Page:Decisive Battles Since Waterloo.djvu/336

302 through the 7th and 8th with no engagement of consequence. The 2d and 6th corps under Meade followed directly in the trail of Lee and his fugitive companions, while Sheridan's cavalry pushed on to head off Lee, followed by Ord's and Griffin's infantry divisions, who could not, of course, keep pace with the horses. As it was now impossible for Lee to make for Danville, Sheridan took a position to head him off from Lynchburg, which was now his only place of refuge. Sheridan learned that four trains laden with supplies for Lee's starving soldiers had been sent from Lynchburg and were at Prospect Station, five miles from Appomattox C.-H. Making a forced march of twenty-eight miles, he captured these trains, and then sent Custer's division forward, which soon found itself in front of Lee's advance.

Custer fought until darkness put an end to the combat, driving the advance back on the main body of the army, and capturing 25 guns, a hospital train, and a large number of wagons, and making many prisoners. Sheridan brought up the rest of the cavalry, and planted it right in front of Lee's army, and sent couriers to Grant, Griffin, and Ord, saying that the capture of Lee's whole army was now certain. Griffin and Ord with their corps and one division of the 25th corps made a forced march during the night and reached Appomattox at daylight on the 9th. And now came one of the most dramatic incidents of the war—an incident which dwarfs to littleness the most magnificent spectacle ever presented on the theatrical stage. On the morning of that memorable 9th of April, Lee's army of ragged, starving, wearied soldiers, was drawn up in battle array in front of Sheridan's cavalry. Their ranks had been terribly reduced by the events of the past ten days, and out of the 50,000 that held the trenches of Petersburg and Richmond on the 28th March, little more than 10,000 remained actually effective for battle. But