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GENERAL GRANT ON THE SIEGE OF PETERSBURG.
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About 2 o’clock in the afternoonGeneral Butler was forced back tothe line the enemy had withdrawnfrom in the morning. GeneralWright, with his two divisions,joined General Butler on the fore-noon of the 17tli, the latter stillholding with a strong picket-linethe enemy’s works. But insteadof putting these divisions into theenemy’s works to hold them hepermitted them to halt and restsome distance in the rear of hisown line. Between 4 and 5 o’clockin the afternoon the enemy at-tacked and drove in his picketsand re-occupied his old line.
On the night of the 20 th andmorning of the 21st a lodgmentwas effected by General Butler,with one brigade of infantry, on thenorth bank of the James, at DeepBottom, and connected bypontoon-bridge with Bermuda Hundred.
On the 19th General Sheridan,on his return from Ms expeditionagainst the Virginia Central Kail-road [see p. 233], arrived at theWhite House just as the enemy’scavalry was about to attack it, andcompelled it to retire. . . . Afterbreaking up the depot at that placehe moved to the James Kiver,which he reached safely afterheavy fighting. He commencedcrossing on the 25th, near FortPowhatan, without further moles-tation, and rejoined the Army ofthe Potomac.
On the 22d [of June] GeneralWilson, with his own division ofcavalry of the Army of the Poto-mac and General Kautz’s divisionof cavalry of the Army of theJames, moved against the enemy’srailroads south of Richmond . [Seep. 535.] . . .
With a view of cutting the ene-my’s railroad from near Richmond to the Anna rivers, and makinghim wary of the situation of hisarmy in the Shenandoah, and, inthe event of failure in this, to takeadvantage of his necessary with-drawal of troops from Petersburg,to explode a mine that lmd beenprepared in front of the NinthCorps and assault the enemy’s linesat that place, on the night of the26th of July the Second Corps andtwo divisions of the cavalry corpsand Kautz’s cavalry were crossedto the north bank of the JamesRiver and joined the force Gen-eral Butler had there. On the 27 ththe enemy was driven from his in-