Health and happiness attend
you on your way through life, comrades! May the silver spare the gold
of your clustering ringlets, Katy! Joy and gladness follow your steps!
all friendly stars shine on you! Wherever you are, old friends, may a
kind heaven send you its blessing!"
XVI.
LEE'S LAST GREAT BLOW.
I reached Petersburg on the evening of March 24, 1865.
The ride was a gay comedy--but a tragedy was about to follow it. On the
very next morning, in the gray March dawn, Lee was going to strike his
last great blow at Grant. A column under Gordon, that brave of braves,
was going to be hurled headlong against Hare's Hill, the enemy's
centre, just below Petersburg.
That design was evidently the result of supreme audacity, or of
despair. In either case it indicated the terrible character of the
crisis. There could be no two opinions upon that point. Lee aimed at
nothing less than to cut General Grant's army in two--to root himself
doggedly in the very centre of his enemies, and to force General Grant
to draw back the entire left wing of his army, or run the risk, by
holding his position, to have it destroyed.
Was Lee's motive to open the way for his retreat over the Boydton road
toward Danville? I know not. Military critics say so, and it is certain
that, a month before, he had endeavored to retreat.
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