A Stillness at Appomattox (89 page)

But
instead
of
going
into
line
of
battle
and
making
an
advance,
they
filed
into
the
captured
works,
watched
Smith's troops
retire,
ate
their
supper
and
boiled
their
coffee,
and
put out
sentinels
for
the
night.
Slowly
the
men
came
to
understand
that
there
would
be
no
fight
that
night,
and
one
of
them wrote
afterward:
"The
rage
of
the
enlisted
men
was
devilish. The
most
bloodcurdling
blasphemy
I
ever
listened
to
I
heard that
night,
uttered
by
men
who
knew
they
were
to
be
sacrificed
on
the
morrow.
The
whole
corps
was
furiously
excited."
¹³

So
the
II
Corps
went
grumpily
to
sleep,
and
Smith's
men went
to
sleep,
and
Beauregard's
men
stayed
awake
and worked
hard.
On
a
north-south
ridge
between
the
city
and the
works
they
had
just
lost,
the
Confederates
were
hard
at
it building
new
trenches
and
gun
pits.
During
the
night
Hoke's division,
which
had
been
on
loan
north
of
the
James,
began to
come
in,
and
as
the
men
were
rushed
out
to
the
new
defense
line
Beauregard
took
the
last
desperate
step
that
was available:
he
ordered
abandonment
of
the
lines
which
held Butler's
army
immured
at
Bermuda
Hundred,
left
a
thin
line of
pickets
there
to
watch
the
situation,
and
brought
the
men down
to
Petersburg.
As
a
result
of
all
of
this,
by
morning
he had
10,000
men
or
more
in
position
to
defend
the
town.
¹⁴
The
odds
against
him
were
still
long,
but
they
were
nothing like
what
they
had
been
the
day
before,
and
it
was
just
possible
now
that
Beauregard
could
hold
on
until
Lee's
army could
come
down
below
the
river
and
help.

Meade
was
busy,
too.
During
the
evening
of
June
15
he got
word
from
Grant
that
Smith
was
fighting
hard
and
that the
rest
of
the
army
must
come
up
as
soon
as
possible,
and
so Burnside
and
his
IX
Corps
crossed
the
river
with
orders
to move
up
and
take
position
on
the
left
of
Hancock's
corps. The
V
Corps
was
to
follow
Burnside,
artillery
and
trains
and cavalry
were
to
follow
that,
and
Wright's
VI
Corps
would hold
the
north
bank
of
the
James
until
everyone
else
was
south of
the
river.
Then
the
VI
Corps
would
come
up,
the
pontoon bridge
would
be
removed,
and
everything
would
be
south
of the
James
with
City
Point
as
the
new
supply
base.

Meade
himself
crossed
the
river
on
the
morning
of
June 16,
and
as
he
rode
up
from
City
Point
toward
Petersburg, along
toward
noon,
he
met
Grant,
just
returning
from
an
inspection
of
the
front.
Grant
was
full
of
enthusiasm,
and
he told
Meade:
"Smith
has
taken
a
line
of
works
stronger
than anything
we
have
seen
this
campaign.
If
it
is
a
possible
thing I
want
an
assault
made
at
six
o'clock
this
evening."
¹⁵

So
ordered.
Late
in
the
day
Hancock's
and
Burnside's troops
were
in
line,
the
guns
were
in
position
in
the
captured works,
and
a
great
thunder
of
gunfire
rolled
out
as
the
artillerists
began
to
hammer
the
new
Rebel
trenches,
which
lay on
the
far
side
of
a
shallow
valley.
The
sun
was
going
down and
the
air
was
full
of
dust
and
smoke,
and
as
Meade
and his
staff
rode
out
to
watch
the
fight
there
was
a
strange,
coppery
tinge
in
the
atmosphere
and
on
the
landscape.
Things looked
posed
and
unreal,
and
one
of
Meade's
party
saw
the gunners
silhouetted
against
the
unearthly
light
as
they sponged
out
the
guns
and
rammed
the
charges
home
and mused
that
they
might
have
been
lifted
out
of
die
old
mezzotint
engravings
of
Napoleon's
battles
which
he
used
to
see
on the
parlor
wall
of
his
parents'
home.
¹⁶

The
Confederates
had
made
good
use
of
their
time
and
the new
line
of
works
was
strong.
Hancock
and
Burnside
sent their
troops
forward
and
there
was
bitter,
inconclusive
fighting.
Gains
were
made,
and
the
II
Corps
got
in
close
around
a commanding
hill
which
anchored
the
left
center
of
the
Rebel line,
but
the
Rebels
lashed
out
with
sharp
counterattacks which
made
Meade
think
that
Beauregard
had
a
lot
of
troops in
reserve,
and
in
the
end
it
was
clear
that
the
work
could
not be
finished
that
day.
The
firing
died
out
with
a
few
spiteful rifle
shots
from
the
skirmish
lines,
and
the
hot
guns
on
the ridge
cooled
as
the
sun
went
down,
and
Meade
sent
an
officer
back
to
City
Point
to
give
Grant
a
report.