A Stillness at Appomattox (172 page)

Up
against
this
powerful
force
came
one
division
of
Yankee cavalry
led
by
General
Thomas
C.
Devin,
a
former
New York
militia
colonel
who
had
become
enough
of
a
soldier
to suit
the
most
exacting
of
Regulars.
He
had
been
a
favorite
of tough
John
Buford
in
the
old
Gettysburg
days,
and
nowadays he
was
dubbed
"Sheridan's
hard
hitter"—which,
considering the
general
reputation
of
Sheridan's
cavalry,
was
a
fairly substantial
compliment.
This
day
he
had
his
hands
full.
When his
patrols
reported
Rebel
infantry
at
Five
Forks
he
dismounted
his
division
and
got
ready
to
fight
on
foot.
Pickett immediately
obliged
him,
rolling
forward
a
heavier
battle line
than
Devin's
men
could
handle,
and
before
long
the
blue cavalry
was
in
full
retreat.

The
Federals
fought
hard,
withdrawing
as
slowly
as
they could
manage
and
maintaining
a
steady
fire,
but
they
were heavily
outnumbered
and
Confederate
cavalry
kept
curling
in around
both
flanks,
and
presently
Devin
had
to
warn
Sheridan that
he
was
badly
overmatched
and
that
they
might
have trouble
holding
Dinwiddie
itself.
He
kept
his
fighting
line dismounted
because
the
men
could
put
up
a
more
stubborn resistance
that
way,
and
as
they
fought
the
area
immediately behind
the
firing
line
was
a
howling
madhouse.

All
of
the
division's
horses
were
here,
four
thousand
and odd
of
them,
one
trooper
to
every
four
horses.
The
country was
densely
wooded,
with
few
roads
and
many
rail
fences, and
the
air
was
full
of
smoke
and
bullets
and
shouting
men, and
the
conditions
under
which
one
mounted
man
could easily
lead
three
riderless
horses
did
not
exist.
The
horses became
panicky
and
fractious,
and
they
kept
running
on
the wrong
side
of
trees,
or
colliding
with
each
other,
creating fearful
tangles
of
kicking,
plunging
animals
and
snarled reins
and
cursing
soldiers—and,
said
one
of
the
men
afterward, the
whole
business
was
enough
to
make
anybody
understand why
an
exceptionally
profane
man
was
always
said
to
swear like
a
trooper.
¹⁸

While
Devin's
men
gave
ground
Sheridan
got
the
rest
of his
men
strung
out
in
line
in
front
of
Dinwiddie
Court
House, and
at
dusk
the
Confederates
came
storming
up
to
drive
the whole
lot
of
Yankee
cavalry
back
where
it
belonged.
When Devin's
men
came
in
Sheridan
put
them
into
line
with
the rest,
and
he
rolled
forward
all
the
guns
he
could
lay
his hands
on.
Then
he
rounded
up
all
of
the
regimental
bands and
put
them
up
on
the
firing
line
and
ordered
them
to
play the
gayest
tunes
they
knew—play
them
loud
and
keep
on playing
them,
and
never
mind
if
a
bullet
goes
through
a
trombone,
or
even
a
trombonist,
now
and
then.

The
late
afternoon
sun
broke
through
the
clouds,
and
all of
these
bands
were
playing,
and
there
was
a
clatter
of musketry
and
a
booming
of
cannon
and
a
floating
loom
of battle
smoke.
Sheridan
got
his
little
battle
flag
with
the
two stars
on
it
and
rode
out
in
front
of
his
lines,
going
from
one end
to
the
other
at
a
full
gallop,
waving
his
hat
and
telling every
last
soldier—by
his
presence,
by
his
gestures,
and
by the
hard
look
in
his
black
eyes—that
nobody
was
going
to make
them
retreat
another
step.

They
held
the
line.
At
dusk
Sheridan
tried
a
counterattack, ordering
Custer
to
make
a
mounted
charge
on
a
line
of
Rebel infantry.
A
man
who
saw
him
giving
Custer
his
orders
remembered
Sheridan's
emphasis:
"You
understand?
I
want you
to
give
it
to
them
I"
Custer
nodded,
and
he
drove
his squadrons
forward—to
a
muddy
anticlimax.
The
field
across which
the
men
tried
to
charge
was
so
soupy
with
wet
clay
and rain
water
that
the
horses
immediately
bogged
down,
the charge
came
to
nothing,
and
at
last
it
was
dark,
with
the Federals
holding
the
town
and
the
Confederates
facing
them just
out
of
musket
range.
¹⁹

It
looked
like
trouble,
for
these
venturesome
Confederates had
more
men
than
Sheridan
had
and
they
were
well
behind the
left
end
of
the
main
Union
line.
But
Sheridan
saw
it
as opportunity;
it
was
Pickett's
force
and
not
his
that
was
in trouble,
the
Rebels
were
isolated
and
they
could
be
cut
off, and
if
the
business
were
handled
right
none
of
them
should ever
get
back
to
Lee's
army.
Off
through
the
night
to
Grant went
Sheridan's
couriers
with
the
message:
"Let
me
have the
old
VI
Corps
once
more
and
I
can
really
smash
things."