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

302 THE MAINE BUGLE.
reduced to that extremity: so we wrapped ourselves up in our
martial cloaks and lay down, supperless, upon the floor, with
chairs for pillows ; supperless, because far away toward the
Weldon Railroad our wagons were toiling painfully through the
mud, getting out of one hole only to find another, while the
quartermasters and Custer's division manfully endeavored to
bring them on by putting the shoulder to the wheel, by calling
on Jupiter, and by corduroying.
During the evening, to help matters along and give affairs a
cheerful aspect, it began to rain : first a Scotch mist, then
unsteady showers, and then a pour, as if the equinox, hurrying
through the elements, had kicked over the water-buckets.
About this time General Grant was seized with the desire
"to end the matter before going back." His illogical mind
failed to be affected by the logic of events, failed to perceive
that things were looking about as badly as they could for
accomplishing anything, and so he sent a dispatch to General
Sheridan countermanding his conditional orders in regard to
the raid upon the Southside and Danville Railroads, and direct-
ing him to find the enemy's right and rear as soon as possible.
Wishing to have a perfectly clear idea of General Grant's pro-
posed plan of ending the matter, General Sheridan, soon after
daylight on the 30th, mounted his gray pacer (captured from
Breckenridge's adjutant-general at Missionary Ridge), and
paced rapidly over to the headquarters of the lieutenant-
general, taking two or three staff officers, with a dozen men for
an escort. This little party raised an immense commotion on
the picket-line of the army, and only after such persevering
dumb-show as the friendly Friday made to Robinson Crusoe
was it permitted to approach. Once inside, the pacer was let
out again, and rein was drawn only when the horses slumped
to their bellies in the quicksand-field where General Grant had
pitched his tent, from which he regarded the tempest with
derision.
About this time things certainly looked rather blue to a
superficial observer; the troops, just out of comfortable winter