. Autobiography and personal reminiscences of Major-General Benj. F. Butler; Butler's book . incoln upon theuselessness of his pardons, Iaddressed confidentially anote to him explaining allthat he had lost by his clem-ency to this wretch. Upon looking into the re-ports of EppaHunton, who commanded theConfederate forces in Rich-mond, I find that he wasthoroughly puzzled to learnwhat we were up there for,and why if we intended toassault the city we did not do it with more vigor than by a merereconnoissance of cavalry. We had learned that there was but halfa company of artillerymen at
. Autobiography and personal reminiscences of Major-General Benj. F. Butler; Butler's book . incoln upon theuselessness of his pardons, Iaddressed confidentially anote to him explaining allthat he had lost by his clem-ency to this wretch. Upon looking into the re-ports of EppaHunton, who commanded theConfederate forces in Rich-mond, I find that he wasthoroughly puzzled to learnwhat we were up there for,and why if we intended toassault the city we did not do it with more vigor than by a merereconnoissance of cavalry. We had learned that there was but halfa company of artillerymen at Bottoms Bridge, and that there wereno forces between Bottoms Bridge and Capitol Square in Richmond,for in less than a week previous trusty men had traversed that will be observed that General Wis tar speaks of ulterior andspecific objects. He was welt*instructed in them. The first andmost important was to release the large number of prisoners there, whowould have made a very great addition to our force; and the secondwas to capture the Confederate Cabinet and Mr. Jefferson Gen. Godfkey Weitzel,. BUTLERS BOOK. 621 We liad for one of our guides when the city was reached, his gardener,who had deserted to us, and if we could have laid our hands uponDavis in the early morning he would certainly have taken a ride toFortress Monroe to greet an old friend of his who would have takenspecial care to keep him there, certainly as long as the telegraph wireswould not work between there and Washington so that the Presidentspardon could not reach him. If the city could have been reached,and the Union prisoners there added to our force, Wistar was in-structed to hold on if possible, and I was ready to march with all myavailable command into Richmond, and once there I doubt if anybodywould have desired to have the rebel capital there any longer. In view of the possibility of my march upon Richmond with mywhole force, in case it was found as unprepared for attack as it hadbeen re
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