and at Bermuda Hundred. (1) His advice was to take the cars and go as far as Meade’s Station, eight miles from City Point, and then strike for the Fifth Corps. This station was one of the nearest points to Petersburg on the City Point railroad running to Hatcher’s Run. Before arriving at Meade’s Station, a special train was met conveying President Lincoln to City Point. He was returning from Petersburg. Of course he attracted no little attention from the passengers on our own train. There was no mistaking his face as we saw him seated in the car. It was rumored that he was going to Richmond before returning to Washington.
At Meade’s Station I ascertained that Battery L and three other batteries of the Fifth corps were temporarily assigned to the Ninth corps, and had been ever since the preceding Wednesday. They had been engaged in attacking and taking the works in front of the Ninth corps’ line in connection with that corps while the Fifth corps, with the remaining five batteries under Sheridan, was moving around the enemy’s right to flank and get in rear of him, which, as my readers will learn from other sources, was most successfully and gloriously done, resulting in the capture of an entire division of Lee’s army. I had not far to go, therefore, before I alighted on Battery L, which I found encamped where I am at present writing, about a mile in rear of the Avery House, not far from Forts Morton, Rice, Hell and other forts adjoining them that have become so familiarly known since the beginning of the campaign before Petersburg.
Battery L was in position in work in front of the Avery House when the attack was made by the Ninth corps on the enemy’s forts confronting our own on Sunday morning (April 2) before daybreak. The firing commenced about one o’clock, but soon after daylight, after quite a spirited attack by our troops, four of the rebel forts fell into our hands, a number of pieces of artillery and two or three hundred prisoners. – Into these captured forts the four gun detachments of Battery L were ordered to advance and work the guns abandoned by the enemy. – This was promptly done, under command of Lieut. Deitz, who, with Lieut. Kinne, led the men on a double quick, exposed to a severe fire of musketry and artillery which the rebels were pouring into the captured works from forts on either flank and in rear of them.
Arriving at one of the forts, the guns were found manned by others who had preceded the men of Battery L for the same purpose. They then advanced to another of the captured works, found one gun, but were unable to serve it in consequence of all the gun implements being destroyed. They proceeded to another and found that occupied and manned also. After remaining for a while in this work, and finding the guns efficiently served by other troops, Lieut Deitz returned with the men to the battery, which, under command of Lieut. Perine, engaged the enemy, whose guns were still directed at our forces in the line of works wrested from the rebels. The enemy made several endeavors to retake their works, but to no purpose. A desultory firing was kept up till a late hour Sunday night (April 2), when Petersburg was evacuated, silently, but not without the Union troops perceiving what was going on. The blaze of fires illuminated the air about Petersburg, which proved to be the conflagration of bridges, tobacco and warehouses, set fire by the rebels in their evacuation of the city. Our forces took possession of the never to be forgotten city of Petersburg immediately after its evacuation, which was formally surrendered at half-past four o’clock, Monday morning, April 3d, by the Mayor and Common Council, with the request for the protection of the persons and property of its inhabitants. This request, I am happy to state, has thus far been acceded to. No real damage of any kind has been committed by our soldiers in any part of the city. The citizens have been treated as it is right they should be, notwithstanding the many hard things which have emanated from them against us “detestable Yankees,” with the greatest respect, much, it is reported, to their surprise. There has been but little pillaging or vandalism perpetrated.
Our troops entered the city with banners flying, music playing and the loudest rejoicing. – The citizens appeared to receive them with considerable cordiality, for the reason, perhaps, of their deliverance from impending starvation that seemed to threaten them. There was a general destitution of every kind of subsistence. The colored population turned out in crowds, and their reception of our army was wildly jubilant. They demonstrated their joy in true negro style, with songs and shoutings.
