Jackson and Stuart are dead, and have become figures of history.
I have drawn them as well as I could,--I dare not attempt to do the
same with the great commander-in-chief. He is alive. May he live
long!--and, saluting him, I pass on.
So if I speak of General Lee, it will be of the individual in his
official character. What he utters, he will have uttered in the hearing
of many.
With these words of preface, I resume the thread of my history.
XIV.
THE SITUATION.
October, 1864, had come.
The "situation" may be described in a few words.
Grant had drawn his lines from a point in Charles City, on the left
bank of James River, across that stream and across the Appomattox,
around Petersburg to the Squirrel Level road, where he threatened the
Southside railroad, Lee's line of communication with the south and
west. Fort Harrison had just been taken. Grant was gradually hemming in
his opponent along the immense line extending across the two rivers,
past the scene of the famous "Crater" explosion, to the vicinity of the
Rowanty, a distance of nearly forty miles. One incessant crash and
thunder went up, day and night. Grant was "hammering continuously,"
carrying out his programme; and, the military view apart, never was
spectacle more picturesque than that presented in these combats.
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