together with two small regiments of infantry, and
directed him to push on rapidly and burn the bridge.

Information had been received through scouts that the structure was not
defended by any fortifications whatever. Reports also came in that the
Confederates were badly demoralized. In consequence of these stories,
which would appear to have been accepted as fully reliable at
headquarters, Washburn was ordered to attack any force which he might
meet, as it would certainly fall away before him.

It was a perilous order to give Washburn, for his valor was ever the
better part of his discretion.

Some of our generals seem to have been strangely misled as to the spirit
of the Confederates remaining in arms. Never had they fought more
fiercely than in those last days of the struggle. Their skeleton
battalions threw themselves upon our heavy lines at Sailor's Creek as
desperately as they charged under Pickett and Edward Johnson at
Gettysburg, and their artillery was never more superbly served than when
they were attacked in flank by Gregg's brigade on the seventh of April,
when that general was made prisoner and his brigade driven in complete
discomfiture by the famous Washington Artillery of New Orleans.

On the morning of the sixth, before dawn, Washburn's little detachment
took up its route, the infantry, especially, being in poor condition for
the severe and peculiarly dangerous service to which they were called, for
they were exhausted by the forced marches which had been indispensable
during the preceding three days. The distance was sixteen miles to
Farmville. After having been two hours or so upon the road, Washburn
satisfied himself that the rebel army, moving diagonally toward the
Appomattox, had closed in upon his rear, cutting him off from the Army of
the James. There were also unmistakable indications that Confederate
columns were moving in front of his command, as well as on its flank. The
detachment was thus marching practically among divisions of the enemy, who
were evidently ignorant of its proximity.

Meanwhile, General Ord had learned of the movements of the Confederates,
and at once despatched Brevet Brigadier General Theodore Read, adjutant
general of the Army of the James, to overtake Washburn and cause him to
fall back to the main army. Read, with one orderly, contrived to elude the
various bodies of the enemy and finally joined Washburn, just before his
command reached the vicinity of the bridge.