A Stillness at Appomattox (64 page)

A
hard
war,
bringing
changes,
and
there
was
no
road
back any
more.
The
only
roads
that
were
left
led
on
Into
more fighting,
and
the
army
that
followed
these
roads
looked
less and
less
like
the
army
that
had
crossed
the
Rapidan
a
few weeks
earlier.
Famous
old
organizations
were
vanishing
and famous
old
names
were
disappearing.
What
had
once
been Joe
Hooker's
division
no
longer
existed,
and
the
Iron
Brigade was
no
longer
recognizable.
The
3rd
Michigan,
Phil
Kearny's pet
in
the
early
days
of
the
war,
was
going
off
the
army
roster, and
the
12th
Massachusetts
would
do
likewise
in
a
few
days-it
had
taught
the
army
and
the
nation
to
sing
"Glory,
Glory Hallelujah!"
and
to
date
it
had
had
792
battle
casualties.
The great
2nd
Wisconsin,
being
reduced
to
fewer
than
100
rank and
file
and
having
lost
all
of
its
field
officers,
was
recalled from
combat
duty
and
assigned
to
the
provost
guard.
²⁰

After
the
war
was
over
someone
asked
crusty
Brigadier General
Romeyn
Ayres
if
his
famous
old
division
of
Regulars was
still
in
service
at
this
time.
Ayres
replied
that
the
Regulars
had
mostly
been
killed.

"I
had
regulars—what
were
known
as
the
regular
division-™ before
I
went
into
the
battle
of
Gettysburg,"
he
said.
"I
left half
of
them
there,
and
buried
the
rest
in
the
Wilderness,, There
were
no
regulars
left."
²¹

2
Judgment Tramp of
the
Almighty

The
rivers
of
eastern
Virginia
slant
down
toward
the
sea from
the
northwest.
Some
of
them
are
wide
and
deep
and some
are
quite
insignificant
except
during
time
of
heavy
rains, but
each
one
can
be
a
barrier
to
a
moving
army.
In
the
spring of
1864
the
Army
of
the
Potomac
had
to
cross
all
of
them, and
the
crossings
could
be
made
only
where
there
were
no defenders.
These
facts
shaped
the
route
of
the
army,
and
all through
the
month
of
May
it
moved
in
a
series
of
wide
zigzags.

Wanting
to
go
due
south,
the
army
was
forever
going southeast
in
order
to
find
a
good
place
to
cross
a
river.
Having
crossed,
it
would
turn
southwest
to
get
back
on
the route,
and
presently
it
would
run
into
the
Confederate
army and
there
would
be
a
fight.
Since
the
Confederates
could
not be
driven
away
from
one
of
these
spots
where
they
elected
to make
a
stand,
the
Federal
army
after
a
time
would
move southeast
once
more,
sagging
away
from
the
direct
road
to Richmond
but
sooner
or
later
crossing
another
river
and
cutting
back
to
the
southwest
again.
It
moved
like
a
ponderous ship
tacking
against
a
strong
wind—a
long
slant
to
the
left, a
short
leg
to
the
right,
another
beat
to
the
left
and
another slogging
drive
to
the
right;
and
if
progress
was
slow
it
was steady.
¹

Many
rivers
had
been
crossed—the
Rapidan
and
the
Ny, the
North
Anna
and
the
Pamunkey.
If
the
Army
of
the
Potomac
was
constantly
being
pushed
toward
the
east,
it
was also
gaining
ground
toward
the
south.
The
Confederate
army always
stood
between
it
and
Richmond,
but
the
distance
to Richmond
was
growing
shorter
and
shorter.
As
May
came
to an
end,
the
two
armies
were
facing
each
other
in
a
flat,
featureless
country
of
little
streams
and
low
ridges
and
small farms,
spotted
here
and
there
with
bogs
and
interlaced
by narrow,
winding
roads.
There
was
just
one
more
river
to
cross —the
Chickahominy,
which
ran
across
the
Confederate
rear just
five
miles
away.
Five
miles
beyond
the
Chickahominy was
Richmond
itself.

It
was
good
to
be
this
close
to
Richmond,
and
although they
had
packed
more
fighting
and
hard
marching
into
the last
month
than
they
usually
saw
in
half
a
year,
the
men
were feeling
hopeful.
They
seemed
to
be
getting
somewhere,
at last,
and
a
Massachusetts
soldier
reflected
that
"no
backward steps
were
being
taken,"
which,
he
remarked,
was
a
brand new
experience.
He
went
on:
"The
Army
of
the
Potomac
having
been
unaccustomed
to
the
sunshine
of
victory,
rejoiced
at the
change
and
became
buoyant
with
hope.
The
discouragement
that
hitherto
attended
us
vanished
as
our
confidence
in Grant
increased."
He
remembered
that
his
regiment
marched by
a
railroad
siding
one
day
and
saw
Grant,
his
uniform
all dusty
and
worn,
perched
on
a
flatcar
gnawing
at
a
ham
bone; the
men
cheered,
and
Grant
casually
waved
the
bone
in
acknowledgment
and
went
on
eating.