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540 Lee reaches Appomattox Court House. [i865 Compelled thus to change his plan and route, Lee's next endeavour was to reach Lynchburg, from which he might hope to gain a refuge in the Virginia mountains. Neither plan offered . anything but a brief prolongation of a hopeless struggle ; and the second, like the first, found a quick termination. For three days longer it was almost an even race on parallel lines westward, with Sheridan's ubiquitous cavalry hanging on the flanks of the enemy's march, skirmishing, fighting, capturing prisoners, burning Confederate waggon-trains, and gathering up their abandoned artillery. Both sides exhibited heroic valour and endurance, under conditions which severely tried the skill and fortitude of even such veteran soldiers as they had become miry roads, swollen streams, intense fatigue, want of food, and marching at a pace which only the wild excitement of flight and pursuit could have sustained. As a mere military spectacle it was a fitting climax to the great clash of arms that for four years had extended over a thousand miles of American territory. In that running fight along the fifty miles from Petersburg to Appomattox, the Federal army lost 10,000 men in killed, wounded, prisoners, and missing, and the Confederate army more than twice as many, without counting the final surrender. But the very fierceness of the combat brought it to a speedy ending. On April 6 the bulk of Sheridan's cavalry and portions of several infantry columns managed to isolate the greater part of Lee's rearguard at Sailor's Creek, routing and capturing the whole of Swell's command, from 6000 to 8000 men, including among the prisoners six leading Confederate generals. Such a disaster, added to the wholesale desertions and disorganisation that attend every march of this character, brought conviction to the remaining Confederate leaders. On the evening of April 7 several of the commanders informed General Lee that in their opinion the time had come to end the contest. It was perhaps hardly to be expected that he would yield at once to an intimation of this kind; but the advice was reinforced by a note which Grant sent him on the same day, demanding the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia. Lee prolonged the correspondence through the 8th, first by asking terms, and then by saying that, while not ready to surrender, he would confer about the restoration of peace. This offer Grant promptly and properly declined. During the whole retreat the Federal commanders, by intuition rather than express orders, had constantly forced the Confederates away from the railroads. While the interchange of notes went on, Sheridan's cavalry once more got ahead of Lee's army, capturing four trains full of Confederate provisions at Appomattox Station, where also at daylight on the 9th Sheridan was joined by portions of the 5th and 24th corps of infantry. On the evening of the 8th, Lee's army, reduced to two corps, those of Gordon and Longstreet, had reached Appomattox Court House, six miles north of Appomattox Station. Believing that only Sheridan's