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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43641 ***
+
+[Illustration: Yours truly Charles Carleton Coffin (signature)]
+
+
+
+
+  FOLLOWING THE FLAG
+  FROM AUGUST 1861 TO NOVEMBER 1862
+  WITH THE
+  ARMY OF THE POTOMAC
+
+  BY
+  CHARLES CARLETON COFFIN
+
+  AUTHOR OF "MY DAYS AND NIGHTS ON THE BATTLEFIELD," "BOYS OF '76,"
+  "BOYS OF '61," "WINNING HIS WAY," ETC.
+
+  NEW YORK
+  HURST & COMPANY
+  PUBLISHERS
+
+
+
+
+  CHARLES CARLETON COFFIN SERIES
+  UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME
+  By CHARLES CARLETON COFFIN
+
+
+  Following the Flag.
+  Four Years of Fighting.
+  My Days and Nights on the Battlefield.
+  Winning His Way.
+
+
+  _Price, postpaid, 50c. each, or any three books for $1.25_
+
+
+  HURST & COMPANY
+  PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+It will be many years before a complete history of the operations of
+the armies of the Union can be written; but that is not a sufficient
+reason why historical pictures may not now be painted from such
+materials as have come to hand. This volume, therefore, is a sketch
+of the operations of the Army of the Potomac from August, 1861, to
+November, 1862, while commanded by General McClellan. To avoid detail,
+the organization of the army is given in an Appendix. It has not been
+possible, in a book of this size, to give the movements of regiments;
+but the narrative has been limited to the operations of brigades and
+divisions. It will be comparatively easy, however, for the reader
+to ascertain the general position of any regiment in the different
+battles, by consulting the Appendix in connection with the narrative.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+  CHAPTER                                             PAGE
+          Introductory                                   9
+
+       I. Organization of the Army of the Potomac       11
+
+      II. Ball's Bluff                                  22
+
+     III. Battle of Dranesville, and the Winter of
+          1862                                          38
+
+      IV. Siege of Yorktown                             49
+
+       V. Battle of Williamsburg                        65
+
+      VI. On the Chickahominy                           82
+          Affair at Hanover Court-House                 84
+
+     VII. Fair Oaks                                     88
+
+    VIII. Seven Days of Fighting                       108
+          Battle of Mechanicsville                     111
+          Battle of Gaines's Mills                     115
+          Movement to James River                      121
+          Battle of Savage Station                     123
+          Battle of Glendale                           125
+          Battle of Malvern                            131
+
+      IX. Affairs in front of Washington               138
+          Battle of Cedar Mountain                     140
+
+       X. Battle of Groveton                           147
+          The Retreat to Washington                    157
+
+      XI. Invasion of Maryland                         158
+          Barbara Frietchie                            160
+          Battle of South Mountain                     165
+          Surrender of Harper's Ferry                  171
+
+     XII. Battle of Antietam                           175
+          Hooker's Attack                              187
+          Sumner's Attack                              194
+          The Attack upon the Center                   206
+          Richardson's Attack                          212
+          General Franklin's Arrival                   216
+          Burnside's Attack                            221
+
+    XIII. After the Battle                             238
+
+     XIV. The March from Harper's Ferry to
+          Warrenton                                    250
+          Removal of General McClellan                 269
+
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+     The Organization of the Army of the Potomac,
+     April, 1862                                       278
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF DIAGRAMS.
+
+                                       PAGE
+  Ball's Bluff                           29
+
+  Battle of Dranesville                  41
+
+  Battle of Williamsburg                 69
+
+  Battle of Fair Oaks                    91
+
+  Battle of Mechanicsville              112
+
+  Battle of Gaines's Mills              116
+
+  Battle of Glendale                    128
+
+  Battle of Malvern                     134
+
+  Battle of Groveton                    149
+
+  Battle-Field of Antietam              180
+
+  Sedgwick's Attack                     198
+
+  French's and Richardson's Attack      208
+
+  Burnside's Second Attack              232
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTORY.
+
+
+For more than three years I have followed the flag of our country
+in the East and in the West and in the South,--on the ocean, on the
+land, and on the great rivers. A year ago I gave in a volume entitled
+"My Days and Nights on the Battle-Field" a description of the Battle
+of Bull Run, and other battles in Kentucky, Tennessee, and on the
+Mississippi.
+
+It has been my privilege to witness nearly all the great battles fought
+by the Army of the Potomac,--Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg,
+at the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, the North Anna, Coal Harbor and at
+Petersburg. Letters have been received from those who are strangers to
+me as well as from friends, expressing a desire that I should give a
+connected account, not only of the operations of that army, from its
+organization, but of other armies; also of the glorious achievements of
+the navy in this great struggle of our country for national existence.
+The present volume, therefore, will be the second of the contemplated
+series.
+
+During the late campaign in Virginia, many facts and incidents were
+obtained which give an insight into the operations of the armies of the
+South, not before known. Time will undoubtedly reveal other important
+facts, which will be made use of in the future. It will be my endeavor
+to sift from the immense amount of material already accumulated a
+concise and trustworthy account, that we may know how our patriot
+brothers have fought to save the country and to secure to all who may
+live after them the blessings of a free government.
+
+
+
+
+FOLLOWING THE FLAG.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+ORGANIZATION OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC.
+
+
+The battle of Bull Run, or of Manassas, as the Rebels call it, which
+was fought on the 21st of July, 1861, was the first great battle of the
+war. It was disastrous to the Union army. But the people of the North
+were not disheartened by it. Their pride was mortified, for they had
+confidently expected a victory, and had not taken into consideration
+the possibility of a defeat. The victory was all but won, as has been
+narrated in "My Days and Nights on the Battle-Field," when the arrival
+of a brigade of Rebels and the great mistake of Captain Barry, who
+supposed them to be Union troops, turned the scale, and the battle was
+lost to the Union army.
+
+But the people of the North, who loved the Union, could not think of
+giving up the contest,--of having the country divided, and the old flag
+trailed in the dust. They felt that it would be impossible to live
+peaceably side by side with those who declared themselves superior to
+the laboring men of the Free States, and were their rightful masters.
+They were not willing to acknowledge that the slaveholders were their
+masters. They felt that there could not be friendship and amity
+between themselves and a nation which had declared that slavery was
+its cornerstone. Besides all this, the slaveholders wanted Maryland,
+Kentucky, and Missouri in the Southern Confederacy, while the majority
+of the people of those States wanted to stay in the Union. The Rebels
+professed that they were willing that each State should choose for
+itself, but they were insincere and treacherous in their professions.
+Kentucky would not join the Confederacy; therefore they invaded the
+State to compel the people to forsake the old flag.
+
+A gentleman from Ohio accompanied a Southern lady to Columbus, on the
+Mississippi, to see her safely among her friends. General Polk was
+commander of the Rebel forces at that place, and they talked about the
+war.
+
+"I wish it might be settled," said the General.
+
+"How will you settle?"
+
+"O, all we ask is to have all that belongs to us, and to be let alone."
+
+"What belongs to you?"
+
+"All that has always been acknowledged as ours."
+
+"Do you want Missouri?"
+
+"Yes, that is ours."
+
+"Do you want Kentucky?"
+
+"Yes, certainly. The Ohio River has always been considered as the
+boundary line."
+
+"But Kentucky don't want you."
+
+"We must have her."
+
+"You want all of Virginia?"
+
+"Of course."
+
+"You want Maryland?"
+
+"Most certainly."
+
+"What will you do with Washington?"
+
+"We don't want it. Remove it if you want to; but Maryland is ours."[1]
+
+  [Footnote 1: Ohio State Journal.]
+
+Such was the conversation; and this feeling, that they must have
+all the Slave States to form a great slaveholding confederacy, was
+universal in the South.
+
+Besides this, they held the people in the Free States in contempt. Even
+the children of the South were so influenced by the system of slavery
+that they thought themselves superior to the people of the Free States
+who worked for a living.
+
+I heard a girl, who was not more than ten years old, say that the
+Northern people were all "old scrubs"! Not to be a scrub was to own
+slaves,--to work them hard and pay them nothing,--to sell them, to
+raise children for the market,--to separate mothers from their babes,
+wives from their husbands,--to live solely for their own interests,
+happiness, and pleasure, without regard to the natural rights of
+others. This little girl, although her mother kept a boarding-house,
+felt that she was too good to play with Northern children, or if she
+noticed them at all, it was as a superior.
+
+Feeling themselves the superiors of the Northern people, having been
+victorious at Manassas, the people of the South became enthusiastic for
+continuing the war. Thousands of volunteers joined the Rebels already
+in arms. Before the summer of 1861 had passed, General Johnston had a
+large army in front of Washington, which was called the Army of the
+Potomac.
+
+At the same time thousands rushed to arms in the North. They saw
+clearly that there was but one course to pursue,--to fight it out,
+defeat the Rebels, vindicate their honor, and save the country.
+
+The Union army which gathered at Washington was also styled the Army
+of the Potomac. Many of the soldiers who fought at Manassas were three
+months' men. As their terms of service expired their places were filled
+by men who enlisted for three years, if not sooner discharged.
+
+General George B. McClellan, who with General Rosecrans had been
+successfully conducting the war in Western Virginia, was called to
+Washington to organize an army which, it was hoped, would defeat the
+Rebels, and move on to Richmond.
+
+The people wanted a leader. General Scott, who had fought at Niagara
+and Lundy's Lane, who had captured the city of Mexico, was too old and
+infirm to take the field. General McDowell, although his plan of attack
+at Bull Run was approved, had failed of victory. General McClellan had
+been successful in the skirmishes at Philippi and at Rich Mountain.
+He was known to be a good engineer. He had been a visitor to Russia
+during the Crimean war, and had written a book upon that war, which was
+published by Congress. He was a native of Pennsylvania and a resident
+of Ohio when the war broke out. The governors of both of those States
+sent him a commission as a brigadier-general, because he had had
+military experience in Mexico, and because he was known as a military
+man, and because they were in great need of experienced men to command
+the troops. Having all these things in his favor, he was called to
+Washington and made commander of the Army of the Potomac on the 27th of
+July.
+
+He immediately submitted a plan of operations to the President for
+suppressing the rebellion. He thought that if Kentucky remained loyal,
+twenty thousand men moving down the Mississippi would be sufficient
+to quell the rebellion in the West. Western Virginia could be held
+by five or ten thousand more. He would have ten thousand protect the
+Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and the Potomac River, five thousand
+at Baltimore, twenty thousand at Washington, and three thousand at
+Fortress Monroe. One grand army for active operations was needed, to
+consist of two hundred and twenty-five thousand infantry, six hundred
+pieces of field artillery, twenty-five thousand cavalry, and seven
+thousand five hundred engineers, making a total of two hundred and
+seventy-three thousand men. In his letter to the President, General
+McClellan says: "I propose, with the force which I have requested, not
+only to drive the enemy out of Virginia, and occupy Richmond, but to
+occupy Charleston, Savannah, Montgomery, Pensacola, Mobile, and New
+Orleans; in other words, to move into the heart of the enemy's country,
+and crush the rebellion in its very heart."[2]
+
+  [Footnote 2: General McClellan's Report, p. 4.]
+
+It was found a very difficult matter to obtain arms for the soldiers;
+for President Buchanan's Secretary of War, Floyd, had sent most of the
+arms in Northern arsenals to the South before the war commenced. But,
+notwithstanding this, so earnest were the people, and so energetic the
+government, that on the 1st of October, two months from the time that
+General McClellan took command, there were one hundred and sixty-eight
+thousand men in the Army of the Potomac, with two hundred and twenty
+pieces of artillery; besides this, the government had a large army
+in Kentucky, and another in Missouri. The Rebels had large armies in
+those States, and were making great efforts to secure them to the
+Confederacy. It was not possible to send all the troops to Washington,
+as General McClellan desired.
+
+The Rebel army was commanded by General Joseph E. Johnston. He had
+about seventy thousand men, with his headquarters at Manassas. Some
+of the spies which were sent out by General McClellan reported a much
+larger force under Johnston, and General McClellan believed that he
+had one hundred and fifty thousand men. Strong fortifications were
+erected to defend Washington; General Johnston wished very much to
+take the city, and the people of the South expected that he would gain
+possession of it and drive out the hated Yankees. He pushed his troops
+almost up to General McClellan's lines, taking possession of Munson's
+Hill, which is only five miles from the Long Bridge at Washington.
+
+The Rebels erected breastworks upon the hill, and threw shot and shells
+almost to Arlington House. From the hill they could see the spires of
+the city of Washington, the white dome of the capitol, and its marble
+pillars. No doubt they longed to have it in their possession; but there
+were thousands of men in arms and hundreds of cannon and a wide river
+between them and the city.
+
+One bright October morning I rode to Bailey's Cross-roads, which is
+about a mile from Munson's Hill. Looking across a cornfield, I could
+see the Rebels behind their breastworks. Their battle-flags were waving
+gayly. Their bayonets gleamed in the sunshine. A group of officers had
+gathered on the summit of the hill. With my field-glass, I could see
+what they were doing. They examined maps, looked towards Washington,
+and pointed out the position of the Union fortifications. There were
+ladies present, who looked earnestly towards the city, and chatted
+merrily with the officers. A few days after, I saw in a Richmond paper
+that the officers were Generals Lee, Beauregard, and Johnston, and that
+one of the ladies was Mrs. Lee.
+
+General Lee was within sight of his old home; but he had become a
+traitor to his country, and it was to be his no more. Never again would
+he sit in the spacious parlors, or walk the verdant lawn, or look upon
+the beautiful panorama of city and country, forest and field, hill and
+valley, land and water,--upon the ripened wheat on the hillside or the
+waving corn in the meadows,--upon the broad Potomac, gleaming in the
+sunshine, or upon the white-winged ships sailing upon its bosom,--upon
+the city, with its magnificent buildings, upon the marble shaft rising
+to the memory of Washington, or upon the outline of the hills of
+Bladensburg, faint and dim in the distance.
+
+He joined the rebellion because he believed that a state was more than
+the nation, that Virginia was greater than the Union, that she had a
+right to leave it, and was justified in seceding from it. He belonged
+to an old family, which, when Virginia was a colony of Great Britain,
+had influence and power. He owned many slaves. He believed that the
+institution of slavery was right. He left the Union to serve Virginia,
+resigned his command as colonel of cavalry, which he held under the
+United States. He accepted a commission from Jefferson Davis, forswore
+his allegiance to his country, turned his back upon the old flag,
+proved recreant in the hour of trial, and became an enemy to the nation
+which had trusted and honored him.
+
+The summer passed away and the golden months of autumn came round. The
+troops were organized into brigades and divisions. They were drilled
+daily. In the morning at six o'clock the drummers beat the reveille.
+The soldiers sprang to their feet at the sound, and formed in company
+lines to answer the roll-call. Then they had breakfast of hard-tack
+and coffee. After breakfast the guards were sent out. At eight o'clock
+there were company drills in marching, in handling their muskets, in
+charging bayonet, and resisting an imaginary onset from the enemy. At
+twelve o'clock they had dinner,--more hard-tack, pork or beef, or rice
+and molasses. In the afternoon there were regimental, brigade, and
+sometimes division drills,--the men carrying their knapsacks, canteens,
+haversacks, and blankets,--just as if they were on the march. At
+sunset each regiment had a dress parade. Then each soldier was expected
+to be in his best trim. In well-disciplined regiments, all wore white
+gloves when they appeared on dress parade. It was a fine sight,--the
+long line of men in blue, the ranks straight and even, each soldier
+doing his best. Marching proudly to the music of the band, the light
+of the setting sun falling aslant upon their bright bayonets, and the
+flag they loved waving above them, thrilling them with remembrances of
+the glorious deeds of their fathers, who bore it aloft at Saratoga,
+Trenton, and Princeton, at Queenstown and New Orleans, at Buena Vista
+and Chapultepec, who beneath its endearing folds laid the foundations
+of the nation and secured the rights of civil and religious liberty.
+Each soldier felt that he would be an unworthy son, if traitors and
+rebels were permitted to overthrow a government which had cost so
+much sacrifice and blood and treasure, and which was the hope of the
+oppressed throughout all the world.
+
+In the evening there were no military duties to be performed, and the
+soldiers told stories around the camp-fires, or sang songs, or had a
+dance; for in each company there was usually one who could play the
+violin. Many merry times they had. Some sat in their tents and read the
+newspapers or whatever they could find to interest them, with a bayonet
+stuck in the ground for a candle-stick. There were some who, at home,
+had attended the Sabbath school. Although in camp, they did not forget
+what they had left behind. The Bible was precious to them. They read
+its sacred pages and treasured its holy truths. Sometimes they had a
+prayer-meeting, and asked God to bless them, the friends they had left
+behind, and the country for which they were ready to die, if need be,
+to save it from destruction.
+
+But at the tap of the drum at nine o'clock the laughter, the songs,
+the dances, the stories, the readings, and the prayer-meetings, all
+were brought to a close, the lights were put out, and silence reigned
+throughout the camp, broken only by the step of the watchful sentinel.
+
+The soldiers soon grew weary of this monotony. They had been accustomed
+to an active life. It was an army different from any ever before
+organized. It was composed in a great degree of thinking men. Many of
+them were leading citizens in the towns where they lived. They were
+well educated and were refined in their manners. They knew there was to
+be hard fighting and a desperate contest, that many never would return
+to their homes, but would find their graves upon the field of battle;
+yet they were ready to meet the enemy, and waited impatiently for
+orders to march.
+
+There were grand reviews of troops during the fall, by which the
+officers and soldiers became somewhat accustomed to moving in large
+bodies. All of the troops which could be spared from the fortifications
+and advanced positions were brought together at Bailey's Cross-roads,
+after the Rebels evacuated Munson's Hill, to be reviewed by the
+President and General McClellan. There were seventy thousand men.
+It was a grand sight. Each regiment tried to outdo all others in
+its appearance and its marching. They moved by companies past the
+President, bands playing national airs, the drums beating, and the
+flags waving. There were several hundred pieces of artillery, and
+several thousand cavalrymen. The ground shook beneath the steady
+marching of the great mass of men, and the tread of thousands of hoofs.
+It was the finest military display ever seen in America.
+
+It was expected that the army would soon move upon the enemy. General
+McClellan, in a letter to the President, advised that the advance
+should not be postponed later than the 25th of November. The time
+passed rapidly. The roads were smooth and hard. The days were golden
+with sunshine, and the stars shone from a cloudless sky at night; but
+there were no movements during the month, except reconnaissances by
+brigades and divisions.
+
+The Rebels erected batteries on the south side of the Potomac, below
+the Occoquan, and blockaded it. They had destroyed the Baltimore and
+Ohio Railroad and the Chesapeake Canal, so that the Union army and
+the city of Washington were dependent on the one line of railroad to
+Baltimore for all its supplies. It was very desirable that the Potomac
+should be opened. General Hooker, who commanded a division at Budd's
+Ferry, wished very much to attack the Rebels, with the aid of the navy,
+and capture the batteries, but General McClellan did not wish one
+division to move till the whole army was ready. December passed, and
+the year completed its round. Cold nights and blustering days came,
+and the army, numbering two hundred thousand men, went into winter
+quarters.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+BALL'S BLUFF.
