Too late was evacuation determined upon, and on March 25th Gordon made his brilliant assault against the Federal right — a daring stroke, indeed, but the daring of wisdom and not the rashness of ignoble despair, for by this means alone could Lee hope to force Grant to draw in his left flank, which menaced the proposed line of retreat.
How Gordon's sudden blow was at first crowned with success; how his guides ran away and left his storming columns groping in ignorance;2 how his supports failed to reach him; how, in short, a moody fortune defeated the accomplishment of the bold plan — how later, when, to use Lee's own phrase, “the line stretched so long as to break,” the great commander yet yielded not to Fate, but struck again and again with the old, fierce skill — all this, as well as the unsparing story of the ill-starred battle of Five Forks, will, I trust, be one day recounted to us by some comrade in memorable detail.
On the evening of April 1st, the battle of Five Forks was fought, and lost to the Confederates, and at dawn next morning, from Appomattox to Hatcher's Run, the Federal assaults began. Lee was forced back from the whole line covering the Boydton Plank Road, and Gibbon's division of Ord's corps boldly essayed to break through into the town. The way was barred by an open work of heavy profile, known as “Battery Gregg,” garrisoned by a mixed force
