From Grant’s Victorious Army

special correspondence of the inquirer
headquarters army of the Potomac
Saturday, April 1, 1865 midnight

From out of the “Wilderness” of scrub oak, dwarf pines, swamps, ravines and knolls, through and over which our lines stretch, some intelligible idea of our operations yesterday begin to be apparent. The state of Virginia is worth fighting for an embodying political principle, but as so many acres of ground, it is not worth one single human life. We thought at the wilderness that we had reached the Acme of all that was horrible and miserable and perplexing in the aspect of nature, but then we had not seen the country south west of Petersburg. A tangled mass of ravines and hillocks, of small streamlets running in all possible directions, of little by-roads shooting off to every possible point of the compass, seeming to come from nowhere, and to be leading nowhere, intersecting each other at every conceivable angle, of dense forests of the meanest and most detestable kind of scrub oak and pine; picture this, and throw in here and there a worn out open field, with an old dilapidated farmhouse in the center, and you have a faint picture of the difficulties of the country in which we are operating. Out of this knotted mass the “special” must pluck the salient points for the information of the public, must ride miles and miles even to see the front of one corps and visit the various headquarters, and tired at night must write out what he has seen, what heard, what opines from both; is it any wonder that under circumstances like these his accounts are sometimes vague, sometimes unsatisfactory. Give him a fight like fort Stedman, where he knows the ground, and where the ground is open, he does well enough. Put him in the kind of country where we are now and he does as well as he can.

Promising that the day has been comparatively quiet on the right of our offensive line, comprised of the second and 24th corps, it is the intention first to give the public some idea of

The Relative Position of the Two Armies

first, it must be premised that our old line in front of Petersburg, from the Appomattox to the left of the Weldon Railroad remains intact and held precisely as they were before our present movement was initiated, running, until yesterday, to Hatchers Run, but changed from Fort Sampson to the left, by the advance of the 24th Corps, consequent upon the capture of the enemy’s entrenched picket line.

From Petersburg to Hatcher’s Run, by the Vaughan Road is seven and a half miles, and by the Boydton Road seven miles. The Fifth Corps front is a prolongation of our line beyond the Boydton Road, with the cavalry beyond them again, the line facing generally northeast, the flank being towards the South Side Rad, from the bend of the road to the south west.

Thus much by way of necessary preface. It remains to sketch events to the present moment, and beginning on the right with

The 24 Corps

Two divisions of which, those of Turner and Foster, with one of the 25th corps (Birney) all under the command of Major General Gibbons, are operating here. Birney’s division has been held as a reserve this far. Foster is on the right of the 24th, then Turner, forming connection with Hays, holding the right of the second Corps. Along General Gibbon’s front the day has been quiet. This morning just before daybreak the rebels essayed an attack upon Turner’s pickets, coming in the old yelling style, but they quickly came to grief. Turner’s line did not budge an inch, except to gather in 60 of the adventurous rebels as prisoners and to kill and maim some few more. The prisoners sent to the rear, Turner’s line quickly composed itself again and during the remainder of the day the rebels behaving themselves as well and we not being ready to disturb the apparent peacefulness of the neighborhood, it has been quiet until about 9:30 PM, when it a brisk cannonading begin and yet continues parentheses 10:20 PM parentheses it seems by the sound to be general, on the 6 quart front as well as the 24th, and an occasional distance rumble from the right indicates that the ninth core is also adding to the uproar.

passing still to the left and

The Second Corps

The day has been as peaceful as on the right. Occasional picket skirmishing has been going on, but nothing more serious in the way of fighting. The men of the corps have been busy, however building roads to the rear, cutting timber to the front for the artillery to get rain and other work preliminary to action. While mentioning roads it is but justice to notice the laborers out of the chiefs of pioneers of the several divisions; Captain G. W Cook 61st New York of the First, Captain H. Y. Russell of the Second, and Captain Charles Bowers, 8th New Jersey, of the Third, whose tasks although Herculean and apparently impossible, have been successfully accomplished. Energy will accomplish wonders, and the energy of these officers has already made passable the impossible country around Dabney’s mills and beyond, substantial Corduroy roads now cutting the country in every direction, and rendering success to the various parts of the line easy and sure.

Just beyond night the second division line was advanced somewhat, being pushed close up to the rebel fort at Hatchers Run, General Smith covering it with his musketry so entirely that the rebels cannot use its guns. Were it not for the very extensive slashing in front of this line, both before the Second and the 24th corps, we could easily carry by assault, but this slashing is so intricate that men can barely crawl through it singly, and it would be impossible to maintain a line of battle through it under anything like a respectable line.
General Mott still holds his position on the left of general Hays, and presses as close upon the rebel line as his con frere, but his line, like that of Hays, has been quiet

General Miles stretches across the Boydton Road, in the position occupied yesterday. His fight yesterday was a brilliant one and answered fully the purpose for which it was begun, being a diversion in favor of the Fifth Corp. His onslaught upon their line near Burgess Mill, induced the rebels to hurry men to the threatened point, and thus gave Warren and Sheridan less to contend against.

