, made serious
demonstrations direct on Drewry's Bluff. Butler supposed that, the
defenses being entirely uncovered by the drain of men for Lee's army,
he could carry them with ease. In this hope he relied much upon the
powerful aid of the fleet; but Admiral Lee, ascending in a
double-ender, lost his pioneer-boat, the "Commodore Jones" and very
nearly his own flag-ship, by a torpedo, opposite Signal Station. This
stopped the advance of the fleet, as the river was supposed to be sown
with torpedoes.

Nowise daunted, General Butler--like the true knight and chivalrous
leader his entire career proves him to be--drew his line closer round
the coveted stronghold. But on the 16th of May, Beauregard sallied out
and struck the hero of New Orleans so suddenly and so sharply that he
drove him, with heavy loss and utter demoralization, clear from his
advanced lines to Bermuda Hundred. Only the miscarriage of a part of
the plan, entrusted to a subordinate general, saved Butler's army from
complete destruction.

As it was, he there remained "bottled up," until Grant's peculiar
strategy had swung him round to Petersburg; and then the "bottle-imp"
was released.

Seeing himself thus foiled on every hand--his magnificent plans utterly
crushed, and his immense numbers unavailing--Grant struck into new
combinations. Hunter had already penetrated into West Virginia as far
as Staunton; and hounding on his men with the savagery of the
bloodhound, was pushing on for Lynchburg and the railroad lines of
supply adjacent to it. Grant at once detached Sheridan with a heavy
force, to operate against the lines from Gordonsville and
Charlottesville.

Simultaneously he, himself, was to strike a resistless blow at
Petersburg; and thus with every avenue of supply cut off, the leaguered
Capital must soon--from very weakness--drop into eager hands stretched
out to grasp her.

On the 16th and 17th June, there were sharp and heavily-supported
attacks upon portions of the Confederate line before Petersburg. The
expectation evidently was to drive them in by sheer weight; for it was
known only that part of Lee's forces had crossed the river, and the
line was one of immense extent--requiring three times his whole force
to man it effectively.

But, as ever before, General Grant underrated his enemy; and, as ever
before, his cherished theory of giving six lives for one to gain his
point failed. Both attacks were heavily repulsed. Still holding to that
t