On the night of the 4th of May the transports the army had embarked on
set sail for Fortress Monroe, and on the 5th moved up the James River,
reaching Bermuda Hundred the afternoon of the 5th, and by morning of
the 6th had disembarked. Bermuda Hundred is a peninsula, made by a
sweep of the James River to the east and by its tributary, the
Appomattox. It is at the mouth of the latter river, on its north bank,
City Point lying opposite it on the south bank. Petersburgh is twelve
miles up the Appomattox on its south bank, and Richmond twenty-three
miles north of Petersburgh, directly connected by a railroad and
turnpike.
On the morning of the 6th of May our disembarked forces advanced to the
neck of the peninsula, about six miles from the landing. This neck is
here about three miles across from river to river, two miles and a half
beyond our halting point the railroad runs, the pike running between.
The ground we took up was superficially intrenched at first, the plan
not looking to a protracted stay there, but to an advance on the
railroad and pike, the taking of Petersburgh and a march on Richmond
and its southern communications. The force ready to oppose us was a
small one, no larger than our brigade, and our army numbered some
30,000 men. But before vigorous steps were taken to capture
Petersburgh, it had been reinforced by troops hurried forward from
North Carolina by General Beauregard, our old opponent of the
Department of the South, now in command of the Department of North
Carolina and Southern Virginia. It was the head of this reinforcing
column that successfully held Port Walthall Junction the 7th of May
against a portion of our army. On the 9th we moved out to the front and
destroyed the railroad between Swift Creek and Chester Station, a
length of about six miles. On the 10th, the Confederate General, Ransom
attacked this outlying force, but was repulsed. On the 12th we moved
towards Richmond, Smith's corps on the right and ours on the left. We
did not meet with any serious resistance this day. At night our line
camped on Proctor's Creek. On the 14th we meet with more resistance.
Smith found the works in his front too strong to be assaulted, but our
corps moving to turn the enemy's right, resting on Wooldridge Hill,
succeeding in forcing them to abandon their position there, and by
night of the 15th we had driven them out of their whole outer line and
into their interior one, and we were in position before Drury Bluff.
But while we had been moving so slowly, Beauregard had been acting with
such rapidity that he was now in the Drury's Bluff intrenchments with
an army gathered from North Carolina and Richmond, and felt so strong
that on the morning of the 16th he assumed the offensive, attacking
Smith's right flank in the early morning, and capturing General Heckman
and some hundreds of his brigade. Beauregard's plan miscarried
somewhat, or he might have ended the career of the army of the James
before it had fairly begun. He intended to get around our flank, while
General Whiting should move out from Petersburgh with 5,000 men and
attack our rear. His attack against Heckman was successful, but the
other attacks on Smith's line failed, though the rebels captured four
pieces of artillery, but his attacks on the line of our corps were all
repulsed. Still we were pressed back, partly by the numerical force
thrown against us and partly from our anxiety to cover our trains and
keep our connections with Bermuda Hundred, where we had left but a
small force. By night our army had given back until the rebels occupied
their whole outer line again, but Whiting's force failing to advance,
Beauregard could not press his advantage as he wished to, and before
morning our whole force was safely behind the Bermuda Hundred
intrenchments. The truth is that General Whiting was not a
prohibitionist by any means, and this day of all days in his military
career, he chose to exemplify that fact by getting drunk. Colonel
Logan, of General Beauregard's staff, who took General Whiting written
orders to move out the morning of the 16th, delivered them to him the
night of the 15th, and was with General Whiting when on the morning of
the 16th, beginning at daylight, he made his advance. Striking the
Union picket line, his force was placed in line of battle, but made no
advance during the day, in spite of Colonel Logan's expostulations and
those of General D. H. Hill, "spending the day in arranging and
rearranging his line," according to Colonel Logan, who does not doubt
but had General Whiting followed his instructions the result would have
been the capture of the entire force of General Butler.
Company D had not yet been actively engaged. It had been under fire a
number of times though, quite enough to show the good stuff its new men
were made of. It had taken an active part in tearing up the railroad,
and had done a little long range skirmishing in which its only casualty
was Private Annis, wounded on the 14th; but I think that the members of
it who had been in the most serious danger were those on the picket
line the night of the 13th.
