March 31, 1865
The rain held up about ten A.M. and the sun once more shone.
By this time our lines, running east and west, had been moved due north, till
they rested their right on Hatcher's Run, north of the Crow house, and their
left on the Boydton plank, near the entrance of the Quaker road. For this
purpose Ayres's and Crawford's divisions were pushed forward and Griffin held
in reserve. We rode out, towards the left (our Headquarters were near the
Vaughan road close to Gravelly Run), stopping some time to consult with Grant.
About 10.30 we heard a brief fusillade on the right of our line (a
demonstration to divert our attention), followed by heavy musketry towards the
White Oak road. As we came to Warren's old Headquarters, high up on the Quaker
road, I could see something had gone wrong. A cavalry officer galloped up and
said: “I must have more men to stop these stragglers! the road is full of them.”
And indeed there were those infernal drummers, and pack-mules, and not a few
armed men, training sulkily to the rear. I required no one to tell me what that
meant. The enemy had tried on Griffin, two days since, without success, but
this time they had repeated the game on Ayres and Crawford, with a different
result. As these two divisions were moving through the thick woods, they were
suddenly charged, broken, and driven back towards the Boydton plank road; but
some batteries being brought to their aid, the men were rallied behind a branch
of Gravelly Run. Griffin took up a rear line, to ensure the position. General
Meade at once ordered Miles to go in, to the right of the 5th Corps, and
Griffin to advance likewise. The General rode out in person to give Humphreys
the necessary orders about Miles's division, and found him at Mrs. Ramie's, at
the junction of the Quaker road and the plank. There was a wide open in front,
and I could see, not far off, the great tree where we got such an awful
shelling, at the first Hatcher's Run fight. Miles was in the open, forming his
troops for the attack. Just then the enemy opened a battery on us, with solid
shot, several of which came ricocheting round us. I recollect I turned just
then and saw Charlie Mills sitting on horseback, near General Humphreys. He
nodded and smiled at me. Immediately after, General Meade rode to a rising
ground a couple of hundred yards from the house, while General Humphreys went a
short distance to the front, in the field. Almost at that instant a round shot
passed through Humphreys' Staff and struck Mills in the side, and he fell dead
from his horse. He was indeed an excellent and spirited young man and beloved
by us all. . . . When I rode that
evening to the hospital, and saw the poor boy lying there on the ground, it
made me think of Abbot, a year ago. It is the same thing over and over again.
And strange too, this seeing a young man in full flush of robust health, and
the next moment nothing that we can make out but the broken machine that the
soul once put in motion. Yet this is better than that end in which the
faculties, once brilliant, gradually fade, month after month.
About noon, Miles and Griffin went in, with sharp firing,
drove the enemy back, and made a lodgment on the White Oak road. Meantime,
Sheridan, after all sorts of mud toils, got north of Dinwiddie, where he was
attacked by a heavy force of infantry and cavalry and forced back nearly to that
place. Not to forgo our advantage on the northwest, we immediately sent the
whole 5th Corps by night to Dinwiddie to report to General Sheridan and attack
the enemy next morning — a hard march after the two days' fighting in the
storm!
SOURCE: George R. Agassiz, Editor, Meade’s
Headquarters, 1863-1865: Letters of Colonel Theodore Lyman from the Wilderness
to Appomattox, p. 330-2
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