Headquarters Army Of Potomac
June 15, 1864
Of course, the
first thing was to visit the great bridge. The approach to it lay along the
river border, under the bank, and had been prepared with much labor, for, a day
or two previous, it had been covered with great cypresses, some of them at
least three and a half feet in diameter, and these had to be cut close to the
ground, and the debris carefully cleared away; in a portion of the road too there
was a muddy swamp, which had to be laboriously spanned by a causeway; but there
was the whole thing, finished, and of course a photographer making a
"picture" of it. It was very simple: you have only to fancy a bridge
of boats, thirteen feet wide and 2000 long, the while looking so light as
scarcely to be capable of bearing a man on horseback. In the middle of the
river were anchored two schooners, which gave greater stability to the bridge,
by being attached to it with ropes. What added to the strangeness of the scene
was the ci-devant Rebel iron-clad Atlanta, lying there, like a big
mud-turtle, with only its back exposed. The group was completed by two or three
gunboats and several steamers anchored near by. It was funny to run against the
marine in this inland region, and to see the naval officers, all so smug and
well brushed in their clean uniforms. Admiral L____ came to visit the General –
a pleasant old lady apparently. While we were at dinner came Colonel Babcock,
from Grant at City Point, with news that Baldy Smith had marched thence before
daylight, engaged the enemy at five A.M., and was driving them towards
Petersburg. Orders were immediately given to halt the waggon-train, now passing
the bridge, and allow the 9th Corps to pass over and push on towards Petersburg
(by the same route that Hancock had been following, during the day), and there
form on his left. Smith, meantime, had hit the enemy, some three or four miles
from City Point, in a wood, near where the main road crossed the rail. . . . How many there were I do not know, but
they made a considerable fight with help of field batteries. Harry,1
with 300 of his men, had the extreme left, and was wounded in this wood, early
in the engagement. A soldier told me he held on for an hour after he was hit;
and I was further told his men did remarkably well. Within about two and a half
miles of the town, Smith ran on the strong works long since constructed for its
defence. These consist of a series of redoubts, with regular ditches and
barbettes for guns, and connected in a chain by a heavy infantry parapet. The
line was defended by Wise's men1 (who look to me just like other
Confederate soldiers) and by the local militia. What a difference that makes!!
Their batteries opened a well-directed fire as our people advanced; but no
sooner did the lines of battle debouch from the woods and push over the open
ground, than the militia got shaky behind their works and, when our troops
charged, they broke and ran, leaving sixteen guns and 300 or 400 prisoners in
our hands. Everyone gives great credit to the negroes for the spirit they
showed. I believe there is no question their conduct was entirely to their
credit. . . .
I shall never
forget meeting, on the City Point road, five Confederate soldiers, under guard
of nigs! . . . Three of the prisoners looked as if they could have taken off a
tenpenny nail, at a snap. The other two seemed to take a ludicrous view of the
matter and were smiling sheepishly. As to the negroes, they were all teeth, so
to speak, teeth with a black frame. Hancock got up that evening and joined the
18th Corps. Their troops were all exhausted, but, oh! that they had attacked at
once. Petersburg would have gone like a rotten branch. In war there is a
critical instant — a night — perhaps only a half hour, when everything
culminates. He is the military genius who recognizes this instant and acts upon
it, neither precipitating nor postponing the critical moment. There is thus good
reason why great soldiers should be so rare that generations pass without
producing a single one. A great soldier must have, in addition to all usual
traits of intellect, a courage unmoved by the greatest danger, and cool under
every emergency, and the quickness of lightning, not only in conceiving, but in
enforcing an order. . . .
_______________
1 Mrs. Lyman's brother.
2 "Wise's Legion."
SOURCE: George R. Agassiz, Editor, Meade’s
Headquarters, 1863-1865: Letters of Colonel Theodore Lyman from the Wilderness
to Appomattox, p. 160-3
