A Stillness at Appomattox (158 page)

Yet
after
each
of
these
moves,
somehow,
the
Union
position
was
a
little
better
and
the
Confederate
position
was
a little
worse.
Lee
was
forever
being
compelled
to
stretch
his line
farther
and
farther,
which
meant
that
it
was
steadily growing
thinner.
While
Confederate
manpower
was
declin
ing,
he
was
being
given
more
and
more
ground
to
hold. Month
after
month
the
Union
army
reached
out,
slowly
but inexorably
drawing
closer
to
the
railroad
lines
behind
the Confederate
right
and
rear
which
Lee
must
keep
unbroken if
his
army
and
Richmond
were
to
live.

Behind
Grant's
army
was
visible
the
enormous
power
of the
North.
City
Point,
which
had
been
the
sleepiest
of
riverside
hamlets,
had
become
one
of
the
world's
great
seaports. Wharves
lined
the
waterfront
for
more
than
a
mile,
with more
docks
extending
up
the
Appomattox.
An
average
day would
see
40
steamboats,
75
sailing
vessels,
and
100
barges tied
up
or
anchored
along
the
waterfront.
An
army
hospital that
covered
200
acres
and
could
accommodate
10,000
patients
crowned
a
bluff
above
the
river.
There
were
vast
warehouses
for
quartermaster,
commissary,
and
ordnance
departments;
bakeries,
blacksmith
shops,
wagon-repair
shops,
barracks
for
soldiers,
quarters
for
civilian
workers.
Two
steam engines
had
been
set
up
to
pump
a
water
supply
for
this strange
military
city,
and
half
a
dozen
sprinkling
carts
had been
imported
to
lay
the
dust
in
its
streets.
The
quartermaster
general
boasted
that
the
facilities
here
were
so
extensive
that
he
could
easily
supply
an
army
of
500,000
men if
he
had
to,
and
he
had
four
passenger
steamers
providing daily
service
between
City
Point
and
Washington.
(Very bad
service,
too,
according
to
a
newspaper
correspondent, who
found
the
boats
dirty,
crowded,
and
odorous
and
the food
hardly
fit
to
eat.)
⁸

To
connect
this
seaport
with
the
army,
the
government had
built
a
twenty-one-mile
railroad,
complete
with
freight yards,
coal
docks,
roundhouse,
repair
shops,
and
all
the
rest. Nucleus
of
this
was
a
prewar
line
which
connected
Petersburg
with
City
Point,
but
of
that
seven-mile
stub
nothing much
remained
except
the
right
of
way;
it
had
been
a
five-foot-gauge
affair,
and
the
military
road
was
built
to
the standard
four
feet
eight
and
one
half
inches.
Branches
had been
built
to
run
up
and
down
behind
the
front,
so
that
all of
the
military
area
below
the
Appomattox
could
be
serviced by
rail.

This
railroad
was
enormously
useful,
since
it
meant
that the
fighting
line
could
be
kept
supplied
even
in
the
worst weather,
and
it
made
the
speedy
reinforcement
of
any
part of
the
line
comparatively
simple.
The
railroad
amused
the soldiers
immensely.
Even
while
it
was
contemporary,
it
managed
to
look
quaint.
It
had
been
built
in
a
great
hurry
and there
had
been
almost
no
grading
of
the
right
of
way,
the tracks
simply
being
laid
on
unprepared
ground.
As
a
result the
railroad
snaked
up
and
down
over
hills
and
hollows,
and it
was
said
that
watching
a
train
go
by
was
like
watching
a fly
walk
down
a
corrugated
washboard.
When
a
well-loaded train
was
at
the
top
of
a
grade
the
engineer
would
open
the throttle
and
go
thundering
down
into
the
valley,
hoping
that the
added
momentum
would
get
him
up
the
opposite
slope. If
it
did
not
he
would
back
up
and
make
a
fresh
start.
If
he carried
troops,
the
men
often
would
be
ordered
to
get
out and
push.

The
line
had
been
built
by
railroad
men.
Army
engineers had
said
that
the
road
could
never
be
operated—the
grades would
be
too
steep
and
cargo-carrying
capacity
would
be
too small.
The
railroad
men
knew
better
and
went
ahead
with their
program,
and
by
fall
the
line
was
operating
eighteen trains
a
day,
with
from
fifteen
to
two
dozen
cars
in
each
train, and
was
doing
a
fair
passenger
business
besides.
⁴

An
Episcopal
bishop
from
Atlanta,
who
had
come
north on
a
pass
from
General
Sherman
and
who
stopped
off
to
visit Grant
on
his
trip
back
south,
was
greatly
impressed
by
the abundance
of
military
supplies
at
City
Point—"not
merely profusion,
but
extravagance;
wagons,
tents,
artillery,
ad
libitum.
Soldiers
provided
with
everything."
He
thought
of
the Confederate
armies'
lean
rations
and
then
looked
in
amazement
at
the
comforts
available
to
the
Yankees.
Bakeries
were turning
out
thousands
of
loaves
of
fresh
bread,
sutlers'
shops were
everywhere,
soldiers
were
forever
buying
extras
to
supplement
their
regular
diet,
and
to
him
this
reflected
the wealth
of
the
North.