+
+
+There were but two events of importance during the long period of
+inactivity in the autumn of 1861,--a disaster at Ball's Bluff and a
+victory at Dranesville.
+
+In October General Stone's division of the Army of the Potomac was at
+Poolesville in Maryland. General Banks's division was at Darnestown,
+between Poolesville and Washington. General McCall's division was at
+a little hamlet called Lewinsville, on the turnpike leading from the
+chain bridge to Leesburg, on the Virginia side. The main body of the
+Rebels was at Centreville, but there was a brigade at Leesburg.
+
+It is a beautiful and fertile country around that pleasant Virginia
+town. West of the town are high hills, called the Catoctin Mountains.
+If we were standing on their summits, and looking east, we should
+see the town of Leesburg at our feet. It is a place of three or four
+thousand inhabitants. There are several churches, a court-house, a
+market-place, where, before the war, the farmers sold their wheat, and
+corn, oats, and garden vegetables. Three miles east of the town we
+behold the Potomac sparkling in the sunlight, its current divided by
+Harrison's Island. The distance from the Virginia shore to the island
+is about one hundred and eighty feet; from the island to the Maryland
+shore it is six or seven hundred feet. The bank on the Virginia side
+is steep, and seventy-five or eighty feet high, and is called Ball's
+Bluff. A canal runs along the Maryland shore. Four miles below the
+island is Edward's Ferry, and three miles east of it is Poolesville.
+
+In October, General McClellan desired to make a movement which would
+compel General Evans, commanding the Rebels at Leesburg, to leave the
+place. He therefore directed General McCall to move up to Dranesville,
+on the Leesburg turnpike. Such a movement would threaten to cut General
+Evans off from Centreville. At the same time he sent word to General
+Stone, that if he were to make a demonstration towards Leesburg it
+might drive them away.
+
+On Sunday night, at sundown, October 20th, General Stone ordered
+Colonel Devens of the Massachusetts Fifteenth to send a squad of
+men across the river, to see if there were any Rebels in and around
+Leesburg.
+
+Captain Philbrick, with twenty men of that regiment, crossed in three
+small boats, hauled them upon the bank, went up the bluff by a winding
+path, moved cautiously through the woods, also through a cornfield, and
+went within a mile and a half of Leesburg, seeing no pickets, hearing
+no alarm. But the men saw what they thought was an encampment. They
+returned at midnight and reported to General Stone, who ordered Colonel
+Devens to go over with about half of his regiment and hold the bluff.
+
+The only means which General Stone had for crossing troops was one
+flat-boat, an old ferry-boat, and three small boats.
+
+Colonel Devens embarked his men on the boats about three o'clock in
+the morning. The soldiers pushed them to the foot of the bluff, then
+returned for other detachments. The men went up the path and formed in
+line on the top of the bluff. By daybreak he had five companies on the
+Virginia shore. He moved through the open field towards the encampment
+which Captain Philbrick and his men had seen, as they thought, but
+which proved to be only an opening in the woods. But just as the sun's
+first rays were lighting the Catoctin hills he came upon the Rebel
+pickets in the woods beyond the field. The pickets fired a few shots
+and fled towards Leesburg, giving the alarm.
+
+The town was soon in commotion. The drums beat, the Rebel troops then
+rushed out of their tents and formed in line, and the people of the
+town jumped from their breakfast-tables at the startling cry, "The
+Yankees are coming!"
+
+General Evans, the Rebel commander, the day before had moved to Goose
+Creek to meet General McCall, if he should push beyond Dranesville. He
+had the Eighth Virginia, the Thirteenth, Seventeenth, and Eighteenth
+Mississippi Regiments, and a squadron of cavalry and four pieces of
+artillery.
+
+Captain Duff, commanding a detachment of the Seventeenth Mississippi,
+was left at Leesburg. As soon as Colonel Devens's advance was
+discovered, he formed his men in the woods and sent word to General
+Evans, who hastened with his whole brigade to the spot.
+
+General Stone placed Colonel Baker, commanding the First California
+Regiment, in command of the forces upon the Virginia side of the
+river. Colonel Baker was a Senator from Oregon,--a noble man, an
+eloquent orator, a patriot, and as brave as he was patriotic. During
+the forenoon a portion of the Twentieth Massachusetts Regiment,
+commanded by Colonel Lee, was sent over.
+
+Just before twelve o'clock General Stone sent word to Colonel Baker
+that the force of the enemy was supposed to be about four thousand.
+Colonel Baker was in doubt whether to remain or whether to send over
+more troops; but word came to him that the Rebels were advancing, and
+he ordered over the Tammany Regiment of New York troops, commanded by
+Colonel Cogswell, and Lieutenant-Colonel Wistar's California Regiment.
+Colonel Baker went over about two o'clock in the afternoon. By constant
+effort, he succeeded in getting about seventeen hundred men over during
+the day, and three cannon,--two mountain howitzers and one rifled gun.
+It was nearly three o'clock in the afternoon before General Evans began
+the attack. He had captured a courier the day before, sent by General
+McCall to General Meade, and from the despatches learned that General
+McCall was only making a reconnaissance. This information led him to
+bring all his forces back to Leesburg, and it also delayed his attack
+until late in the afternoon.
+
+Captain Duff, of the Seventeenth Mississippi, was reinforced first by
+four companies of the Thirteenth and Eighteenth Mississippi, commanded
+by Colonel Jennifer. About two o'clock the Eighth Virginia arrived from
+Goose Creek, commanded by Colonel Huntoon. Other reinforcements were
+near at hand.
+
+"Drive the Yankees into the river!" was General Evans's order.
+
+He had the advantage of position, being on higher ground than that
+occupied by Colonel Baker. But he advanced very cautiously.
+
+Colonel Baker formed his men on the eastern border of the field in the
+edge of the woods. The Fifteenth Massachusetts was on the right,--next
+there was a portion of the Twentieth Massachusetts, which had been
+sent over, and then the California and Tammany regiments. The Rebels
+began to fire at long range. Some of them climbed into the trees,--some
+secreted themselves in the shocks of corn which were standing in the
+field,--some crouched behind the fences and trees. Colonel Baker, to
+save his men, ordered them to lie down.
+
+Colonel Jennifer, commanding a Rebel regiment, with a party of
+skirmishers, went round the north side of the field and came upon the
+Fifteenth Massachusetts, but the men of that regiment fired so steadily
+that the Rebels were forced to retire.
+
+At the southwest corner of the field was a farm road, down which the
+Rebels advanced. The howitzers and the cannon were placed in position
+to rake that road, and the Rebels were compelled to leave it and form
+in the woods.
+
+It was apparent to Colonel Baker and all of his command at three
+o'clock that the Rebels outnumbered them, but they prepared to make a
+brave fight. The fire from both sides began to be more fierce and rapid.
+
+At this time General Gorman had crossed the river at Edward's Ferry,
+three miles below, with fifteen hundred men. General Evans, to prevent
+a junction of the Union forces, moved his troops into a ravine, and
+came upon the left flank of Colonel Baker's command.
+
+"I want to find out what the Rebels are doing out there," said Colonel
+Baker to Colonel Wistar, "and I want you to send out two companies."
+
+Colonel Wistar sent out Captain Marco with one company, and went
+himself with the other. About fifty yards in front of Colonel Wistar
+was a hill, and behind this Evans was preparing to make a charge.
+Suddenly the Eighth Virginia, who had been lying upon the ground,
+sprang to their feet, and, without firing a shot, advanced upon Captain
+Marco. His men, without waiting for orders, fired, and for fifteen
+minutes there was a very hot time of it,--the two companies holding
+their ground against the superior force. Captain Marco had deployed his
+men as skirmishers, while the Virginians were in close rank, and so
+destructive was the fire from Captain Marco's command, that the Rebel
+lines gave way.
+
+But it was at a fearful cost that the brave men held their ground so
+long. During this time all their officers, and all their corporals and
+sergeants but three, and two-thirds of the men, were killed or wounded!
+They fell back at last under command of a sergeant, carrying with them
+a lieutenant and fourteen men of the Eighth Virginia prisoners.
+
+The Rebels having reformed their line, came down upon the left flank of
+the California regiment. Colonel Wistar saw them in the ravine, faced
+four of his companies to meet them, and gave them a volley which threw
+them into confusion, and, after firing a few scattering shots, they
+ran up the ravine, and disappeared behind the hill.
+
+For an hour or more the firing was at long range, each party availing
+themselves of the shelter of the woods. The men were ordered by Colonel
+Baker to shield themselves as much as possible, but himself and the
+other officers stood boldly out in the hottest fire.
+
+"That is pretty close!" said Colonel Baker to Colonel Wistar, as a
+bullet came between them. Soon another ball cut off a twig over Colonel
+Baker's head.
+
+"That fellow means _us_," he said, pointing to a Rebel in a distant
+tree. "Boys, do you see him? Now some of you try him," he said to
+company C, of Colonel Wistar's regiment. The soldiers singled out
+the man, who soon tumbled from the tree. He repeatedly cautioned his
+men about exposing themselves. He wanted to save them for the final
+conflict, which he knew must come before long.
+
+"Lie close, don't expose yourself," he said to a brave soldier who was
+deliberately loading and firing.
+
+"Colonel, you expose yourself, and why shouldn't I?"
+
+"Ah! my son, when you get to be a United States senator and a colonel,
+you will feel that you must not lie down in face of the 'enemy.'"
+
+He knew that it would be asked if he was brave in the hour of battle.
+It was his duty to expose himself, to show his men and all the world
+that he was not afraid to meet the enemy, and was worthy of the
+position he held.
+
+  [Illustration:
+  1 Union Troops.
+  2 Rebel Troops.
+  3 Road by which the Rebels advanced.]
+
+One of the Mississippi regiments tried again to outflank Colonel
+Baker's left. The Rebels came within fifty feet of the California
+regiment; but the constant and steady fire given by that regiment again
+forced them back. It was an unbroken roll of musketry through the
+afternoon. The Union soldiers held their ground manfully, but their
+ammunition was giving out. The men, as fast as their cartridge-boxes
+became empty, helped themselves from the boxes of their fallen
+comrades. They could not obtain reinforcements for want of boats,
+although there were troops enough upon the Maryland shore to overwhelm
+the enemy. The boats were old and leaky, and were used to carry the
+wounded to the island. General Stone had taken no measures to obtain
+other boats. He was at Edward's Ferry, within sight and sound of the
+battle. He had fifteen hundred troops across the river at that point,
+and he might have ordered their advance towards Leesburg. They could
+have gained General Evans's rear, for there was no force to oppose
+them. The troops stood idly upon the bank, wondering that they were not
+ordered to march. So the brave men on the bluff, confronted by nearly
+twice their number, were left to their fate.
+
+"We can cut our way through to Edward's Ferry," said Colonel Devens.
+
+"If I had two more such regiments as the Massachusetts Fifteenth, I
+would cut my way to Leesburg," said Colonel Baker.
+
+He went along the line encouraging the men to hold out to the last.
+His cool bearing, and the glance of his eagle eye, inspired the
+men and they compelled the Rebels again and again to fall back.
+Lieutenant-Colonel Wistar was wounded, but refused to leave the field.
+He remained with his men and kept a close watch upon the ravine and
+the hillock at his left hand. He saw that General Evans was making
+preparations for a desperate onset. He was gathering his troops in a
+mass behind the hill.
+
+"Drive the Yankees into the Potomac," said General Evans, again. He had
+more than two thousand men.
+
+"There is not a moment to lose. A heavy column is behind the hill and
+they are getting ready to advance," said Colonel Wistar, hastening to
+Colonel Baker.
+
+Lieutenant Bramhall was ordered to open upon them with his rifled
+gun. He brought it into position and fired a round or two, but two
+of his cannoneers were instantly killed and five others wounded.
+Colonel Baker, Colonel Wistar, and Colonel Cogswell used the rammer and
+sponges, and aided in firing it till other cannoneers arrived. Colonel
+Wistar was wounded again while serving the gun. They could not reach
+the main body of Rebels behind the hill, but kept the others in check
+with canister as often as they attempted to advance.
+
+The force behind the hill suddenly came over it, yelling and whooping
+like savages. Colonel Baker was in front of his men, urging them to
+resist the impending shock. He was calm and collected, standing with
+his face to the foe, his left hand in his bosom. A man sprang from the
+Rebel ranks, ran up behind him, and with a self-cocking revolver fired
+six bullets into him. Two soldiers in front of him fired at the same
+time. One bullet tore open his side, another passed through his skull.
+Without a murmur, a groan, or a sigh, he fell dead.
+
+But as he fell, Captain Beirel of the California regiment leaped from
+the ranks and blew out the fellow's brains with his pistol.
+
+There was a fierce and terrible fight. The Californians rushed forward
+to save the body of their beloved commander. They fell upon the enemy
+with the fury of madmen. They thought not of life or death. They had no
+fear. Each man was a host in himself. There was a close hand-to-hand
+contest, bayonet-thrusts, desperate struggles, trials of strength. Men
+fell, but rose again, bleeding, yet still fighting, driving home the
+bayonet, pushing back the foe, clearing a space around the body of the
+fallen hero, and bearing it from the field.
+
+While this contest was going on, some one said, "Fall back to the
+river." Some of the soldiers started upon the run.
+
+"Stand your ground!" shouted Colonel Devens.
+
+Some who had started for the river came back, but others kept on. The
+line was broken, and it was too late to recover what had been lost.
+They all ran to the bank of the river. Some halted on the edge of the
+bluff and formed in line, to make another stand, but hundreds rushed
+down the banks to the boats. They pushed off into the stream, but the
+overloaded flat-boat was whirled under by the swift current, and the
+soldiers were thrown into the water. Some sank instantly, others came
+up and clutched at sticks, thrust their arms towards the light, and
+with a wild, despairing cry went down. Some clung to floating planks,
+and floated far down the river, gaining the shore at Edward's Ferry. A
+few who could swim reached the island. All the while the Rebels from
+the bank poured a murderous fire upon the struggling victims in the
+water and upon the bank.
+
+Lieutenant Bramhall ran his cannon down the bank into the river,
+to save them from falling into the hands of the enemy. Some of the
+officers and soldiers secreted themselves in the bushes till darkness
+came on, then sprung into the river and swam to the island, and thus
+escaped,--reaching it naked, chilled, exhausted, to shiver through
+the long hours of a cold October night. Of the seventeen hundred who
+crossed the Potomac, nearly one half were killed, wounded, or captured
+by the enemy.
+
+There was great rejoicing at Leesburg that night. The citizens who had
+been so frightened in the morning when they heard that the Yankees were
+coming, now illuminated their houses, and spread a feast for the Rebel
+soldiers. When the Union prisoners arrived in the town, the men and
+women called them hard names, shouted "Bull Run," "Yankee Invaders,"
+but the men who had fought so bravely under such disadvantages were
+too noble to take any notice of the insults. Indians seldom taunt
+or insult their captives taken in war. Civilized nations everywhere
+respect those whom the fortunes of war have placed in their hands;
+but slavery uncivilizes men. It makes them intolerant, imperious,
+and brutal, and hence the men and women of the South, who accepted
+secession, who became traitors to their country, manifested a malignity
+and fiendishness towards Union prisoners which has no parallel in the
+history of civilized nations.
+
+There was great rejoicing throughout the South. It gave the leaders and
+fomenters of the rebellion arguments which they used to prove that the
+Yankees were cowards, and would not fight, and that the North would
+soon be a conquered nation.
+
+It was a sad sight at Poolesville. Tidings of the disaster reached
+the place during the evening. The wounded began to arrive. It was
+heart-rending to hear their accounts of the scene at the river bank,
+when the line gave way. Hundreds of soldiers came into the lines
+naked, having thrown away everything to enable them to swim the river.
+The night set in dark and stormy. After swimming the river, they
+had crowded along the Maryland shore, through briers, thorns, and
+thistles, stumbling over fallen trees and stones in the darkness, while
+endeavoring to reach their encampments. Many were found in the woods in
+the morning, having fallen through exhaustion.
+
+Thus by the incompetency of those in command, a terrible disaster was
+brought about. General McClellan and General Stone were both severely
+censured by the people for this needless, inexcusable sacrifice. Grave
+doubts were entertained in regard to the loyalty of General Stone, for
+he permitted the wives of officers in the Rebel service to pass into
+Maryland and return to Virginia, with packages and bundles, whenever
+they pleased, and he ordered his pickets to heed any signals they might
+see from the Rebels, and to receive any packages they might send, and
+forward them to his quarters.[3]
+
+  [Footnote 3: Testimony before Committee of Congress.]
+
+When these facts became known to the War Department, General Stone
+was arrested and confined in Fort Warren in Boston Harbor, but he was
+subsequently released, having no charges preferred against him.
+
+Lieutenant Putnam of the Twentieth Massachusetts, who was so young
+that he was called the "boy soldier," was mortally wounded in the
+battle, was carried to Poolesville, where he died the next day. He
+came of noble blood. His father was descended from the ancestor of old
+General Putnam, who fought the French and Indians on the shores of Lake
+Champlain, who did not stop to unyoke his oxen in the field, when he
+heard of the affair at Lexington, and hastened to meet the enemy.
+
+Rev. James Freeman Clarke, at his funeral said:--
+
+"His mother's family has given to us statesmen, sages, patriots, poets,
+scholars, orators, economists, philanthropists, and now gives us also a
+hero and a martyr. His great grandfather, Judge Lowell, inserted in the
+Bill of Rights, prefixed to the Constitution of this State, the clause
+declaring that 'all men are born free and equal,' for the purpose, as
+he avowed at the time, of abolishing slavery in Massachusetts, and he
+was appointed by Washington, federal judge of the district.
+
+"His grandfather was minister of this church, [West Church, Boston,]
+honored and loved as few men have been, for more than half a century.
+
+"Born in Boston in 1840, he was educated in Europe, where he went
+when eleven years old, and where in France, Germany, and Italy he
+showed that he possessed the ancestral faculty of mastering easily
+all languages, and where he faithfully studied classic and Christian
+antiquity and art. Under the best and most loving guidance, he read
+with joy the vivid descriptions of Virgil, while looking down from
+the hill of Posilippo, on the headland of Misenum, and the ruins of
+Cumæ. He studied with diligence the remains of Etruscan art, of which,
+perhaps, no American scholar, though he was so young, knew more.
+
+"Thus accomplished, he returned to his native land, but, modest and
+earnest, he made no display of his acquisitions, and very few knew
+that he had acquired anything. When the war broke out, his conscience
+and heart urged him to go to the service of his country. His strong
+sense of duty overcame the reluctance of his parents, and they
+consented. A presentiment that he should not return alive was very
+strong in his mind and theirs, but he gave himself cheerfully, and
+said, in entire strength of his purpose, that 'to die would be easy in
+such a cause.' In the full conviction of immortality he added, 'What is
+death, mother? it is nothing but a step in our life.'