I visited Petersburg last evening with several other officers and saw the city by moonlight. I was agreeably disappointed in finding it, with the exception of that portion immediately in front of our works, very little injured by the rain of shot and shell which our batteries had poured into the city for so many months. In the south part of the city, near the river, a number of buildings were destroyed, including some public structures, but the greater and most handsome part of the city escaped undamaged. I saw many very beautiful residences, blocks of large stores, some of them with magnificent marble fronts, and the whole city looks more like our northern cities than any place I ever saw before in Virginia. Sycamore street is the principal business street, and nearly all the streets are finely paved. The city is located on a slope of ground descending towards the river environed by hills and with very handsome surroundings. The main road leading into the city from the direction of the Avery House, where the 5th corps formerly had its headquarters, has high banks on either side, and on that side facing the city I noticed a number of excavations, “gopher holes” so called, which had been made for the protection of the inhabitants from the iron missiles of our guns. Here and there were caves dug in the hills, with openings at the top in the centre, which had the appearance of chimneys. Although the gas works are mostly destroyed, portions of the city were illuminated with gas. The city is supplied with water from a large reservoir situated on a hill. A very pretty cemetery is on the south side of the town, which was exposed to the fire from our batteries in the siege of Petersburg, but it is little injured.
Confederate notes in the city are at an enormous discount, worth about one cent per cord. Corn cob flour, in confederate money in Petersburg, is worth six dollars a quart. Wheat flour twelve hundred dollars a barrel. The price of a shave by colored barbers, only three dollars. All other prices in the same ratio.
I forgot to mention while speaking of the buildings, that I passed the Petersburg Express office which was dimly illuminated, and in possession no longer of the former editor but of an editorial staff who issued from the office yesterday, in Petersburg, for the first time since the commencement of the rebellion, a Union paper, called “Grant’s Petersburg Progress.” Its editors, assistant editors, foreman and compositors are composed of officers and soldiers. I will enclose you a copy, which is by no means a bad sheet.
But I must close. An order has just come requiring your correspondent to send at daylight to-morrow morning sixty horses from his battery, in charge of twenty men, to the front, to Gen. Wainwright in command of the artillery with the 5th corps. An officer of Gen. W.’s staff is here, who reports that Gen. Sheridan is about thirty miles northwest of Petersburg, a little south of the Appomattox, trying to get the start of Lee and prevent him from going to Lynchburg. This officer says that troops were never moved faster than were those of the 5th corps yesterday. Had it not been that they felt so exultant over their great successes they never could have marched so far and rapidly. The old Fifth corps has covered itself with glory in its brilliant achievements over the enemy.
The batteries moving with the corps are in urgent need of horses, and Battery L, being at rest at present, is called upon to furnish them. We are to be supplied with new horses as soon as they can be had from City Point. I understand that all the batteries which operated in the works in front of Petersburg, or along the 9th corps line, are to be sent to City Point to be held in readiness for any point where most needed. In other words, another Artillery Reserve is to be organized for the Army of the Potomac. We don’t like to think of being detached from the Fifth corps, but I suppose soldiers have but little business to think. It is their business to obey and say nothing. That part of the news communicated to me, that “Lee’s army is gone up,” is not verified yet, but what except almost a miracle can save it? It is composed of brave men, valorous men, but unless they are actuated by desperation, what can they do in the face of their overwhelming reverses and against our troops enthusiastic with victory? Their capital is gone. Their government is without a “local habitation or a name.” What wait the Southern people and the Southern armies for now? We have an answer, but never mind.
Near City Point, April 6
As expected, Battery L is now about a mile and a half from City Point, constituting for the time being one of the twenty batteries of the Artillery Reserve of the Army of the Potomac under command of Major Theodore Miller of the 1st Penn. Artillery Regiment. The Reserve is divided into four brigades, consisting of five batteries each. Our Brigade is the 2d, consisting of Batteries “L,” “E,” “C,” and “G,” 1st N.Y. Artillery, and Battery “E,” 5th Mass., commanded by Brevet Major Charles Phillips of the Mass. Battery. How long this Reserve organization will last, or how long we shall remain here, is uncertain. We are almost persuaded that the fighting days of Battery L are ended, or nearly so, but we are by no means over-sanguine on this point.
