The affair was nothing. Unfortunately, however, it had enabled the
Federal spy to elude us.
Swartz had disappeared like a bird of the night; and all pursuit of him
in such a wilderness was impossible.
An hour afterward, I had rejoined Stuart.
XXX.
GRANT STRIKES HIS FIRST BLOW.
Such were the singular scenes which I witnessed, amid the shadows of
the Spottsylvania Wilderness, in the first days of May, 1864.
The narrative has brought the reader now to an hour past midnight on
the third of May.
An hour before--that is to say, at midnight precisely--the Federal
forces began to move: at six in the morning, they had massed on the
north bank of the Rapidan; and as the sun rose above the Wilderness,
the blue columns began to cross the river.
General Grant, at the head of his army of 140,000 men, had set forth on
his great advance toward Richmond--that advance so often tried, so
often defeated, but which now seemed, from the very nature of things,
to be destined to succeed.
Any other hypothesis seemed absurd. What could 50,000 do against nearly
thrice their number? What could arrest the immense machine rolling
forward to crush the Confederacy? A glance at Grant's splendid array
was enough to make the stoutest heart sink. On this 4th day of May,
1864, he was crossing the Rapidan with what resembled a countless host.
Pages:
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256