+
+"His fidelity to every duty gained him the respect of his superior
+officers, and his generous, constant interest in his companions and
+soldiers brought to him an unexampled affection. He realized fully that
+this war must enlarge the area of freedom, if it was to attain its true
+end,--and in one of his last letters he expressed the earnest prayer
+that it might not cease till it opened the way for universal liberty.
+These earnest opinions were connected with a feeling of the wrong done
+to the African race and an interest in its improvement. He took with
+him to the war as a body servant a colored lad named George Brown, who
+repaid the kindness of Lieutenant Lowell by gratitude and faithful
+service. George Brown followed his master across the Potomac into the
+battle, nursed him in his tent, and tended his remains back to Boston.
+Nor let the devoted courage of Lieutenant Henry Sturgis be forgotten,
+who lifted his wounded friend and comrade from the ground, and carried
+him on his back a long distance to the boat, and returned again into
+the fight.
+
+"Farewell, dear child, brave heart, soul of sweetness and fire! We
+shall see no more that fair, candid brow, with its sunny hair, those
+sincere eyes, that cheek flushed with the commingling roses of modesty
+and courage! Go and join the noble group of devoted souls, our heroes
+and saints! Go with Ellsworth, protomartyr of this great cause of
+freedom. Go with Winthrop, poet and soldier, our Korner, with sword and
+lyre. Go with the chivalric Lyon, bravest of the brave, leader of men.
+Go with Baker, to whose utterance the united murmurs of Atlantic and
+Pacific Oceans gave eloquent rhythm, and whose words flowed so early
+into heroic action. Go with our noble Massachusetts boys, in whose
+veins runs the best blood of the age!"
+
+I saw Colonel Baker often as I rode through the army. He had a great
+love for his soldiers. I had a long talk with him a few days before his
+death. He felt keenly the humiliations which had come upon the nation
+at Bull Run, but was confident that in the next battle the soldiers
+would redeem their good name.
+
+Colonel Baker was mourned for by the whole nation. Eloquent eulogies
+were pronounced upon him in the Senate of the United States. It was on
+the 11th of December, and President Lincoln was present to do honor to
+the dead.
+
+Senator McDougall spoke of his noble character, his great gifts, his
+love of music and poetry. Many years before they were out together upon
+the plains of the West riding at night, and Colonel Baker recited the
+"Battle of Ivry" as if in anticipation of the hour when he was to stand
+upon the battle-field:--
+
+    "The king has come to marshal us, in all his armor drest;
+    And he has bound a snow-white plume upon his gallant crest.
+    He looked upon his people, and a tear was in his eye;
+    He looked upon the traitors, and his glance was stern and high.
+    Right graciously he smiled on us, as ran from wing to wing,
+    Down all our line a deafening shout, 'God save our Lord the King!'
+    And if my standard-bearer fall, as fall full well he may,
+    For never saw I promise yet of such a bloody fray,
+    Press where ye see my white plume shines amid the ranks of war,
+    And be your oriflamme to-day the helmet of Navarre."
+
+Senator Summer said of him:--
+
+"He died with his face to the foe; and he died so instantly that he
+passed without pain from the service of his country to the service of
+his God, while with him was more than one gallant youth, the hope of
+family and friends, sent forth by my own honored Commonwealth. It is
+sweet and becoming to die for one's country. Such a death, sudden, but
+not unprepared for, is the crown of the patriot soldier's life."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+BATTLE OF DRANESVILLE AND THE WINTER OF 1862.
+
+
+On the old turnpike which leads from the Chain Bridge above Georgetown
+to Leesburg there is a hamlet of a half-dozen houses, called
+Dranesville. The great road to Alexandria joins the turnpike there,
+also a road which leads to Centreville. Near the junction of the roads,
+on the west side of the turnpike, there is a large brick house, a
+fine old Virginia mansion, owned by Mr. Thornton, surrounded by old
+trees. Just beyond Mr. Thornton's, as we go toward Leesburg, is Mr.
+Coleman's store, and a small church. Doctor Day's house is opposite the
+store. There are other small, white-washed houses scattered along the
+roadside, and years ago, before the Alexandria and Leesburg railroad
+was built, before Virginia gave up the cultivation of corn and wheat
+for the raising of negroes for the South, it was a great highway.
+Stage-coaches filled with passengers rumbled over the road, and long
+lines of canvas-covered wagons, like a moving caravan.
+
+It is a rich and fertile country. The fields of Loudon are ever
+verdant; there are no hillsides more sunny or valleys more pleasant.
+Wheat and corn and cattle are raised in great abundance.
+
+On the 20th of December, 1861, General McCall, whose division of Union
+troops was at Lewinsville, sent General Ord with a brigade and a large
+number of wagons to Dranesville to gather forage. On the same morning
+the Rebel General Stuart started from Centreville with a brigade bound
+on the same errand.
+
+General Ord had the Sixth, Ninth, Tenth, and Twelfth Regiments of
+Pennsylvania Reserves, with four guns of Easton's battery, and a
+company of cavalry. One of the regiments wore bucktails in their
+caps instead of plumes. The soldiers of that regiment were excellent
+marksmen. They were from the Alleghany Mountains, and often had the
+valleys and forests and hillsides rung with the crack of their rifles.
+They had hunted the deer, the squirrels, and partridges, and could
+bring down a squirrel from the tallest tree by their unerring aim.
+
+General Stuart had the First Kentucky, Sixth South Carolina, Tenth
+Alabama, Eleventh Virginia, with the First South Carolina Battery,
+commanded by Captain Cutts, also a company of cavalry. The two forces
+were nearly equal.
+
+General Ord started early in the morning. The ground was frozen, the
+air was clear, there was a beautiful sunshine, and the men marched
+cheerily along the road, thinking of the chickens and turkeys which
+might fall into their hands, and would be very acceptable for Christmas
+dinners. They reached Difficult Creek at noon where the troops halted,
+kindled their fires, cooked their coffee, ate their beef and bread, and
+then pushed on towards Dranesville.
+
+An officer of the cavalry came back in haste from the advance, and
+reported having seen a rebel cavalryman.
+
+"Keep a sharp lookout," was the order. The column moved on; but General
+Ord was prudent and threw out companies of flankers, who threaded their
+way through the woods, keeping a sharp eye for Rebels, for they had
+heard that the enemy was near at hand.
+
+On reaching Dranesville, General Ord sent a company down the
+Centreville road to reconnoitre. It was not long before they reported
+that the woods were full of Rebels. General Ord formed his men on both
+sides of the Centreville road. He sent the Ninth and Twelfth west of
+Mr. Thornton's house, into the woods, posted the Bucktails in front of
+the house, put three of Easton's guns into position on a hill east of
+it, put the Tenth Regiment and the cavalry in rear of the battery on
+the Chain Bridge road, sent one cannon down the Chain Bridge road a
+short distance to open a flank fire, and directed the Sixth Regiment to
+take position west of the Centreville road, to support the Bucktails,
+and detached one company of the Tenth to move down the Alexandria road
+to cover the flanking cannon.
+
+  [Illustration: BATTLE OF DRANESVILLE.
+  1 General Ord's line.
+  2 General Stuart's line.
+  3 Road to Georgetown.
+  4 Road to Alexandria.
+  5 Road to Centreville.]
+
+Standing by Thornton's house, and looking south, we see the Rebels on
+a hill, about half a mile distant. General Stuart plants his six guns
+on both sides of the road, to fire toward the Bucktails. The Eleventh
+Virginia and Tenth Alabama are deployed on the right of the road, and
+the Sixth South Carolina and the First Kentucky are sent to the left.
+The cavalry is drawn up behind the battery.
+
+Having defeated the Yankees at Manassas and Ball's Bluff, the rebel
+soldiers were confident that they would win an easy victory. As soon
+as General Stuart formed his line, Cutt's Battery opened fire, sending
+shells down the road towards the Bucktails. The guns were not well
+aimed and did no damage. Easton's battery was hurried up from the
+turnpike. So eager were the artillerymen to get into position, that one
+gun was upset, and the men were obliged to lift it from the ground.
+But General Ord told the men where to place the guns. He jumped from
+his horse and sighted them so accurately, that they threw their shells
+with great precision into the Rebel ranks. The cannonade went on for a
+half-hour, Easton's shells tearing the Rebel ranks, while those fired
+by the Rebels did no damage whatever. One of Easton's shells went
+through a Rebel caisson, which exploded and killed several men and
+horses. So severe was his fire, that, although the Rebels had two more
+guns than he, they were obliged to retreat.
+
+Meanwhile General Ord's infantry advanced. The Ninth came upon the
+First Kentucky in the woods. The pines were very dense, shutting out
+completely the rays of the winter sun, then low down in the western
+horizon. At the same time the Bucktails were advancing directly south.
+The men of the Ninth, when they discovered the Rebels, thought they
+were the Bucktails.
+
+"Don't fire on us,--we are your friends!" shouted a Rebel.
+
+"Are you the Bucktails?" asked one of the Ninth.
+
+"Yes!" was the reply, followed by a terrific volley from the Rebel line.
+
+The Ninth, though deceived, were not thrown into confusion. They gave
+an answering volley. The Bucktails hearing the firing advanced, while
+the Twelfth followed, the Ninth supporting them.
+
+Upon the other side of the road a body of Rebels had taken shelter in
+a house. "Let them fellows have some shells," was the order to the
+gunners.
+
+Crash! crash! went the shells into and through the house, smashing in
+the sides, knocking two rooms into one, strewing the floor with laths
+and plaster, and making the house smoke with dust. The Rebels came out
+in a hurry, and took shelter behind the fences, trees, and outbuildings.
+
+"Colonel, I wish you to advance and drive back those fellows," said
+General Ord to the commander of the Sixth Regiment.
+
+Captain Easton ordered his gunners to cease firing, for fear of
+injuring the advancing troops. The Sixth moved rapidly across the
+field, firing as they advanced. The Rebels behind the fences fired a
+volley, but so wild was their aim that nearly all the bullets passed
+over the heads of the Sixth. In the field and in the woods there was a
+constant rattle of musketry. The men on both sides sheltered themselves
+behind trees and fences, or crept like Indians through the almost
+impenetrable thickets.
+
+The Bucktails were accustomed to creeping through the forests, and
+taking partridges and pigeons on the wing. Their fire was very
+destructive to the enemy. Stuart's lines began to waver before them.
+The South Carolinians fell back a little, and then a little more, as
+the Bucktails kept edging on. The fire of the skilled mountaineers was
+constant and steady. It was too severe for the Rebels to withstand.
+They gave way suddenly on all sides, and fled in wild confusion down
+the Centreville road, throwing away their guns, clothing, knapsacks,
+and cartridge-boxes, leaving one caisson and limber of their artillery
+behind in their haste to get away. Nearly all of their severely wounded
+were left on the field. The Union loss was seven killed and sixty-one
+wounded, while so destructive was the fire of the Pennsylvanians that
+the Rebel loss was two hundred and thirty.[4]
+
+  [Footnote 4: Norfolk Day-Book.]
+
+The affair, though short, was decisive. The effect was thrilling
+throughout the army. The Union troops,--held in contempt by the
+Rebels,--defeated at Manassas, Ball's Bluff, and at Bethel, by superior
+forces, had met an equal number of the enemy, and in a fair fight had
+won a signal victory. It was a proud day to the brave men who had thus
+shown their ability to conquer a foe equal in numbers. They returned
+from Dranesville in high spirits, and were received with cheers, long
+and loud, by their comrades, who had heard the distant firing, and who
+had been informed of their victory.
+
+Christmas came. The men were in winter quarters, and merry times they
+had,--dinners of roast turkey, plum-pudding and mince-pies, sent by
+their friends at home. After dinner they had games, sports, and dances,
+chasing a greased pig, climbing a greasy pole, running in a meal-bag,
+playing ball, pitching quoits, playing leap-frog, singing and dancing,
+around the camp-fires through the long Christmas evening.
+
+The winter passed away without any event to break the monotony of
+camp-life.
+
+Officers and soldiers alike became disaffected at the long delay of
+General McClellan. The President and the people also were dissatisfied.
+President Lincoln, being commander-in-chief, selected the 22d of
+February, the birthday of Washington, on which all the armies of the
+Union were to make an advance upon the enemy; but it was midwinter, the
+roads were deep with mud, and the order was withdrawn. General Grant
+all the while was winning victories at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson,
+and General Sherman and the navy had taken Port Royal, while the great
+Army of the Potomac, on which the country had lavished its means, and
+granted all that its commander asked for, was doing nothing.
+
+The President, in March, issued an order to General McClellan to
+complete the organization of the army into corps, with such promptness
+and despatch as not to delay the commencement of the operations which
+he had already directed to be undertaken by the Army of the Potomac.
+General McClellan complied with the order.
+
+The First Corps was composed of Franklin's, McCall's, and King's
+Divisions, and was commanded by Major-General McDowell.
+
+The Second Corps was composed of Richardson's, Blenker's, and
+Sedgwick's Divisions, and was commanded by Major-General Sumner.
+
+The Third Corps was commanded by Major-General Heintzelman, and was
+composed of Fitz-John Porter's, Hooker's, and Hamilton's Divisions.
+
+The Fourth Corps was commanded by Major-General Keyes, and was composed
+of Couch's, Smith's, and Casey's Divisions.
+
+The Fifth Corps was composed of Shields's and Williams's Divisions, and
+was commanded by Major-General Banks.
+
+It was a long, dull winter to the soldiers. They waited impatiently for
+action. Camp-life was not all song-singing and dancing. There were days
+and weeks of stormy weather, when there could be no drills. The mud
+was deep, and the soldiers had little to do but doze by the camp-fires
+through the long winter days and nights. Thousands who had led correct
+lives at home fell into habits of dissipation and vice. Their wives and
+children haunted their dreams at night. A sorrow settled upon them,--a
+longing for home, which became a disease, and sent thousands to the
+hospital, and finally to the grave. The army early in the winter began
+to suffer for want of something to do.
+
+Some of the colonels and chaplains saw that it was of the utmost
+importance that something should be done to take up the minds
+of the men and turn their thoughts from the scenes of home.
+Lyceums, debating-societies, schools, in which Latin, German,
+arithmetic, reading, and writing were taught, were established. The
+chaplains,--those who were true, earnest men, established Sunday
+schools, and organized churches, and held prayer-meetings. God blessed
+their efforts, and hundreds of soldiers became sincere Christians,
+attesting their faith in Jesus Christ as the Saviour of men by living
+correct lives and breaking off their evil habits. Under the influence
+of the religious teachings there was a great reform in the army. The
+men became sober. They no longer gambled away their money. They became
+quiet and orderly, obeyed the commands of their officers in doing
+unpleasant duties with alacrity. Some who had been drunkards for years
+signed the temperance pledge. They became cheerful. They took new views
+of their duties and obligations to their country and their God, and
+looked through the gloom and darkness to the better life beyond the
+grave. Several of the chaplains organized churches. One noble chaplain
+says of the church in his regiment:--
+
+"I received into its communion one hundred and seventy members, about
+sixty of whom for the first time confessed Christ. At the commencement
+of the services I baptized six young soldiers. They kneeled before me,
+and I consecrated them to God for life and for death,--the majority
+of them baptized, as it proved, for death. I then read the form of
+covenant, the system of faith, to which all gave their assent. I
+then read the names of those who wished to enter this fold in the
+Wilderness; those who had made a profession of religion at home, and
+came to us as members of Christian churches, and those who now came as
+disciples of the Redeemer.
+
+"Then followed the communion service. This was one of the most
+affecting and impressive seasons of my life. The powers of the world
+to come rested on all minds. The shadow of the great events so soon
+to follow was creeping over us, giving earnestness and impressive
+solemnity to all hearts. It was a day never to be forgotten as a
+commencement of a new era in the life of many. It was a scene on which
+angels might look down with unmingled pleasure, for here the weary
+found rest, the burdened the peace of forgiveness, the broken in heart,
+beauty for ashes.
+
+"Our position increased in a high degree the interest of the occasion.
+We were far from our churches and homes. Yet we found here the sacred
+emblems of our religion, and looking into the future, which we knew
+was full of danger, sickness, and death to many, we have girded
+ourselves for the conflict. It much resembled the solemn communion of
+Christians in the time of persecution. Our friends who were present
+from a distance, of whom there were several, rejoiced greatly that
+there was such a scene in the army. General Jameson was deeply moved
+and afterwards said it was the most solemn and interesting scene of his
+life.
+
+"Again, on Sabbath, March 9th, the religious interest continuing, we
+held another communion. At this time twenty-eight were received into
+the church. Seven young men were baptized. The interest was greater
+than at the former communion, and it gives me the greatest satisfaction
+to know that this season, which gave to many the highest enjoyment ever
+known on earth, when the cup of thanksgiving was mingled with tears of
+gratitude, prepared for the sacrifice that was to follow. Many who were
+there never again partook of the wine of promise until they drank it
+new in the kingdom of God, and sat down at the marriage supper of the
+Lamb."[5]
+
+  [Footnote 5: Peninsular Campaign. Rev. Dr. Marks.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE SIEGE OF YORKTOWN.
+
+
+The Rebel army suddenly evacuated Centreville, Manassas, and the line
+of the Potomac, carrying off everything of value. The Army of the
+Potomac moved on the 9th of March to Manassas, beheld the deserted
+encampments, returned to Alexandria, and sailed for Fortress Monroe.
+General McClellan decided to advance upon Richmond by the Peninsula,
+between the York and James Rivers. General McDowell, with McCall's and
+King's divisions, was stationed at Fredericksburg, to cover Washington.
+Blenker's division was detached from Sumner's Corps, and sent to the
+Shenandoah Valley. All the other divisions sailed down the Chesapeake.
+The troops landed at Newport News and went into camp.
+
+The Rebel General Magruder occupied Yorktown. He was fortifying it and
+the Peninsula, erecting batteries to command York River, and to cover
+the approaches by land. The iron-clad Merrimack, with the Teazer and
+Jamestown gunboats, were in the James River. Admiral Goldsborough, with
+the Monitor, the Minnesota, and several gunboats, was watching them,
+and guarding the shipping at Fortress Monroe.
+
+General McClellan submitted his plans to the President. He had two
+methods of operation in view;--one, to attack Magruder's works, between
+the York and the James, which might require siege operations, and a
+delay of many weeks; the other, to obtain aid from the navy, attack
+the water-batteries at Yorktown, silence them, and then go up the York
+River with his army, sailing to West Point, within twenty-five miles
+of Richmond. Admiral Goldsborough could not spare gunboats enough to
+attack the batteries, and therefore General McClellan adopted the other
+plan.[6]
+
+  [Footnote 6: General McClellan's Report, p. 66.]
+
+On the evening of April 3d the army received orders to march the next
+morning.