The picket line of this night was in charge of Captain Mudgett. In
running it he placed some of us before the open grounds in which stood
the house before which Lieutenant Brannen, of Company I, was killed,
and then by some devious piloting placed another line between us and
our line of battle, a bit of duplication that was decidedly unpleasant
to us of the outer picket line, for the Confederates were terribly
uneasy that night, firing heavily all along their apparently very
strong picket line, we replying, of course, but--_zip_, _zip_, in front
of us was all very well, but where did the bullets that flew around us
from the rear come from? The unpleasant fact speedily dawned on us
that a picket line lay behind us firing too at the Confederate rifle
flashes, as they supposed, but really at our own, so that we poor
fellows were between two fires. To attempt to go back to expostulate
with the pickets behind us was impossible, for the inevitable crashing
through the underbrush between us and them would concentrate sure death
upon the messenger. So all we could do then was to stay where we were,
cease firing, and lay low. This last we did literally, lying flat on
the ground while the bullets zipped viciously back and forth over us,
one every now and then striking this or that side of a tree with a
suggestive spat.
But Private Day would fire, to lie still and be shot at was contrary to
his nature. Every once in a while his gun would bang from his position
on the left of the line, giving the enemy in front and the line behind
us a range by which to pelt us most dangerously. Again and again I had
to go down the line and expostulate with John, but it was of no use,
and at last I was forced to take my position with him and by sheer
ill-temper keep him repressed, while he foamed with wrath at the idea
of being compelled to lie still and silent to be shot at.
The night of the 15th our regiment took a position on the extreme left,
where we threw up a sort of intrenchment in anticipation of an attack.
But in the morning the heavy firing and the shouting told us that the
other flank was the one attacked. We remained in our position a short
time in the thick fog, hastily getting coffee boiling and the inner man
strengthened for what seemed to be a coming day's work. Soon an order
came for us to move to a position in support of the assailed line. As
we moved rapidly along the line, we passed General Terry's
headquarters, a small house, out of which the General rushed in his
shirt-sleeves to admonish us to double quick "for God's sake." Then,
striking a panting gait, we soon took position under a heavy fire.
Here we lay watching the give-and-take going on in front of us,
expecting each minute to be obliged to fill a gap, but instead we were
suddenly ordered to march rapidly to the rear and push down the pike
toward Petersburgh till we should meet the supposed to be approaching
Whiting.
And we did march rapidly. The fog was long gone, and the sun was
beating down hot and strong. Men fell right and left, not bullet
struck, but sun-struck. Caps were filled with green leaves,
handkerchiefs were soaked in water and tied around swelling temples,
but still it was "Forward," "Forward." The desperate pace seemed
endless, but at last we were halted, formed in a strong skirmish line,
and moved through woods till we reached a creek where we awaited the
Confederate advance.
We could hear them talking and moving beyond the creek, but for reasons
now known to you, they did not cross it. We remained in this position
until night, then by a circuitous route, down one ravine and up
another, under the piloting of Lieutenant Newcomb and Sergeant Payne we
stole away, and soon found ourselves behind the outworks of Bermuda
Hundred.
The 17th of May was passed by the men in necessary recuperation, and by
the commanding officers in a rearrangement of lines, now looking to
defense. That night the pickets at Warebottom Church reported a
movement down the pike. The sound of trampling horses and the rattling
of heavy wagons came clearly to their ears. It was conjectured that a
wagon train was moving down the pike from Richmond to Petersburgh, and
it was determined to attack it. Troops were hurried from the inner
lines to the front, and the Eleventh was formed in line of battle and
moved through the woods toward the pike. As it was a bright moonlight
night, and the woods were fairly clear of underbrush, this movement was
rapidly made, but suddenly, click, click, all along in front came the
sound of cocking guns, and as our men threw themselves upon the ground,
a crash of musketry came from a line of battle the Eleventh had almost
run into. For an hour fierce firing was kept up by both sides, a
battery of artillery on ours, placed near the church, adding not a
little to the uproar by throwing shells over our heads. At last, when
our ammunition had become exhausted, and while the men, their blood up,
where clamoring for a fresh supply, orders came to fall back.
The wagon train proved to be Beauregard's trains and batteries moving
down from Richmond, and well sheltered from us by a strong line of
battle.
Of D, Private Carver received a severe flesh wound in this affair and
Private George L. Butler was mortally wounded, the loss of the regiment
numbering 26 men.
