Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 5.djvu/128

 io6 THE GRANITE MONTHLY.

take the enemy's force in front and flank with a destructive fire. Other brigades came up and formed on his left, and for five hours a terriftic and incessant fire of musketry and artillery was kept u]), and the furious onslaught of three Confederate divisions was repulsed. The loss on each side was fearful, but Hancock's corps, and possibly the army, was saved from being swept away, and a victory was won. For this gallant act. Colonel Griffin "won his star," being made a brigadier-general of volunteers upon the recommendation of Generals Burnside and Grant, and confirmed immediately by the Senate, without debate, reference, or a dissenting vote.

On the eighteenth, he was directed to make a reconnoissance with his com- mand, and advanced upon the enemy's intrenched lines ; but finding him in full force and strongly posted, he returned to his former position.

He commanded his brigade, and handled it with coolness and skill in the fight at North Anna River, Tolopotomy Creek, Bethesada Church, and Cold Harbor. Arriving in front of Petersburg, on the fifteenth of June, he was placed in command of a force, consisting of Colonel Curtin's brigade, and his own, and directed to assault the enemy's intrenched line at daybreak the next morning. So difficult were the approaches that the entire night was consumed in preparation, and the lines were formed noiselessly and with the utmost caution within a hundred yards of the enemy, in a ravine.* Just as dawn lighted up the east, the command " forward" was given. The men sprang to their feet, and with fixed bayonets the two brigades swept on and over the enemy's line, seizing their intrenchments for a mile in extent, and taking them completely by sur- prise. A stand of colors, four field-pieces with caissons and horses, fifteen hundred stands of arms, a quantity of ammunition, and about one thousand prisoners were the trophies of that victory, which might have resulted in the capture of Petersburg, had supports been on the ground in time.

At the battle of the Mine, he commanded his brigade, and did everything that could be done in his place to make the assault a success ; also at the Welden Railroad, Poplar Springs Church, and Hatcher's Run.

On the twenty-fourth of March began those movements that ended in breaking the en'emy's lines around Petersburg, the taking of that city and Richmond, and the capture of the Confederate force under Lee. General Griffin commanded that part of the line near the Jerusalem Plank Road, and he had reported to army head-quarters, as early as February, that the enemy was weakening in his front and that he could break into his lines. The ground was examined by engineer officers sent for that purpose by General Grant ; and orders were received, more than once, to attack at a certain time, but were countermanded. Finally, on the evening of the first of April, orders were received to attack the next morning at four o'clook. Scarcely had the orderly left, when an officer rode up with directions to attack the enemy's picket line at once, to distract the attention of the rebels from our left. The brigade was promptly under arms, moved quietly out in the darkness of a black and cloudy night, formed its line noiselessly, and dashed upon the intrenched picket line, sweeping it for a mile, and capturing eight officers and two hundred and forty- one men. Scarcely had this success been accomplished, when General Griffin received information that the original plan of assaulting the main works had not been abandoned, but was still to be carried out. Hastily withdrawing his troops, he transferred them in the darkness across a difficult piece of ground nearly a mile in extent to a point indicated in the plan of attack to the left

cated. General Griffin enjoined the strictest silence upon his men, and ordered them when advancing not to fii'c a shot, but to de|>eiid upon the bayonet for clearing the woiks. Even the canteens were placed inside the haversacks to prevent their rattling." — Woodbury's " Burnside, and the Ninth Army Corps."
 * " So near were the enemy's lines, that only in whisper.-! could the necessary orders be communi-

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