Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/502

464 was the only one who received the order in time to make the attack before dark. He drove the enemy from his intrenched skirmish line, and still holds it."

Lee now asked that his army might be reinforced with that of Beauregard from south of the James. These two armies held the interior defensive line, while Grant and Butler held the exterior offensive one. Beauregard, in turn, urged the Confederate authorities to send him part of Lee's army, that he might fall upon and capture Butler, while Lee held Grant in check, and that he could then come north of the James and join Lee in forcing Grant to a surrender. Lee did not approve of this suggestion, and again urged that Beauregard should come to aid him in continuous battle against Grant. Beauregard, persistent in his determination, telegraphed to Richmond: "War department must determine when and what troops to order from here." Lee's prompt response was: "If you cannot determine what troops you can spare, the department cannot. The result of your delay will be disaster. Butler's troops will be with Grant to-morrow."

On the 1st of June, Grant made an attack, late in the afternoon, from his left, with the Sixth corps and the corps under Smith, holding Warren, Burnside and Hancock in position to advance, all along his lines, to his right. Attacking at about 5 p. m., and continuing until after dark, he forced back Lee's front lines, under his initial attack, but finding a second line which commanded the one captured, he made no further progress, but repulsed several counterstrokes. During the night of that day he withdrew his right and moved it to his left, beyond the road leading to Cold Harbor, extending his right to defend his own flank in the same direction, now resting his right on the famous Turkey hill, from which McClellan had been routed, after a desperate struggle, in the first battle of Cold Harbor, in 1862.

The intense heat of the June days of lowland Virginia, intensified by the clouds of dust raised by every movement, and the want of drinkable water, brought suffering and weariness upon both the contending armies. To these there were added for Lee's men the pangs of hunger. A credible witness, in the artillery, states that his command had received but two issues of rations since leaving Hanover Junction; one of these was three army