where they were so greatly needed. All this occu- CHAP. VIII. pied considerable time, and in the mean while the brunt of the battle fell upon Ayres's division. They were hardly strong enough for the work thus accidentally assigned them, and there might have been a serious check at that moment but for the providential presence of Sheridan himself, who, with a fury and vehemence founded on the soundest judgment, personally led the troops in their attack on the intrenchments. Those who saw him that day Apl. 1, 1865. will tell the story to their latest breath, how, holding the colors in his hand, with a face darkened with smoke and anger, and with sharp exhortations that rang like pistol-shots, he gathered up the faltering battalions of Ayres and swept like a spring gust over Pickett's breastworks. Meanwhile Warren was doing similar work on the right. He had at last succeeded in giving his other two divisions the right direction, and came in on the reverse of the enemy's lines. At one moment, finding some hesitation in a part of Crawford's force, "Warren, riding forward," says Humphreys, "with the corps flag in his hand, led his troops across the field." His horse was shot dead in the final charge. The dusk of evening came down on one of the most complete and momentous victories of the war. Pickett was absolutely routed; every man was driven from the field except the killed and wounded, and the prisoners, who were gathered in to the number of some five thousand, with a great quantity of guns and colors. As the battle was ending, Sheridan sent an order to Warren relieving him of his command and directing him to report to General Grant for orders. CHAP. VIII. p. 444. It does not come within the compass of this work to review all the circumstances which led General Grant to entertain so rooted a dislike to Warren, and General Sheridan, who had but a slight acquaintance with him,' to adopt his chief's opinions. In removing him from command they were perfectly justified. Honestly holding the opinion they held of him, it was their duty to prevent the evils they thought might result from his retention in so important a trust. But it is not improper here to say that a court of inquiry, which General Warren succeeded in obtaining after General Grant had for twelve years denied it to him, decided that the impressions under which Grant and Sheridan acted were erroneous, and that Warren did his whole duty at Five Forks. Grant never changed his opinion of him. It is true he offered him another command the next day, and soon afterwards he was given an important department to administer; but the General-in-Chief was always implacable towards him. Even in his "Memoirs," in the midst of the compliments he pays to the memory of Warren, he shows his increasing prejudice in one phrase. In his report of 1865 he said Warren was relieved "about the close of this battle"; in his "Memoirs" he says "the troops were then brought up and the assault successfully made" — after Warren was relieved. 1 "As we had never been thrown much together, I knew but little of him."- Sheridan, "Memoirs." Vol. II., p. 168. CHAPTER IX APPOMATTOX HE battle of Five Forks ought to have ended CHAP. IX. the war: Lee's right had been shattered and routed; his line, as he had long predicted, had been stretched westward until it broke; there was no longer any hope of saving Richmond, or even of materially delaying its fall. But General Lee apparently thought that even the gain of a day was of value to the Richmond Government, and what was left of the Army of Northern Virginia was still so perfect in discipline and obedience that it answered with unabated spirit and courage every demand made upon it. It is painful to record or to read the story of the hard fighting of the 2d of April; every drop of blood spent on the lines of Petersburg that day seems to have been shed in vain. 1865. Parke and Wright had been ordered on the 30th of March to examine the enemy's works in their respective fronts with a view to determine whether it was practicable to carry them by assault; they had both reported favorably. After the great "Military victory of Five Forks, Grant, whose anxiety for Sheridan seems excessive, thought that Lee would reënforce against him heavily,' when, in fact Lee 1 Grant to Ord: "I have just heard from Sheridan. . . Everything the enemy has will probably be pushed against him." Badeau, History of p. 503. |