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

298 THE MAINE BUGLE.
roads. It was a Micawber-like move at first, partly to help
along the cavalry, partly in expectation that something would
turn up. The Confederacy was upturned shortly, but just on
this particular morning nobody had a very clear idea of what
was going to happen, and General Grant himself apparently
did not come to a realizing sense of the possibilities within
reach, and did not feel grasping, until he got well out into the
country that night, when he was seized with a desire of "ending
the matter."
Meanwhile, General Sheridan, keeping to himself his reflec-
tions and hopes, whatever they might be, was carrying out his
original orders in a literal manner ;
and
getting up very early
in the morning (as early as he can being a good deal earlier
than anybody else wants to), had crossed the Jerusalem Plank
Road, and was exercising his topographical genius in finding
roads in general and not particular, leading in the direction in
which his face was set.
Whoever has traveled the highways of Dinwiddie County,
Virginia, in the melting days of spring, has probably recollec-
tions of black soil appearing here and there, islands in ponds
of black water fringed with green ; whoever has left the high-
ways for a short-cut will remember how his horse broke through
the upper crust and found apparently nothing below but space.
We all drew sanguine auguries from this, and wished that the
soil might be emblematical of the cause, since in Virginia the
soil and the cause were almost synonymous ; and so we labored
on hopefully, every man for himself and his horse, across the
Weldon Railroad at Reims's Station, where twisted rails and
strong lines of earthworks told of the old moves and the old
hard fights. But somehow this place is unpleasant, for it
reminds us all of how our present expedition may be nothing
more than the old story of flanks extended, attacked, defended,
and intrenched ; something gained of course, a pawn moved
up into a good place, shutting up a little of the scope the
adversary had, but not a checkmate, which we are after tJii^
time, and are therefore rather easier in our minds when we have