“The army is at Amelia Court House, short of provisions.  Send 300,000 rations quickly to Burkeville Junction.”  One copy was addressed to the supply department at Danville, and the other to that at Lynchburg.  I surmised that the telegraph lines north of Burkeville had been broken by Crook after the despatches were written, which would account for their being transmitted by messenger.  There was thus revealed not only the important fact that Lee was concentrating at Amelia Court House, but also a trustworthy basis for estimating his troops, so I sent word to Crook to strike up the railroad toward me, and to Merritt—­who, as I have said, had followed on the heels of the enemy—­to leave Mackenzie there and himself close in on Jettersville.  Staff-officers were also despatched to hurry up Griffin with the Fifth Corps, and his tired men redoubled their strides.

My troops too were hard up for rations, for in the pursuit we could not wait for our trains, so I concluded to secure if possible these provisions intended for Lee.  To this end I directed Young to send four of his best scouts to Burkeville Junction.  There they were to separate, two taking the railroad toward Lynchburg and two toward Danville, and as soon as a telegraph station was reached the telegram was to be transmitted as it had been written and the provisions thus hurried forward.

Although the Fifth Corps arrived at Jettersville the evening of April 4, as did also Crook’s and Merritt’s cavalry, yet none of the army of the Potomac came up till about 3 o’clock the afternoon of the 5th, the Second Corps, followed by the Sixth, joining us then.  General Meade arrived at Jettersville an hour earlier, but being ill, requested me to put his troops in position.  The Fifth Corps being already intrenched across the Amelia Court House road facing north, I placed the Sixth on its right and the Second on its left as they reached the ground.

As the enemy had been feeling us ever since morning—­to learn what he was up to I directed Crook to send Davies’s brigade on a reconnoissance to Paine’s crossroads.  Davies soon found out that Lee was trying to escape by that flank, for at the crossroads he found the Confederate trains and artillery moving rapidly westward.  Having driven away the escort, Davies succeeded in burning nearly two hundred wagons, and brought off five pieces of artillery.  Among these wagons were some belonging to General, Lee’s and to General Fitzhugh Lee’s headquarters.  This work through, Davies withdrew and rejoined Crook, who, with Smith and Gregg, was established near Flat Creek.

It being plain that Lee would attempt to escape as soon as his trains were out of the way, I was most anxious to attack him when the Second Corps began to arrive, for I felt certain that unless we did so he would succeed in passing by our left flank, and would thus again make our pursuit a stern-chase; but General Meade, whose plan of attack was to advance his right flank on Amelia Court House, objected to assailing before all his troops were up.