Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 29.djvu/304

 288 Southern Historical Society Papers.

Confederacy would send its last grist to the mill. No one knew this fact better than General Grant, and it was all he now hoped for.

And where was the doughty Ben Butler all this time, from whom General Grant had expected such valuable aid? Beauregard, with an insignificant force, had " bottled him up " on a narrow strip of land at Bermuda Hundred, and where he kept him as long as he desired, and then withdrew the cork and allowed Butler to go to Drewry's Bluff and dig the Dutch Gap Canal, which since has been of inestimable value to the commerce of the James.

GRANT'S WITHDRAWAL FROM COLD HARBOR.

By the I5th of June General Grant had perfected his arrangements to withdraw from Lee's front at Cold Harbor. On that day he suc- cessfully and skillfully accomplished his purpose, and crossed to the south bank of the James without molestation from his adversary, which he greatly feared. Well might General Grant say in after years: " Cold Harbor is, I think, the only battle I ever fought that I would not fight over again under the circumstances."

While Grant was crossing the James on the i4thand I5th of June, Smith's corps assaulted the outer defenses of Petersburg and carried them for a considerable distance, as they were feebly manned, Beau- regard not having yet been able to concentrate any considerable force at that point, and Lee was on his way from Cold Harbor, which place he left immediately upon the withdrawal of Grant well know- ing his next objective point.

On the 1 8th Lee arrived, and the assaults upon his line made that day by Hancock were repulsed with great loss to the assailants.

After these preliminary engagements to a siege both armies began entrenching in all directions, and it at once became evident that the lines then held by the Confederates would be stubbornly defended for a long while to come.

Extracts from the diary of a private in the First Maryland Bat- talion will give the reader a fair idea of what happened within the Confederate lines during the many weary months that followed.

FROM A SOLDIER'S DIARY.

July 10 We have been transferred from Breckinridge to McComb, and are strongly entrenched, as is all the army; but our line is a long one, too long for the number of men we have to man the works;