Lee had given strength to our position by his presence, coming upon the field about eleven o’clock, and gave personal direction to the movements of the troops.  The battle raged furiously until nightfall, but with no better results on the enemy’s side than had attended him for the last three days—­a total repulse at every point.  By noon the next day Lee’s whole force south of the James was within the entrenched lines of the city, and all felt perfectly safe and secure.  Our casualties were light in comparison to the fighting done during the day, but the enemy was not only defeated, but badly demoralized.

Kershaw and Fields, of Lee’s Army, with ten thousand under General Beauregard, making a total of twenty thousand, successfully combatted Grant’s whole army, estimated by the Federals themselves as being ninety thousand.  These are some figures that might well be taken in consideration when deeds of prowess and Southern valor are being summed up.

Grant seemed determined to completely invest Petersburg on the south side by continually pushing his lines farther to the left, lengthening our lines and thereby weakening them.  On the 21st of June the Second and Sixth Corps of the Federal Army moved on to the west of the Jerusalem plank road, while the Fifth was to take up position on the east side.  In the manoeuver, or by some misunderstanding, the Fifth Corps became separated from those of the other divisions, thereby leaving a gap of about a division intervening.  General Lee seeing this opportunity to strike the enemy a blow, and as A.P.  Hill was then coming up, he ordered him to push his force forward and attack the enemy in flank.  Moving his troops forward with that despatch that ever attended the Third Corps of our army, it struck the enemy a stunning blow in the flank and rear, driving them back in great disorder, capturing several thousand prisoners and a battery or two of artillery.  The enemy continued to give way until they came upon their strong entrenched position; then Hill retired and took his place on the line.  Again Grant started his cavalry out on raids to capture and destroy the railroads leading into Petersburg and Richmond, the route by which the entire army of Lee had to look for supplies.  But at Reams’ Station Hampton met the larger body of the enemy’s cavalry and after a hard fought battle, in which he utterly routed the enemy, he captured his entire wagon train and all his artillery.  A short time after this Grant sent Hancock, one of the ablest Generals in the Federal Army, (a true, thorough gentleman, and as brave as the bravest, and one whom the South in after years had the pleasure of showing its gratitude and admiration for those qualities so rare in many of the Federal commanders, by voting for him for President of the United States) with a large body of cavalry to destroy the Weldon Road at all hazard and to so possess it that its use to our army would be at an end.  After another hard battle, in which the enemy