It is painful to record the hard fighting which followed. Wright, in his
assault in front of Forts Fisher and Walsh, lost eleven hundred men in
fifteen minutes of murderous conflict that made them his own; and other
commands fared scarcely better, Union and Confederate troops alike
displaying a gallantry distressing to contemplate when one reflects
that, the war being already decided, all this heroic blood was shed in
vain. The Confederates, from the Appomattox to the Weldon road, fell
slowly back to their inner line of works; and Lee, watching the
formidable advance before which his weakened troops gave way, sent a
message to Richmond announcing his purpose of concentrating on the
Danville road, and made preparations for the evacuation which was now
the only resort left him.
Some Confederate writers express surprise that General Grant did not
attack and destroy Lee's army on April 2; but this is a view, after the
fact, easy to express. The troops on the Union left had been on foot for
eighteen hours, had fought an important battle, marched and
countermarched many miles, and were now confronted by Longstreet's fresh
corps behind formidable works, while the attitude of the force under
Gordon on the south side of the town was such as to require the close
attention of Parke.
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