ester Station, Swift Creek, Proctor's
Creek, and Drewry's Bluff, and some minor affairs along the James.
Kautz, making a second successful raid, cut the Richmond and Danville
Railroad at Caulfield, destroying bridges, tracks, and depots.
The result of all was to leave Butler's command strongly intrenched
at Bermuda Hundred, but unable to advance and seriously threaten
Richmond.

The term "Bottled up," an expression used to describe Butler's
position, was derived from a dispatch of Grant to the War Department
in which he referred to Butler's situation between the James and
the Appomattox with the enemy intrenched across his front, as being
"like a bottle."( 1)

Grant ordered Smith's corps to reinforce the Army of the Potomac.
Butler attacked Petersburg on the 9th of June, chiefly with Gilmore's
corps, but, for want of co-operation by the several attacking
bodies, the place was not taken. General Butler attributed the
defeat to Gilmore's failure to obey orders and act with energy.( 2)

After Smith's withdrawal, Butler did little more than hold his
position. The Army of the Potomac crossed to the south of the
James on June 14th. An attack was made by Meade on Petersburg on
the 16th, principally with troops under Hancock and Burnside, by
which a part only of the enemy's works with one battery and some
prisoners were taken. Fighting continued on the 17th, and a general
assault was ordered at daylight on the 18th, but on advancing it
was found that the enemy had retired to an inner and stronger line.
Later in the day unsuccessful assaults were made on this new line
by portions of the Second, Fifth, and Ninth Corps. It was then
ascertained that Lee's main army had reached Petersburg, and further
efforts to take it by assault were abandoned.( 3) There was much
fighting, extending through June, by detachments of infantry, for
possession of roads, all of which, however, was indecisive. Wilson
and Kautz's cavalry divisions, on the 22d, in a raid took Reams
Station and destroyed some miles of the Weldon Railroad, and the
next day, after defeating W. H. F. Lee's cavalry near Nottoway
Station, reached Burkeville junction and destroyed the depot and
about twenty miles of railroad track. The succeeding day they
destroyed the railroad from Meherim Station to Roanoke Bridge, a
distance of twenty-five miles, but on returning they encountered
at Reams Station, on the 28th, the enemy's cavalry and a strong
force of infantry, an