robable that this command could effect any thing against
Lee's army of about the same number of infantry, it might still have
delayed him by constructing breastworks in his way, and thus giving
the Federal infantry time to come up and attack.

[Illustration: LEE AT THE SURRENDER.]

The opportunity of crushing his adversary at Amelia Court-House was
thus allowed to pass, and General Grant now pressed forward his
infantry, to bring Lee to bay, if possible, before he reached
Lynchburg. From this moment began the struggle between the adversaries
which was to continue, day and night, without intermission, for the
next four days. The phenomenon was here presented of an army, reduced
to less than twenty thousand men, holding at arm's-length an enemy
numbering about one hundred and fifty thousand, and very nearly
defeating every effort of the larger force to arrest their march. It
would not interest the reader, probably, to follow in minute detail
the circumstances of this melancholy retreat. From the importance of
the transactions, and the natural attention directed to them, both
North and South, they are doubtless familiar to all who will read
these pages. We shall only speak of one or two incidents of the
retreat, wherein General Lee appeared prominent personally, leaving
to the imagination of the reader the remainder of the long and tragic
struggle whose result decided the fate of the Confederacy.

General Grant doubtless saw now that every thing depended upon the
celerity of his movements, and, sending in advance his large body of
cavalry, he hastened forward as rapidly as possible with his infantry,
bent on interposing, if possible, a heavy force in his adversary's
front. Lee's movements were equally rapid. He seemed speedily to have
regained his old calmness, after the trying disappointment at Amelia
Court-House; and those who shared his counsels at this time can
testify that the idea of surrender scarcely entered his mind for a
moment--or, if it did so, was speedily banished. Under the pressure of
circumstances so adverse that they seemed calculated to break down the
most stubborn resolution. General Lee did not falter; and throughout
the disheartening scenes of the retreat, from the moment when he left
Amelia Court-House to the hour when his little column was drawing near
Appomattox, still continued to believe that the situation was not
desperate, and that he would be able to force his way through to
Lynchburg.

O