I then sent despatches to General Grant, explaining what Davies had done, and telling him that the Second Corps was arriving, and that I wished he himself was present.  I assured him of my confidence in our capturing Lee if we properly exerted ourselves, and informed him, finally, that I would put all my cavalry, except Mackenzie, on my left, and that, with such a disposition of my forces, I could see no escape for Lee.  I also inclosed him this letter, which had just been captured: 

“Amelia C. H., April 5, 1865.

“Dear mamma: 

“Our army is ruined, I fear.  We are all safe as yet.  Shyron left us sick.  John Taylor is well—­saw him yesterday.  We are in line of battle this morning.  General Robert Lee is in the field near us.  My trust is still in the justice of our cause, and that of God.  General Hill is killed.  I saw Murray a few minutes since.  Bernard, Terry said, was taken prisoner, but may yet get out.  I send this by a negro I see passing up the railroad to Mechlenburg.  Love to all.

“Your devoted son,

“Wm. B. Taylor, Colonel.”

General Grant, who on the 5th was accompanying General Ord’s column toward Burkeville Junction, did not receive this intelligence till nearly nightfall, when within about ten miles of the Junction.  He set out for Jettersville immediately, but did not reach us till near midnight, too late of course to do anything that night.  Taking me with him, we went over to see Meade, whom he then directed to advance early in the morning on Amelia Court House.  In this interview Grant also stated that the orders Meade had already issued would permit Lee’s escape, and therefore must be changed, for it was not the aim only to follow the enemy, but to get ahead of him, remarking during the conversation that, “he had no doubt Lee was moving right then.”  On this same occasion Meade expressed a desire to have in the proposed attack all the troops of the Army of the Potomac under his own command, and asked for the return of the Fifth Corps.  I made no objections, and it was ordered to report, to him.

When, on the morning of the 6th, Meade advanced toward Amelia Court House, he found, as predicted, that Lee was gone.  It turned out that the retreat began the evening of the 5th and continued all night.  Satisfied that this would be the case, I did not permit the cavalry to participate in Meade’s useless advance, but shifted it out toward the left to the road running from Deatonsville to Rice’s station, Crook leading and Merritt close up.  Before long the enemy’s trains were discovered on this road, but Crook could make but little impression on them, they were so strongly guarded; so, leaving Stagg’s brigade and Miller’s battery about three miles southwest of Deatonsville—­where the road forks, with a branch leading north toward the Appomattox—­to harass the retreating column and find a vulnerable point, I again shifted the rest of the cavalry toward the left, across-country, but still keeping parallel to the enemy’s line of march.