The National tribune., 1910-07-14

were making their preparations for the
battle in doing work that in peaceful
times would have required possibly
weeks to accomplish.
The I'd of June was hot, sultry day,
with clouds of dust rising wherever
troops or horses moved. About o'clock
in the afternoon there came up CRATE
full rain, which lasted with some inter-
mission all night. The Union army in
front of Lee was formed with Han
cocks Corps on the extreme left Glib
bon's Division across the road leading
from Cold Harbor to the Dispatch Sta
ton, with Barlow's Division on his left.
Next came the Sixth Corps, and on the
right of that the Eighteenth Corps. On
June Gen. Lee, feeling that the REIN
forcements he had received raised his
strength sufficiently to warrant his re-
suming the aggressive, sent Early out
with his corps to move upon the Shady
Grove road and try to turn the Union
right flank. Early, with Rodes's Divi-
sion in advance, struck Bartlett's Bri-
gade on the extreme right of the Fifth
Corps, and took it by surprise as it
made its attack Immediately after
severe thunder storm, and came in the
direction from which the Union troops
supposed their own .reinforcements
were advancing. A number of Bart
let's skirmiShers were thus taken pris-
oner, but Griffin put his whole division
into the line. and quickly threw Rodes
back to the Shady Grove road. At the
same time Crittenden's Division of the
Ninth Corps, which was moving into
position, ran against Heth, and held
him in check until Wilcox and Potter
got their divisions into line. 1t was to
be regretted that the excellent oppor-
tunity for a counterstroke which these
movements in repulsing the enemy af-
forded was lost
40. fI,n NJ Ia fob no
reached Grants ears he acted as usual,
and sent Smith and Wright orders to
move out from their front to see If
that portion of the Confederate line
had not been weakened. 1t was in this
way that Grant had gained his first
great success, at Donelson. Wright
and Smith succeeded in capturing the
first line of intrenchments with some
700 or 500 prisoners. Grant then is
sued orders for an attack along the
whole line, TO be made at 4:3G, June g.
Facing Another Supreme Trial.
It now lacked but a day of the calen.
tomac had crossed the Rapidan full Of
hope of crushing its opponent and end
ing the war. In those 80 days wer,
mighty happenings, fuller of titanic
strife, of the intensest human emotion
than anything the sun in his cours'
two days of demoniac struggle in tn
tangled gloom of the Wilderness, th'
bodybreaking night marches, the la
bors. the racking anxieties between th'
ferce-faming fights, the bitter repulse
and the whirlwind of victory at Spot
sylvania. Beating storms, alternating
with burning sunshine battled with tn,
fierce passions of men intent upon de
struction. Fully one-half of those ol
both sides who confronted each othe
at the beginning of May with the dead
liest Of weapons the ingenuity OF NAL
could devise had fallen before thes
weapons. Little red clay mounds O
newly-made graves marked every stag
Of the bloody march from the Rapidal
to the Chickahominy. Under the cling
ing vines and the white-fiowering dog
woods of the Wilderness these lo'
tents, beneath which slept those VIII
had found eternal peace, formed grea
cities to endure till the final trum
should sound. There were other citit
like these where blue and gray, In fol
getfulness of those mad scenes thr
which they had so recently passed, no
rested in quietness within rife range
the rude. time-stained walls OF Spotsy
vania Court House and on the grant
banks OF the North Anna.
Each man on both sides had seen
least one comrade or bunkmate fall
his side. and yet so completely dom
mated were the survivors by one 81
preme thought that they hungered f
more slaughter for other hecatombs
graves in soil so red that It seemed
II it had been dyed by the blood of
centurys wars.
Bafied I'm scores OF efforts to q
upon and destroy its enemy. the Arr
of the Potomac now girded up It's ioi
and grasped its deadly weapons
another supreme endeavor to wre
the Army of Northern Virginia, cv
at the awful cost of greater slaugh'
than it had yet known. There was
sublimity of moral courage in the v
1t turned its back upon all il had 81
fered in the past, upon the graves
had seen open for It's best and brave
upon the spectacle Of former failur
to once more try mortal conclusi-
with Its dreadful enemy. The wo
had never seen anything like ii befo
Stem, Fortitude of the Soldiers.
Gen. Horace Porter gives the folio
ing Illustration of the magnificent {
termination of the men of the Army
the Potomac:
In passing along on foot among
troops at the extreme front that ev,
ing (June %, while transmitting so
of the final orders, l observed an in