The 20th of May the enemy made a most determined but entirely
unsuccessful attack on our outer line. We were not engaged, however. It
was this day that the rebel General Walker was wounded and captured.
Only heavy skirmishing took place for some days after this, the night
firing between pickets being especially continuous. During this
comparative lull, and accounting for it partly, the enemy was building
the Howlett House line, extending from the Howlett House Hill on the
James to the Appomattox, by this line of intrenchments effecting the
famous "bottling up process," and most effectually protecting their
lines of communication between Richmond and Petersburgh.
As soon as General Grant learned of the futile result of Butler's
movement, from which he had hoped so much, the destruction of
Confederate communication with North Carolina, the investment of
Richmond, and the consequent withdrawal of a large body of Lee's army
from his own front, he directed that all the troops not actually needed
to hold Bermuda Hundred be sent to him under command of General Smith.
In consequence of this order, 16,000 of our army with 16 guns embarked
the night of the 28th, and the 29th sailed for White House Landing on
the York River, leaving a force of about 15,000 infantry and cavalry in
the Bermuda Hundred intrenchments.
At about the same time General Lee ordered Beauregard to send him all
the men he, too, could spare, which he did, retaining about 12,000
infantry and cavalry. There seems to have been a desire on the part of
General Lee that still more of Beauregard's force be sent to him; even
that Beauregard himself should go to him with all his available troops
and take command of the right wing of Lee's army, leaving Petersburgh
with a small force to take care of itself. But Beauregard was tenacious
in his determination to hold his position on the south side of the
James, and to keep his lines of intrenchments strongly manned. He
argued that Butler's force was still large enough to endanger
Petersburgh, even against the force he had retained, and it was to test
this theory that he made the reconnoissance in force on the 2d of June
which proved so disastrous to Company D.
The regiment went on picket duty the evening of June 1st, D taking
position at Warebottom Church. The pickets had by this time settled
into a state of armed neutrality, the more venturesome of them even
trading in coffee and tobacco. Private Bridges, of D, was especially
active in this sort of barter. He frequently went across the strip of
ground that lay between the picket lines to drive lively trades with
the enemy for tobacco, which was scarce with us, bartering coffee
therefor, which was scarce with them.
Private Bridges, "Old Turk" as he was called, was a character. A half
surly look in his eyes, something like that in those of a half tamed
steer, caused him to receive the bucolic nick-name. He had ideas of his
own about guns; the Springfield rifles we were armed with he despised.
He wanted a gun that would carry a bullet to the spot he aimed at.
Somewhere, at Gloucester Point I think, he got hold of a sporting
rifle, a heavy, thick barreled, strongly grooved piece, and then the
bother was to get suitable ammunition for it, our cartridges being much
too large for its bore. After a deal of wandering through camps, he
secured, through a good-natured cavalryman, a suitable cartridge for
his gun, a carbine cartridge that fitted it perfectly. With a stock of
these in his cartridge box he was ready for the enemy. Of course the
carrying of this gun had to be winked at by his officers, and when he
went on inspection, parade or guard duty he had to borrow a despised
Springfield rifle from some one off duty to appear with, giving rise to
a lately heard of story of his carrying two guns.
This evening of the 1st of June, Corporal Weymouth made himself the
medium of exchange between the pickets.
He went towards the rebel picket line in the early evening and was met
by one of their number whom he arranged to meet at the same spot in the
early morning for the exchange of goods agreed upon.
The night was a moonless one, I remember, for, as we were not allowed
fires, or to light matches on the outposts, when we wanted to learn the
time of night we had to catch a fire-fly and make him crawl across the
face of a watch, that when he flashed we might catch the positions of
the hands. In the early part of the night the rebel batteries opened on
our lines, firing most vigorously for a time, but as we did not reply
they ceased firing after about one hour. It is probable that it was
Beauregard's purpose to aggravate our batteries into replying that he
might gather an idea of their positions and the number of their guns.
Morning came at last and the daylight broke. As soon as the light was
strong enough to see clearly, Lieutenant Maxfield made a tour along the
line of D, from right to left. He found Corporal Weymouth wide awake
and in readiness to go out to meet his rebel friend when he should
appear coming over the rebel works.
