President Lincoln bid General Grant good-bye at City Point, as the latter with his staff took the train for the front), there had been a good deal of fighting about Petersburg, including the desperate Confederate sortie on Fort Steadman and its vigorous repulse. This occurred on the 25th of March. Sheridan was steadily on the alert, for Grant had been in constant fear for a month before, that Lee might suddenly pull out from his intrenchments and fall back to Lynchburg, taking advantage of the unbroken railroad line into North Carolina, where General Joe Johnston was operating against Sherman's advance. Such a movement might have proved disastrous to Sherman if successfully carried out. Both armies, in fact, were got in condition "for a fight or a foot race." Sheridan and his cavalry were the eye and arm of the Union army, and his thorough comprehension of the topographical and military situation, gained by unceasing vigilance, soon gave a fresh impetus to all efforts.

In a conversation with John Russell Young, had in 1880, while on the Chinese Sea,* the general told of his orders to Sheridan for the final movement that began at Five Forks and ended at Appomattox Court House, and of the manner in which Sheridan received his orders. The incident is so characteristic of both men, as narrated by the senior of them, that it is worthy of reproduction here. Grant said: "I was only waiting for Sheridan to finish his raid around Lee, to make final movements. When Sheridan arrived from that raid, I asked him to take a walk. As we were walking, I took out his orders and gave them to him. They were orders to move on the left and attack Lee. If the movement succeeded, he was to advance. If it failed, he was to make his way into North Carolina and join Sherman. When Sheridan read this part, he was, I saw, disappointed. His countenance fell. He had just made a long march, a severe march, and the idea of another march into North Carolina would disconcert any commander, even Sheridan. He, however, said nothing. I remarked:

"Sheridan, although I have provided for your retreat into North Carolina in the event of a failure, I have no idea you will fail — no idea that you will go to Carolina. I mean to end this business right here.' "Sheridan's eyes lit up, and he said with enthusiasm :

"That's the talk. Let us end the business right here.'

"But of course I had to think of the loyal North, and if we failed in striking Lee, it would have satisfied the North for Sheridan to go to

* Around the World with General Grant. Vol. II., page 357.

the Carolinas. The movement, however, succeeded, and my next news from Sheridan was the battle of Five Forks-one of the finest battles in the war."

The movements indicated began at once. Grant took the field, leaving City Point. Badeau says:

"The final movement against Petersburg had no success for several days. A great many advised Grant to return — he himself was gloomy. But one dark, rainy morning Sheridan came riding into camp and talked so cheeringly, so confidently, and so intelligently of what he could do, that his mood was contagious."

The staff took the great trooper in to Grant, who was in his tent, and when Grant perceived Sheridan's spirit, he felt that the time had come. Of this interview Grant wrote the following:

“One day, after the movement I am about to describe had commenced [i. e., the closing campaign], and when his cavalry was on our extreme left and far to the rear, south, Sheridan rode up to where my headquarters was then established at Dabney's Mill. He met some of my staff officers outside, and was highly jubilant over the prospect of success, giving reasons why he believed this would prove the final and successful effort. Although my chief of staff had urged very strongly that we return to our position about City Point and in the lines around Petersburg, he asked Sheridan to come in to see me and say to me what he had been saying to them. Sheridan felt a little modest about giving his advice where it had not been asked; so one of my staff came in and told me Sheridan had what they considered important news, and suggested that I send for him. I did so, and was glad to see the spirit of confidence with which he was inspired. Knowing as I did from experience of what great value that feeling of confidence by a commander was, I determined to make a movement at once."

The movement was made, with Sheridan in command. The battle of Five Forks which followed, Grant always acknowledged, “made possible the final assault on Petersburg, and opened the way for the Appomattox campaign, in which Sheridan led the terrible pursuit, fought Saylor's Creek, and out-marched Lee. In all these movements he sent back suggestions daily, almost hourly, to Grant, every one of which Grant accepted."

Memoirs, Vol. II., p. 438

TAKING HIS BEARINGS FROM THE " RELIABLE CONTRABAND." [From a War-Time Sketch by J. E. Taylor.]

CHAPTER XXII.

SHERIDAN'S PURSUIT OF LEE.

