x, who,
by putting his ear to the ground, heard the thunder of the guns at
Marengo, though far off, and marched to their sound without awaiting
orders, and to the relief of Napoleon, arriving in time to turn
defeat into victory, though losing his own life. Warren had many
friends and sympathizers, but he died many years after the war of
a broken heart.

In anticipation of Sheridan's success, orders were issued for the
Sixth Corps to assault Lee's main fortifications on Sunday morning,
April 2d. The place selected for the assault was in front and a
little to the left of Forts Fisher and Welch and directly opposite
the intrenched line taken by me on March 25th.( 5) Other corps to
the right of the Sixth were ordered to be ready to assault also.
It was originally intended the troops should be formed in the quiet
of the night, and that the assault should be made, as a surprise,
at four o'clock in the morning. Grant, fearing that Lee, in the
desperation of defeat at Five Forks, would strip his fortified
lines of troops to overwhelm and destroy Sheridan, now fairly on
Lee's right flank, at 10 P.M. on the night of the 1st ordered all
his guns turned loose from the James to the Union left, to give
the appearance of a readiness to do just what had been ordered to
be done. This fire brought a return fire all along the lines.
The night was dark and dismal, and the scene witnessed amid the
deafening roar of cannon was indescribably wild and grand. Duty
called some of us between the lines of cross-fire when the screaming
shot and bursting shell from perhaps four hundred heavy guns passed
over our heads. The world's war-history described no sublimer
display. Being near the end of the Rebellion, the Confederacy,
and the institution of slavery, it was a fitting closing scene.
It was supposed that in consequence of this artillery duel, which
lasted about two hours, the assault ordered would be abandoned, as
a surprise was not possible. But at 12, midnight, the order came
to take position for the attack. The Sixth Corps, in the gloom of
the damp, chilly night, silently left its winter quarters and filed
out to an allotted position within about two hundred yards of the
mouths of the enemy's cannon, there to await the discharge of a
gun from Fort Fisher, the signal for storming the works. There
were no light hearts in the corps that night, but there were few
faint ones. The soldiers of the corps knew the strength and
characte