"There he is, Corporal," said some one as a form darted over the rebel
line. "But he has a gun in his hand," Weymouth answered, and sure
enough Lieutenant Maxfield saw that the man they were looking at had a
gun in his hand, and that he was accompanied by a long line of other
gray clad men, reaching out from his right and left, all with guns in
their hands, too, and all moving swiftly toward our works.
In a moment the Lieutenant had shouted the alarm to his men, and as the
sharp word of command rang out, every man, were he asleep or awake,
sprang to his feet, every gun was to a cheek, and a rapid and effective
fire was opened upon the now swiftly approaching enemy. So sure and
cool were our men, far from being surprised, that in less than a minute
the long line of the enemy in front of D was gone, those of them not
fallen back to cover, lying on the ground dead or dying, the not too
desperately wounded slowly crawling for spots sheltered from our fire.
The new rifle of Private Bridges was especially effective that morning
every shot from it seeming to tell. His usually half closed eyes were
wide open now and sparkling with joy. As he fired he would peer after
his flying shot, and "I have hit him," he would triumphantly shout, and
then proceed to reload his rifle with cool care. We were jubilant, for
we had beaten the enemy off, but we speedily found that the pickets on
our left had not been so fortunate. We could see them falling hastily
back, and then over the open space before us that we had just cleared
of one rebel skirmish line, a heavier one came rushing.
We fell back to a reserve pit on the run, entering it pell mell. Here
we found Captain Lawrence and his company, H, and at his command a
smart fire was opened on the pursuing enemy, driving them to cover. But
unfortunately there was an unoccupied reserve pit to our rear and left
that the enemy entered, and from which they poured a galling fire on
our rear. Captain Lawrence, as commander of our little force, was ably
assisted by Lieutenant Thompson of his own company, and by Lieutenant
Maxfield, of D. These officers exposed themselves recklessly while
urging the men to keep up their fire on the enemy in their front, not
forgetting those in the reserve pit behind us.
Of course we could not stay where we were unless we proposed to go
to Richmond before its evacuation. A hasty council of war was held
by the officers, and it was agreed that the plan should be to fight
desperately until a lull in the attack should give an opportunity to
gain the woods behind us, then that we should break for it with a
sudden and combined rush that would carry us right through the enemy of
the reserve pit should they sally out as we ran by them, which we must,
and within a few feet of them. The rebels in our front made several
vain rushes at us. Once a sergeant of theirs led his men almost to
the muzzles of the guns on the left, at a moment too, when the most of
the guns there were uncharged. Corporal Weymouth was on the extreme
left, "shoot that sergeant, Weymouth," was shrieked at him, and like
lightning Weymouth's gun was pointing straight at the gallant rebel,
and Weymouth's sharp eye was looking down the barrel as if to give
the death stroke. Even rebel human nature probably fighting for a
commission could not stand it, and the sergeant turned and fled, his
men flying with him, not knowing that Weymouth's gun was as empty as a
last year's bird's nest.
A movement of the rebels in our front that checked the fire of their
men in the reserve pit indicated a sudden onslaught. The moment for
retiring had come, "now, all together," said Lieutenant Maxfield, as he
ran along to the left, "pour it into them when Captain Lawrence shouts
'fire,' and then run for the woods." "Fire," the order came, a crash of
rifles answered it, and then we ran like deer for the sheltering
timber.
The enemy in the reserve pit was nonplussed for a moment, for it looked
as if we were charging straight upon them, but catching the idea in a
moment they arose and poured a sharp fire into us as we ran by. Within
a minute those of us not killed, made prisoners, or too badly wounded
to be carried off the field, had rejoined the Eleventh, which we found
in line of battle not many rods in rear of the scene of our desperate
defence.
Of D, Private Bridges was killed in the reserve pit, Sergeant Brady,
Corporal Bailey, Privates Conforth, Moses E. Sherman, Smith, Dawe, Dyer
and Bragdon were wounded, Captain Mudgett, Sergeant Blake, Privates
Bryant, Kelley and Bolton were prisoners, Private Bolton having been
too badly wounded to be taken from the field. Of these prisoners all
were eventually exchanged and discharged, except Private Kelly, who
died in Andersonville Prison.
We find it reported that of Company H, Privates Cumner and Rogers were
killed, and that Lieutenant Thompson and Private Green were wounded.