The fortunes of war are very capricious, and the Southern Confederacy, or what is left of it, may struggle along for some time to come, so long as it can keep a respectable army in the field. It is thought by some military men that Lee will push with all the army he can gather for the west banks of the Mississippi and make a stand in Texas, enter into an alliance with Maximillan and get up a war with France with our government. This may seem a very wild and absurd idea, but as long as Gen. Lee does not surrender and can keep together any kind of a force, what can he do and where can he go? It is useless to speculate on the matter, however. Let us hope that the restoration of Peace and Union will soon be ours to rejoice over. (2)
The address of Battery L is now “2d Brigade, Artillery Reserve, City Point, Va.” G.B.
With Sheridan’s cavalry leading the way, the Army of the Potomac pursued the shattered remnants of Lee’s army as far as Appomattox Court House. Virtually surrounded, and heavily outnumbered, Lee surrendered his army on April 9.
Battery L, 1st N.Y. Art’y.
Art’y Reserve Corps, City Point
April 8th, 1865 (3)
(Appeared April 14, 1865)
The whole army at this point is perfectly crazy over the news of the surrender of General Lee and his immediate command. The soldiers, officers and all, are wild with joy and excitement over this closing act in the terrible drama of the great American Rebellion. For nearly three hours, since nine o’clock to-night, there has been one continuous sound of cheering and shouting, of screaming and halloing, of drum beating and music playing, of cannon firing and musket firing, of bell ringing on board of boats and steamers, of jubilee and jubilation. The air is all lighted with the blaze of bonfires. Soldiers are singing and dancing, buglers are blowing their trumpets, fiddlers are playing, men are running and jumping, embracing each other, rolling on the ground, standing on their heads, and, in a word, there is the greatest demonstration of enthusiasm I ever heard or witnessed. Of course, your correspondent has had a hand in all this. Battery L had turned in for the night, as had the surrounding batteries, when loud cheering in the direction of City Point was suddenly heard. It was kept up. The surrender of Gen. Lee was surmised. A messenger was dispatched to City Point to ascertain the cause of all the noise. He returned with the happy, glorious news above stated. Battery L was immediately aroused and helped to join in what seemed to be a universal chorus of voices. A return to their homes was predicted to occur in thirty days or less. Shout after shout, cheer after cheer, ascended and rang through the air. Very soon every company in the reserve was up and rending the air with cheers. But words are poor things to adequately express the feelings of the heart over such a triumph as our arms have ultimately achieved. We would render to God devout and reverent thanksgivings for this crowning victory which has caused so much rejoicing to-night. His hand is in the glorious work, and though we ought not, cannot forget the human instruments of our magnificent successes, we must certainly recognize a Divine Power as having brought for us victory over the enemies of our government. With no spirit of boasting or proud exultation would we rejoice over our brilliant achievements. We would cherish and manifest no feelings of vindictiveness or revenge toward our conquered foes, but with loving and generous hearts we would extend to them forgiveness of the past and bid them welcome back to the family of states, acknowledge them as our friends and countrymen. Let there be no barbaric demands which would deny the rebellious people all rights and privileges of American citizenship, or expel them from the land. Let there be no avaricious cruelty indulged, which would take from the people of the south, all their lands and estates, their homes and firesides, and bestow them on the soldiers who have fought for our country. Let there be no unjust measures adopted which will rouse the feelings of discord and hatred in the hearts of those who are now the subjects of the federal government. The Southern people are actually, for aught I can see, under our absolute control, and the government can treat them as it pleases, impose any terms it sees fit, can wipe away their late organizations, reduce their States and territories – can, in a word, follow the unjust example of England in her treatment of, and domination over, Ireland. But we are sure our beneficent government will practice no such barbarism. The restoration of peace and brotherhood, true and lasting, is the prayer of the nation, and to accomplish this requires a reuniting of the chords of friendship and good will which this “cruel war” has so sadly severed and shattered. Heaven grant that union and peace, fraternity and freedom, may soon be secured throughout the length and breadth of our land.
A portion of Battery L has been represented in the operations of the Fifth Corps under Sheridan. Twenty-one men were sent to the corps about a week since, in charge of our horses forwarded to the batteries. They have not returned yet, and no doubt took part in the great work which has resulted in the surrender of Gen. Lee.
