. Young folk's history of the war for the union . ied to stop his waywith twenty-five hundredmen, but he was quicklyrouted, with a loss of six-teen hundred ])risoncrs and eleven guns, and Sheridan rode onto Charlottesville, where he spent two days in destroying Con-federate worksliops and su])plies and the railroad leading fromthere toward Richmond and Lynchburg. Finding out thatLynchburg was too strong for him to take, he pushed for theJames Eiver, but it was too high for his pontoons to reachacross, and he was obliged to march toward Grant by thenorthern side of Richmond. After destroying al
. Young folk's history of the war for the union . ied to stop his waywith twenty-five hundredmen, but he was quicklyrouted, with a loss of six-teen hundred ])risoncrs and eleven guns, and Sheridan rode onto Charlottesville, where he spent two days in destroying Con-federate worksliops and su])plies and the railroad leading fromthere toward Richmond and Lynchburg. Finding out thatLynchburg was too strong for him to take, he pushed for theJames Eiver, but it was too high for his pontoons to reachacross, and he was obliged to march toward Grant by thenorthern side of Richmond. After destroying all the locks onthe James River Canal and many miles of railway, he finallyreached in safety the army before Petersburg on the 27tli ofMaich. General Sherman, it will be remembered, reachedCity Point on the same day, and had his consultation withPresident Lincoln and General Grant. Two days before that (March 25) General Lee had madehis last hostile attempt against the Union lines. When hefound himself hard pressed by Grants extension of his lines. Laying Wire for the Army Telegraph. 1865.] LEES LAST ATTACK. 519 toward the left, he determined to niuke an effort to cut theUnion army in two. If successful, he hoped that this wouldcause Grant to draw in his troops from the left, and give liiman oi)portiinity to withdraw from Petersburg and join Johnstonin North Carolina. Tlie attack was made at early dawn onFort Steedman, near the site of Burnsides mine. The workswere only about a hundred yards apart. The Union troops,taken by surprise by the sudden dash of the Confederates, weredriven from their breastworks, and Fort Steedman fell into thehands of the enemy with about five hundred prisoners. If theConfederates had advanced quickly and seized the crest behindthey might have succeeded, but tbe soldiers could not be in-duced to leave the work they had won. The Union troopssoon recovered from their surprise, the heavy artillery of otherforts opened on the enemy in Fort Steedman, and fr
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