The loss of the Regiment for the day was 41 in killed, wounded and
prisoners. Lieutenant-Colonel Spofford, who was in command of the
Regiment, was mortally wounded before the line was broken and the
command then devolved on Captain Hill, of K, shortly Major and then
Lieutenant-Colonel, and from this day on the most conspicuous
commanding officer the Regiment ever had.
The picket skirmishing that had died out to a large extent during the
last week in May, became continuous again from this attack of June 2d.
Our own Regiment when not on the picket line engaged in this desultory
sort of warfare, was lying in line of battle behind the heavy inner
works of Bermuda Hundred, consisting of strong redans, or batteries,
connected by infantry parapets, all with stout abatis in front, and
with slashings wherever possible, and from Beauregard's report, his men
lay behind their somewhat similar works as anxiously as we did behind
ours, both we and they in continual expectation of an assault. The
truth is that both Butler and Beauregard were afraid that their long
and thinly manned lines might be assaulted and carried at any moment,
each knowing his own weakness full well, and magnifying the strength of
his opponent.
Beauregard had the best ground for his fears. As the strongest
numerically and occupying the inner and therefore the shorter lines of
the opposing works, and with a strong fleet of gunboats in the river to
fall back to the shelter of in case of disaster, the initiative
belonged to us. And indeed a force did move out from our line the 9th
of June to attack Petersburgh. General Gillmore with 3,000 infantry,
accompanied by General Kautz with 1,500 cavalry, crossed the Appomattox
on the ponton bridge at Port Walthall in the early morning. Gillmore
moved out on the City Point Road, and Kautz moved to the left four or
five miles to reach the Jerusalem Plank Road. Gillmore finding the
works before him strong ones, and apparently well manned, did not
attempt to assault them, returning to Bermuda Hundred that afternoon.
Kautz attacked on the plank road with indifferent success at first, but
finally flanked the enemy's line, forcing them out of their ranks, then
marched on the city, but reinforcements coming to the enemy and
Gillmore not supporting him, Kautz was forced to withdraw. But more
formidable opposing forces than were those of Butler and Beauregard,
forces commanded perhaps by greater chieftains than they, too, were now
moving to the position of which Petersburgh was the central figure, now
to become the most important position of the war.
Before the battle of Cold Harbor was fought by the Army of the Potomac
and the portion of the Army of the James sent to Grant under General
Smith, Grant had about given up all hope of breaking through Lee's
defence on the north side of the James, and had planned, if this
last effort failed, to move across the James to a position before
Petersburgh, hoping to be able to move so unexpectedly to Lee as to
effect the capture of Petersburgh, the turning of Beauregard's Bermuda
Hundred line, and to cut off Confederate communication with North
Carolina before Lee should realize Grant's object sufficiently to
checkmate it by throwing the Army of Northern Virginia across the
James and into the Confederate intrenchments at Bermuda Hundred and
Petersburgh in time to save them. The part of the Army of the James
under General Smith marched to White House, reembarked and sailed for
Bermuda Hundred, arriving in the afternoon of June 14th. Smith's force
crossed the Appomattox by the ponton bridge at Broadway Landing, two
miles from Port Walthall and eight from Petersburgh. Assaulting the
works they found in their front, they succeeded in carrying a long line
of them. Divisions of the Army of the Potomac began to reach Smith's
position that afternoon, crossing the James on a ponton bridge laid
down from Wilcox Landing on the north side and Windmill Point on the
south, just below City Point, but owing to the exhaustion of troops,
missent orders, and various other causes, the success of the forenoon
was not followed up, and the 16th and 17th were spent by our forces
there in making assaults on the strong and, though mainly defended by
artillery, still well defended rebel works. The results were varying
during these two days, but without our gaining a position of sufficient
strength to enable our columns to overcome the defence of the 18th,
when Beauregard's small, almost exhausted and somewhat provisional army
was heavily reenforced by Lee's veteran troops.
During this time we were holding the lines of Bermuda Hundred, in
hourly expectation on the 16th and 17th of the Army of Northern
Virginia assaulting us, it having to pass so near us in moving down the
pike and the Richmond and Petersburgh to Beauregard's assistance, that
it might easily hurl an assaulting column on our lines and breaking
through the inadequate force with which we held them, assail Grant on
the flank.
