The Maine bugle ... campaign; 1-5 Jan. 1894-Oct. 1898 - Maine.gov

Wrril GENERAL SHEA'JDAN. 201
With Sheridan in Lee's Last Campaign.
1;Y CUI.. I'KED C. NKWIIAI.L.
Ihc last campaiLjn against Lcc may be said to have been
inaugurated when General Sheridan started with his cavalry
from Winchester, Virginia, on the 27th of February, 1865, with
a sort of carte blanche of destruction as to the enemy's supply
dei)ots and communications. The general's instructions looked
to his crossing the James River above Richmond, and his pos-
sible junction with the command of General Sherman some-
where in North Carolina; but the swollen condition of the
James and the destruction of the bridges prevented his crossing,
and thus were thrown in his way opportunities for distinction
which could scarcely have been waiting for him on the other
side of Lee's army. It is not worth while though to speculate
as to whether the last campaign of the Army of the Potomac
would have proved so shar[), short, and decisive without the
cavahy in advance and General Sheridan for a pioneer, and so
it is useless to imagine in what way he and his cavalry could
have won glory with Sherman. The events as we find them are
so satisfactory that it is needless to resort to the solace of dis-
satisfaction—speculations as to what might have been.
General Sheridan's command on this expedition consisted of
the first cavalry division, under Brevet Major-General Wesley
Merritt, aiul the third cavalry division, under Brevet Major-
General George A. Custer, to whose division was added one
brigade of the cavalry of the old army of West Virginia, under
Colonel Capehart. The story of their successful raid is not
imjiortant here, except to follow their trail and see where they
join the Army of the Potomac. They left Winchester on a
damp, disagreeable morning, all the roads but the turnpike
being almost impassable ;
the huge blocks with which patrician
wisdom had paved the old Virginia town were glib as glass, and