Grant would much rather have
heard, "We have got the White Oak road!" Fort Harrison was a strong
out-post simply; the White Oak road was the postern door into the
citadel.
Gradually moving thus, from the Jerusalem plank road to the Weldon
railroad, from the Weldon railroad to the Squirrel Level road, from the
Squirrel Level road toward the Boydton road, beyond which was the White
Oak road, Grant came, toward the end of October, to the banks of the
Rowanty. As this long blue serpent unfolded its coils and stretched its
threatening head into the Dinwiddie woods, Lee had extended his right
to confront it. The great opponents moved _pari passu_, each marching
in face of each other. Like two trained and skillful swordsmen, they
changed ground without moving their eyes from each others' faces--the
lunge was met by the parry; and this seemed destined to go on to
infinity.
That was the unskilled opinion, however. The civilians thought
that--Lee did not. It was plain that this must end somewhere. Lee's
line would not bear much further extension. It reached now from a point
on the Williamsburg road, east of Richmond, to Burgess's Mill, west of
Petersburg. His forty thousand men were strung over forty miles. That
made the line so thin that it would bear little more. Stretched a
little farther still, and it would snap.
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