rigade was drawn up on three
sides of a square, with ranks opened facing each other, and in the
centre of the fourth and open side a grave was dug and a coffin
was placed beside it. The condemned soldier was marched between
the ranks of the command, preceded by a drum and fife band, playing
the "dead-march," and then was taken to the coffin, where he was
blindfolded and required to stand in front of six men armed with
rifles, five only of which were loaded with ball. At the command
"_Fire!_" from a designated officer, the guns were discharged and
poor Hicks fell dead. He was placed in the coffin and forthwith
buried. On the same day word came that Lincoln had pardoned Hicks.

Wright's corps became the left of the besieging army, and all the
troops were constantly on the alert, never less than one tenth of
them on guard or in the trenches.

The several corps of the Army of the Potomac were then commanded
as follows: Second, by General A. A. Humphreys; Fifth, by General
G. K. Warren; Sixth, by General H. G. Wright; the Ninth, by General
J. G. Parke. The last named was on the right and in part south of
the Appomattox. The Army of the James was north of Richmond and
the James, commanded by General B. F. Butler, until relieved, on
the request of General Grant, January 8, 1865, when General E. O.
C. Ord succeeded him.

The army under Grant had been engaged since June, 1864, besieging
Richmond and Petersburg with no signal success. It had, however,
held the main army of the Confederacy closely within intrenchments
where it could do little harm, and was difficult to provide with
supplies. Prior to this siege the Army of the Potomac had met the
enemy, save at Gettysburg, on his chosen battle-fields, and in its
forward movements had been forced to attack breastworks, assail
the enemy in mountain passes or gaps, force the crossings of deep
rivers, always guarding long lines of communications over which
supplies must be brought, and it was at all times the body-guard
of the Capital--Washington.

The Confederate Army under Lee, when the last campaign opened, was
strongly fortified from the James River above Richmond, extending
around on the north to the James below Richmond; thence to and
across the Appomattox; thence south of Petersburg extending in an
unbroken line westward to the vicinity of Hatcher's Run, with
interior lines of works and forts for use in case the outer line
was forced. Longstreet commanded north