+
+It was a beautiful night. The sky was cloudless. A new moon shed its
+silver light upon the vast encampment. The soldiers had been waiting
+two weeks. They were one hundred thousand strong, while the Rebel force
+did not number more than ten or twelve thousand.[7]
+
+  [Footnote 7: General Heintzelman's testimony.]
+
+They expected to move to victory. They sang songs, wrote letters to
+their friends, burnished their guns, heaped the fires with fresh fuel,
+and rejoiced that after so many months of waiting they were to be
+active.
+
+There were some who had a true appreciation of the work before them,
+and realized that they might fall in the hour of battle.
+
+One who had fought at Bull Run, whose heart was in the great cause,
+prepared his last will and testament. At the close of it he wrote:--
+
+"And now, having arranged for the disposition of my worldly estate, I
+will say that, possessing a full confidence in the Christian religion,
+and believing in the righteousness of the cause in which I am engaged,
+I am ready to offer my poor life in vindication of that cause, and in
+sustaining a government the mildest and most beneficent the world has
+ever known."[8]
+
+  [Footnote 8: Maine Adjutant-General's Report, 1862, p. 142. Captain
+  B. M. Smith.]
+
+At three o'clock in the morning the soldiers were astir, roused by
+the drum-beat and the bugle. The fading fires were rekindled. Their
+coffee was soon bubbling on the coals. Before daylight they had their
+knapsacks packed, their tents taken down, and all things ready for the
+march. By sunrise they were on the road, General Heintzelman's corps
+leading the column. The roads were deep with mud, and the marching was
+heavy, but so enthusiastic were the soldiers that by ten o'clock the
+head of the column encountered the enemy's pickets in front of Yorktown.
+
+Both armies were upon historic ground. It was at Yorktown that the
+British army under Lord Cornwallis laid down its arms in 1781. It
+was a flourishing village then. There were fine mansions, surrounded
+with shrubbery, shaded by old oaks and lindens. Virginia in those
+days had many wealthy families. The Peninsula was the first settled
+territory in America, and many of the planters had immense estates.
+One of the signers of the Declaration of Independence resided at
+Yorktown,--Governor Nelson. His house is yet standing,--a large
+two-story brick building, which General Magruder occupied for his
+head-quarters. It bears the marks of shot which were fired by the
+Americans during the siege in 1781. Governor Nelson commanded the
+Virginia militia then. He was a noble patriot, and aimed the cannon
+himself at his own house to drive out the British who had possession of
+it.
+
+Cornwallis had a line of earthworks around Yorktown, and those which
+Magruder erected were on pretty much the same line, only Magruder's,
+besides encircling the town, also reached across the Peninsula. The
+English general had between seven and eight thousand men. General
+Washington and Count Rochambeau had about fifteen thousand. They were
+large armies for those days, but very small when compared with that
+commanded by General McClellan.
+
+It was a long march which the French and American troops made to reach
+Yorktown. They marched from New York, in July, through Philadelphia,
+Baltimore, Annapolis, Mount Vernon, and Williamsburg. They had no
+transports to take them down the Chesapeake, besides, there was an
+English fleet in the bay which might have captured the entire army had
+it moved by water.
+
+In the American army were officers whose names are inseparably
+connected with the history of our country,--General Knox, Baron
+Steuben, Lafayette, General Clinton, General Lincoln, Colonel Scammell,
+the brave New Hampshire officer who was shot by a Hessian soldier. In
+the French army were Count Rochambeau, Marquis St. Simon, and Baron
+Viomeil. In the bay floated the English ships of war, and outside, near
+Cape Henry, was the Count de Grasse, with his formidable fleet.
+
+On Sunday morning, the 13th of October, the place was completely
+invested. The Americans of the allied army moved down the road leading
+to Hampton, and swung round by Wormley Creek. General Lincoln
+commanded the right wing, and had his head-quarters near the creek.
+Lafayette, with his light infantry, and Governor Nelson, with the
+Virginia militia, were on the north side of the Hampton road, while
+south of it were the New England and New Jersey and New York troops,
+under General Clinton. They held the center of the American line. The
+left wing of the Americans, on Warwick River, was composed of Maryland
+and Pennsylvania troops, under Baron Steuben. On the west side of the
+Warwick were Washington's and Rochambeau's head-quarters, on the south
+side of the road. The French troops held the ground from this point to
+York River west of the town.
+
+Lord Cornwallis capitulated on the 16th of October. On the 17th his
+fine army marched out from the town along the Hampton road about a mile
+to a field, where the soldiers laid down their arms. The American army
+was drawn up on the north side of the road and the French on the south
+side,--two long lines of troops. The British army marched between them,
+the drums beating a slow march, and the colors which had waved proudly
+on so many battle-fields closely encased. It was a sorrowful march to
+the British soldiers. Some of them cried with vexation, and drew their
+caps over their faces to hide their tears. Lord Cornwallis felt the
+humiliation so deeply that he delegated General O'Hara to surrender up
+his sword.
+
+It was an imposing scene. Washington and all the generals of the army,
+with their suits, in rich uniforms and on fine horses, the long lines
+of soldiers, the colors waving in the breeze, the British army in its
+scarlet uniforms, the crowd of spectators from the country who had
+heard of the news, and had hastened to see the surrender, made it one
+of the grandest sights ever seen in America.
+
+On such ground, hallowed by noble deeds, the troops of the Union, as
+their fathers had done before them, were to carry on the siege of
+Yorktown.
+
+The Rebels also undoubtedly felt the influence of those stirring times
+of the Revolution. They believed that they were fighting for their
+liberty, and were engaged in a just war. But sincerity is not certain
+proof of the righteousness of a cause. Chaplain Davis, of the Fourth
+Texas regiment, has this vindication of the rebellion, written by the
+camp-fires at Yorktown:--
+
+"How many pleasing recollections crowd upon the mind of each soldier
+as he walks over these grounds, or sitting thoughtfully by his fagots,
+recalls the history of the past, and compares it with the scenes of the
+present. The patriots of the Revolution were struggling for liberty,
+and so are we. They had been oppressed with burdensome taxation,--so
+were we. They remonstrated,--so did we. They submitted till submission
+ceased to be a virtue,--and so have we. They appealed to Parliament,
+but were unheard. Our Representatives in Congress pointed to the
+maelstrom to which they were driving the ship, but they refused to
+see it. Our fathers asked for equalities of rights and privileges,
+but it was refused. The South asked that their claim to territory won
+by the common blood and treasure of the country be recognized, and
+that our domestic institutions, as guaranteed by the Constitution,
+be respected. These petitions were answered by professed ministers of
+the Church of Jesus Christ in raising contributions from the sacred
+pulpit on the holy Sabbath of Sharpe's Rifles, to shed Southern blood
+on common territory. Their Representatives declared, upon the floors
+of Congress, that they were in favor of 'An Antislavery Constitution,
+an Antislavery Bible, and an Antislavery God!' What is now left us?
+Naught but the refuge our fathers had,--the God of Justice and the God
+of Battles. To him have we appealed, and by his aid and our good right
+arms we will pass through the ordeal of blood and come out conquerors
+in the end."[9]
+
+  [Footnote 9: Campaign from Texas to Maryland, by Rev. Nicholas A.
+  Davis, Chaplain Fourth Texas. Richmond, 1863.]
+
+Many thousands of the Union soldiers were thinking, reflecting men.
+There were ministers, professors in colleges, school-teachers, and
+learned and scientific men. Few there were who could not read and
+write. Thousands of them had been teachers and scholars in the Sunday
+schools. They had thought the war all over, and discussed the causes
+which led to it. They were familiar with the history of events,--of the
+struggle between Slavery and Freedom; for the possession of Kansas,
+where men and women were driven out, their buildings burned, or
+themselves thrown into rivers, or deliberately murdered, for preferring
+freedom to slavery. They recalled the attempt to compel the people of
+the North to return the slaves who were escaping to Canada,--also the
+kidnapping of free citizens of the North; the imprisonment of men and
+women for teaching a slave to read the Bible. They remembered that a
+Northern man could not travel with safety in the South before the war,
+that Slavery was opposed always to Freedom, that the system crushed
+the poor laboring men without distinction of color, race, or clime or
+country; that it was overbearing, imperious, aristocratic, arrogant,
+and cruel; that it kept the people from obtaining knowledge; that it
+was the foe of industry, the enemy of science, art, and religion.
+
+They remembered the words of Mr. Stephens, of Georgia, the
+Vice-President of the Confederacy, who in the beginning opposed
+secession; who said to his associates in the convention which carried
+his State out of the Union:--
+
+"It is the best and freest government, the most equal in its rights,
+the most just in its decisions, the most lenient in its measures, and
+the most inspiring in its principles to elevate the race of man that
+the sun of heaven ever shone upon. Now for you to attempt to overthrow
+such a government as this, unassailed, is the height of madness, folly,
+and wickedness."[10]
+
+  [Footnote 10: Stephens's speech.]
+
+They remembered that Mr. Stephens asked those who were plotting treason
+these questions: "What reasons can you give to the nations of the earth
+to justify it? They will be calm and deliberate judges in the case;
+and to what law, to what one overt act, can you point on which to rest
+the plea of justification? What right has the North assailed? What
+interest of the South has been invaded? What justice has been denied,
+or what claim founded in justice and right has been withheld? Can any
+of you name one governmental act of wrong deliberately and purposely
+done by the government at Washington of which the South had a right to
+complain? I challenge the answer."
+
+They remembered that the Secretary of War under President Buchanan, Mr.
+Floyd of Virginia, had removed all the arms from the Northern arsenals
+to the South, that the slaveholders might be well prepared for war, and
+ready to seize the city of Washington.
+
+They remembered that Mr. Toucey of Connecticut, who was President
+Buchanan's Secretary of the Navy, had sent nearly all the ships of
+war into foreign seas, that they might not be at hand in the hour of
+rebellion, when the government should pass into new hands, and that
+the Secretary of the Treasury stole millions of dollars of public
+funds intrusted to his care. They reflected that all of these men had
+forsworn themselves, that they were traitors and robbers, that they had
+deliberately, through years of power, planned to rebel, to destroy the
+government, and bring ruin upon the people if they could not have their
+way. They believed that without cause the Rebels had fired upon the
+flag, and inaugurated the war, and that to defend the flag and restore
+the Union, by crushing out the rebellion, was a duty they owed to
+their country and to God. They recalled the words of Thomas Jefferson,
+uttered long ago, in his notes on Virginia, who said, in view of the
+complicity of the South with slavery:--
+
+"I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, and that his
+justice cannot sleep forever. The Almighty has no attribute that can
+take side with us in such a contest."[11]
+
+  [Footnote 11: Notes on Virginia.]
+
+Those thinking men remembered the words of the great man who wrote
+the Declaration of Independence, and they also remembered that the
+oppressed and down-trodden of all lands were looking to America,--to
+the principles of the government of the United States,--as their hope
+for the future. They did not forget their homes on the breezy hills
+of the North and in the sunny valleys, nor the church-bell, nor the
+school-house, and other things dearer to them than life. They must
+fight to maintain them. Their liberties were assailed. They could not
+falter in such a contest.
+
+So they reflected as they sat by their camp-fires in the starry night,
+or lay upon the ground where their fathers achieved the last great
+victory which secured their independence.
+
+The corps commanded by General Heintzelman, when it came into position
+before Yorktown, stood upon the ground which General Lincoln had
+occupied in the siege of 1781. General Sumner's corps had the center,
+and occupied the ground which Baron Steuben and General Clinton held
+in that siege. General Keyes's corps came to the Warwick River, at
+Lee's Mills, almost opposite the spot where General Washington had his
+head-quarters, while General Franklin was held in reserve to move up
+York River on transports when the enemy was driven from Yorktown.
+
+General Heintzelman arrived in front of the works, and was greeted with
+shells from Magruder's batteries. While the cannon were booming on
+that afternoon of the 4th, the following brief telegram was sent over
+the wires from Washington to Fortress Monroe:--
+
+"By direction of the President, General McDowell's army corps has been
+detached from the force under your immediate command, and the General
+is ordered to report to the Secretary of War."
+
+General McClellan received it on the 5th. He remarks:--
+
+"To me the blow was most discouraging. It frustrated all my plans
+for impending operations. It fell when I was too deeply committed to
+withdraw. It left me incapable of continuing operations which had been
+begun. It compelled the adoption of another, a different, and a less
+effective plan of campaign. It made rapid and brilliant operations
+impossible. It was a fatal error. It was now of course out of my power
+to turn Yorktown by West Point. I had therefore no choice left but
+to attack it directly in front as I best could with the force at my
+command."[12]
+
+  [Footnote 12: McClellan's Report, p. 79.]
+
+This brief despatch will demand the patient consideration of historians
+in the future, who, when the passions and prejudices of men have passed
+away, calmly and dispassionately review the causes of the failure of
+the Peninsular campaign. On one hand, it is alleged to have been the
+fatal error; that it was an unwarrantable interference, which made
+it impossible for General McClellan to conduct the campaign to a
+successful issue.
+
+On the other hand, it is asked how the presence of McDowell would have
+enabled him to go to West Point without the aid of the navy, which he
+could not have.[13]
+
+  [Footnote 13: See page 50.]
+
+How did it compel the adoption of another plan, inasmuch as the order
+for the troops to advance and attack the works at Yorktown was issued
+on the 3d, and they marched on the 4th, and were engaged with the
+enemy before General McClellan received the orders? It is claimed,
+therefore, that the issuing of the order was not a fatal error; that
+it did not compel the adoption of another plan; that no other plan
+was adopted; that it did not leave General McClellan incapable of
+continuing operations already begun; that it did not deprive him of
+the power of taking West Point, inasmuch as he never had had the
+power; neither did it compel an attack directly in front, for that had
+already begun; and that the President in making the change was only
+enforcing the conditions on which he accepted the plan of a movement
+to the Peninsula,--the retention of a force sufficient to cover
+Washington,--which General McClellan had not complied with.
+
+In the correspondence which passed between the President and General
+McClellan, the President has this explanation and vindication of his
+course:--
+
+"My explicit directions that Washington should, by the judgment of
+all commanders of corps, be left entirely secure, had been entirely
+neglected. It was precisely this that drove me to detain McDowell. I do
+not forget that I was satisfied with your arrangement to leave Banks
+at Manassas Junction, but when that arrangement was broken up, and
+nothing was substituted for it, of course I was not satisfied. I was
+constrained to substitute something for it.
+
+"And now allow me to ask you: Do you really think I should permit the
+line from Richmond _via_ Manassas Junction to this city to be entirely
+open, except what resistance could be presented by less than twenty
+thousand unorganized troops? This is a question which the country will
+not allow me to evade."[14]
+
+  [Footnote 14: President Lincoln's letter,--Testimony, p. 321.]
+
+It will be interesting to see how the situation was viewed by the
+commanders of the two armies on the Peninsula. General McClellan's
+troops in front of the enemy, present and fit for duty, numbered one
+hundred thousand strong.[15] He asked for reinforcements. He wrote thus
+to the Secretary of War:--
+
+  [Footnote 15: Adjutant-General's Report,--Testimony, p. 315.]
+
+"It seems clear that I shall have the whole force of the enemy on my
+hands, probably not less than one hundred thousand men, and probably
+more. In consequence of the loss of Blenker's division and the First
+Corps (McDowell's), my force is possibly less than that of the enemy,
+while they have the advantage of position."[16]
+
+  [Footnote 16: McClellan's Report, p. 79.]
+
+"I was compelled," says General Magruder, "to place in Gloucester
+Point, Yorktown, and Mulberry Island, fixed garrisons, amounting to six
+thousand men, my whole force being eleven thousand; so that it will
+be seen that the balance of the line, embracing a length of thirteen
+miles, was defended by about five thousand men. On the 5th of April
+the enemy's columns appeared along the whole front of my line. I have
+no accurate data upon which to base an exact statement of his force;
+but, from various sources of information, I was satisfied that I had
+before me the enemy's Army of the Potomac, with the exception of the
+two _corps d'armée_ of Banks and McDowell, forming an aggregate number
+certainly of not less than one hundred thousand, since ascertained to
+have been one hundred and twenty thousand.... Thus with five thousand
+men, exclusive of the garrisons, we stopped and held in check over
+one hundred thousand of the enemy. Every preparation was made in
+anticipation of another attack. The men slept in the trenches and under
+arms, but to my utter surprise he permitted day after day to elapse
+without an assault."[17]
+
+  [Footnote 17: Confederate Reports, Official, p. 516.]
+
+Siege operations commenced,--spades, picks, and shovels were given to
+the troops, and they began to throw up the breastworks. It was a slow,
+tedious, laborious undertaking. The mud was very deep, the ground
+soft, and it rained nearly every day. The woods were very dense. There
+were new roads made. The brooks were bridged. Some of the soldiers
+made gabions, or baskets of wicker-work, for the batteries. The teams
+floundered through the mud axle-deep. Thousands of horses gave out from
+sheer exhaustion. When the breastworks were ready, the heavy guns,
+their carriages, and the ammunition had to be hauled.
+
+It was almost impossible to accomplish the work. The horses could not
+do it, and regiments of men were detailed to drag the cannon through
+the mud.
+
+The soldiers worked faithfully and enthusiastically day and night,
+through drenching rains, lying down to sleep in their wet garments,
+upon the water-soaked ground. Fever made its appearance, and thousands
+were sent to the hospitals, worn down by their hard labor and exposure.
+The bullets of the enemy killed very few of those noble men, but
+thousands sickened and died.
+
+While the batteries were getting ready, there was a spirited affair at
+Lee's Mills on the 16th of April. General McClellan decided to make
+a reconnaissance at that point, and, if everything was favorable, to
+throw a portion of his force across the Warwick River, and gain a
+foothold upon the western shore. There was an old field on the east
+side of the stream, which was overgrown with young pines and oaks. A
+line of skirmishers, under cover of a heavy artillery fire, crept down
+through the pines to the edge of the stream. The Rebel battery upon the
+other side answered the Union artillery with solid shot and shells.
+
+Colonel Hyde of the Third Vermont was ordered to cover the stream
+with two companies. The crossing was just below the dam, over which
+the water poured in a silver sheet. The creek was swollen with rains,
+but the sons of Vermont were not the men to falter. They plunged
+in up to their necks. Their ammunition was soaked, but they pushed
+on up the other bank, with a cheer. They were met by the Fifteenth
+North Carolina. They did not stop an instant, but rushed upon
+the Carolinians, who fled to the rear in great confusion, and the
+Vermonters took possession of their rifle-pits. The commander of the
+Carolinians, Colonel McVining, fell mortally wounded, also many of his
+men, before the impetuous charge of the Green Mountaineers. But Rebel
+reinforcements were at hand. Anderson's brigade advanced, and the
+handful of men was obliged to recross the stream. The golden moment
+for throwing a division across and breaking the enemy's line was lost.
