NOW WAS THE CRISIS OF THE DAY,
and fortunate was it for maiden and matron of Petersburg, that even at this moment that there was filing into the ravine between Cemetery Hill and the drunken battalions of Ferrero, a stern array of silent men, clad in faded gray, resolved with grim resolve to avert from the mother-town a fate as dreadful as that which marked the three days' sack of Badajos.
Lee, informed of the disaster at 6.10 A. M.,[1] had bidden his aide, Colonel Charles Venable, to ride quickly to the right of the army and bring up two brigades of Anderson's old division, commanded by Mahone, for time was too precious to observe military etiquette and send the orders through Hill. Shortly after, the General-in-Chief reached the front in person, and all men took heart when they descried the grave and gracious face, and "Traveller" stepping proudly, as if conscious that he bore upon his back the weight of a nation. Beauregard was already at the Gee House, a commanding position five hundred yards in rear of the Crater, and Hill had galloped to the right to organize an attacking column,[2] and had ordered down Pegram, and even now the light batteries of Brander and Ellett were rattling through the town at a sharp trot, with cannoniers mounted, the sweet, serene face of their boy-colonel lit up with that glow which to his men meant hotly-impending fight.
Venable had sped upon his mission, and found
MAHONE'S MEN ALREADY STANDING TO THEIR ARMS;
but the Federals, from their lofty "look-outs," were busily interchanging signals, and to uncover such a length of front without exciting observation, demanded the nicest precaution. Yet was this difficulty overcome by a simple device, for the men being ordered to drop back one by one, as if going for water, obeyed with such intelligence, that Warren continued to report to Meade that not a man had left his front.[3]
- ↑ The hour is taken from the note-book of the staff-officer who delivered the message from Beauregard to Lee, and who noted the exact time at the moment. This note-book was kindly placed at my disposal.
- ↑ Statement of Lieutenant-Colonel W. H. Palmer, chief-of-staff to General Hill.
- ↑ The device was, of course, Mahone's. General Meade says: Generals Hancock and Warren "sent me reports that the enemy's lines in their front were strongly held, * * * that the enemy had sent away none of their troops in their front, and it was impossible to do anything there."—Report on the Conduct of the War (1865), vol. 1, p. 7. General Warren appears to have been hard to convince, for as late as Dec. 20th, 1864, he testifies that he is "quite well satisfied that they (the enemy in his immediate front) did not take part in the attack."—Ib., p. 82.
