ed 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 his army. 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 four A.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 separate review 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.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Three Years in the Sixth Corps, by
George T. Stevens

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THREE YEARS IN T