We are pleasantly encamped in our new position. We have brigade guard mounting, brigade drills, etc., but there will unquestionably be a breaking up and mustering out of many small and large military organizations composing the Union armies ere long, and a general going home of troops. As matters now stand, the friends of Battery L need not be surprised to see us before the Fourth of July. In the meantime, we should be very happy to receive a visit from them. The intrenchments and fortifications about Petersburg alone, are well worthy of going a long distance to see. They would, I am sure, utterly amaze and confound the civilian who has never seen such works, only read of them. It is impossible to describe this vast, inextricable network of intrenchments, which both armies occupied, confronting each other. A newspaper correspondent has furnished a very good idea of them by conceiving a “vast system of sunken roads sufficient to manoeuvre a hundred thousand men, without exposing any above the level of the ground. This is one feature of these extensive works, to which must be added the high and strong breastworks running in zig zag courses, with batteries and redoubts interspersed; and then the advanced picket lines, with the various sunken paths of communication, and behind all the chain of strong forts, with wide and deep ditches, fringed with chevaux de frise, the same as in front of all the other works.” And in the face of all this, when the army was confronting this Gibraltar of the enemy’s works, the patriot and gentleman sitting in his office or in the parlor at home, with perhaps his feet elevated on a table or the back of a chair, a cigar in his mouth and a lion’s courage in his heart, would complacently ask in view of the army’s quietude, “Why in thunder don’t the Army of the Potomac move?” The Army of the Potomac has moved, my dear sir. G.B.
Battery L, Artillery Reserve
City Point
April 16, 1865
(Appeared Monday, April 24, 1865)
Sad, sad news! Sorrow, deep, genuine sorrow fills the heart of every soldier in the army. There is no mirth to-night, no demonstrations of joy and enthusiasm, no loud huzzas and expression of jubilee, no blazing bonfires and firing of cannon; nothing of all this can be seen or heard as there was just one week ago to-night on the receipt of the glorious news of the surrender of Lee. Instead of this, there is sadness and grief of soul; there are mournful countenances, and the very air seems heavy with the quietude and solemnity of death. What a change in the nation’s experience a single week has wrought. What a rapid transition from rejoicing of the most excited and jubilant character to feelings of the profoundest melancholy pervading the public heart, to the exhibition of a country’s sorrow.
The intelligence of the assassination of President Lincoln was communicated to Artillery Reserve Headquarters about 12 o’clock last night. The sad tidings of this calamitous and dreadful event did not become generally known among the troops at this point until this morning. It could not be credited. It came like a thunder-clap from a clear sky, utterly amazing all minds and painfully oppressing all hearts, and yet the effect on many was to incite feelings of vengeance toward the rebellious people of the South, it being supposed that the perpetrator of the infamous deed could be no other than a paroled rebel prisoner, or emissaries from the South who had been employed by leading malignant rebels to commit the infernal act. And when, in addition to the news of Mr. Lincoln’s assassination, there was the increasing fearful intelligence of an attempt to assassinate Secretary Seward and his son, it seemed as if the report emanated from some insane mind, and “it can’t be true,” was the exclamation of all. But the truth of the assassination was not to be doubted on investigation, and when the flags were discovered at half-mast the reality of the terrible calamity was too apparent. Surely, this event, coming at this time under the wonderful circumstances which attended the history of our civil contest for the past two weeks, coming in the midst of the triumph of our arms and when everything appeared to be conspiring to the restoration of Peace and Union, of tranquility and happiness, has a divine significance which no human sagacity can comprehend or penetrate. Who can contemplate the aspects of this sudden, sad and tragic close of President Lincoln’s career without emotions of the deepest awe and reflections on the great mysteries that must be awaiting development in the future, mysteries of a wonder working Providence, pertaining to the weal or woe of our great nation? God mercifully grant that this awful event of the assassination of the President of the United States may not be productive of the direful consequences which are sure to accrue from the inflamed and ungovernable passions of men. May a kind Heaven who has blessed with such gracious success the achievement of our arms, and opened, what seemed or seems to be, the way to reconciliation between the north and the south, continue to bless and favor us, and deliver our beloved country from the evils which so long threatened to destroy it.
