with this; but General Grant explained that, at the very
moment of our conversation, General Sheridan was passing his Cavalry
across James River, from the North to the South; that he would, with
this Cavalry, so extend his left below Petersburg as to meet the South
Shore Road; and that if Lee should 'let go' his fortified lines, he
(Grant) would follow him so close that he could not possibly fall on me
alone in North Carolina. I, in like manner, expressed the fullest
confidence that my Army in North Carolina was willing to cope with Lee
and Johnston combined, till Grant could come up. But we both agreed
that one more bloody battle was likely to occur before the close of the
War. Mr. Lincoln * * * more than once exclaimed: 'Must more blood be
shed? Cannot this last bloody battle be avoided?' We explained that we
had to presume that General Lee was a real general; that he must see
that Johnston alone was no barrier to my progress; and that if my Army
of eighty thousand veterans should reach Burksville, he was lost in
Richmond; and that we were forced to believe he would not await that
inevitable conclusion, but make one more desperate effort."

President Lincoln's intense anxiety caused him to remain at City Point,
from this time forth, almost until the end--receiving from General
Grant, when absent, at the immediate front, frequent dispatches, which,
as fast as received and read, he transmitted to the Secretary of War,
at Washington. Grant had already given general instructions to
Major-Generals Meade, Ord, and Sheridan, for the closing movements of his
immediate Forces, against Lee and his lines of supply and possible
retreat. He saw that the time had come for which he had so long waited,
and he now felt "like ending the matter." On the morning of the 29th of
March--preliminary dispositions having been executed--the movements
began. That night, Grant wrote to Sheridan, who was at Dinwiddie Court
House, with his ten thousand Cavalry: "Our line is now unbroken from the
Appomattox to Dinwiddie. * * * I feel now like ending the matter, if
it is possible to do so, before going back. * * * In the morning, push
around the Enemy, if you can, and get on his right rear. * * * We will
all act together as one Army, until it is seen what can be done with the
Enemy." The rain fell all that night in torrents. The face of the
country, where forests, swamps, and quicksands alternated in presenting
apparently insuperable