e. Our casualties were light in comparison to the fighting
done during the day, but the enemy was not only defeated, but badly
demoralized.

Kershaw and Fields, of Lee's Army, with ten thousand under General
Beauregard, making a total of twenty thousand, successfully combatted
Grant's whole army, estimated by the Federals themselves as being
ninety thousand. These are some figures that might well be taken
in consideration when deeds of prowess and Southern valor are being
summed up.

Grant seemed determined to completely invest Petersburg on the south
side by continually pushing his lines farther to the left, lengthening
our lines and thereby weakening them. On the 21st of June the Second
and Sixth Corps of the Federal Army moved on to the west of the
Jerusalem plank road, while the Fifth was to take up position on the
east side. In the manoeuver, or by some misunderstanding, the Fifth
Corps became separated from those of the other divisions, thereby
leaving a gap of about a division intervening. General Lee seeing
this opportunity to strike the enemy a blow, and as A.P. Hill was then
coming up, he ordered him to push his force forward and attack the
enemy in flank. Moving his troops forward with that despatch that ever
attended the Third Corps of our army, it struck the enemy a stunning
blow in the flank and rear, driving them back in great disorder,
capturing several thousand prisoners and a battery or two of
artillery. The enemy continued to give way until they came upon their
strong entrenched position; then Hill retired and took his place on
the line. Again Grant started his cavalry out on raids to capture and
destroy the railroads leading into Petersburg and Richmond, the route
by which the entire army of Lee had to look for supplies. But at
Reams' Station Hampton met the larger body of the enemy's cavalry and
after a hard fought battle, in which he utterly routed the enemy, he
captured his entire wagon train and all his artillery. A short time
after this Grant sent Hancock, one of the ablest Generals in the
Federal Army, (a true, thorough gentleman, and as brave as the
bravest, and one whom the South in after years had the pleasure of
showing its gratitude and admiration for those qualities so rare in
many of the Federal commanders, by voting for him for President of
the United States) with a large body of cavalry to destroy the Weldon
Road at all hazard and to so possess it that its use to our army
would be a