General Lee had moved with his accustomed celerity, and, as usual, without that loss of time which results from doubt of an adversary’s intentions.  If General Grant retired without another battle on the Chickahominy, it was obvious to Lee that he must design one of two things:  either to advance upon Richmond from the direction of Charles City, or attempt a campaign against the capital from the south of James River.  Lee seems at once to have satisfied himself that the latter was the design.  An inconsiderable force was sent to feel the enemy near the White-Oak Swamp; he was encountered there in some force, but, satisfied that this was a feint to mislead him, General Lee proceeded to cross the James River above Drury’s Bluff, near “Wilton,” and concentrate his army at Petersburg.  On the 16th he was in face of his adversary there.  General Grant had adopted the plan of campaign which Lee expected him to adopt.  General McClellan had not been permitted in 1862 to carry out the same plan; it was now undertaken by General Grant, who sustained better relations toward the Government, and the result would seem to indicate that General McClellan was, after all, a soldier of sound views.

As soon as General Lee reached Petersburg, he began promptly to draw a regular line of earthworks around the city, to the east and south, for its defence.  It was obvious that General Grant would lose no time in striking at him, in order to take advantage of the slight character of the defences already existing; and this anticipation was speedily realized.  General Lee had scarcely gotten his forces in position on the 16th when he was furiously attacked, and such was the weight of this assault that Lee was forced from his advanced position, east of the city, behind his second line of works, by this time well forward in process of construction.  Against this new line General Grant threw heavy forces, in attack after attack, on the 17th and 18th, losing, it is said, more than four thousand men, but effecting nothing.  On the 21st General Lee was called upon to meet a more formidable assault than any of the preceding ones—­this time more to his right, in the vicinity of the Weldon Railroad, which runs southward from Petersburg.  A heavy line was advanced in that quarter by the enemy; but, observing that an interval had been left between two of their corps, General Lee threw forward a column under General Hill, cut the Federal lines, and repulsed their attack, bearing off nearly three thousand prisoners.

On the same night an important cavalry expedition, consisting of the divisions of General Wilson and Kautz, numbering about six thousand horse, was sent westward to cut the Weldon, Southside, and Danville Railroads, which connected the Southern army with the South and West.  This raid resulted in apparently great but really unimportant injury to the Confederate communications against which it was directed.  The Federal cavalry tore up large portions of the