+Later in the day a second attempt was made by the Fourth and Fifth
+Vermont regiments to cross upon the dam, but the Rebel batteries swept
+it, and the attempt was not successful. The losses during the day were
+about one hundred on each side.
+
+The month of April passed before the first siege guns were ready to
+open fire. Meanwhile Magruder was reinforced. On the first day of May a
+heavy battery near York River began to throw shells and solid shot into
+Yorktown. That night negroes came into General McClellan's lines and
+reported that the Rebels were leaving Yorktown, but their story was not
+believed by the General. Preparations were made to open a fire from all
+the guns and mortars on the 4th of May.
+
+General Magruder kept close watch of the operations, and when General
+McClellan was ready, quietly retreated towards Williamsburg. He ordered
+his artillerymen to keep up a heavy fire through the night, to spike
+the guns just before daybreak, and leave the place. So through the
+night there was a grand uproar of artillery along the Rebel lines. The
+gunners seemed to vie with each other to see which could fire most
+rapidly and throw away the most shot and shells. They took no aim, but
+fired at random towards the Union lines.
+
+At daybreak it was discovered that there was no sign of life or
+motion in the Rebel camp. The guns still looked frowningly from the
+fortifications, tents were standing; but the troops were all gone, and
+Yorktown was deserted.
+
+They carried off all their light artillery, nearly all their provisions
+and supplies, but left fifty-two heavy guns in the intrenchments. They
+planted torpedoes, and connected them with wires and cords. A Union
+soldier hit his foot against a wire and an explosion followed, which
+blew off his legs.
+
+General Magruder, by showing a bold front, with eleven thousand men at
+first, had held an army of a hundred thousand in check, and gained a
+month of valuable time for preparations for the defense of Richmond.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+BATTLE OF WILLIAMSBURG.
+
+
+The first battle in the Peninsular campaign of the Army of the Potomac
+was fought at Williamsburg, one of the oldest towns in Virginia. It was
+settled in 1632, and was capital of the Colony for many years before
+the Revolution. William and Mary's College is there, which was endowed
+by the king and queen of England with twenty thousand acres of land,
+and a penny on every pound of tobacco sent out of the Colony, and
+duties on all the furs and skins. The college buildings were designed
+by Sir Christopher Wren, architect of St. Paul's in London.
+
+The colonial governors resided at Williamsburg. The courts were held
+there. The government buildings were the noblest in America. The
+Governor's residence was a magnificent edifice, with a great estate
+of three hundred acres attached, laid out in lawns, parks, groves,
+flower-gardens, and peach-orchards. It was intersected by a brook.
+There were winding graveled walks, shaded by oaks and lindens.
+
+On public occasions, and on birth-nights, there were grand receptions
+at the palace, as it was called, where all the public officers and
+gentlemen assembled to pay their respects to the governor. The judges
+and counselors, in flowing robes and powdered wigs, the gentlemen of
+the Colony in broidered waistcoats, ruffled shirts, buff breeches,
+black stockings, and red, yellow, green, blue, or purple coats, with
+gold and silver shoe-buckles, and ladies in silks and satins, rode up
+in their carriages, driven by coachmen, and attended by footmen in
+livery.
+
+During the sessions of the House of Burgesses there were gay times.
+The town was filled with visitors. The wealth, fashion, and refinement
+of the Colony gathered there. It was there in the House of Burgesses
+that Patrick Henry uttered the patriotic sentiment,--"Give me liberty,
+or give me death." It was from Williamsburg that Sir William Berkeley
+wrote to the King's commissioners, thanking God that there were no
+common schools or printing-presses in Virginia. Washington, when but
+twenty-one years of age, mounted his horse at the palace-gate, for
+his long journey to the head-waters of the Ohio, chosen by Governor
+Dinwiddie, out of all the aristocratic families of the Colony, to bear
+a message to the French commander in that far-off region; and there,
+at the same gate, he dismounted from his horse on the 22d of January,
+1754, having faithfully accomplished what he had undertaken.
+
+East of this old town, a small stream, which rises in the center of
+the Peninsula, runs southeast and empties into College Creek. Very
+near the head-waters of this stream another has its rise, which runs
+north to the York River, and is called Queen's Creek. On both streams
+there are mills. The main road from Yorktown to Williamsburg runs on
+the high land between the head-waters of the creeks. About a mile east
+of the town the road forks. General Magruder had thrown up a strong
+fortification at that point, which contained thirteen guns, and was
+called Fort Magruder. There were ten other earthworks which effectually
+commanded the roads, the ravines, and all the approaches from the east.
+
+In pursuing Magruder, General Stoneman, with the cavalry and Gibson's
+battery, went up the Yorktown road, and came out of the dense forest
+in front of Fort Magruder. The guns opened fire, throwing shells,
+which killed and wounded several of the cavalrymen. Gibson brought his
+battery into position and replied. The Sixth United States Cavalry
+moved on towards the fort, but were met by infantry and cavalry, and
+were compelled to fall back with the loss of thirty men. Gibson was
+obliged to move his guns, for the batteries in the fort had the range
+of his position. The mud was deep, and one of the guns sunk to the
+axle. The horses tugged and pulled, but they also sunk. Other horses
+were added, but the ground was marshy, and gun and horses went still
+deeper.
+
+The Rebel gunners saw the confusion, and threw their shells upon the
+spot. Some burst harmlessly in the air, some fell into the mud, others
+tore up the ground and covered the artillerymen and teamsters with
+earth, others burst among the horses and men. The Rebel infantry came
+down upon the run, and Captain Gibson was obliged to leave.
+
+The night came on dark and dismal. The rain fell in torrents. The
+troops who had been marching all day were drenched. The roads were
+narrow and muddy. There was a want of arrangement in the order of
+marching, and the divisions became confused. Wagons broke down,
+artillery sunk in the mire; but the troops were eager to get at the
+enemy, who had eluded their commander, first at Manassas, and now at
+Yorktown. They marched, some of them, till midnight, and then, without
+kindling a fire, lay down drenched, upon the dead forest leaves, having
+had no dinner, and without a supper. The rain-drops dripped from the
+trees through the night, but the soldiers were in line at daybreak,
+ready to move again in pursuit of the enemy.
+
+General Hooker being in advance upon the Lee's Mills road, came upon
+the enemy's pickets posted along a deep ravine above the mill-pond, on
+the stream which empties into College Creek.
+
+General Smith's division, when the army advanced from Yorktown, was on
+the Lee's Mills road, but it moved towards the north and came in front
+of the enemy on the Yorktown road.
+
+  [Illustration: BATTLE OF WILLIAMSBURG.
+  1 Hooker.
+  2 Hancock.
+  3 Sumner.
+  4 Longstreet.
+  5 Hill.
+  6 Fort Magruder.
+  7 Williamsburg.]
+
+General Hooker's skirmishers, as soon as they saw the enemy, dashed on
+and drove them across the ravine, and approached within musket-shot of
+the fort. The artillery in the fort opened with a rapid fire of shells,
+but the skirmishers concealed themselves in the underbrush, and gave
+so deadly a fire that they silenced the guns. No gunner could show his
+head without getting a ball through it.
+
+General Hooker formed his division in line of battle. His first
+brigade was commanded by General Sickles, and was composed of the
+First, Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Excelsior regiments from New
+York. His second brigade, General Grover's, was composed of the First
+and Eleventh Massachusetts, Second New Hampshire, and Twenty-sixth
+Pennsylvania. The third brigade was composed of the Fifth, Sixth,
+Seventh, and Eighth New Jersey regiments, and was commanded by Colonel
+Starr,--in all, about eight thousand men.
+
+The First Massachusetts had the left of the line, then the Second New
+Hampshire, Eleventh Massachusetts, with the Twenty-sixth Pennsylvania
+on the right. The other brigades did not arrive till nearly noon. They
+formed on the left of Grover's brigade, towards the mill-pond.
+
+The Rebel force in position behind the forts is supposed to have been
+about thirty thousand, commanded by General Longstreet. A Rebel officer
+states that it numbered not over twenty-five thousand.[18]
+
+  [Footnote 18: Battle-Fields of the South, by an English Officer in
+  the Confederate Army. London.]
+
+During the forenoon but a small force confronted General Grover's
+brigade, but in the afternoon dark columns appeared south of the fort,
+and, advancing down the ravines, crossed the stream above the mill-pond.
+
+They attacked General Hooker's left wing in great force. The
+skirmishers were driven in. Bramhall's battery came into position as
+the enemy advanced. "Shell with short fuses!" shouted the captain to
+his gunners.
+
+The shells exploded in, around, and above the advancing columns, which
+still kept coming on. The musketry began,--quick and sharp volleys; yet
+the lines came on, across the open space, through the woods.
+
+"Canister and spherical case!" was the order to the gunners. The cannon
+spouted a deadly fire, filling the air with terrible hail. The Rebel
+lines were checked. Foiled in the attack upon the center, they advanced
+once more upon the left flank, and the contest went on with increasing
+fury, like the rising of a winter tempest.
+
+Grover and Sickles held their ground tenaciously, but were forced back
+inch by inch and step by step.
+
+The contest was in the edge of the forest, over fallen trees, where men
+fell headlong in their endeavors to take new positions. The rain was
+falling, the ground was miry. The men were worn and weary; but they
+fought on, minding not hunger or thirst or exhaustion, calling for
+ammunition. Their cartridge-boxes were empty, but they would not turn
+their backs upon the enemy, or desert their comrades whose cartridges
+still held out.
+
+From noon till four o'clock General Hooker fought unaided. He sent to
+Sumner for reinforcements, but Sumner felt that he could not spare any
+men from his front. He sent officers to bring up the brigades in the
+rear.
+
+General McClellan was at Yorktown, and did not know there was a battle
+going on till late in the day.
+
+The Rebels saw that Hooker received no reinforcements, and pressed him
+heavily. His troops supporting some of the batteries gave way. The
+Rebels came on in a desperate charge, shot the horses, and five cannon
+fell into their hands.
+
+"Reinforcements! I want reinforcements!" was Hooker's cry. The
+impetuous Kearney, whose division was the last to leave Yorktown, had
+heard the roar of battle, and rode ahead of his troops. He was an old
+soldier, had stormed the heights of Chapultepec, and was with Louis
+Napoleon in the great battle of Solferino. He started back to hasten
+forward his division, but it was already advancing.
+
+The brave, energetic, resolute Berry, who commanded one of Kearney's
+brigades, met an aide of General Sumner's.
+
+"Who is engaged at the front?" he asked.
+
+"Hooker is at it."
+
+"Is he supported by Sumner?"
+
+"No. Sumner is taking position farther to the right."
+
+The road was filled with teams and troops of other brigades belonging
+to Sumner's corps. Berry looked at the blockade a moment, then said to
+a captain of one of his batteries,--
+
+"Captain, go ahead and clear the road for my brigade."
+
+"Let the march be upon the double-quick," was the order sent down the
+line.
+
+"Clear the road!" was the authoritative order sent up the line. The
+troops, the wagons, the artillery, the ambulances, turned aside, and
+the brigade went on.
+
+His quick ear caught the sound of musketry,--a constant, steady rattle,
+like the pattering of the rain-drops on the dead leaves.
+
+"Throw aside your knapsacks, and place a guard over them," was his
+order. The men, panting for breath, came to a halt, threw their heavy
+knapsacks into a heap, and went on again, faster than before.
+
+Kearney met them. "You have done well, General," was his salutation to
+Berry. He stimulated the men, and fired their ardor with his own wild
+enthusiasm. They rushed on through by-paths, across pastures and fields.
+
+Hooker's line was giving way. It had been pushed back a mile, had
+lost a portion of its guns, and the exultant enemy were advancing for
+a decisive, a finishing stroke. Many had fired their last round of
+ammunition, and stood with empty muskets. How earnestly they looked
+towards the rear to see if the promised aid was ever to arrive!
+
+Help at last. A dark column comes through the woods upon the run. A
+wild, tumultuous cheer rends the air. The men who are ready to drop
+from sheer exhaustion, who have confronted the enemy through the
+lagging hours, feel new strength as Berry sweeps past them, deploys his
+line right and left, and becomes a living barrier between them and the
+tide already rolling on over the bloody field. The enemy advances, but
+whole ranks go down before the deadly volleys given point-blank into
+their faces by that body of men whose brows are wet with the sweat of
+their fast running. The breaker is broken. The wave which was ready
+to sweep Hooker from the face of the earth, instead of setting onward,
+begins to recede. It is beaten down before the fiery breath pouring
+like a furnace blast from the three thousand muskets.
+
+The Rebels retreat. Berry advances. His volleys are steady and regular.
+Nothing can daunt his men. They feel that they are a power. Kearney
+sees that the time has come to decide the day.
+
+"Give them the bayonet!" is the thrilling order which rings along the
+line.
+
+An officer, young in years, fair of countenance, polished in manner,
+who has traveled at home and abroad, the same who in the silent hours
+of the last night at Yorktown wrote his last will and testament, the
+adjutant of General Berry, leads the men from Michigan. His voice rings
+loud and clear above the wild uproar. The men follow where he leads,
+into the leaden rain. They fall by scores, but on--on--on,--over the
+bloody field,--over fallen friends and foes,--they press the foe,
+regaining the ground, the lost cannon,--the victory!
+
+"You are the hero of the day," said Kearney to Captain Smith, who had
+led the charge so gallantly, as he returned and reported for further
+duty, his clothes torn by the bullets of the enemy.
+
+While this was transpiring on the left, there was its counterpart on
+the right.
+
+General Hancock was detached by General Smith to cross the milldam at
+Queen's Creek, and attack the Rebels in that direction. He crossed
+the stream with the Sixth Maine, Fourth Wisconsin, Forty-ninth
+Pennsylvania, and Forty-third New York, Wheeler's battery, and a
+squadron of cavalry.
+
+He came upon a small party of Rebels, who rapidly retreated.
+
+"I can go to Fort Magruder if well supported," was the despatch he sent
+back to General Smith.
+
+He could see the fort across the open plain, smoking and flaming and
+throwing shells upon Hooker's command. General Smith sent the message
+to General Sumner, requesting permission to send supports.
+
+"Stay where you are," was the reply.
+
+Again Hancock sent for permission to go on. Smith sent the request to
+Sumner.
+
+"Go," was the welcome answer.
+
+The troops were on the march, when an aide from Sumner stopped the
+movement. The Rebels were threatening an attack on the center.
+
+"I want more force to support us. The enemy is coming in superior force
+to attack me," was Hancock's third message.
+
+His position was in a field near a farm-house, where the Rebels had
+thrown up a square redoubt, which they had abandoned.
+
+From the farm-house to the woods west of it there was a rail-fence.
+Hancock threw out his skirmishers towards Fort Magruder, beyond
+the farm-house. Wheeler's battery was brought up and placed upon a
+knoll near the house. The Fifth Wisconsin and Forty-Third New York
+were stationed west of the house behind the fence. The Forty-ninth
+Pennsylvania was placed behind the house. Two companies of the Sixth
+Maine held the abandoned redoubt, while the other companies of that
+regiment were placed in support of the battery.
+
+Two brigades of Rebels marched out from the forest into the field.
+Wheeler's battery opened with shells. The Rebels were half a mile
+distant, but, notwithstanding the fire, they moved steadily and rapidly
+over the intervening space. The skirmishers which had been thrown out
+from Hancock returned to the lines. The Rebels were near enough for
+canister, and the six pieces of cannon threw it into the advancing
+line. The Rebel cavalry dashed upon the Fifth Wisconsin, but only to
+lose a dozen men and horses. The infantry were close upon Wheeler, who
+covered the hillock with a murky cloud. Suddenly his fire ceased, then
+with whip and spur and shout the pieces went to the rear and took a new
+position and opened again. The regiments by the fence fell back and
+closed up in closer order. The Rebels again advanced, and the musketry
+began. The fight was at short range. The battery fired shell, canister,
+and shrapnel, and made terrible havoc.
+
+Hancock saw that the moment for decisive action had come. He waved his
+cap to his troops. The officers along the line understood the meaning
+of the signal. They spoke but one magical word. The men, as if animated
+by an electric impulse, moved towards the enemy. Their bayonets became
+a gleaming, glittering, bristling, moving hedge. They broke into a run.
+Each man felt the enthusiasm of the moment. They heeded not the deadly
+volleys, but went on through the storm, with a cheer louder than the
+roar of the battle.
+
+The Rebels did not wait to receive the blow, but fled in confusion from
+the field.
+
+It was a glorious moment. Berry at that instant was throwing in a
+living barrier against the flood which had swept Hooker back. The
+battle was won. Night came on. It had rained through the day, and the
+men, victorious at last, lay down to sleep upon the field, while the
+Rebels fled towards Richmond, leaving several cannon, many wagons, and
+several hundred of their wounded in Williamsburg.
+
+The total Union loss was two thousand two hundred and eighty-eight. The
+loss to the Rebels was from two thousand five hundred to three thousand.
+
+"Our loss amounted to about two thousand five hundred," says the
+chaplain of the Fourth Texas.
+
+When the news of the battle reached Richmond there was great
+consternation, which was increased by the news of the blowing up of the
+Merrimack on the morning of the 11th of May.
+
+"In the President's mansion about this time all was consternation and
+dismay," says Pollard, the Southern historian.[19]
+
+  [Footnote 19: Southern History of the War, Vol. II. p. 31.]
+
+Jefferson Davis's niece wrote a letter to a friend in Vicksburg, but
+the mail-bag was captured by the Yankee pickets.
+
+"General Johnston," said the young lady, "is falling back from the
+Peninsula, and Uncle Jeff thinks we had better go to a safer place than
+Richmond. O mother! Uncle Jeff is miserable. He tries to be cheerful
+and bear up against such a continuation of troubles, but oh! I fear he
+cannot live long, if he does not get some rest and quiet.
+
+"Our reverses distressed him so much, and he is so weak and feeble, it
+makes my heart ache to look at him. He knows that he ought to send his
+wife and children away, and yet he cannot bear to part with them, and
+we all dread to leave him too. Varina and I had a hard cry about it
+to-day.
+
+"O, what a blow the fall of New Orleans was! It like to have set us all
+crazy here. Everybody looks depressed, and the cause of the Confederacy
+looks drooping and sinking; but if God is with us, who can be against
+us? Our troops are not doing as well as we expected.... The regiments
+most apt to run are from North Carolina and Tennessee.... I am afraid
+that Richmond will fall into the hands of the enemy, as there is no way
+to keep back the gunboats. James River is so high that all obstructions
+are in danger of being washed away, so that there is no help for the
+city....
+
+"Uncle Jeff was confirmed last Tuesday in St. Paul's Church, by Bishop
+Johns. He was baptized at home, in the morning, before church."[20]
+
+  [Footnote 20: Southern History, Vol. II. p. 31.]
+
+The Confederate Congress adjourned hastily. They sent off their
+families. The railroad trains going out were crowded with passengers.
