A Stillness at Appomattox (179 page)

Great
things
might
have
been
done
on
the
flank,
but
the Army
of
Northern
Virginia
still
lay
directly
in
front,
and from
the
moment
he
crossed
the
Rapidan
River
Grant's
basic idea
had
always
been,
not
to
make
that
army
retreat,
but
to break
it.
Now
the
time
had
come
when
it
could
be
broken. Yet
"immediate"
did
not
actually
mean
"right
away."
Orders had
to
go
from
Grant
through
Meade
and
Ord
to
corps
and division
commanders.
Artillerists
had
to
frame
and
distribute orders
to
batteries
and
gun
pits.
Orders
for
the
infantry had
to
filter
down
from
army
to
corps
to
division
to
brigade and
regiment;
and
it
was
likely
to
be
dawn,
or
close
to
it, before
the
assault
could
really
be
made.

On
the
right,
where
the
lines
were
close
together
and where
the
Confederate
defenses
were
most
tightly
knit, Parke
would
send
his
IX
Corps
straight
in
from
their
trenches. Farther
around,
west
of
Fort
Hell,
the
big
push
would
be made
by
the
VI
Corps,
with
Ord
holding
his
men
ready
to follow
the
moment
there
was
a
sign
of
success.
In
this
part of
the
front
the
lines
were
a
mile
or
more
apart,
and
in
the counterblow
after
Fort
Stedman
the
Federals
had
taken
the Confederate
picket
lines;
so
in
here
there
was
a
little
room to
maneuver,
and
around
midnight
the
men
of
the
VI
Corps filed
out
of
their
trenches
to
go
into
position.

General
Wright
had
gone
out
ahead
of
them
to
pick
the target.
There
was
comparatively
high
ground
here,
and
along part
of
the
front
there
was
no
water
in
front
of
the
Confederate
works.
There
were
five
lines
of
abatis
to
be
crossed, very
stout
and
formidable,
but
the
pickets
had
reported
a singular
fact:
there
was
a
pathway
through
these
entanglements,
used
by
enemy
details
which
came
out
to
get
firewood or
go
on
picket
duty,
and
at
night
the
Rebels
kept
a
bonfire
alight
toward
the
rear
in
line
with
this
pathway.
If
the Federals
who
formed
on
the
higher
ground
would
simply guide
their
advance
on
this
bonfire,
then,
they
would
get through
the
abatis
and
up
to
the
trenches.

Wright
formed
his
corps
wedge-shaped,
with
the
third brigade
of
the
second
division
as
the
thin
end
of
the
wedge— 1,600
men
in
six
veteran
regiments,
the
rest
of
the
corps
in echelon
to
right
and
left.
With
the
advance
there
would
be a
detail
of
gunners
with
rammers
and
primers,
ready
to
turn captured
guns
on
the
defenders.
It
was
understood
that
the advance
would
begin
as
soon
as
a
signal
gun
was
fired
from Federal
Fort
Fisher,
in
the
rear.

The
night
was
bewilderingly
dark,
and
there
was
a
mist that
made
the
gloom
even
thicker.
The
VI
Corps
these
days was
known
as
the
army's
high-morale
outfit—the
men
had shared
in
the
great
Shenandoah
Valley
victories,
and
they were
cocky
about
it—but
they
were
glum
and
silent
as
they left
their
trenches
and
took
their
places.
The
high
command might
know
that
when
Lee
detached
troops
to
operate
under Pickett
at
Five
Forks
he
left
his
main
line
so
badly
undermanned
that
it
could
at
last
be
broken,
but
the
infantry
knew nothing
of
this.
All
that
the
veterans
understood
was
that these
terrible
fortifications
which
they
had
learned
to
consider unconquerable
were
at
last
to
be
attacked,
and
they
took
it for
granted
that
the
hour
of
doom
had
arrived.
¹⁶

When
company
commanders
read
off
the
orders,
soldiers here
and
there
were
heard
to
mutter:
"Well,
good-by,
boys— this
means
death."
As
always,
the
men
got
ready
for
the
fight in
their
different
ways.
Some
scribbled
hasty
letters
home, others
threw
away
decks
of
playing
cards,
still
others
examined
cartridge
boxes
and
canteens
to
make
sure
that
they were
filled,
a
few
put
pipe
and
tobacco
within
easy
reach. And
tonight
a
good
many
did
what
they
never
did
except when
they
figured
they
were
about
to
be
slaughtered.
They wrote
their
names
and
addresses
on
slips
of
paper
and pinned
these
to
their
uniforms,
so
that
their
bodies
could
be identified
after
the
battle.
¹⁷

Huddled
close
to
the
ground
in
the
creepy
no
man's
land between
the
armies,
utter
darkness
and
graveyard
silence
all around,
the
men
waited
nervously
for
the
signal
gun
that would
send
them
on
their
way.
But
once
again
there
had
been a
mix-up
in
the
arrangements.
What
finally
came,
jarring
and stunning
them
and
seeming
to
pin
them
down
by
sheer weight
of
violence,
was
not
the
report
of
one
cannon
but
the crash
of
a
tremendous
bombardment,
with
every
gun
and mortar
in
the
Federal
lines
opening
fire.