of Five
Forks, April 1st--Assault and Taking of Confederate Works on the
Union Left, April 2d--Surrender of Richmond and Petersburg, April
3d--President Lincoln's Visit to Petersburg and Richmond, and His
Death

The Sixth Corps, as we have seen, returned from its memorable
campaign in Maryland and the Shenandoah Valley to the front of
Petersburg about December 5, 1864. It relieved a portion of the
Fifth Corps. The right of my brigade rested on the Weldon Railroad,
extending to the left to include Forts Wadsworth and Keene. On
the night of the 9th, with other troops, the brigade went on an
expedition to Hatcher's Run, returning the next day. Again the
Sixth Corps constructed winter quarters. The brigade was moved,
February 9, 1865, to the extreme left of the army, near the Squirrel
Level road, where it took up a position including Forts Welch,
Gregg, and Fisher, of which the first two were unfinished and the
last named was barely commenced. The brigade completed the
construction of these forts. Colonel McClennan, with the 138th
Pennsylvania, also occupied Fort Dushane on the rear line.

The brigade, a third time for the winter, constructed quarters.

Discipline in the army continued in all its severity. During my
entire service but one instance occurred where I was required to
execute a Union soldier of my command. Private James L. Hicks, of
the 67th Pennsylvania, a boy nineteen years old, was found guilty
of desertion. He had deserted to go to Philadelphia, his home, in
company with a soldier of another command, much his senior, who
had forged a furlough for himself and Hicks. Both were arrested,
returned to the army, and convicted and sentenced to be shot.
General Meade ordered me to execute the sentence as to Hicks,
February 10, 1865. The man who was largely responsible for Hicks'
desertion succeeded, through friends, in inducing President Lincoln
to commute his sentence to imprisonment at the Dry Tortugas. I
was aware of efforts being made to have Hicks' sentence likewise
commuted, and I tried to reach the President with communications
asking the same leniency for Hicks. So certain was I that Lincoln
had or would reprieve Hicks that I failed to have him shot on the
day named. Some officious persons reported my dereliction to Meade,
who thereupon (with some censure) ordered me to shoot Hicks on the
next day, and to report in person the fact of the shooting. This
order I was obliged to obey. The b