We remain encamped near City Point still attached to the Artillery Reserve, which is now under the command of Brig. Gen. (William) Hays, he assuming command yesterday. Major Miller is his Chief of Staff and Inspector General of the Reserve. It is rumored that we are to change our quarters further down the James. The Fifth corps was expected back to this point last week, but it appears to have settled down with the rest of the Army of the Potomac as an army of observation at or near Burkesville.
On Thursday last a column of eight thousand rebel prisoners passed our camp on their way to City Point. They were a part of the force captured by Sheridan when he made such a haul of Confederate generals. Gen. (Richard) Ewell was among the officers at the head of the column, riding in an ambulance. He was poorly dressed, and gave little indication that he was a distinguished rebel personage. His face was old and sallow looking, and when we saw him he was extracting what nutriment there was in “hard tack.” Behind the ambulance walked General Hunter, a tall, gaunt appearing man, six feet or more in height. And then followed the most motley looking crowd of human beings I ever saw in my life. Such miserable, forlorn, dirty, ragged and squalid creatures, in the form of soldiers, were never excelled. Of all ages, from fourteen years to sixty years, of every conceivable dress, “all rags and tags,” many shoeless, stockingless and hatless – a truly pitiable sight. A number would not believe that Lee had surrendered . He was too true a man to do that, they said. They all had an abundance of rebel script, which they were eager to exchange for greenbacks, however low. They conceded to our troops the finest bravery and discipline, and acknowledge themselves fairly beaten. Another column of six thousand more prisoners passed that night. – What an army we must have of them scattered through the North?
Adolphus S. Goodrich, formerly Sergeant of Battery L, has recently been commissioned 2d Lieutenant and assigned to duty in “G” Battery of our regiment. A worthy promotion. The young officer will do credit to his new position and win, by his intelligence and affability, a host of friends, as also praise in the line of his duty, from his military superiors. His comrades wish him every manner of good success.
Lieutenant William H. Shelton reported to the Battery on Saturday last, and a more cordial greeting an officer rarely receives. Ten months absence as a prisoner of war had not made him forgotten by his fellow officers and soldiers, and his return to them in such good and rugged health, after many perilous adventures and exciting experiences, was a matter of much pleasure and congratulation to his old command and to the regiment. May he not become the guest of the enemy again. G.B.
Battery L, Artillery Reserve
City Point
April 27, 1865
(Appeared Tuesday, May 2, 1865)
The news of the death of the miserable and cowardly assassin who murdered President Lincoln was received in this army to-day and caused a righteous feeling and expression of gratitude among the troops at the speedy vengeance which had overtaken one of the world’s greatest criminals. No particulars of the assassin’s death, further than that he was found at Port Royal and shot, have as yet been communicated. There is a general regret mingled with the gratitude felt, that the murderer could not have been arrested and a slow, torturing punishment of death inflicted upon him; but it is better, perhaps, that the infamous wretch met the fate which he did, pursued and shot down like a dog, without the dignified formality of law. Forever accursed will be his memory. With execration and loathing will the name of John Wilkes Booth, the monstrous and bloody assassinator of the great and honored Chief Magistrate of our nation, forever be uttered. Righteous and oftentimes swift are the judgments of God, and crime is sure to be followed with the penalties it deserves, by divine, if not human justice.
