Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 16.djvu/408

 402 Southern Historical Society Papers.

to his left, gaining no material advantage and losing three thousand men to Lee in the operation. His cavalry were at the same time dispatched against the railroad communications of Petersburg to the south and west, and succeeded in doing some slight damage, when they were encountered by the Confederate cavalry at Stony Creek and completely overwhelmed. A remnant escaped into the Federal lines before Petersburg, having lost their entire artillery and train and a thousand prisoners.

There now occurred an episode in the siege that attracted no gen- eral attention, but was a bitter experience to Hagood's brigade, which bore the consequences of its miscarriage. Grant's line had by this time extended a considerable distance from the river, and his com- munication with his base at City Point was behind his right flank, which rested on the river. General Lee, in conjunction with General Beauregard, determined to assume the offensive, drive in Grant's right wing, seize his line of retreat, and, forcing him away from his base, inflict such a blow as would raise the siege if not put an end to the campaign. The plan appeared feasible. The morale of the Confederate army was at its highest ; that of the enemy at probably its lowest during the campaign, and the great disparity of losses inflicted by Grant's sledge-hammer style of fighting had brought the two armies at this time to no insurmountable inequality of numbers, other conditions being favorable.

Accordingly, a powerful battery of forty-four field- pieces was, on the night of the 23d June, got into position on the north bank of the Appomattox, here quite narrow, to enfilade the enemy's line, and Fields's division of Longstreet's corps, with other troops, was massed behind Hagood's position, next the river, to follow up the attack which the latter was to lead. Anderson's brigade headed Fields's column, and Benning's brigade, under Colonel DuBose, was next. The following official papers narrate what followed

"H'DQ'RS HAGOOD'S BRIGADE,

" HOKE'S DIVISION, 26th June, 1864.

"Captain Otey, A. A. G. :

" CAPTAIN I am required to make a full report of the opera- tions of my brigade in front of Petersburg on the 24th instant. My brigade occupied the left of our line of entrenchments, resting on the south bank of the Appomattox, the Twenty seventh, Twenty-first and Eleventh regiments filling the space from the river to the City