Charge of the Sixth Corps, Which Broke the Rebel Lines
Charge of the Sixth Corps, Which Broke the Rebel Lines, April 2, 1865.
The position occupied by the Sixth corps formed a salient, the angle approaching very near the rebel line. Here, in front of Fort Welch and Fort Fisher, the corps was massed in columns of brigades inechelon, forming amighty wedge, which should rive the frame-work of the confederacy.
The corps was formed in the rear of the picket line; the Third brigade, Second division, being the point of the wedge. On the right of that brigade was the First brigade of the same division, and on the left, the Vermont brigade. The First division of three brigades was inechelonby brigades on the right of the Second, and the Third of two large brigades also inechelon. Each brigade was in column of battalions. Axemen were ready to be sent forward to remove abattis, and Captain Adams had twenty cannoneers ready to man captured guns. Every commanding officer of battalions was informed what he was expected to do, and thus all was in readiness.
At half-past four in the morning of April 2d, the signal gun from Fort Fisher sounded the advance. Without wavering, through the darkness, the wedge which was to split the confederacy was driven home.
The abattis was past, the breastworks mounted, the works were our own. Thousands of prisoners, many stands of colors and many guns were our trophies, while many of our friends, dead or wounded, was the price of our glory. The rebel line was broken, and now the troops of Ord, and those of the Ninth corps pressed on after us. Humphries, too, of the Second corps, hearing of our splendid success, stormed the works in his front away on the left and carried them. The confederate army gathered close around Petersburgh, but we followed closely. We will not stop to tell all the splendid achievements of that glorious day.
That night our corps rested on the Appomattox, just above Petersburgh, and General Grant, of the Vermont brigade, had his head-quarters in the house which General Lee had occupied all winter, and had left only a few hours before. During the night Lee made his escape with hisarmy. He had already sent word to Richmond that he was to retreat, and the fatal message reached Davis while in church.
We all joined in the pursuit next morning. The Second and Sixth corps hastening to the help of Sheridan, who was following hard after the flying army. We confronted Lee at Jetersville, and on the morning of the 6th we moved up to attack, but there was no army to attack. Why need we tell of the forced march that followed; of the gallant fight at Sailor's creek, where we whipped Lee's army; of the wild joy of the surrender? These are all too well known to repeat, and the details would be tiresome.
The grand old Sixth corps, the pride of the army and the delight of the nation, had crowned all its former record of glory by breaking the famous "backbone" of the rebellion, and all that follows is tame.
General Grant did us the credit to say, "General Wright penetrated the lines with his whole corps, sweeping everything before him, and to his left, toward Hatcher's run, capturing many guns and several thousand prisoners."
General Meade, too, says: "Major-General Wright attacked at fourA.M., carrying everything before him, taking possession of the enemy's strong line of works, and capturing many guns and prisoners. After carrying the enemy's lines in his front, and reaching the Boydtown plank road, Major-General Wright turned to his left and swept down the enemy's line of intrenchments till near Hatcher's run, where, meeting the head of the Twenty-fourth corps, General Wright retraced his steps and advanced on the Boydtown plank road toward Petersburgh, encountering the enemy in an inner line of works immediately around the city."
The march and halt at Danville, the rapid journey through Fredericksburgh to Alexandria, the separatereview of the corps under the scorching rays of one of the hottest days ever known even in Washington, when hundreds of our men fell down from sunstroke and exhaustion, the return to camp and the disbanding, finish the story of the grandest corps that ever faced a foe.