Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/484

446 Spottsylvania Court House, and that Lee, although having the longer march to compass, had won the race for position, and a second time blocked his "on to Richmond." During the night of the 7th, Fitz Lee, dismounting his cavalry division and using his men as infantry, had succeeded in throwing rude defenses of trees and rails across the Brock road, and had successfully driven back repeated attacks of the Federal advance, keeping Warren miles from the position which Grant had ordered him to occupy that night.

Early on the morning of the 8th, Anderson moved the First corps about a mile to the northern front of Spottsylvania Court House, to support Fitz Lee's hard pressed cavalry, where his men, in an incredibly short time, threw up hasty breastworks and were ready for Warren's corps, as it advanced in assault, and to drive it back in a disastrous repulse. Stuart was on the field in person, for the last time, as it soon proved, to cheer the army of Northern Virginia on to victory, contributing, by his great tactical skill and ready but always practical advice, to Warren's defeat, and joining enthusiastically in the cheers of victory that followed the repulse of the Federal advance, making certain the holding of the position which Lee's superior energy had secured.

At 1 p. m. of the 9th, Grant's dispatch, from "near" Spottsylvania Court House, to Halleck read: "If matters are still favorable with Butler, send all reinforcements you can. The enemy are now moving from our immediate front either to interpose between us and Fredericksburg or to get the inside road to Richmond." It is incredible that at that hour of the day the Federal general commanding did not know that, instead of moving from his immediate front, Lee was, at that very time, in line of battle across his front; since at 5 in the afternoon of the preceding day, he had arrived with Ewell, and, with his First and Second corps in position, had met a second Federal attack, which he had driven back, and Ewell, in a countercharge, had gained an advance of a half mile, on the right of the Catharpin road leading to Todd's tavern, while the First corps held his right, across the Brock road, leading to the same point along the divide between the Ny and the Po rivers, the two most northerly of the four, that, not far to the southeast, unite and make the Mattapony.