The sentiments which prevailed quite extensively in the army, immediately after the assassination of President Lincoln, that our country was in greater peril than it had been during the four years of war, in consequence of the sudden and awful removal of the man who had brought the nation, apparently at least, to the eve of reconciliation and peace, has undergone a change and the feeling now shared by officers and soldiers is that the Republic of America is stronger and firmer than it ever was; that there is greater unity of heart and hand, a deeper love of country, a more determined purpose to stand by the Government, whoever may be its administrators, and that assassins, traitors, rebels and every and all enemies of the Republic, be they few or many, be they secret, stealthy and cowardly, or open , bold and defiant, can never wrest from the people the government of their fathers or overthrow its laws and liberties. The nation’s great calamity, bitter and sorrowful beyond all expression as it is to the individual and popular heart, has been a blessing in that it has swept away all feelings of partisan animosity and strife of prejudices and passion, and made strong and more patriotic the heart of every loyal man. Let not malice, or uncharitableness, or mendacious speeches dare to rake up and rankle in the hearts of honest men and patriotic men sentiments of political bitterness and extravagance, and thus open afresh the warfare of partisanship, which the fatal bullet that took from us our President, uniting the heart of the nation with the profoundest grief and robing the land in the drapery of unfeigned woe, removed far way, and brought in close sympathy and union men of all parties, creeds and opinions. The sacrifice of Abraham Lincoln as a martyr to the cause of Law, Order and Liberty, was forthwith followed with the sacrifice, by every true lover of his country, upon the altar of that country, of everything of a partisan character which would detract one iota from the strength of our government or prevent a cordial and vigorous support of the successor of the nation’s martyred Chief Executive. Shall that sacrifice have been made in vain? and shall political rancor and dissensions be again revived by the pen or tongue of maliciousness and malignancy? Heaven grant that the bond of unity and sympathy which the recent terrible calamity has caused to be pledged between the two great parties of the country for a united and earnest support of the country and its new President, may not be severed and the evils resulting therefrom become rife again. Our country first and last, and may God give us the victory over all its enemies within and without.
In talking with paroled rebel soldiers since the assassination of President Lincoln, and asking how they regard the matter, their answer has been: “We have lost a true friend. The South, we fear, by this calamity, will be a greater sufferer than the North.” Such feelings or expressions, whatever may be their motive, are an index that the rebellious people, or those that lately were, are desirous of returning to a reunion and fellowship with the good old government and the people of the North.
On Monday last I had occasion to go to the 5th Corps. I found headquarters at Nottoway Court House, on the South Side Railroad, 43 miles from Petersburg, and 53 from City Point. The batteries of the artillery brigade of this corps are pleasantly encamped at Nottoway, and are likely to remain for the present in their new position. The infantry of the corps are guarding the South Side Road between Petersburg and Nottoway, having relieved the 9th Corps, which went to Washington, and, if I am rightly informed, has been disbanded as a corps organization. The country about Nottoway is very fine, high and rolling, with good farming lands and excellent timber. Like most Virginia settlements, Nottoway is an insignificant village, consisting of about half a dozen buildings, including the brick court house and a meeting house. The 6th Corps, which had been lying not far from the 5th, left on the 23d inst. for Danville.
Sheridan’s cavalry started from Petersburg on Monday morning (April 24) for Sherman’s army, by the way of Danville. Johnston, if he has not already surrendered, better do so at once before General “Phil Sheridan” makes his acquaintance with his brave and brilliant cavalry troops, or he will have nothing to surrender after Sheridan’s encounter with him. We had the pleasure of meeting General Sheridan for the first time on Sunday afternoon, through an introduction of Gen. Geo. Forsyth of his staff. A single look at the great soldier and captain satisfied us that the recent gone up “Confederacy” came in contact with a power it never dreamed of, when it undertook to battle against the heroism and energy of this man, qualities, which like those ascribed to the fabled giant, have enabled their possessor to combat and crush the monster rebellion as if it were but a very small thing. Sheridan, in build and looks, is the personification of an irresistible energy. Short in stature, square shouldered, not handsome by any means, or of commanding presence, but those dark eyes, and resolute face, and that compact, closely built, intensified body, proclaim an unconquered and unconquerable, a sweeping, impetuous, overpowering energy, carrying with it whatever it allies with itself and overcoming all that is before it. (4)
Gen. Sherman’s terms of surrender with Johnston engross much talk and discussion in the army. I forbear mentioning the comments that are made among nearly all officers and soldiers. They are all severely condemnatory, with here and there an exception. The transcendent military career of Gen. Sherman seems to have become eclipsed, from the tone of remark relating to the negotiations, by the stroke of Gen. Sherman’s pen. The brilliant triumphs of his sword appear to be nowhere now. A single round from glory and renown to shame and ill repute. G.B. (5)
Transcribed And Donated By Bob MarcotteTranscribed And Donated By Bob Marcotte
Robert E. Marcotte
Rochester, N.Y.
February 2005