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CHAPTER VIII.

It was the latter part of March, and General Lee determined to put into
execution, if possible, a plan that he had long before resolved upon. That he could
no longer remain at Petersburg was becoming every day more painfully evident.
Grant with his overwhelming army, now further augmented by the arrival of
Sheridan with ten thousand cavalrymen, was fast closing in upon Lee. Could the
latter but unite with Johnston, then moving through North Carolina, something
might be done. The war was becoming enormously expensive to the North, owing
to the vast armies it was necessary to keep in the field, and the people were
becoming clamorous for peace. Could the war be prolonged one year by uniting
the armies of Lee and Johnston, and by skillful manceuvering a crushing defeat
could be administered to Grant, a recognition of the Confederacy might be effected.
It was, indeed, a forlorn hope, but General Lee was not satisfied to surrender
his army without making one more effort in a cause for which he and the brave
men around him had battled for almost four years.

We will not give here a detailed account of the operations around Petersburg
preliminary to its evacuation by the Confederates, but will follow those movements
with which the Second Maryland was associated.

On April ist Captain John W. Torsch, in command of the battalion, received
the following order :

HEADQUARTERS McCoMB's BRIGADE, April 1, 1865
Captain Torsch, Commanding Maryland Battalion :

Caftain :—You will report with your battalion, under arms, at once, at the chapel of
General Davis' Brigade.

BY COMMAND OF BRIGADIER-GENERAL WILLIAM McCOMB.

JOHN ALLEN, A. A. G.

At 2 o'clock A. M. Captain Torsch repaired to the point designated, where he
found three other battalions, and all had been assembled to attempt the recapture of
some rifle pits taken from Cook's Brigade several days before.

Before daylight the men were ordered to quietly steal over their own works,
and as noiselessly as possible approach the enemy. This was done with suppressed
breaths, when at a signal agreed upon the different battalions rushed forward to
take the pits in their respective fronts.