The last and decisive struggle between the two armies at Petersburg began in March, 1865.  But events of great importance in many quarters had preceded this final conflict, the result of which had been to break down all the outer defences of the Confederacy, leaving only the inner citadel still intact.  The events in question are so familiar to those who will peruse these pages, that a passing reference to them is all that is necessary.  Affairs in the Valley of Virginia, from autumn to spring, had steadily proceeded from bad to worse.  In September, General Sheridan, with a force of about forty-five thousand, had assailed General Early near Winchester, with a force of about eight or nine thousand muskets, and succeeded in driving him up the Valley beyond Strasburg, whence, attacked a second time, he had retreated toward Staunton.  This was followed, in October, by another battle at Cedar Run, where Early attacked and nearly crushed General Sheridan, but eventually was again repulsed, and forced a second time to retreat up the Valley to Waynesboro’, where, in February, his little remnant was assailed by overwhelming numbers and dispersed.  General Sheridan, who had effected this inglorious but important success, then proceeded to the Lowlands, joined General Grant’s army, and was ready, with his large force of horse, to take part in the coming battles.

A more important success had attended the Federal arms in the West.  General Johnston, who had been restored to command there at the solicitation of Lee, had found his force insufficient to oppose General Sherman’s large army; the Confederates had accordingly retreated; and General Sherman, almost unresisted, from the exhaustion of his adversary, marched across the country to Savannah, which fell an easy prize, and thence advanced to Goldsborough, in North Carolina, where he directly threatened Lee’s line of retreat from Virginia.

Such was the condition of affairs in the months of February and March, 1865.  In the former month, commissioners from the Confederate Government had met President Lincoln in Hampton Roads, but no terms of peace could be agreed upon; the issue was still left to be decided by arms, and every advantage was upon the Federal side.  General Lee, who had just been appointed “General-in-Chief”—­having thus imposed upon him the mockery of a rank no longer of any value—­saw the armies of the enemy closing in upon him, and did not deceive himself with the empty hope that he could longer hold his lines at Petersburg.  The country, oppressed as it was, and laboring under a sentiment akin to despair, still retained in almost undiminished measure its superstitious confidence in him; but he himself saw clearly the desperate character of the situation.  General Grant was in his front with a force of about one hundred and fifty thousand men, and General Sherman was about to enter Virginia with an army of about the same numbers.  Lee’s force at Petersburg was a little over thirty