While Beauregard, thoroughly alive to Grant's real purposes through the
stories of scouts and spies, and the sifted admissions of the prisoners
he captured on the 15th, was showering telegrams on Lee and sending his
aides with personal messages to Richmond, Lee was still on the north
side of the James throwing out reconnoissances in every direction in
search of Grant's real course. This delay of Lee forced Beauregard to
hold his lines with a very small force against a constantly augmenting
one. But these lines were formidable ones. A born engineer as well as
an educated one, Beauregard had from sheer restlessness already
entrenched every practicable position around Petersburgh, planting
enfilading batteries on all commanding points, and generally had
already planned and arranged the lines of works that, with little
modification of position, held Petersburgh so long against our armies.
Knowing that the force in his front was steadily growing as divisions
of the Army of the Potomac came on the ground and went into position,
and that the 16th would be a day of trial to him, Beauregard the night
of the 15th determined to abandon the Bermuda Hundred line, trusting to
the coming of Lee's troops to regain them.
That night he withdrew the force that held the Bermuda Hundred lines,
leaving only a mask of pickets, virtually abandoning his whole line
from the Howlett House to the Appomattox. He says he had the guns and
caissons of the Howlett House Battery removed and buried, the ground
above them rearranged with sticks and leaves as not to arouse any
suspicion, and that this prize remained safely hidden until the
Confederates had regained their line.
The night of the 15th Lieutenant-Colonel Greely of the 10th
Connecticut, which regiment was on picket at the Warebottom Church
position, hearing movements on the rebel line, crept out and made up
his mind from what he heard and saw that the rebels were moving away.
Reporting his belief and his reasons for it to General Terry, that
officer ordered a movement in the early morning of the 16th that
resulted in the capture of the whole rebel line with their pickets and
such troops as they had left there.
A force of one hundred day's men from Ohio had reported to General
Butler, good material enough, but in the nature of things quite
undisciplined, mere raw recruits, and without the veteran organization
of officers and men that enabled our own new men to do such good work.
These new troops were placed in the captured lines, while we held our
own outer line just across the slashing dividing the two lines of
intrenchments. They now held their position beautifully so long as they
were not troubled by the Confederates, but along in the afternoon a
commotion was visible among them, then a few came hurrying over the
works they were in, then more and more, a confused firing was heard,
then the "rebel yell" rose clear and shrill and the whole force of Ohio
men came flocking over the works and across the slashing, a strong
skirmish line of gray clothed soldiers moving after them--the van of
Lee's army. The hundred day's men came tearing towards us at the top of
their speed without order or orders so far as could be seen. We opened
ranks to let them through, the scared white faced flock of sheep, one
of them, I remember, holding up a hand from which the blood was
trickling from a scratch probably made by a limb of a fallen tree of
the slashing, lamentably crying "I'm wounded," "I'm wounded," while our
men roared with laughter. What would have become of them--whether they
would have stopped short of Ohio--I do not know, had not the 10th
Connecticut, on reserve, deployed with fixed bayonets and fenced the
mob back.
But we had no time for enjoyment of this part of the comedy. Closing up
as the Ohio men passed through us, we turned so heavy a fire on the
advancing lines of the enemy that they stopped, staggered, fell back
and finally retired to their recaptured works.
At day-break of June 17th, General Osborn says that the Confederates
assaulted the Union line in our front and were repulsed, but when they
assaulted in the afternoon they broke through a portion of the line,
driving it back.
Captain Maxfield's diary states that in the evening of the 17th, the
Eleventh charged to support the left of the 24th Massachusetts, where
some one-hundred day men had given way, our Ohio runaways again. It was
in this charge that Corporal Bearce was wounded. And for the 18th this
diary states that we had fallen back to the old line of rebel rifle
pits, back of the church, and that either intentionally or by accident
the rebels set fire to the recaptured church, and it was burnt to the
ground.
The night of June 18th, after the corps of the Army of the Potomac had
made a series of desperate and bloody assaults on the Confederate works
at Petersburgh, works that military authorities agree should have been
taken the 15th, could have been the 16th, might have been on the 17th,
but that were impregnable for the time now that the lines of the Army
of Northern Virginia were stretched behind them, General Grant,
recognizing the futility of further direct efforts against Petersburgh,
gave orders that all assaults should cease, and that the positions
gained by the several corps close against the enemy's lines should be
intrenched, and as General Humphreys says of the intrenchments threw up
that night by this order, "the two opposing lines of works before
Petersburgh remained substantially the same in position to the close of
the war."