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222 The American Civil Warattenuated lines and lead them in a
late-night assault against the Federals at
Fort Stedman, not far from the Crater and
on precisely the ground where the 1st Maine
Heavy Artillery had been slaughtered the
preceding June.
Careful planning and steady bravery
brought Gordon initial success. Picked troops
silently removed the defensive obstructions
in front of the Confederate works opposite
Stedman, then crawled up a ravine toward
their enemy. Small detachments of
volunteers silenced Federal pickets and deftly
opened a corridor through the enemy
obstacles near the fort. Storming parties
followed and burst upon their surprised foe,
capturing the fort and spreading down the
line on either side. More Southern infantry
followed, Gordon in their midst, to exploit
the breakthrough.
A major Federal supply depot only a mile
(1.6km) behind Fort Stedman must have
seemed to some of the starving ConfederatesFederals stand in review as their defeated foemen march
past at Appomattox, en route to surrendering their arms.
(Painting by Don Troiani, http://www.historicalartprints.com)to be the quintessential prize. Daylight
brought stunning reality, however, as
Federals farther down the lines on both sides
brought artillery to bear. By 8.00 am Yankees
were swarming back toward Stedman. 'The
whole field was blue with them,' a dismayed
Southerner wrote. In the succinct summary
of a disappointed North Carolinian, the
fleeting success resembled a 'meteor's flash
that illumines for a moment and [then]
leaves the night darker than before.'
The Confederate horizon would darken
even further during the next fortnight, then
flicker out permanently. The advent of early
spring gave Grant the chance to push west
and southwest again. Lee obviously could
not hold out much longer in Petersburg and
Richmond, but the Federal commander
feared that his wily adversary might find a