General Humphries was heard of today, only on his skirish line. He is determined to know exactly the position of the enemy on the front of his corps, and so he goes where he can see it.

Proceeding still to the left with the story of today I take up

The Fifth Corps

The operations of General Warren yesterday have already reached you. This morning early the Corps moved off on the Boydton Road.,. Griffin in advance, then Ayres next, Crawford North (paragraph two ends) About 2 miles, and taking a road running nearly west, came in contact with the enemy at what’s the rebels call Five Points, which, so near as it can be located with the assistance of imperfect maps is from 3 to 4 miles northwest of Dinwiddie courthouse.
about 2 miles, and taking a road running nearly west, came in contact with the enemy near what the rebels call five points, which, so near as it can be located with the assistance of imperfect maps is from 3 to 4 miles northwest of Dinwiddie courthouse.

In the afternoon General Warren got into line, with Griffin on the right, Ayres on the center, and Crawford on the left. It should be remembered here that this movement cut Sheridan and Warren off from all connection with the remainder of our army and their fighting this afternoon has been entirely an independent affair. The distance at which the corps has been engaged, the difficulties of communication have been such that it was impossible to more than outline this affair, if even that can be done. Artillery was but little used, but the musketry was terrific along the whole line. The battle began at five in the afternoon, and by dark, when it ceased, the firing had receded far beyond the point of beginning, showing that our forces had driven the enemy from the field. The extent of our success, the relative losses of the contending forces, and other details necessary to a full knowledge of the history enacted today, it is impossible to send. The country in that section of Virginia corresponds to what surrounds us here, except that it is level. There are the same swamps, the same horrible pine forest, the same treacherous soil. Is this whole state of Virginia nothing but a wilderness of worn out farms, swamp, and pineries?

General Sheridan

Moving this morning upon the left flank of Warren with the three cavalry divisions, has been, today, at his old business of driving the rebels before him. Custer, Devins, and Davis have once again proved themselves soldiers of mettle, But here, as with the Fifth Corps, we are without details. We know that Sheridan drove the enemy before him up the Boydton Road, and over the country to the neighborhood of Five Points that he fought his infantry as well as cavalry in connection with the Fifth Corps, the battery attached to Custer’s division doing most of the artillery work, and we are certain that this day has been a triumph for Sheridan and the Fifth Corps, but we know no more. The fighting has been an open field fight, and has occurred so near the south side railroad that a radical defeat there necessitates our occupancy (paragraph three ends) of the road, and, although no news of the event has reached me here, the probabilities are that the cavalry and the Fifth Corps are already engaged in the work of tearing it to flinders. The distance from Five Points to the Southside Railroad is only about a mile and a half, and a defeat there is fatal to the railroad.

General Grant

Still has his headquarters at Dabney Mills. That impenetrable face of his tells no tales whatever; things may be all right or all wrong, but not a line of his continents betrays the knowledge to the observer, hence, we get no news from looking at him

General Meade

Was, this afternoon, at a point about a mile to the right of the Vaughan Road, and the same distance to the left of Hatchers Run. This meeting of Generals Grant and Meade at so near the angle made by the rebels at Hatchers Run indicates stirring work in the neighborhood tomorrow

General.Ord

has established his headquarters at Humphries Station, and is in charge of our whole old line from Hatchers Run to the Appomattox, as well as his own line on the Bermuda hundred front and on the north of the James.

What of

The enemy

during all these movements of ours? Longstreet’s Corps, composed of the divisions of Pickett, Constant, and Kershaw, have been transferred from the north of the James to our extreme left, and, together with his Fitzhugh Lee’s cavalry 7000 strong, has been fighting Sheridan and Warren today. Hill’s Corps and Bushrod Johnson’s division of Anderson’s corps are opposite the second and 24th corps, and Gordon’s corps opposite the sixth and the ninth. What they have got opposite Weitzel north of the James, it is hard to say, as their whole army is already accounted for, except one division of the Anderson’s corps.

The heavy cannonading spoken of in the early part of this letter still (midnight) continues unabated along the whole front of the sixth and ninth corps, and news has just reached me that is preliminary to an assault in front of Petersburg, ordered to be made by the sixth and ninth Corps at daylight in the morning. I may possibly yet close thid letter by the announcement of the capture of the long beleaguered city.

Leader
April 2 6 AM

The news from Sheridan in Warren this morning is that the victory is overwhelming. The S. Side Rd. in our possession, Longstreet score early broken to pieces,. We have having more prisoners that we can take care of.

The tremendous cannonading, which began last night at 10 1/2 o’clock, yet continues. No assault has yet been made.

e. Crapsey
Philadephia Enquirer
April 4, 1865
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