+The public documents were boxed up and sent away. Mrs. Jefferson Davis
+took down her window-curtains, tore up the carpets, packed her silver
+plate and pictures, and left the city.[21] The Treasury Department
+removed its printing-presses to Georgia, and everybody prepared to
+leave the city, which they feared was doomed to fall into the hands of
+the Yankees.
+
+  [Footnote 21: Estvan's War Pictures from the South, p. 271.]
+
+When the Merrimack was blown up, the James River was open to the
+gunboats to Fort Darling, within ten miles of Richmond. The fort
+mounted four guns. Three of the gunboats bombarded it on the 13th, but
+were not able to silence the guns.
+
+General McClellan's transports were at Yorktown and Fortress
+Monroe,--an immense fleet. His army was within five miles of the James.
+It will be for the future historian to inquire whether the army ought
+not to have been sent up the James instead of the Chickahominy.
+
+After the battle of Antietam, a wounded Rebel officer who was
+left behind when Lee retreated, and who was General Magruder's
+Adjutant-General, conversed freely upon the Peninsular campaign.
+
+"We were very much surprised at Yorktown," he said, "when we saw
+General McClellan make preparations for a siege."
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"Yes, for we were ready to retreat at any moment. We had only a handful
+of men compared with his great army."
+
+"How many men had Magruder at that time?"
+
+"Not more than nine thousand and five hundred fit for duty, and they
+were strung out on a line thirteen miles long, from Gloucester to James
+River. If General McClellan had acted with vigor, and pushed our center
+as soon as he landed, he could have trampled us all down in the mud."
+
+"But you had a large number of cannon, which swept the approaches, and
+could have inflicted great damage."
+
+"He could have covered his real attack by feints on distant parts of
+the line, and Magruder's force was so small that he could not have
+resisted an earnest attack. The woods were so dense that McClellan
+could have effectually concealed all his movements."
+
+"Some of General McClellan's officers were in favor of advancing at
+once."
+
+"It was, in my judgment, if you will allow a Rebel to criticise your
+generals," said the officer with a smile, "his first mistake."
+
+"Then you think it was a mistake on the part of General McClellan."
+
+"Yes, for Lee's army had not reached us. Every day's delay on the
+part of General McClellan gave us reinforcements. It gave us time
+to fortify Richmond. The Confederate army was much reduced at that
+time. The term of enlistments of many regiments had expired, and the
+Conscription Act had not been enforced. The fortunes of the Confederacy
+at that time were not very bright, I must confess. Even the Confederate
+Congress closed its session and left Richmond, and, had it not been for
+McClellan's delay and the energy with which troops from all quarters
+were conscripted and rushed into Richmond, it would have gone hard with
+us. And when we evacuated Yorktown, General McClellan did not do as I
+should have done, had I commanded you Yankees."
+
+"Ah! how so?"
+
+"The Virginia, or the Merrimack, as you call her, was blown up on the
+10th. It was a bitter pill to us, and if I were Jefferson Davis I would
+hang old Huger, who commanded at Norfolk, for his cowardly conduct
+in evacuating the place. When the Merrimack was destroyed, General
+McClellan, instead of following us up the Peninsula through the mud,
+ought to have re-embarked his troops and made all haste up the James.
+Your gunboats went up to Fort Darling and got smashed, but if he had
+landed below the Fort he could have carried it from the rear with his
+infantry, for we had few troops there. He could have then brought his
+gunboats to Richmond ahead of us who were paddling in the mud of the
+Chickahominy."
+
+"I suppose that General McClellan did what he thought was best at the
+time."
+
+"Probably; but it happened to be the very best movement he could have
+made for us," said the officer, with a smile.
+
+There was much suffering in the hospitals on the Peninsula. The medical
+department was not well organized, but the delegates of the Christian
+and Sanitary Commissions were present, and saved the lives of many men.
+
+They saw a soldier in a tent one day who was fast passing away. He had
+fought his last battle with the enemy of his country. He was a noble
+man, but he was worn out by disease. He had worked in the slimy swamps,
+on the fortifications, and was covered with filth. He had lost all his
+strength, and was so weak that he could not raise his hand to his head.
+They washed him, changed his clothing, lifted him from the damp ground
+and placed him on a cot, gave him nourishing food, talked to him of
+home, of mother, of Jesus, his best friend, of a better world. The
+soldier tried to thank them, but was too weak to articulate the words.
+He could only take the chaplain's hand, press it to his cheek, and
+bathe it with tears of gratitude.
+
+Thus the friends at home, by their Christian sympathy and charity,
+sustained and comforted the brave defenders of their country, in their
+last hours.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+ON THE CHICKAHOMINY.
+
+
+On the 16th of May the whole army, with the exception of Hooker's
+division, which remained at Williamsburg, was at the White House on the
+Pamunkey, where a permanent depot was established. The cavalry under
+General Stoneman, and the infantry pickets, were on the banks of the
+Chickahominy.
+
+General McClellan called for reinforcements. In response, the President
+informed him, on the 18th, that General McDowell had been ordered to
+march from Fredericksburg to join him by the shortest route, but was
+also ordered to keep himself in position to cover Washington, and
+General McClellan was instructed to open communication with him.
+
+"This order," says General McClellan, "rendered it impossible for
+me to use the James River as a line of operations, and forced me to
+establish our depots on the Pamunkey, and to approach Richmond from
+the north. It frustrated the plan of the campaign."
+
+It will be for the future historian to determine whether the order to
+General McDowell to move overland compelled General McClellan to take
+the Chickahominy route, and frustrated the plan of the campaign, or
+whether, on the other hand, he had not chosen the route, by moving from
+Williamsburg on the 10th, and establishing his head-quarters and depots
+at White House, and throwing out his cavalry and pickets to Bottom's
+Bridge on the Chickahominy on the 16th, two days before the orders were
+issued.
+
+The Chickahominy River runs north of Richmond, flows southeast, and
+becomes an affluent of the James above Williamsburg. It is fringed
+with forests and bordered by marshy lands, which at high water become
+impassable swamps, but at low water the stream is fordable in many
+places. The Rebels destroyed all the bridges as they retreated to
+Richmond.
+
+The army came to the river at Bottom's Bridge. The Eleventh Maine was
+in the advance. They were brave, hardy men, from the lumber-swamps of
+the Pine-Tree State. The Rebel pickets saw them, set the bridge on
+fire, and fled. The Maine men gave them a volley, rushed forward, used
+their caps for fire-buckets, and extinguished the flames, and with
+their axes soon had it repaired for the use of the army.
+
+Heintzelman's and Keyes's corps crossed to the southern bank, while
+the other corps pushed up the northern bank, towards Coal Harbor and
+Mechanicsville.
+
+
+THE AFFAIR AT HANOVER COURT-HOUSE.
+
+Fourteen miles north of Richmond is Hanover Court-House. A Rebel
+force was stationed there, commanded by General Branch. On the 27th
+of May, General Fitz-John Porter, with Emory's brigade of cavalry,
+and Martindale's, Butterfield's, McQuade's, and Warren's brigades of
+infantry, proceeded to drive the Rebels from the place, and make a
+junction with McDowell. At noon General Emory, with the cavalry, came
+upon the enemy about two miles east of the Court-House, where the road
+forks,--the right hand road leading to the Court-House, the left hand
+to Ashland.
+
+Berdan's sharpshooters and Martindale's brigade were near by, and
+General Porter formed in line of battle. The sharpshooters were thrown
+forward as skirmishers. Benson's battery came into position in a field
+on the right-hand side of the road, and commenced throwing shells over
+the heads of the sharpshooters.
+
+The Rebels were posted on a hill near a farm-house,--their line
+reaching across both roads. General Martindale went up the Ashland
+road, driving in the skirmishers. The soldiers heard the whistle of
+a locomotive, and saw a train of cars upon the Virginia Central road
+bringing reinforcements to the Rebels. Captain Griffin's batteries
+were brought up, and a vigorous fire opened upon the railroad. The
+Twenty-second Massachusetts and Second Maine were thrown forward to the
+railroad. They tore up the track, and cut the telegraph-wire, under
+cover of the heavy fire of the artillery.
+
+While this was transpiring on the Ashland road, there was a sharp
+contest on the road leading to Hanover. The Rebel infantry, concealed
+in the woods, opened a rapid fire upon the Twenty-fifth New York, which
+killed Lieutenant Fisk and wounded Lieutenant-Colonel Savage, and a
+number of the men. The Rebels sprang from the woods upon the regiment,
+and captured several prisoners. Colonel Johnson, commanding the
+regiment, fell back upon the reserve, which was coming into position
+in the rear, composed of the Seventeenth New York, Eighty-third
+Pennsylvania in the front line, and the Twelfth New York and Sixteenth
+Michigan in the second. They charged over the field, through the
+hollow, up the slope beyond, and came upon the Rebel batteries by
+the farm-house so rapidly, and with such force, that they captured a
+twelve-pound gun, which the enemy had not time to remove. The Rebels
+retreated towards the Court-House, followed by the cavalry, and all the
+artillery and infantry except Martindale's brigade. General Martindale
+sent two of his regiments up the railroad to join the main force at the
+Court-House, while he remained with the Second Maine, Twenty-fifth New
+York, a portion of the Forty-fourth New York, and two guns of Martin's
+battery.
+
+While waiting and resting with this small force, after the exciting
+encounter of the afternoon, he was suddenly attacked by the Rebels, who
+greatly outnumbered him, and who by a surprise hoped to rout and defeat
+him, and cut off General Porter from the main command. But for more
+than an hour he held his ground, till the column which had gone to the
+Court-House turned back and rejoined him.
+
+As soon as General Porter heard the firing, he moved the Thirteenth
+and Fourteenth New York and Griffin's batteries down the road upon the
+double-quick. The Ninth Massachusetts and Sixty-second Pennsylvania
+were sent through the woods, across the angle between the Hanover
+and Ashland roads, while the Eighty-third Pennsylvania and Sixteenth
+Michigan pushed down the railroad. The troops last named moved with
+great rapidity. They came suddenly upon the left flank of the enemy.
+The Rebels evidently were not expecting to be attacked from that
+quarter. They fled through the woods in great confusion. The cavalry
+rode among them, and hundreds threw down their arms and gave themselves
+up as prisoners.
+
+General McClellan, in his Report, thus speaks of this gallant affair:
+"Some two hundred of the enemy's dead were buried by our troops,
+seven hundred and thirty prisoners sent to the rear, one twelve-pound
+howitzer, one caisson, a large number of small arms, and two railroad
+trains captured." The Union loss amounted to fifty-three killed and
+three hundred and forty-four wounded and missing.
+
+The force encountered was General Branch's division of North Carolina
+and Georgia troops, numbering about nine thousand. Their camp at
+Hanover Court-House was taken and destroyed.
+
+General Porter fell back to Coal Harbor. The engineers made a survey of
+the Chickahominy and of the approaches to Richmond, and began to build
+bridges across the stream and throw up earthworks.
+
+The days were hot and sultry. There were heavy thunder-storms,
+succeeded by intense heat. The soldiers were provided with axes and
+shovels, and were set to work in the dark, miry swamps, working all day
+up to their waists in the muddy water. Disease in all its frightful
+forms of fever and dysentery made its appearance. The air was full of
+malaria. Hundreds died and thousands were sent to the hospitals.
+
+One day a fine youth, who with ardor and enthusiasm had enlisted as a
+soldier, was brought into the hospital. He had been taken violently and
+suddenly with fever while in the marshes. The nurses laid him on a cot,
+gave him cold water, bathed his hot brows. He had a likeness of his
+mother, who had gone into the better land, and of his sister, who was
+far away in his pleasant home, in a gold locket on his neck. He dreamed
+and talked of home, and said, "I have a sister on my heart,--a sister
+on my heart,--a sister,--a sister."
+
+The disease made rapid progress. The fever burned within,--a consuming
+flame which, before sunrise, had devoured all his young life. He was
+buried in the afternoon beneath the forest trees.
+
+It was wearing work, the bridge-building, the construction of roads,
+and throwing up of intrenchments. Besides, there was the necessity of
+keeping close watch upon the enemy. If there were sad scenes, there
+were also amusing incidents.
+
+A party of Maine boys, on picket, one day, saw a pair of wagon-wheels.
+Not far off were the Rebel pickets, in an open field. The Down-East
+Yankees thought they would have some fun. They mounted a log upon the
+wheels, brought the mock cannon into position. One of them pretended
+to sponge it, another put in the cartridge, a third primed, a fourth
+sighted it, while a fifth stood ready to fire. The Rebels watched the
+operation a moment, and then scampered for the woods to get under
+cover! The Maine boys did not fire, but had a merry chuckle among
+themselves, and a hearty laugh with their comrades when they told the
+story in camp.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+FAIR OAKS.
+
+
+Seven miles from Richmond, near the York River Railroad, there is a
+grove of oaks, so green, so beautiful and fair, that the railroad
+station has received the name of Fair Oaks. A highway from Richmond
+crosses the railroad near the station called the Nine-Mile Road. The
+railroad runs east and the Nine-Mile Road southeast. The highway from
+Richmond to Williamsburg runs parallel to the railroad about a mile
+south of it, and is crossed by the Nine-Mile Road, a mile southeast
+from Fair Oaks. At the junction of the two highways are seven pines,
+standing in a cluster on the south side of the Williamsburg road.
+
+The country around is level and covered mainly by a dense forest, but
+there is cleared land along the Williamsburg road toward Richmond. On
+the 23d of May, General Keyes was ordered to advance to Fair Oaks and
+hold the position. General Couch's division was halted at Seven Pines,
+while Casey's was thrown forward to Fair Oaks, encamped on Baker's
+farm. General Keyes cut down the trees in front of his line beyond Fair
+Oaks to form an abattis. They were also felled in front of Couch.
+
+On Friday night, the 30th of May, there was a terrific thunder-storm.
+The heavens were sheets of flame, and the clouds poured torrents of
+water which deluged the country and flooded the Chickahominy.
+
+Early in the morning on Saturday, the 31st, it was whispered in the
+Rebel camp that General Johnston was going to attack the Yankees who
+were South of the Chickahominy.[22]
+
+  [Footnote 22: Battle-Fields of the South.]
+
+"In such weather?" it was asked.
+
+"The bridges are washed away, and it is impossible for McClellan to
+send over his right and center to the assistance of his left. His army
+is divided, and we can crush the force on the south side before he can
+reinforce it," was the answer.
+
+General Huger's division moved out from Richmond at six o'clock, taking
+the Charles City road, which is south of the Williamsburg road, and
+which runs south of White-Oak Swamp. He was to make a long and rapid
+march east, then turn north, cross the Swamp, gain the rear of General
+Couch, and cut off his retreat to Bottom's Bridge. He was to reach his
+position and begin the attack at eight o'clock. General Longstreet's
+division moved down the Williamsburg road and halted in the woods.
+General Whiting moved down the Nine-Mile Road and halted in the woods
+in front of Fair Oaks.
+
+President Davis and his Cabinet went out with Longstreet to see the
+fight. Eight o'clock--nine o'clock--ten--passed, and there was no
+sound of Huger's guns. He was toiling in the mud, moving at a snail's
+pace. Longstreet and Whiting were impatiently waiting, concealed from
+observation in the woods.
+
+At ten o'clock, General Keyes's pickets captured an aide of General
+Johnston in the edge of the woods. He was brought before General Keyes.
+While the General was talking with him, two musket-shots were fired in
+the woods, which produced an emotion in the young officer so marked
+that it was noticed by General Keyes, who feared that something might
+be going on in his front, and who immediately issued orders for his
+troops to be under arms.
+
+Eleven o'clock came, and General Longstreet, getting out of patience
+at Huger's delay, ordered his troops to advance and begin the attack.
+His skirmishers went through the woods quickly, and came upon Casey's
+skirmishers on the Williamsburg road, and the firing began. But his
+regiments were slow in getting on. His artillery sank in the mud.
+
+The rapid increase of the fire along the picket line alarmed General
+Keyes, who made quick preparations for whatever might happen.
+
+  [Illustration: BATTLE OF FAIR OAKS.
+
+  =UNION TROOPS.=
+  1 Casey's division.
+  2 Couch's "
+  3 Heintzelman's corps.
+  4 Sumner's "
+
+  =REBEL TROOPS.=
+  5 Whiting.
+  6 Longstreet.
+  7 Anderson.
+
+  8 Fair Oaks.
+  9 Seven Pines.][23]
+
+  [Footnote 23: The diagram represents the position of the troops
+  at the beginning of the battle.]
+
+Casey's division faced towards Richmond; Naglee's brigade was on the
+railroad,--two regiments north of it; Wessell's brigade was in the
+center, near "Fair Oaks," and Palmer's was on the left, south of the
+Williamsburg road. Spratt's battery was near the Oaks. Regan's battery
+was in rear of Spratt's. Bates's battery was south of the Williamsburg
+road, in a redoubt, while Fitch's battery was in rear of the redoubt.
+Couch's division at Seven Pines was lying with Graham's brigade between
+the Williamsburg road and the railroad, Devens's brigade on the
+Williamsburg road, and Peck's brigade on the left.
+
+Up to twelve o'clock there was little firing except by the pickets, and
+the men in Casey's command laid aside their arms and prepared to eat
+dinner. Soon after noon two shells were thrown into Casey's camp.
+
+Suddenly there was a heavy roll of musketry in the woods. Officers
+sprang to their feet. They knew that it portended trouble. There was a
+quick saddling of horses and buckling on of belts. Orders were issued
+in imperious tones.
+
+The men left their coffee-pots and plates of rice, seized their guns,
+and formed in line.
+
+Casey's division was composed of undisciplined troops which had joined
+the army after its arrival upon the Peninsula. The men had had no
+experience, and yet they were placed in advance, nearest the enemy,--an
+oversight which was dearly paid for.
+
+The force which Johnston had brought out numbered not far from thirty
+thousand. Casey's division numbered not far from seven thousand.
+Like an avalanche was the advance of the Rebels upon this small,
+undisciplined force. Generals Anderson, D. H. Hill, Jenkins, Pegram,
+and Wilcox swept along the Williamsburg road, striking Palmer's brigade
+on the left flank.
+
+General Casey's pickets were but a short distance from camp, and
+they came streaming back in confusion, followed by the Rebels in
+masses. General Keyes saw that it was no feint, but an attack by an
+overwhelming force. He despatched a messenger to General Heintzelman,
+who was behind him towards Bottom's Bridge, for reinforcements. The
+firing became quick and heavy. General Sumner, three miles distant
+across the Chickahominy, heard it, and ordered his command under arms.
+The aide sent to Heintzelman lost his way in the woods, and was a long
+while in bearing the important message. Keyes saw that there was danger
+on Casey's left, south of the Williamsburg road, where the Rebels were
+appearing in great force, and he ordered Peck's brigade of Couch's
+division to advance and support Palmer. Spratt's battery, near Fair
+Oaks, opened upon the Rebels as they came through the woods on the
+right, supported by the Eleventh Maine, One Hundredth New York, One
+Hundred and Fourth Pennsylvania, and Ninety-Second New York.
