The opportunity of crushing his adversary at Amelia Court-House was thus allowed to pass, and General Grant now pressed forward his infantry, to bring Lee to bay, if possible, before he reached Lynchburg.  From this moment began the struggle between the adversaries which was to continue, day and night, without intermission, for the next four days.  The phenomenon was here presented of an army, reduced to less than twenty thousand men, holding at arm’s-length an enemy numbering about one hundred and fifty thousand, and very nearly defeating every effort of the larger force to arrest their march.  It would not interest the reader, probably, to follow in minute detail the circumstances of this melancholy retreat.  From the importance of the transactions, and the natural attention directed to them, both North and South, they are doubtless familiar to all who will read these pages.  We shall only speak of one or two incidents of the retreat, wherein General Lee appeared prominent personally, leaving to the imagination of the reader the remainder of the long and tragic struggle whose result decided the fate of the Confederacy.

General Grant doubtless saw now that every thing depended upon the celerity of his movements, and, sending in advance his large body of cavalry, he hastened forward as rapidly as possible with his infantry, bent on interposing, if possible, a heavy force in his adversary’s front.  Lee’s movements were equally rapid.  He seemed speedily to have regained his old calmness, after the trying disappointment at Amelia Court-House; and those who shared his counsels at this time can testify that the idea of surrender scarcely entered his mind for a moment—­or, if it did so, was speedily banished.  Under the pressure of circumstances so adverse that they seemed calculated to break down the most stubborn resolution.  General Lee did not falter; and throughout the disheartening scenes of the retreat, from the moment when he left Amelia Court-House to the hour when his little column was drawing near Appomattox, still continued to believe that the situation was not desperate, and that he would be able to force his way through to Lynchburg.

On the evening of the 6th, when the army was near Farmville, a sudden attack was made by the Federal cavalry on the trains of the army moving on a parallel road; and the small force of infantry guarding them was broken and scattered.  This occurrence took place while General Lee was confronting a body of Federal infantry near Sailor’s Creek; and, taking a small brigade, he immediately repaired to the scene of danger.  The spectacle which followed was a very striking and imposing one, and is thus described by one who witnessed it:  “The scene was one of gloomy picturesqueness and tragic interest.  On a plateau raised above the forest from which they had emerged, were the disorganized troops of Ewell and Anderson, gathered in groups, un-officered, and uttering tumultuous exclamations of rage and defiance.