[Illustration:  Map of Petersburg and Environs.]

It would be interesting to inquire what the course of General Lee would have been in the event of the success of this plan, and how the war would have resulted.  It would seem that, under such circumstances, his only resource would have been to retire with his army in the direction of Lynchburg, where his communications would have remained open with the south and west.  If driven from that point, the fastnesses of the Alleghanies were at hand; and, contemplating afterward the possibility of being forced to take refuge there, he said:  “With my army in the mountains of Virginia, I could carry on this war for twenty years longer.”  That spectacle was lost to the world—­Lee and his army fighting from mountain fastness to mountain fastness—­and the annals of war are not illustrated by a chapter so strange.  That Lee was confident of his ability to carry on such a struggle successfully is certain; and Washington had conceived the same idea in the old Revolution, when he said that if he were driven from the seaboard he would take refuge in West Augusta, and thereby prolong the war interminably.

To return from these speculations to the narrative of events.  General Grant remained in front of Lee until the 12th of June, when, moving again by his left flank, he crossed the Chickahominy, proceeded in the direction of City Point, at which place the Appomattox and James Rivers mingle their waters, and, crossing the James on pontoons, hastened forward in order to seize upon Petersburg.  This important undertaking had been strangely neglected by Major-General Butler, who, in obedience to General Grant’s orders, had sailed from Fortress Monroe on the 4th of May, reached Bermuda Hundred, the peninsula opposite City Point, made by a remarkable bend in James River, and proceeded to intrench himself.  It was in his power on his arrival to have seized upon Petersburg, but this he failed to do at that time, and the appearance of a force under General Beauregard, from the south, soon induced him to give his entire attention to his own safety.  An attack by Beauregard had been promptly made, which nearly resulted in General Butler’s destruction.  He succeeded, however, in retiring behind his works across the neck of the Peninsula, in which he now found himself completely shut up; and so powerless was his situation, with his large force of thirty thousand men, that General Grant wrote, “His army was as completely shut off ... as if it had been in a bottle strongly corked.”

The attempt of General Grant to seize upon Petersburg by a surprise failed.  His forces were not able to reach the vicinity of the place until the 15th, when they were bravely opposed behind impromptu works by a body of local troops, who fought like regular soldiers, and succeeded in holding the works until night ended the contest.

When morning came long lines were seen defiling into the breastworks, and the familiar battle-flags of the Army of Northern Virginia rose above the long line of bayonets giving assurance that the possession of Petersburg would be obstinately disputed.