A MASTERLY MILITARY ACHIEVEMENT — THE BATTLE OF FIVE FORKS - HOW GENERAL LEE WAS OUT-MANEUVERED THE BATTLE-FIELD AS A STRATEGETICAL POINT -THE CORPS AND SOLDIERS ENGAGED-YOUNG CHAMBERLAIN'S SPLENDID FIGHT — FOR "THE HONOR OF THE FIFTH CORPS -SHERIDAN'S GRAND TACTICS-USING HIS CAVALRY AS A SCREEN-A BATTLE OF GIANTS SAVAGE FIGHTING ALL DAY SHERIDAN SELDOM OUT OF FIRECUSTER'S YELLOW LOCKS AT THE FRONT -THE BARN DOOR MOVEMENT AND HOW IT WORKED GALLOPING DOWN THE LINES MOUNTING THE CONFEDERATE BREASTWORKS -GENERAL WINTHROP's DEATH

VICTORY-CAPTURES-SURRENDER THE

SOLEMN NIGHT SCENE AT GRAVELLY RUN.

THE battle of Five Forks was perhaps the most ingeniously conceived and most skillfully executed engagement that was ever fought on this continent. It matched in secretiveness and shrewdness the cleverest efforts of Napoleon, and shows also much of that soldier's broadness of intellect and capacity for great occasions.

Sheridan had scarcely time to change his horse's shoes after Lee started south from Petersburg before he was off, and after him much of Grant's infantry also moved to the left. They passed the ancient breastworks at Hatcher's Run, and extended their lines southwestward till they touched Dinwiddie Court House, thirty miles from City Point. The Confederates fell back with but little skirmishing until the Union force faced northward and reached out toward their idolized Southside railway. Then they grew uneasy, and as a hint of their opposition, fought the sharp battle of Quaker road on Thursday. Still Grant reached farther and farther, marveling to find that, with his depleted army, Lee always overmatched him at every point of attack; but on Friday the Union forces quitted the intrenchments on the Boydton plank road, and made a bold push for the White Oak road. This is one of the series of parallel public ways running east and west, south of the Southside, the Vaughan road being the first, the Boydton plank road the second, and the old Court House road the third. It became evident to the Confederates that Grant had two direct objects in view the severing of their most important railway, and the occupation of the "Five Forks."

The latter is a magnificent strategic point. Five good roads meet in the edge of a dry, high, well-watered forest, three of them radiating to the railway, and their tributaries unlocking all the country. Farther south the Confederate defenses had been paltry, but they fortified this empty solitude as if it had been their capital. Upon its principal road -the White Oak afore-named- they had a ditched breastworks with embrasures of logs and earth, reaching east and west three miles. This was covered eastward and southeastward by rifle-pits, masked works, and felled timber. The bridges approaching it were broken. All the roads were well picketed, and a desperate resolve to hold to it averred.

This point of Five Forks is about eight miles from Dinwiddie Court House, four from the Southside road, and eighteen from Humphrey's, the nearest of our military railway stations. A crooked stream, called Gravelly Run, which, with Hatcher's, forms Rowanty Creek and goes off to feed the Chowan in North Carolina, rises near Five Forks, and gives the name of Gravelly Run Church to a little Methodist meeting-house built in the forest a mile distant. That meeting-house was a hospital, running blood, while a victor's battle-flags were flying at Five Forks.

The Fifth Army Corps under General Warren had all of the flank fighting of the week to do. It lost five or six hundred men in its victory of Thursday, and on Friday rested along the Boydton plank road, at the house of one Butler, which is about seven miles from Five Forks. On Friday morning, April 1st, General Ayres took the advance with one of its divisions, and marched three-quarters of a mile beyond the plank road, through a woody country, following the road, but crossing the ubiquitous Gravelly Run, till he struck the enemy in strong force a mile and a half below White Oak road. They lay in the edge of a wood, with a thick curtain of timber in their front, a battery of field pieces to the right, mounted in a bastioned earthwork, and on the left the woods drew near, encircling a little farm-land and some negro buildings.

General Ayres' skirmish line being fired upon, did not stand, but fell back upon his main column, which advanced at the order. Straightway the enemy charged headlong, while their battery opened a cross fire, and their skirmishers on the left, creeping down through the woods, picked the Union men off in flank. Then they charged with a whole division, giving a memorable yell, and soon doubled up Ayres' line of battle, so that it was forced in tolerable disorder back upon General Crawford, who commanded the next division.

His men do not seem to have retrieved the character of their prede