[724] At the place marked on the map “Drill room,” is stationed a regiment believed to be about four hundred (400) men, the Seventh South Carolina Cavalry. At the place marked “Sweeny's Pottery,” Wade Hampton's Legion, numbering about four hundred (400) men, are stationed on the easterly side of Four-Mile Creek and Bailey's Run, apparently to guard the road by which General Hancock advanced over Strawberry Plains from below Four-Mile Creek, and picketing out toward Malvern Hill. In the rear, at the intersection of the roads near the point marked “W. Throgmorton,” is a regiment, the Twenty-Fourth Virginia Cavalry, numbering about four hundred (400) men. In Chaffin's farm there is no garrison, except about one hundred (100) heavy artillerists holding that place as an intrenched camp. It is also a camp for the sick and convalescents of the Virginia battalion. There are then no other troops between the troops herein enumerated and Richmond, except an artillery company in each of the detached works of that class numbered twenty-three (22) on the map, and the one at Toll Gate and the Race Course. The continuous line of works shown on the map are wholly unoccupied. It will be seen, therefore, that these bodies of which we have knowledge, if the information is correct, should be two thousand eight hundred and seventy-five (2,875) men, and it may be safely predicted that there are not three thousand (3,000) effective men outside of the limits of the city of Richmond on the north side of the river. It is upon this information, which is fully credited, that the movement is largely based. the means of reinforcement by the enemy. There are between the Appomattox and the James less than thirty-five hundred (3,500) men holding a line nearly ten (10) miles in extent, and the nearest considerable body of Confederate troops are massed some seven (7) miles still further off below Petersburg. Most of the force between the Appomattox and the James is directly in the front of our lines and cannot be much depleted. Their means of crossing the river are by the pontoon bridge, one between the fortifications of Drury's Bluff on the west, and Chaffin's farm on the east of the James. These fortifications are about a mile apart, and have two or three barbette guns bearing on the bridge-heads. There is no other tete du pent. This is a pontoon bridge and is above fortifications at Chaffin's on the one side, and below Drury's on the other. These fortifications are about a mile apart. Next a trestle-work bridge with schooners
This text is part of:
Table of Contents:
A. M. Thayer and Co. 1892.
Tufts University provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.