Chapter 37:
- Unconquerable spirit of our troops around Petersburg. -- tribute to the ladies of that city. -- Southern women. -- quietude of the Federal Army after June 18th. -- General Meade intrenches. -- what General Badeau says of the failure to capture Petersburg. -- his comments upon the late arrival of General Lee's Army. -- how General Beauregard saved the city. -- Inaction of General Meade's Army. -- erroneous explanation of it by General Badeau. -- General Beauregard's comprehension of the depression of the enemy. -- he proposes an immediate attack. -- General Grant's words. -- the siege of Petersburg. -- criticism of the Confederate line of intrenchments. -- denial that General Lee consulted General Mahone concerning the location of the line. -- details of General Beauregard's proposed attack upon the Federal Army. -- General Lee fears that the topography of the country will interfere with the movements of the troops. -- Consults General Mahone with reference to the position of ‘second Swamp’ and the railroad cuts. -- General Lee refuses to make the attack. -- reasons for holding to the Jerusalem plank road line. -- that line maintained until the close of the war. -- Untrustworthiness of Southern Historians on this Point.
Before entering upon the events which followed the arrival of General Lee's forces at Petersburg it is but fair to pay a passing tribute to the handful of heroes who unflinchingly bore ‘the heat and burden’ of the four days of unparalleled fighting which we have just described. The beautiful devotion and patriotism of the women of the beleaguered city, during the whole period of the siege, claim also an honored place in these pages. Equal praise should be meted out to those who never wavered before the overwhelming odds confronting them, and to those who nobly encouraged their valor and attended to their needs. It will also be our object, in this chapter, again to direct the reader's attention to the location of the new Confederate lines, so successfully occupied by our troops on the eventful night of the 17th of June. Throughout the Confederate war no epoch was more trying to our troops in the field, or more clearly demonstrated their powers of endurance and their unconquerable spirit, than the Petersburg campaign. Reference is here made particularly to the struggle of the 15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th of June. The exhausting work
