replied, 'No, General, here are
troops ready to do their duty'; when, in a mellowed voice, he
replied: 'Yes, General, there are some true men left. Will you
please keep those people back?' As I was placing my division in
position to 'keep those people back,' the retiring herd just referred
to had crowded around General Lee while he sat on his horse with
a Confederate battle-flag in his hand. I rode up and requested
him to give me the flag, which he did.

"It was near dusk, and he wanted to know of me how to get away.
I replied: 'Let General Longstreet move by the river road to
Farmville, and cross the river there, and I will go through the
woods to the High Bridge (railroad bridge) and cross there.' To
this he assented."

Longstreet retired at nightfall to Farmville and there crossed the
Appomattox the morning of the 7th, and Mahone and broken detachments,
with such trains and artillery as Lee still possessed, crossed at
the High Bridge. All bridges were wholly or partially destroyed
by the enemy on being passed.

The result of the operations of April 6th forced Lee off of all
roads leading to Danville, and Lynchburg became his objective.

Grant's plans did not justify a halt on the field of Sailor's Creek
long enough to bury the dead, or even long enough to care for our
wounded, and, though night had come, the battle-stained soldiers,
hungry and exhausted, were marched on. The Sixth Corps encamped
at 10 P.M. near Rice's Station, about three miles from the battle-
field. Other corps on different lines were kept to their work,
and their operations also contributed towards baffling Lee's plans
for escape.

A single serious disaster occurred on the 6th to a detachment of
our army. Ord, whose orders were to obstruct all lines of retreat,
detached Colonel Francis Washburn with the 123d Ohio and portions
of the 54th Pennsylvania and 4th Massachusetts Cavalry, about eight
hundred in all, to destroy High Bridge over the Appomattox below
Farmville. Later in the day, Colonel Thomas Reed of Ord's staff
with eighty cavalrymen was sent to recall Washburn. The detachments
met, and having penetrated to within about two miles of the bridge,
encountered Lee's advance cavalry and infantry. Washburn and Read
put up one of the most gallant fights of the war, but were soon
surrounded. They led repeated charges until both fell, mortally
wounded. Not until most of the command had fallen did it surrender.
The Confederat