Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 23.djvu/73

 The Forty-ninth .W/A r,//-i,///i// ////>////</. 67

army, and while he remained in Virginia continued under the com- mand of this officer, whom history is fast pronouncing the most brilliant soldier of the late civil war. Certainly none displayed iter skill in the management of bodies of troops on the field, su-h great engineering and strategic acumen, or possessed concep- tions of the scope and character of the contest between the sections orrect at the outset, or so accurately perceived that the attitude and conditions of the Southern side of the issue demanded that its earliest blows should be the most telling, and the fruits of every advantage realized. That he was a master in the science of war is no longer questioned: and that his counsel to follow up his splendid victory of the First Manassas as the only chance of securing South- ern independence was the prescience of far-seeing wisdom has been demonstrated.

At the date last-mentioned [May, 1864], Butler's movement on Drewry's Bluff, with Richmond as the objective point, had begun; and from this date until Five Forks every day was a day of battle for us. Butler had seized the Richmond pike, when we reached Petersburg, and had thrown a considerable force across to the rail- road and Chesterfield Courthouse. But the advance of Hoke's Division with the brigades of Ransom and Hagood, under the com- mand of that sterling North Carolinian, Robert F. Hoke, caused its withdrawal to the river-side of the pike. At Half- Way House Hoke fered battle, but the enemy slowly retired before him, and the way tas opened to Drewry's Bluff for the reinforcements to Beauregard. soon as we arrived there, Ransom's Brigade was ordered to the of our lines, and had barely reached there and occupied the forks when the first assault of the battle of Drewry's Bluff was lade upon us. While repelling this attack in front, and, fortunately >r the Forty-ninth Regiment, which was on the extreme right, as le Federals were beginning to give way, a Federal line of battle, rhich had extended around our right under cover of a piece of iroods, opened a galling fire in our rear, and advanced to the charge >m the wood on our right. But brave Durham had his skirmishers iere; and, though they were few in number, he was ever a lion in le path of the foe. Foot by foot he contested the ground until the iar-e in our front was broken, when the Forty-ninth and Twenty- Regiments leaped over the works and poured a destructive y into the ranks of the flanking party, before which their line lelted away. Poor Durham truly a Chevalier Bayard, if ever it u re placed a heart in man which was absolutely without fear and