+
+In the center, the One Hundred and Third Pennsylvania was sent forward
+to sustain the pickets, but quickly returned in confusion.
+
+The Rebel lines came into the open field, following the retreating
+pickets. All of Casey's guns opened with canister, and the fire was
+so severe that General Hill ordered his men to lie down, as it was
+impossible to advance in the face of such a storm.[24] General Hill
+dismounted from his horse, and criticised the fire of the different
+batteries. Longstreet's line was more than a mile in extent, and yet
+Huger and Whiting had not fired a cartridge. The fire was so terrible
+from the batteries, and from Palmer's, Wessell's, and Naglee's lines,
+that Longstreet changed his plan of attack, and, instead of advancing
+directly upon the center, attacked on both flanks. Some of his
+regiments filed towards the south, and crept through the bushes unseen
+by Casey. The others moved north, some in front of Naglee, and prepared
+to charge upon Spratt's battery. General Casey saw the plan. He rode
+along the line, called upon three of Naglee's regiments to drive the
+enemy into the woods. There was a rail-fence between the combatants,
+but the troops sprang over it with a cheer, formed in line, and fought
+the enemy face to face. The battle raged with great fury around the
+Oaks.
+
+  [Footnote 24: Battle-Fields of the South, Vol. II. p. 4]
+
+The enemy was held in check a few minutes by the three regiments, but,
+being superior, advanced once more, firing as they came on. Naglee held
+his ground till the fighting was at close quarters,--till some of the
+Eleventh Maine were bayoneted. The order to retreat was given, and the
+lines fell back, followed closely by the enemy, who made a rush for
+Spratt's battery, and captured one of the guns.
+
+Elated, the Rebels halted to reform their lines, before pushing on to
+other successes. But while re-forming, Bates and Fitch opened wide gaps
+in their ranks at every discharge of grape and canister. Once more
+they came on, shouting and screaming, and delivering their volleys and
+receiving the steady fire streaming from the rifles of Naglee's line,
+reinforced now by a regiment from General Peck's brigade of Couch's
+division.
+
+Their line of march is from southwest to northeast. They come upon the
+left of Naglee's position, curling round his flank, and pouring a
+cross fire into the rifle-pits. Colonel Bailey, Major Van Valkenburg,
+and Adjutant Ramsey of the artillery are killed, other officers are
+wounded. The advancing host leap over the slight earthworks, seize the
+guns, and prepare to turn them upon the backs of the men on Naglee's
+right. It is no use to contend for the ground or the guns against the
+superior force, and the men fall back once more. Casey's whole line
+also retreats to that held by General Couch.
+
+Up to this moment, Longstreet's grand division only has been engaged;
+but two regiments of General Couch's division, who are moving up the
+railroad to support Naglee, see across the field beyond the Fair Oaks
+long lines of men,--some standing in battle line, and others advancing
+in column along the railroad. It is Whiting, who is deploying his
+forces from the Nine-Mile Road.
+
+General Couch is made acquainted with the fact. He sends for the other
+two regiments of the brigade. Whiting pours his troops into the gap
+between Naglee and Couch, and cuts off the four regiments from the
+troops at Seven Pines.
+
+The regiments thus isolated are thrown back towards Grape-Vine Bridge.
+
+While this is transpiring on the right, there is disaster in the
+center, and on the left. The Rebels there are pushing on. Keyes rallies
+his troops. He sends forward regiment after regiment from his second
+line, to strengthen that in front, to hold his ground if possible,
+but it is growing thin. It sways to and fro, and breaks at last. It
+crumbles, piecemeal,--the troops hastening towards the Seven Pines. He
+has one regiment still in reserve,--the Tenth Massachusetts.
+
+He throws it into the broken gap. It requires nerve and muscle to
+march in where all are fleeing,--to be a breakwater where the flood
+sweeps all before it. But the regiment goes in as cheerfully as to a
+dress-parade. They deliver their volleys with deliberate aim. They hold
+their ground.
+
+Three hundred yards in the rear, Heintzelman, Keyes, Casey, Naglee, and
+other officers are rallying the men. Fugitives are stopped, regiments
+which have been so stubbornly contesting the ground are induced to try
+it once more.
+
+"Had that regiment been two minutes later," says General Keyes, "they
+would have been too late to occupy that fine position, and it would
+have been impossible to have formed the next and last line of battle,
+which stemmed the tide of defeat and turned it toward a victory."[25]
+
+  [Footnote 25: Keyes's Report.]
+
+Thus far the Rebels have had it all their own way. Casey has been
+driven a mile. His camp is in the hands of Longstreet. He has lost many
+guns. Longstreet has made so good a beginning that, although Huger
+has not made his appearance from the South, the prospect is good for
+overwhelming the Union force on the southern bank.
+
+But other actors arrive upon the ground,--the men who tossed their
+knapsacks into the woods at Williamsburg,--who became a wall of adamant
+on that memorable field. Berry and Jameson march up the Williamsburg
+road and move out upon the left of the line forming behind the Tenth
+Massachusetts. Berry pushes down into the border of the swamp; Jameson
+sends one regiment to Peck and one to Birney, and moves straight on
+towards the abattis of fallen trees in front of Couch's line along the
+Williamsburg road with his two remaining regiments. His men lie down
+behind the fallen trees and pour their volleys into the advancing foe,
+moving on in stately grandeur. Jameson, unmindful of the storm around
+him, rides up and down the line, exposed to the fire of the enemy, not
+a hundred yards distant. Sheltered by the abattis, his two regiments
+are immovable. Like a hillock in the path of an avalanche, they turn
+the overwhelming force aside. It flows round them, right and left, but
+does not advance along the road.
+
+Berry, far down in the woods towards White Oak Swamp, is pouring
+a terrible fire upon the masses, who still press toward Seven
+Pines. He holds them in check, repulsing all the assaults. There,
+in the thickest of the fight, is that young officer who made his
+last will and testament at Yorktown,--the "hero of the day" at
+Williamsburg,--animating the troops by his fearless daring, and there
+he gives his life to his country, shot through the brain.
+
+In the rear of Seven Pines is the hospital, full of weak and sickly
+men, prostrated by fevers. They hear the tide of battle rolling nearer
+hour by hour. A soldier from the front says that the line is giving way
+and the Rebels are sweeping all before them. The words fall on the ears
+of Lieutenant Rice, of the Eleventh Maine. He springs to his feet, and
+grasps a gun. "All of you who can hold up your heads, follow me!" he
+shouts.[26] Men who have not been able to stand upon their feet spring
+up at the word. They are pale, sallow, emaciated, with sunken eyes and
+hollow cheeks. They form in line, twenty of them, seize their muskets.
+The fever is consuming them, but there is a warmer flame within their
+breasts,--the unquenchable desire to save their comrades from defeat
+and their country from destruction. Lieutenant Rice leads the weak and
+tottering party to the front. He moves on close to the enemy. He is one
+of the best marksmen of his regiment, and soldier after soldier falls
+from the ranks of the enemy by his unerring aim. He fires seven times,
+and then goes down before the bullets of the foe.
+
+  [Footnote 26: Adjutant-General's Report, Maine, 1862.]
+
+There is Willie Parker of the Eleventh Maine, a mere boy, who beholds
+the Rebel colors advancing from the woods, borne by a stalwart soldier.
+
+"That flag must come down!" he says, as he raises his gun. There is a
+flash, a screaming in the air, as the swiftly-whirling bullet passes
+on. The color-bearer reels, staggers, and falls.
+
+There is Sergeant Katon, the standard-bearer of the Eleventh, holding
+up, as high as he can reach, the broken flag-staff, while kneeling
+beside the dead body of Corporal Maddocks, who has fallen while
+guarding the torn and tattered but precious standard,--all this while
+the tempest surges around them, over them, through them; the very blast
+of death!
+
+An officer with one hundred men, who has been out on picket, comes up
+the road.
+
+"Where is my regiment?" he asks of the grim and veteran Heintzelman.
+
+"I cannot tell you, sir."
+
+"But I would like to join it."
+
+"Very well, but if it is fighting you want, just go in, Colonel, for
+there is good fighting all along the line."
+
+The battle rages furiously. Five o'clock--six o'clock--half past
+six--Berry holds them by the swamp, Jameson holds them with his three
+hundred men on the Williamsburg road; but between Seven Pines and Fair
+Oaks the tide is drifting on.
+
+Jameson resolves to advance. The Rebels in front of him fall back along
+the road to Richmond. Thus, while Whiting is pushing east over the
+Nine-Mile Road, Jameson is marching west towards the Rebel capital,
+driving all before him.
+
+"Fall back" is the imperative order which he receives. He would a great
+deal rather go on.
+
+"What would you have done, if you had not been ordered back?" a friend
+asked.
+
+"I would have been in Richmond or in Heaven before night," was the
+reply.[27]
+
+  [Footnote 27: Adjutant-General's Report.]
+
+But he obeys orders. Yet he cannot go back the way he advanced; the
+enemy is between him and Seven Pines. He faces south, picks his
+way through White Oak Swamp, comes round to Seven Pines, and again
+confronts the enemy.
+
+The day is closing. Darkness is coming on. The Yankees are not yet
+swept into the Chickahominy. Longstreet has had success, but it is not
+a great victory. The Union line has been pushed back a mile and a half.
+It has been broken,--almost disorganized. Berry's brigade is as firm
+and solid as ever. Jameson's has been divided and sent to different
+parts of the field. Casey's division has crumbled. Couch's has been
+broken. A great crowd of stragglers is moving towards Bottom's Bridge.
+Couch with two regiments and a battery have been pushed north towards
+Grape Vine Bridge. Such is the position at seven o'clock, as Whiting,
+fresh and vigorous, brings his brigade down the railroad to finish the
+work of this day.
+
+But now there is another actor,--General Sumner, who has crossed the
+Chickahominy at Grape-Vine Bridge, and is pushing on with Sedgwick's
+gallant division.
+
+General Sumner ordered his corps to be under arms at one o'clock. As
+the firing grew loud, he moved his troops to the Chickahominy and
+waited for orders to cross. He commenced crossing at three o'clock,
+but the swamp was flooded, and it was only by great exertion and
+perseverance that he was able to get Kirby's battery to the south bank.
+
+Gorman's brigade led the column, composed of the First Minnesota,
+Fifteenth Massachusetts, Second New York Volunteers, and Thirty-Fourth
+New York,--Gorman joined General Couch. Kirby, with his six Napoleon
+guns, followed, and Dana's brigade closed the column, composed of
+the Nineteenth and Twentieth Massachusetts, Seventh Michigan, and
+Forty-Second New York. General Sumner rapidly formed his line, facing
+south. Whiting, up to this time, had been pressing straight on towards
+the Seven Pines. He turned to crush this new force which had appeared
+unexpectedly on his flank.
+
+It is a cloudy night and darkness is stealing on, as the Rebels change
+their front and move towards the north to sweep all before them. They
+advance across the field and through the woods, delivering a rapid
+fire. Suddenly there bursts a sheet of flame from Sumner's ranks.
+
+The Rebels fall back, rally their broken lines, advance again, nearer
+and with desperation. "Canister! Canister! Give them canister!" is
+Kirby's order as he moves from gun to gun. The battle-cloud grows
+thick beneath the heavy vapors rising from the swamp. Quick, incessant
+flashes momentarily light up the deepening darkness. It is not possible
+for men to face so terrible a storm. Vain are all the efforts of the
+Rebel officers to rally their bleeding ranks.
+
+Sumner has stood his ground. The time has come to advance. The
+Thirty-Fourth and Forty-Second New York, Fifteenth and Twentieth
+Massachusetts, and Seventh Michigan move forward.
+
+There are two fences in front of them, and beyond the farthest one is
+the Rebel line waiting their advance. The soldiers know that it will
+be the last march of many, but with a cheer heard above the roar of
+battle, they rush into the darkness, dash the fences under foot, and
+spring upon the enemy's lines. It is the work of a minute. One short
+struggle, a volley, a holding of the breath, muttered curses, shouts,
+groans, a clashing of bayonets, the trampling of ten thousand feet, and
+the field is clear of the enemy!
+
+General Johnston has failed in what he intended to accomplish. He is
+borne from the field at this hour, wounded by a shell from Kirby's
+battery.
+
+"As I rode down through the field," says a Rebel officer, "I met
+Franks, one of Longstreet's aides, looking as blue as indigo. What is
+the matter, Franks? Not satisfied with the day's work?" I inquired.
+
+"Satisfied be hanged! I saw old Jeff, Mallory, Longstreet, and Whiting,
+and all of them, looking as mad as thunder. Just to think that Huger's
+slowness has spoiled everything! There he has been on our right all day
+and hasn't fired a shot, although he had positive orders to open the
+fight at eight o'clock in the morning."[28]
+
+  [Footnote 28: Battle-Fields of the South.]
+
+There are indescribable scenes of horror after a great battle,--the
+removal of the wounded, bleeding, dying, giving utterances to groans
+extorted by the intense pain,--the work at the hospitals, where the
+disabled, one by one, are laid before the surgeons. Yet, amid their
+terrible sufferings, the men are often cheerful, and hopeful for this
+life and the life which is to come.
+
+A chaplain says: "Amongst the badly wounded was Joseph Bynon of
+Alleghany City, Pennsylvania, a young man of the most generous nature,
+universally popular in his regiment, and the staff of a widowed mother.
+He was lying on a blanket near the house, wounded in the bowels. I
+asked him about his sufferings. He replied, that he did not suffer
+much, that he was faint from the loss of blood as he supposed. I saw
+from his pulse that he had but a few moments to live, and said to him,
+
+"'Joseph, are you willing and ready to die? I am afraid you cannot
+live.'
+
+"'Well, doctor,' he whispered, 'I should like to live; I love my
+mother; this will be a great sorrow to her. And I should like to do
+something for my little nephew and niece. But there is another life,
+and I know I shall find mother there. I feel I have been a great
+sinner; in many things I have done wrong; but ever since my conversion
+I experienced in Camp Johnson, I have tried to follow my Saviour, and
+now I die trusting. My mind wanders; I find it difficult to think and
+speak. In praying to God, I may not say the things that are right; do,
+doctor, lift up my hands and clasp them together, and pray for me!'
+
+"I lifted up the hands crimsoned with his own blood, and pressing them
+in mine, commended him to the Merciful One, who for us all had suffered
+the bitterness of death. He repeated word for word, prayed for his
+mother, and then said, 'O Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the
+world, take away my sin; into Thine hand I commend my spirit!'
+
+"The storm of battle raged again. The enemy's shells burst around
+the hospital, and the wounded were removed. He was lifted into an
+ambulance, but died before it reached Savage Station. Thus giving his
+life to his country, he passed on into the service of his God."[29]
+
+  [Footnote 29: Chaplain Marks.]
+
+At daybreak on Sunday morning, an orderly belonging to the Rebel army
+rode out of the woods into the Union lines.
+
+"Where is General Anderson," he asked.
+
+"Here he is. What do you want of him?" said a colonel.
+
+"I have a despatch for him from General Pryor."
+
+"I will take it. Soldiers, guard this man. You are my prisoner."
+
+The orderly was much astonished to find himself a prisoner. The
+despatch gave information of the disposition of the Rebel forces for
+the battle soon to recommence.
+
+During the night the balance of Sumner's corps crossed the
+Chickahominy, and at daybreak the troops, thus strengthened, were able
+to renew the battle. Sedgwick remained where he fought on Saturday.
+Richardson's division was next on his right. He formed in two
+lines,--with French's brigade in front on the railroad, and Howard and
+Meagher in the second line in his rear. Kearney, Couch, and Hooker,
+with the remnants of Casey's division, were in the vicinity of Seven
+Pines.
+
+It would require many pages to give in detail the fight of Sunday
+morning. It must be given as a picture.
+
+It began at five o'clock. At that hour, the Rebels are discovered
+south of the railroad in the woods in front of Richardson. Pettit
+opens with shells, and the stillness of the Sabbath is broken by
+deep reverberations rolling along the Chickahominy. There is a gap
+between Richardson and Kearney. Richardson moves toward Seven Pines
+to close it. From the woods where Pettit drops his shells, there is a
+volley--another--another--and the men drop from Richardson's ranks. The
+Rebels advance and attack French's brigade at short range. For an hour
+the men stand in their places, and deliver their fire upon the columns
+which are pushed against them. Reinforcements come up from Longstreet's
+reserves. Howard is brought up from the second line to meet them. His
+horse is shot. He is twice wounded in the right arm, and is forced to
+leave the field. His arm is shattered, and the surgeon says it must
+come off. He meets Kearney, who lost his left arm years ago.
+
+"We will buy our gloves together, Kearney," is the salutation of this
+Christian soldier and patriot.
+
+But the onset of his brigade is magnificent. The rebel line is
+shattered by the resistless charge.
+
+Hooker comes up the railroad. He falls like a thunderbolt upon the
+enemy in front, breaking, dividing, shattering them. They flee in
+confusion. Sickles is advancing along the Williamsburg road, Berry and
+Jameson are moving over the ground of Saturday between the Seven Pines
+and White-Oak Swamp. Richardson and Sedgwick are also in motion. From
+Fair Oaks to the swamp south of Seven Pines, the Union line advances
+over the bloody field. It is like the swinging of a wide gate, with its
+hinges near Fair Oaks, and reaching past Seven Pines to the swamp.
+
+It is a triumphant march. The Rebels have failed in what they
+attempted, and are fleeing with broken, demoralized ranks to Richmond.
+Hats, caps, blankets, knapsacks, guns, all are thrown aside. The road
+is filled with the fleeing fugitives. Heintzelman and Sumner press on
+within four miles of the city. No troops oppose them.
+
+"I have no doubt but we might have gone right into Richmond," says
+General Heintzelman.[30]--"I think that if the army had pressed after
+the enemy with great vigor, we should have gone to Richmond," is the
+opinion of General Keyes.[31]
+
+  [Footnote 30: Testimony, p. 352.]
+
+  [Footnote 31: Testimony, p. 609.]
+
+"They (the Federals) missed an opportunity of striking a decisive blow.
+These opportunities never returned," writes Prince de Joinville of
+France.[32]
+
+  [Footnote 32: Army of the Potomac, p. 79.]
+
+General McClellan recalled the troops from their pursuit, and
+established his lines as they were on the morning of Saturday.
+
+The loss on the Union side was 5,737. The Rebel loss, as reported in
+Smith's, Longstreet's, and Hill's divisions, was 6,783. Whiting's
+division also suffered severely, so that the entire Rebel loss was
+about 8,000.
