The next noon came, somber to Harry beyond all description.  The youngest officer knew that while General Lee was still in Petersburg he could no longer hold it, and that they were nearly surrounded by the victorious and powerful Union host.  The break in the lines had been made just after sunrise, and had been widened in the later hours of the morning.  Now there was a momentary lull in the firing, but the lifting clouds of smoke enabled them to see vast masses of men in blue advancing and already in the suburbs of the town.

Lee’s headquarters were about a mile and a half west of Petersburg, where he stood on a lawn and watched the progress of the combat.  Nearly opposite him was a tall observatory that the Union men had erected, and from its summit the Northern generals also were watching.  Harry and Dalton stood near Lee, awaiting with others his call, and every detail he saw that day always remained impressed upon Harry Kenton’s mind.

He intently watched his general.  Feeling that the Southern army was so near destruction he thought that the face of Lee would show agitation.  But it was not so.  His calm and grave demeanor was unchanged.  He was in full uniform of fine gray, and had even buckled to his belt his dress sword which he seldom carried.  It was told of him that he said that morning if he were compelled to surrender he would do so in his best.  But he had not yet given up hope.

Harry turned his eyes away from Lee to the enemy.  Without the aid of glasses now, he saw the great columns in blue advancing, preceded by a tremendous fire of artillery that filled the air with bursting shells.  The infantry themselves were advancing with the bayonet, the sunlight gleaming on the polished metal.  As far as he could see the ring of fire and steel extended.  One heavy column was advancing toward the very lawn on which they stood.

“Looks as if they were going to trample us under foot,” said Dalton.

“Yes, but the general may still find a way out of it,” said Harry.

“They are still coming,” said Dalton.

The shells were bursting about them and bullets too soon began to strike upon the lawn.  A battery that sought to drive back the advancing column was exposed to such a heavy fire that it was compelled to limber up and retreat.  The officers urged Lee to withdraw and at length, mounting Traveler, he rode back slowly and deliberately to his inner line.  Harry often wondered what his feelings were on that day, but whatever they were his face expressed nothing.  When he stopped in his new position he said to one of his staff, but without raising his voice: 

“This is a bad business, colonel.”

Harry heard him say a little later to another officer: 

“Well, colonel, it has happened as I told them it would at Richmond.  The line has stretched until it has broken.”

But the general and his staff were not permitted to remain long at their second stop.  The Union columns never ceased to press the shattered Southern army.  Their great artillery, served with the rapidity and accuracy that had marked it all through the war, poured showers of shell and grape and canister upon the thin ranks in gray, and the rifles were close enough to add their own stream of missiles to the irresistible fire.