ghting rather than numbers if they hoped to repulse the attack of
the enemy.

Such was the situation of affairs, and neither the Confederate
commander nor his men shrunk in the hour of trial. Leaving Longstreet
to confront the enemy north of the James, and Gordon in command of
Ewell's corps--if it could be called such--in front of Petersburg, Lee
moved with nearly the whole remainder of his small force westward,
beyond Hatcher's Run, to meet the anticipated attack. The force thus
moved to the right to receive General Grant's great assault consisted
of about fifteen thousand infantry, and about two thousand cavalry
under General Fitz Lee, who, in consequence of the departure of
Hampton to North Carolina, now commanded the cavalry of the army. This
force, however, was cavalry only in name; and General Lee, speaking
afterward of General Sheridan, said that his victories were won
"when we had no horses for our cavalry, and no men to ride the few
broken-down steeds that we could muster."

With this force, amounting in all to about seventeen thousand men,
Lee proceeded to take position behind the works extending along
the White-Oak Road, in the direction of Five Forks, an important
_carrefour_ beyond his extreme right. The number of men left north
of James River and in front of Petersburg was a little under twenty
thousand. As General Grant had at his command a force about four times
as great as his adversary's, it seemed scarcely possible that Lee
would be able to offer serious resistance.

It soon became evident, however, that, in spite of this great
disproportion of force, General Lee had determined to fight to the
last. To attribute this determination to despair and recklessness,
would be doing injustice to the great soldier. It was still possible
that he might be able to repulse the assault upon his right, and, by
disabling the Federal force there, open his line of retreat. To this
hope he no doubt clung, and the fighting-blood of his race was now
thoroughly aroused. At Chancellorsville and elsewhere the odds had
been nearly as great, and a glance at his gaunt veterans showed him
that they might still be depended upon for a struggle as obstinate as
any in the past history of the war.

The event certainly vindicated the justice of this latter view, and
we shall briefly trace the occurrences of the next three or four days
which terminated the long conflict at Petersburg.

General Grant's assaulting force was not in p