be attributed solely to the military incapacity of Butler, and the want of judgment or energy of Weitzel, in a few days, sent the same troops back, reënforced by a brigade of one thousand five hundred men, this time giving the command to General A. H. Terry. The bombardment recommenced, and the fort was carried by assault, after a desperate combat, in which the marines of the fleet took a part. The other works were abandoned by the enemy. This important success cost us scarcely more than six hundred men, killed and wounded. It cost General Butler his command, to which General Ord succeeded.

The port was closed; the city was to be taken. order not to reduce his forces before Petersburg and Richmond, General Grant called on General Schofield, with the Twenty-third Corps, whose presence was no longer necessary in Tennessee since the discomfiture of Hood. At the end of January, Schofield took command of the Department of North Carolina, and established his forces at Fort Fisher and Newburn. In February, he captured Wilmington and its defences, after two days' engagement. Conformably to his instructions, he marched on Goldsborough, of which he took possession on the 21st, after some sharp engagements. Sherman's arrival was now provided for; he would find twenty days' rations for sixty thousand men, and twenty days' forage for twenty thousand horses.

And he soon came, scarcely delayed at all by the forces that the enemy had been able to concentrate against him, under command of General Joe Johnston. He had left Savannah on February 1, and resumed his victorious march. On the 17th, capturing Columbia, capital of South Carolina, he had forced the evacuation of Charleston, which was at last in our hands. The fire was henceforth extinct on the hearthstone of the rebellion.

Sherman, in passing, had put his foot upon it. From Columbia he had directed his course towards Goldsborough via Fayetteville, where he arrived on the 12th of March, and where he had opened his first communications with Schofield by Cape Fear River. Johnston had in vain put himself across Sherman's path, in order to prevent the junction of the two armies. At Bentonville, as at Averysborough, he had been beaten and thrown back on Smithfield.

In this ensemble of combined operations, whose circle was closing in more and more around Richmond, Sheridan could not be left inactive. His rôle was to march on Lynchburg with his cavalry, and destroy all the western communications of the Confederate capital, while drawing near Sherman, so as to join him if circumstances were favorable. This raid was to coöperate with three others; the first from Eastern Tennessee, with four or five thousand cavalry; the second from Vicksburg, with seven or eight thousand horsemen; the third from Eastport, in Mississippi, with ten thousand horsemen; without taking account of an advance against Mobile, and the interior of Alabama, by thirty-eight thousand men of different arms, under the command of General Canby. "That will be enough," said General Grant, "to leave nothing of the rebellion standing on its feet."

Sheridan left Winchester February 27, at the head of ten thousand cavalry. As was his usual way, he did things up in grand style. On his approach, Early had retired from Staunton to Waynesborough, in an intrenched position. Sheridan followed him, and, on March 2, attacked him with a rush, and carried everything before him, and remained master of the fortified position, with sixteen hundred prisoners, eleven pieces of artillery, their teams and caissons, two hundred wagons loaded

with subsistence stores, and seventeen colors. Pursuing his course, he was the next day at Charlottesville, where he began the work of destruction. Bridges of iron and bridges of wood, canal locks and embankments, railroads and plank roads, - everything which might be useful to the enemy was burnt or destroyed. In order to turn him from his course, the rebels were forced to themselves deliver to the flames the two bridges over which he intended to cross the James. Not being able to advance further south, Sheridan decided to join Meade instead of Sherman. Without ceasing to destroy everything in his road, he took the direction of White House on the Pamunkey, where he found a force of infantry sent to meet him with the provisions of which he was in need. After a few days of repose, he crossed the James, and, on the 27th of March, joined the Army of the Potomac, in front of Petersburg, in time to take the most brilliant part in the great events, the hour for which had struck.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

THE GREAT STROKE.

Capture and recapture of Fort Steadman - Desperate combats along the lines of rifle-pits—General MacAllister — The conscripts under fire — The One Hundred and Twenty-fourth New York and the Fifty-ninth Alabama - General Lee's plans — General Grant's instructions Opinions in the army - First movements

The battle of White Oak road - The battle of Five Forks - Warren and Sheridan - A night of engagements - The last assaults - Meeting General Grant-Death of General A. P. Hill.— Venit summa dies.

Ar the first glimpse of light in the morning of March 25, I was awakened by a violent cannonade mingled with distant rolling of musketry. I sprang from my campbed in order to hasten outside. A few staff officers were already up, listening, and hurrying to put on their uniforms. We could not be mistaken. It was an attack by the enemy in force against some point in our lines in front of Petersburg. - -"Everybody arise! saddle the horses, and have the brigade instantly under arms!" The order was hardly executed when an aid from General Mott arrived at a gallop. The enemy has surprised Fort Steadman, on the front of the Ninth Corps. He has captured two or three batteries, and pushed his skirmishers on to the City Point railroad. The division must hold itself ready to move at a moment's notice. A part of the Fifth Corps has already moved.

In a few minutes the tents were down, the baggage loaded in the wagons, the troops formed in line, arms stacked, and we awaited orders. The cannonade was still going on, and the musketry fire rolled continuously.

At nine o'clock an orderly brought me a despatch : "Hartranft's division of the Ninth Corps has retaken Fort Steadman and the adjoining batteries. The enemy has left two thousand prisoners in our hands. His loss in killed and wounded must be as much more."

Now for our turn on the left. It was nearly noon when General Humphreys came with General Mott to establish himself at the Smith house, where my headquarters were, to be near the line. General Meade, convinced with good reason that the enemy must have weakened his lines in the vicinity of Hatcher's Run in order to furnish troops for his attack on Fort Steadman, had given orders to capture all the enemy's fortified picket lines in front of the Sixth and the Second Corps, after which we should push on further if opportunity offered.

Miles, who held the right, attacked first, and was completely successful. In my turn, I threw forward the Twentieth Indiana and the Seventy-third New York, which, under command of Colonel Andrews, carried all the rifle-pits in front of us and sent me in a hundred prisoners. MacAllister followed immediately, and was not less successful at first; but he very soon had more to do than any of us. In consequence of the slowness of the Second Division to follow the movement, and of the shape of the ground, his left was in the air. The enemy took advantage of this to attack at this point, and retook his rifle-pits. The Eleventh Massachusetts and the One Hundred and Twentieth New York returned promptly to the charge, and dislodged the rebels for the second time. The sharpness of the engagement revealing a determination on the part of the enemy to regain the lost ground, I hurried forward the One Hundred and Twenty-fourth New York, and followed soon with the rest of the brigade.