April 7, 1865
The country about Deatonsville (a cluster of half-adozen
brick farmhouses) is a great improvement, full of hills, not high but steep,
with a nice brook in every hollow; the air begins too to sniff of the distant
mountains, one or two of whose outlying spurs may hence be seen. We started
from camp about eight in the morning, and, on the ridge, just beyond Sailor's
Run, we came on the 5th Corps, moving from right to left, in rear of the 2d and
6th Corps, and taking the road towards Prince Edward Court House. Sailor's Run
is a considerable brook in the bottom of a deep, precipitous hollow, where the
Rebel train, closely followed by Humphreys, had come to a hopeless deadlock.
The road thither, for several miles, showed that their animals were giving out.
The way was completely strewed with tents, ammunition, officers' baggage, and,
above all, little Dutch ovens — such a riches of little Dutch ovens never was
seen! I suppose they bake hoe-cakes in them. You saw them lying about, with
their little legs kicked up in the air, in a piteous manner! But, when we got
to the Run, there was a complete mess! Waggons, ambulances, cannon filled the
hollow near the bridge! The hillside was white with Adjutant-General's papers
scattered from sev eral waggons
of that department; here and there lay a wounded Rebel, while everywhere lay
broken boxes, trunks, ammunition-cases and barrels. It was strange to see the
marks on the waggons, denoting the various brigades, once so redoubtable! At
10.30 the 2d Corps, after some firing, crossed the Appomattox, at High Bridge,
where we too arrived at eleven. Nothing can more surprise one than a sudden
view of this great viaduct, in a country like Virginia, where public works are
almost unknown. It is a railway bridge, nearly 2500 feet long, over the valley
of the Appomattox, and is supported by great brick piers, of which the central
ones are about 140 feet high. The river itself is very narrow, perhaps
seventy-five feet wide, but it runs in a fertile valley, a mile in width, part
of which is subject to overflow. At either end the Rebels had powerful
earthworks (on which they were still laboring the day before). In these they
abandoned eighteen pieces of artillery, and, in one, they blew up the magazine,
which made a sad scene of rubbish. . . .
At four P.M. we heard heavy firing across the river from
Humphreys, who had gone towards the Lynchburg stage road and had there struck
the whole of Lee's army, entrenched and covering his trains. Nothing daunted,
he crowded close up and attempted to assault one point with a brigade, but was
repulsed with heavy loss. A despatch was sent in haste to Wright, to push on to
Farmville, cross the river and attack the enemy in rear; but, when he got
there, behold the 24th Corps before, the bridges burnt and everything at a
standstill. A division of cavalry forded and attacked, but the Rebel infantry
sent them to the right-about in short order. And so we got to camp at
nine P.M., at Rice's Station.
SOURCE: George R. Agassiz, Editor, Meade’s
Headquarters, 1863-1865: Letters of Colonel Theodore Lyman from the Wilderness
to Appomattox, p. 351-2
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