"

About two miles in front of their line ran the Richmond & Petersburg
Railroad, near which the enemy was encountered. Butler's movements being
in concert with that of the Army of the Potomac and the 9th Corps,--the
latter as yet an independent organization.

General Meade, with the Army of the Potomac, numbering 120,000 effective
men, crossed the Rapidan _en route_ for the Wilderness, each soldier
carrying fifty rounds of ammunition and three days rations. The supply
trains were loaded with ten days forage and subsistence. The advance was
in two columns, General Warren being on the right and General Hancock on
the left. Sedgwick followed closely upon Warren and crossed the Rapidan
at Germania Ford. The Ninth Corps received its orders on the 4th,
whereupon General Burnside immediately put the Corps in motion toward
the front. Bivouacking at midnight, the line of march was again taken up
at daylight, and at night the Rapidan was crossed at Germania Ford. The
corps marched on a road parallel to that of its old antagonist, General
Longstreet's army, which was hastening to assist Lee, who had met the
Army of the Potomac in the entanglements of the wilderness, where a
stubborn and sanguinary fight raged for two days. General Ferrero's
division, composed of the Phalanx regiments, reached Germania Ford on
the morning of the 6th, with the cavalry, and reported to General
Sedgwick, of the 6th Corps, who had the care of the trains. The enemy
was projecting an attack upon the rear of the advancing columns. Gen.
Ferrero was ordered to guard with his Phalanx division, the bridges,
roads and trains near and at the Rapidan river. That night the
confederates attacked Sedgwick in force; wisely the immense supply
trains had been committed to the care of the Phalanx, and the enemy was
driven back before daylight, while the trains were securely moved up
closer to the advance. General Grant, finding that the confederates were
not disposed to continue the battle, began the movement toward
Spottsylvania Court House on the night of the 7th. The 9th Corps brought
up the rear, with the Phalanx division and cavalry covering the trains.

Butler and his Phalanx troops, as we have seen, was within six miles of
Petersburg, and on the 7th, Generals Smith and Gillmore reached the
railroad near Port Walthall Junction, and commenced destroying it; the
confederates attacked them, but were repulsed. Col. West, on the north
side of the James River, forde