Such is one of the ruses resorted to in war to deceive your antagonist.

My judgment was that Lee would necessarily have to evacuate Richmond, and that the only course for him to pursue would be to follow the Danville Road.

Accordingly my object was to secure a point on that road south of Lee, and I told Meade this.

He suggested that if Lee was going that way we would follow him.

My reply was that we did not want to follow him; we wanted to get ahead of him and cut him off, and if he would only stay in the position he (Meade) believed him to be in at that time, I wanted nothing better; that when we got in possession of the Danville Railroad, at its crossing of the Appomattox River, if we still found him between the two rivers, all we had to do was to move eastward and close him up.