CHAPTER XXV. RE-ORGANIZATION OF THE ARMY. THE ADVANCE. HE weeks of March and April were passed in re THE organizing the army and preparing for the spring campaign. Gen. Halleck was made chief of staff, and stationed at Washington. Gen. Sherman was put in command of the West. Gen. Meade remained in immediate command of the Army of the Potomac, with whom Gen. Grant established his headquarters in the field. The number of the army corps was reduced to three; and Major-Generals Hancock, Warren, and Sedgwick were in command. The cavalry, with ten thousand sabres, was under the command of Gen. Sheridan. Gen. Banks was to open a campaign in Louisiana ; Gen. Sherman was to commence operations in Northern Georgia; while Gen. Steele was to move against Sterling Price in Arkansas, and Gen. Butler was to threaten Richmond from Bermuda Hundred. Thus it will be perceived that Gen. Grant's combinations covered a theatre of war whose magnitude has been seldom equalled. But he addressed himself to the vast undertaking with his wonted energy, calmness, and perseverance. "Success was a duty." The topography of Virginia was remarkable. The whole State was little less than a vast fortress for the rebels, manned by the most splendid of the Southern armies, and commanded by the ablest of the rebel generals. Its bastions were mountains, its trenches were valleys, its moats were rivers, its embrasures were mountain-gorges. Its natural features offered in every direction the most formidable obstacles to our advance, and, at the same time, were easily defended. Richmond was one hundred and seventeen miles from Washington on the James River, and ordinarily contained a population of sixty thousand. Beauregard and the engineers of the rebel army had exhausted their skill and resources upon its fortifications, until it had become one of the strongest citadels in the world. Culpeper Court House, ten miles north of the Rapidan and seventy-five miles south of Washington, was the headquarters of Gen. Grant. Lee with his veterans was at Orange Court House, ten miles south of the Rapidan. The two armies were twenty miles distant from each other. Grant now issued the death-warrant of the Rebellion in giving orders for a general advance of the army. CHAPTER XXVI. CAMPAIGN IN THE WILDERNESS. N the afternoon of the 3d of May, 1864, the tents of the Union army were struck; and that night, beneath the starlight, troops began crossing the Rapidan at Germania and Ely's Fords. The crossing was continued during the next day. The force numbered a hundred thousand men. The day was warm, the sun was bright; and as column after column wound its way down the river's bank, over the bridges, and spread out in marching order on the opposite side, banners and bayonets disappearing in the distance, the scene, both as a picture and for its moral associations, was deeply impressive. Grant said, "This is a wonderfully-fine appearing army; but it has seemed to me it never fought its battles through." They marched toward the Wilderness. This is a wild, desolate tract of country in Spottsylvania County, about five miles wide, and twelve miles long. It is an immense jungle. The wood has been burned off for miners its surface is uneven, and covered with stumps, bushes, and an undergrowth of pines and scrub-oaks. Artillery and cavalry are at a great disadvantage in such a labyrinth. Fires were seen blazing on the hilltops to signal our advance to Gen. Lee. |