Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 12.djvu/266

252 those unavailing assaults on the lines of the army of Northern Virginia which were so destructive to his divisions that at last they silently declined to advance. "The immobile lines pronounced a verdict," writes Swinton in his "Army of the Potomac," "silent, yet emphatic, against further slaughter. The loss on the Union side in this sanguinary action was over 13,000, while on the part of the Confederates it is doubtful whether it reached as many hundreds."

After this victory Lee detached Early to check Hunter's ravages in the valley, and from the same bloody field the persistent Federal general moved his army to the south side of James river and sought retrieval by a movement to take Petersburg by surprise, in which he was foiled by Beauregard's small command. As the general result of the entire campaign, the army of the Potomac was concentrated south of the Appomattox river to begin the siege of Petersburg, and the opinion was held and expressed with some vehemence at the North that Grant had slaughtered an army without gaining one decisive victory.

Charleston had also received the attention of the Federal government while plans were made against Richmond and Atlanta. It was already distinguished by the failure of repeated attempts to take it, and deserves some connected mention at this juncture of Confederate affairs. Doubtless the early capture of that city would have very greatly gratified all those in the United States who regarded it as the originator of secession. The capture of Fort Sumter in April, 1861, by the Confederates, was apparently easily accomplished, but the defense of the same spot by them was so heroic and skillful that it was never taken by force from its captors. The battles of Secessionville in June, and of Pocotaligo in October, 1862, were won in South Carolina's defense. The