A column was sent without delay, and reached the spot to find Sheridan in possession of the place. Short work was made of him. Falling upon the Federal cavalry, Pickett and Fitzhugh Lee drove them back upon Dinwiddie--pushed rapidly after them--and, but for the terrible swamp, into which the late rains had converted the low grounds, would have followed them to the Court-House, and gotten in rear of the left wing of the Federal army. That was the turning point. If Pickett and Fitz Lee had reached Dinwiddie court-house, and attacked in the enemy’s rear, while Lee assailed them in front, it is difficult to believe that the battle would not have resulted in a Confederate victory. Such was the alarm of General Grant at the new aspect of affairs, that late at night he withdrew Warren, and ordered him to hurry toward Dinwiddie Court-House, to succor Sheridan in his hour of need. Then if our flanking column could have pushed on--if Lee had then advanced--but all this is idle, reader. Providence had decreed otherwise. The flanking column could not advance--at ten at night it was withdrawn by Lee--midnight found the two armies resting on their arms, awaiting the morning of the first of April. XVIII. THE BRIDEGROOM. I have endeavored to present a rapid, but accurate summary of the great events which took place on the lines around Petersburg, from the morning of the 29th of March, when General Grant began his general movement, to the night of the 31st, when he confronted Lee on the White Oak road, ready, after a day of incessant combat, which had decided little, to renew the struggle on the next morning for the possession of the Southside road. This summary has been, of necessity, a brief and general one. For this volume has for its object, rather to narrate the fortunes of a set of individuals, than to record the history of an epoch, crowded with tragic scenes. I cannot here paint the great picture. The canvass and the time are both wanting. The rapid sketch which I have given will present a sufficient outline. I return, now, to those personages whose lives I have tried to narrate, and who were destined to reach the catastrophe in their private annals at the moment when the Confederacy reached its own. I shall, therefore, beg the reader to leave the Confederate forces at bay on the White Oak road--the flanking column under Pickett and Johnson falling back on Five Forks--and accompany me to the house of the same name, within a mile of the famous _carrefour_, where, on the night of the 31st of March, some singular scenes are to be enacted. It was the night fixed for Mohun’s marriage. I had been requested to act as his first groomsman; and, chancing to encounter him during the day, he had informed me that he adhered to his design of being married in spite of every thing.