CHAPTER XXIII. SHERIDAN AT THE SURRENDER. THE FIVE FORKS AT APPOMATTOX ENVIRONMENT - STRIKING THE night of March 29, 1865, found Sheridan with his cavalry, pressing, watching, keenly alert, looking into the night and southward, as he held, at Dinwiddie Court House, the extreme left of our investing lines about Richmond and Petersburg. The end was near, and by the way at the flank of which Sheridan watched like an eagle ready to pounce upon its prey, must Lee get clear, if at all, of the fiercely. elaborate environment which for ten months past Grant had so sternly and steadily forged about him. In a semicircle or arc of at least thirty-five miles, the army of investment was swinging steadily forward. Weitzel on the far right with a part of the Army of the James, was near to Richmond. Warren was below and behind Sheridan, holding the extreme left with his stern, unflinching veterans. Between them, and next to Warren was Humphreys, then Ord and the balance of the Army of the James, and Wright with the Sixth Corps, holding our works in front of Petersburg. Grant's headquarters were that night in the centre, south of the Vaughan road and close to Gravelly Run. To understand clearly the wonderful part that Sheridan played in the next few days, the position of Lee must be fully comprehended. Richmond was half starved. Petersburg was a demoralized camp. Many of the soldiers of the Army of Northern Virginia were negatively hostile to a continuance of the struggle for the Confederate cause and its government. General Lee they worshiped and they would follow. him. The corps and divisions were held by their leaders and the men's admiration in them. This indifference or semi-hostility was never openly expressed. But it was felt, nevertheless. There was only one way out for Lee: a retreat to the southwest, by the line of the Richmond and Danville railroad. Looking at the conditions then existing, it may well be doubted if Lee had any real expectation of escaping from Grant with his half-fed and semi-naked troops. If so, it could have been only to commence a desultory, semi-detached warfare which must have very speedily degenerated into a partisan, guerrilla struggle, sure to have made far more difficult, with each recurring day's action, any liberal settlement of the terrible dispute which had put, first and last, over three million men under arms. It may be well to indicate the troops with which this great task in its final phases, was to be accomplished. With Sheridan, fighting the battle of Five Forks, and serving, too, as the fighting advanced, in all subsequent operations, the roster of March 31st shows the following commands, as engaged in the final movements. In the field and at Five Forks were the FIFTH ARMY CORPS. MAJOR-GENERAL GOUVERNEUR K. WARREN. FIRST DIVISION. BRIGADIER-GENERAL CHARLES GRIFfin. First Brigade.-Brigadier-General Joshua L. Chamberlain. SECOND DIVISION. BRIGADIER-GENERAL ROMLYN B. AYERs. First Brigade.- Colonel Frederick Winthrop. THIRD DIVISION. BRIGADIER-GENERAL SAMUEL W. CRAWFORD. First Brigade.- Colonel John A. Kellogg. Second Brigade.- Brigadier-General Henry Baxter. Third Brigade.- Colonel Richard Coulter. Artillery Brigade.- Colonel Charles S. Wainwright. The cavalry, Sheridan's own command, consisted of four divisions, all under Major-General Torbett, as chief of cavalry, two of which, under Merritt and Custer, were from the Shenandoah Valley, one under Crook, of the Army of the Potomac proper, and the fourth under McKenzie, was from the Army of the James. The roster shows the following commands: MAJOR-GENERAL TORBETT, CHIEF OF CAVALRY, Commanding. ARMY OF THE SHENANDOAH. BRIGADIER-GENERAL WESLEY MERRITT. FIRST DIVISION. BRIGADIER-GENERAL THOMAS C. DEVEN. First Brigade. - Colonel Peter Stagg. Second Brigade.—Colonel Charles T. Fitzhugh. THIRD DIVISION. BRIGADIER-GENERAL GEORGE A. CUSTER. First Brigade.- Colonel Alexander C. M. Pennington. Third Brigade.-Colonel Henry Capehart. SECOND DIVISION (ARMY OF THE POTOMAC.) MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE CROOK. First Brigade.- Brigadier-General H. E. Davies. ARMY OF THE JAMES. CAVALRY DIVISION. BRIGADIER-GENERAL RANALD S. MCKENZIE. First Brigade.- Colonel Robert M. West. Second Brigade.-Colonel Samuel P. Spear. In the subsequent pursuit of Lee that culminated at Appomattox, the following corps were also associated with General Sheridan : ARMY OF THE JAMES. MAJOR-GENERAL EDWARD O. C. ORD. GENERAL HEADQUARTERS AND UNATTACHED COMPANIES. Signal Corps.- Captain T. B. Norton. Engineers.- Colonel James F. Hall. Cavalry.-Colonel Francis Washburn, Colonel Edwin V. Sumner, Colonel Charles F. Adams, Jr. TWENTY-FOURTH ARMY CORPS. MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN GIBBON. FIRST DIVISION. BRIGADIER-GENERAL ROBERT S. FOSTER. First Brigade.- Colonel Thomas O. Osborn. Third Brigade.- Colonel George B. Dandy. THIRD DIVISION. BRIGADIER-GENERAL CHARLES DEVens. First Brigade.- Colonel Edward H. Ripley. ARTILLERY. CAPTAIN JAMES R. Angel. Of the Army of the Potomac were the following organizations: SECOND ARMY CORPS. MAJOR-GENERAL ANDREW A. HUMPHREYS. FIRST DIVISION. BRIGADIER-GENERAL NELSON A. MILES. First Brigade.-Colonel George W. Scott. SECOND DIVISION. BRIGADIER-GENERAL WILLIAM HAYS. First Brigade.- Colonel William A. Olmstead. THIRD DIVISION. BRIGADIER-GENERAL GERSHOM MOTT. First Brigade.-Brigadier-General Regis De Tobriand. SIXTH ARMY CORPS. FIRST DIVISION. BRIGADIER-GENERAL FRANK WHEATON. First Brigade.- Colonel William H. Penrose. SECOND DIVISION. BRIGADIER-General George W. Getty. First Brigade.- Colonel James N. Warner. THIRD DIVISION. BRIGADIER-GENERAL TRUMAN SEYMOUR. First Brigade.- Colonel William S. Truex. Upon Sheridan's vigilance, however, largely depended the consummation of Lee's necessity—the desperate venture of a great soldier's despair. That last night in March was a dismal one. It rained until the roads became sheets of water, and almost impassable. The men began to feel as if they had really gone through Virginia in a number of places. It seemed as if the waters themselves might knock the bottom out of the Confederacy. Just above Dinwiddie Court House, at least thirty-five miles south of Richmond, was the important strategetical position of Five Forks which Lee had seized and begun to fortify. In his later raid, after reaching City Point from Winchester, Sheridan had succeeded in destroying part of the Richmond and Danville railroad. Hence, Lee's escape from Richmond must be over the country roads. Pickett was at Five Forks, to protect Lee's right, with nearly all the Confederate cavalry and a large body of infantry. The rain held on all of the 30th, the morning upon which Grant gave Sheridan orders to "go in." It was to prevent Lee's holding this strategetical position that the great movement and battle of Five Forks was fought and won. The last of March was, said Sheridan to General Horace Porter, of Grant's staff, "one of the liveliest days in his experience." He had fought infantry and cavalry, and had only his troopers to do it with. The |