+
+A month passed by. General McClellan was preparing for a siege. There
+were six bridges built across the Chickahominy, which required labor
+day and night. The men were obliged to work up to their arms in the
+water. Miles of corduroy roads were constructed. The ground was so
+swampy and marshy that nothing could be done by horses. All the
+timber hauled to construct the bridges and the batteries was drawn
+by the men. The month of June was rainy. There were frequent storms,
+succeeded by hot sunshine. Sickness, in all its frightful forms, made
+its appearance. The men became discouraged. It was expected, day after
+day, that the attack would commence; but the commanding officers
+issued orders that no batteries should open till all were ready. The
+army, meanwhile, began to be depleted of troops. Thousands were sent
+to the hospitals, and other thousands were carried out to their last
+resting-place, on the banks of the dark, dismal, sluggish stream, which
+soon became the river of death.
+
+Reinforcements were called for and received: McCall's division of
+Pennsylvania Reserves, which reached the army on the 12th and 13th of
+June.
+
+On the night of the 13th, General Stewart, with 1,800 Rebel cavalry,
+appeared in rear of the army. He came first upon two squadrons of
+Regular cavalry, at Hanover Old Church, overpowering and capturing
+them; then pushed on to Gorlick's Landing, on the Pamunkey, burning two
+schooners and fourteen wagons; then moved to the railroad at Tunstall's
+Station.
+
+The train first arriving was one going east with sick and wounded men.
+The engineer saw the cavalrymen on the track as he rounded a curve.
+They motioned him to stop, but he put on more steam, and the train
+rushed past with lightning speed. Hundreds of bullets were aimed at
+him, but he escaped unharmed.
+
+General Stewart crossed the Chickahominy at Long Bridge, below Bottom's
+Bridge, and came upon a Union hospital at Baltimore Cross Roads. He
+placed a guard over the hospital, and treated the sick men humanely.
+But the fright was very disastrous to many who found themselves thus
+suddenly in the hands of the enemy. Several died during the night.
+In the pockets of one Union soldier, after death, the chaplain found
+some touching and beautiful letters from a little brother and sister,
+telling him how much they missed him, how they longed for his return,
+how they counted the days until he might come back, but above all
+telling how proud they were of their soldier brother. And they never
+heard a drum beat nor a fife play without thinking of him, and feeling
+glad that they had one noble brother to fight for their country.[33]
+
+  [Footnote 33: Chaplain Marks.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+SEVEN DAYS OF FIGHTING.
+
+
+The chances for taking Richmond became less with each day's delay.
+While the Army of the Potomac were digging and delving in the swamps,
+and constructing batteries, their ranks thinning out by disease, the
+Rebels, also, were hard at work erecting defensive batteries, on firm
+ground, and mounting guns of large caliber. Their ranks, instead of
+growing thin, were filling up. Troops were hurried in from all parts of
+the South. The Conscript law which the Confederate Congress had passed
+was in operation, and was carried out with remorseless energy. Men were
+compelled to enter the service.
+
+The Union army in front of Richmond, on the 20th of June, numbered,
+fit for duty, 115,102 men. There were 12,225 sick, and 20,511 absent.
+Leaves of absence and furloughs had been granted freely. Officers and
+men, on a slight pretext, found it not very difficult to obtain leave
+of absence, and thus this army, through no fault of the government,
+became greatly depleted.
+
+At this time General Jackson was in the Shenandoah Valley with a large
+force. By his operations there, it was found necessary to keep General
+McDowell in position to cover Washington. On the 18th of June, General
+McClellan informed the Secretary of War that deserters said troops were
+on their way from Richmond to reinforce Jackson.
+
+On the same day, a man entered the Union lines at Fredericksburg, who
+pretended to be a Frenchman. He stated that he met from ten to fifteen
+thousand men on their way to Gordonsville, going to join Jackson.
+
+A despatch was also received from General Sigel, who was in the Valley,
+that a large body of Rebels had arrived at Gordonsville.
+
+All of this went to show that a grand movement was to be made in the
+Valley, or upon Washington. Such, undoubtedly, the Rebel commanders
+intended the government at Washington should understand their plan
+to be. But they had no intention of marching down the Shenandoah
+Valley, or of attacking Washington. They wished to prevent any more
+reinforcements from joining General McClellan, and also to cover their
+real point of attack.
+
+General McClellan's army was still divided by the Chickahominy. Sumner,
+Heintzelman, and Keyes were on the south side, and Porter and Franklin,
+with McCall's newly arrived troops, were on the north bank.
+
+The real object of the Rebels was to crush the force on the north
+bank by a sudden stroke with their whole army. By the movement to
+Gordonsville they allayed suspicion, and transferred a division to
+a position from which it could be hurled upon the flank of General
+McClellan's force on the northern bank.
+
+All of the railroad cars and engines which could be obtained were
+brought to Richmond over the Lynchburg road. Whiting's and Ewell's
+divisions were placed on board and taken to Lynchburg, and thence to
+Gordonsville where they joined Jackson; but not stopping there, were
+brought with Jackson's army to Frederickshall, on the Virginia Central
+Railroad. From thence this large force marched to Ashland, arriving
+there on the 25th.[34]
+
+  [Footnote 34: Campaign from Texas to Maryland.]
+
+General McClellan was informed by a deserter, on the 24th, that
+Jackson, Whiting, and Ewell were at Frederickshall, and that it was
+intended to attack his rear on the 28th.[35] The information was
+confirmed on the 25th by negroes who arrived at the Union lines, and
+stated that Jackson was at Hanover Court-House.
+
+  [Footnote 35: McClellan's Despatch. Testimony, p. 338.]
+
+General McClellan's lines were more than twenty miles in length. His
+extreme right was north of the city of Richmond, on the road called
+the Brooke Turnpike. No change was made in the position of the troops,
+no breastworks were thrown up to protect the rear and flank. The only
+change was the removal of the head-quarters' camp to the south side of
+the Chickahominy. General Fitz-John Porter was left in command of the
+troops on the north side.
+
+On the morning of the 26th, the Rebel forces in Richmond moved out
+to join Jackson. General Branch's division marched by the Brooke
+road. General A. P. Hill moved over the Mechanicsville Turnpike;
+while General Longstreet and General D. H. Hill took the Coal-Harbor
+road still farther east, and came to the Chickahominy at New Bridge.
+General Magruder, with one division, was left on the south side of the
+stream.[36] The Rebel force north of the Chickahominy numbered about
+60,000; south of it, about 20,000. The Union army north numbered about
+30,000; south, 70,000.
+
+  [Footnote 36: Pollard's Southern History, p. 329.]
+
+
+BATTLE OF MECHANICSVILLE.
+
+If we were to start in a skiff at the bridge on the Brooke road,
+and float down the slow and winding Chickahominy three miles, we
+should come first to Meadow Bridge, on the road leading from Richmond
+to Shady-Grove Church. Two miles farther would bring us to the
+Mechanicsville Turnpike. The little village of Mechanicsville is two
+miles towards the north. Two miles below the Mechanicsville Bridge is
+the Upper Trestle Bridge, built by General McClellan. Two miles farther
+down is New Bridge, on the road leading from Richmond to Coal Harbor.
+There is a high hill on the south side of the stream, on the plantation
+of Dr. Lewis, where the Rebels had a battery which commanded the bridge
+and prevented General McClellan from using it. There was also a battery
+on the north side, which General McClellan had planted to prevent the
+Rebels from crossing at that point, and cutting off the force which
+he had advanced to Mechanicsville. Still farther down the stream were
+other bridges which had been erected by General McClellan's engineers.
+
+  [Illustration: BATTLE OF MECHANICSVILLE.
+
+  =UNION TROOPS.=
+  1 Seymour's Brigade.
+  2 Reynolds's   "
+  3 Griffin's    "
+  4 Martindale's "
+
+  =REBEL TROOPS.=
+  A Hill's division.
+  B Branch's Brigade.
+  C Mechanicsville.
+  D Ellison's Mills.]
+
+At noon the enemy was seen advancing upon Meadow Bridge. The long
+column descended the bank, forded the stream above the bridge, and
+disappeared in the woods.
+
+The Bucktails, who had driven Stewart at Dranesville, were sent out
+to support the pickets, but were surprised to see a body of cavalry
+dashing into the road behind them. They faced about, drove the cavalry,
+fell back to Mechanicsville, followed by the pickets.
+
+General McCall, who commanded there, had thrown up a line of
+breastworks on the east side of the creek. He formed his troops on the
+slope, with his batteries on the crest of the hill. General Reynolds's
+brigade had the right, and General Seymour's the left. General Meade's
+brigade was brought up as a reserve. General Porter sent forward
+Griffin's and Martindale's brigades, which took position on the right
+of Reynolds. Having thus formed his line, he waited the advance of the
+enemy.
+
+The force which came in sight first was A. P. Hill's division, followed
+by General Branch's.
+
+A short distance from the Chickahominy, on the creek, was Ellison's
+Mills. The road from Mechanicsville to New Bridge crossed the creek at
+that point. Another road leading from Mechanicsville to Coal Harbor
+crossed it farther up. Timber had been felled, rifle-pits dug, and the
+artillery planted so as to rake the only two feasible approaches.
+
+General Hill formed his line for the attack on Ellison's Mills, while
+General Branch advanced along the upper road against Reynolds.
+
+The battle began at three o'clock, and raged with fury till nine
+o'clock. There were no movements in the Union lines. The men stood
+in their places and poured an uninterrupted fire upon the enemy, who
+were vainly endeavoring to cross the ravine and scale the heights. The
+artillery, fifty pieces, rained solid shot, shells, grape, canister,
+shrapnel, all sorts of missiles, producing great slaughter.
+
+General D. H. Hill arrived with his division, and joined in the attack
+upon Seymour at the Mills, but was received with a "murderous fire."[37]
+
+  [Footnote 37: Confederate Narrative, Rebellion Record, Vol. V.
+  p. 250.]
+
+The united efforts of the two Hills and General Branch were not
+sufficient to dislodge the two brigades which held the position.
+Griffin, Martindale, and Meade were ready to lend assistance, but were
+not engaged. Griffin only fired a few shots. The Union loss was eighty
+killed and about two hundred wounded. The Rebel loss is supposed to
+have been nearly three thousand. The assaults upon the rifle-pits were
+made with great desperation, but the men could not get through the
+impassable abattis, and were cut down by the constant and steady fire
+of musketry and canister at short range.
+
+But the advance of General Jackson by Coal Harbor made it necessary
+to withdraw the troops from this strong position and concentrate the
+entire force on the north bank, to cover the bridges which had been
+constructed between the two wings of the army. During the night General
+McCall's division was withdrawn, contrary to the remonstrances of the
+brave men who had held the ground against five times their force; but
+they did not know that Jackson was on their rear with 40,000 men.
+
+General McClellan ordered the heavy guns and all the baggage to be sent
+across the Chickahominy. He had already meditated a retreat to the
+James River.
+
+"Run the cars to the last moment, and load them with provisions and
+ammunition. Load every wagon you have with subsistence, and send them
+to Savage Station," was the order sent to Colonel Ingalls, the Chief
+Quarter-Master at White-House.
+
+
+THE BATTLE OF GAINES'S MILLS.
+
+The battle which was fought on the 27th of June is known in the South
+as the battle of Coal Harbor; in the North, as the battle of Gaines's
+Mills. General Fitz-John Porter commanded the Union troops, and General
+Lee the Rebel army.
+
+Starting from the Chickahominy and traveling up the little creek which
+supplies Dr. Gaines's Mill with water, we come to the battle-field,
+which lies on our right hand, east of the creek. The ravine is narrow
+and the banks on both sides are steep. General Porter has cut down
+the trees which stood on the hillside, and has thrown up rifle-pits
+and intrenchments. He is to hold the enemy in check, while General
+McClellan makes preparations for a retreat to James River. He has
+thirty thousand men against seventy thousand. Commencing on the creek
+near the Chickahominy, we see on our right hand General Morrell's
+division, with Butterfield's, Martindale's, and Griffin's brigades.
+Upon the other side is Longstreet, A. P. Hill, and Whiting.
+
+General Griffin's brigade is south of the road which comes down from
+Coal Harbor. Across the road is General Sykes's division of regulars,
+composed of Warren's, Chapman's and Buchanan's brigades, confronted
+by Ewell's, D. H. Hill's, and Jackson's divisions. General Porter's
+second line at the beginning of the battle is composed of McCall's
+division, stationed near the center, in rear of Griffin. He has some
+cavalry on the road leading to Alexander's Bridge.
+
+  [Illustration: BATTLE OF GAINES'S MILLS.
+
+  =UNION TROOPS.=
+  1 Butterfield's Brigade.
+  2 Martindale's     "
+  3 Griffin's        "
+  4 Sykes's Division.
+  5 McCall's   "
+  6 Slocum's   "
+
+  =REBEL TROOPS.=
+  A Longstreet's Division.
+  B A. P. Hill's    "
+  C Whiting's       "
+  D Ewell's         "
+  E D. H. Hill's    "
+  F Jackson's       "
+  G New Coal-Harbor, Lee's Head-Quarters.]
+
+Late in the day Slocum's division, of Sumner's corps, crosses Sumner's
+Bridge and takes position in rear of Sykes's.
+
+It is a hot, sultry day. General Lee is at Hogan's plantation, near
+New Coal-Harbor, sitting beneath the portico of the farm-house,
+absorbed in thought. He is neatly dressed in a gray uniform, buttoned
+to the throat. Longstreet is sitting in an old chair at the foot of
+the steps beneath the trees, eating a lunch, with his feet against a
+tree, his uniform faded and torn, buttons missing, and his boots old
+and dusty. Gregg, Wilcox, Pryor, Featherstone, and other generals are
+there waiting for Jackson, who has been marching hard all the morning
+to get into position. A courier comes down the Coal-Harbor road,
+delivers a message to Lee, who mounts his horse and rides away to New
+Coal-Harbor.[38]
+
+  [Footnote 38: Battle-Fields of the South.]
+
+It is past two o'clock in the afternoon before Lee is ready to begin
+the attack. There has been a cannonade all along the line north
+and south of the Chickahominy. Magruder, on the south side, has
+instructions to make a grand demonstration, as if he was going to
+attack McClellan. It is his intention to keep him from sending troops
+to Porter's aid.
+
+Lee intends to make a grand onset and sweep Porter into the
+Chickahominy. Under cover of a tremendous fire from the artillery,
+A. P. Hill begins the attack upon Griffin and Martindale, but under
+the superior and effective fire of Captain Griffin's United States
+battery, Weeden's Rhode Island, and Allen's and Martin's Massachusetts
+batteries, the Rebel batteries are "overpowered and driven from the
+field."[39] The Rebel infantry advances through the belt of timber, and
+descends the ravine. From the rifle-pits there are sudden flashes and
+quick spirts of flame, and the battle-cloud becomes thick and heavy.
+
+  [Footnote 39: Campaign from Texas to Maryland, p. 46.]
+
+It would require many pages to make a full record of the terrible
+combat. How Longstreet urged his men into the woods,--how the battle
+rolled through the forest and surged back again,--how brigade after
+brigade marched against Martindale, Griffin, and Butterfield, only
+to fall back with broken and shattered ranks,--how the ground became
+thick with the dead and wounded,--how men fired into each other's faces
+and fell almost into each other's arms, mingling their life-blood in
+one crimson stream,--how Jackson pressed on over the plain, urging
+his men nearer and nearer,--how the Pennsylvania Reserves went up to
+aid the Regulars,--how couriers dashed through the woods, over the
+bridges to General McClellan, who was on the southern bank, asking
+for reinforcements,--how Slocum's division went over, reached the
+field, held in check the dark masses forming upon the flank of the
+Regulars and Reserves, and held the ground. The hours hung heavily.
+Three o'clock,--four o'clock,--five o'clock,--and no break in the line.
+Thirty-five thousand against seventy! But the pressure is terrible.
+French's and Meagher's brigades are ordered over. But moments are
+precious. Six o'clock; the onset is greater than ever. Every regiment,
+every man, is brought to the front, on both sides. The artillery still
+thunders, but the infantry are out of ammunition. Longstreet has been
+hurled back as often as he has advanced, and so has A. P. Hill and D.
+H. Hill, but Jackson is working toward the Chickahominy on the left.
+Sykes's men, who have been facing north, are obliged to face east to
+meet the troops moving in a steady stream down the road leading to Old
+Coal-Harbor. Men begin to leave the ranks and move toward the rear.
+There is a desperate rush from Jackson's brigades upon the guns. The
+Union line gives way.
+
+If there was a fresh division or a brigade even at hand, the tide might
+be stopped. There are sixty thousand men upon the southern bank of the
+river, but General McClellan is afraid that Magruder with his division
+will make an attack.
+
+Whiting's division, which has been held in reserve by Lee, is ordered
+up. All of his desperate charges and onsets have failed. If Whiting
+fails, the battle is lost.
+
+The Regulars and the Pennsylvania Reserves are worn out. Their
+ammunition is nearly gone. Porter orders up his last man. They can have
+no more support. At this moment, after they have held at bay for four
+hours the great host, they are called upon to withstand the last grand
+charge of Jackson.
+
+Whiting advances, he is received with grape and canister. His line
+halts, wavers, almost breaks; but Jackson, Whiting, Hood, and Law
+urge the men to push on. They leap across the ravine, halt a moment,
+sheltered by the bank above them from the fire of the Union batteries,
+and then leap the breastwork and seize the guns. There is a short
+struggle, a falling back, a retreat, and the battle of Gaines's Mills
+is lost to General McClellan.
+
+Meagher and French have reached the field, but they are too late to
+save the day. Twenty guns have fallen into Lee's hands, and several
+hundred prisoners. The cavalry in the rear draw their sabers, dash
+upon the exultant foe, but it is an ineffectual charge. The retreating
+troops fall in behind French and Meagher, form a new line nearer the
+Chickahominy, as the darkness comes on. They have been driven from
+their first position, but Lee has not power enough to drive them into
+the Chickahominy. He decides to wait till morning before renewing the
+attack.
+
+The morning dawns, and Porter is beyond his reach across the river,
+with all his siege guns, ammunition, and supplies.
+
+How near Lee came to losing the battle may be seen by the following
+extract from the narration of a Rebel correspondent of the Richmond
+Whig:--
+
+"It was absolutely necessary that we should carry their line, and,
+to do this, regiment after regiment, and brigade after brigade was
+successively led forward; still our repeated charges, gallant and
+dashing though they were, failed to accomplish the end, and our troops,
+still fighting, fell steadily back. Thus for more than two mortal hours
+the momentous issue stood trembling in the balance. The sun was getting
+far in the west, darkness would soon be upon us, and the point must be
+carried. At this juncture--it was now five o'clock--the division of
+the gallant Whiting hove in sight. On reaching the field their troops
+rapidly deployed in line.... The charge was made under the most galling
+fire I ever witnessed; shot, shell, grape, canister, and ball swept
+through our lines like a storm of leaden hail, and our noble boys fell
+thick and fast; and yet still, with the irresistible determination of
+men who fight for all that men hold dear, our gallant boys rushed on.
+
+"Suddenly a halt was made,--there was a deep pause, and the line
+wavered from right to left. We now saw the character of the enemy's
+works. A ravine deep and wide yawned before us, while from the other
+side of the crest of the almost perpendicular bank, a breastwork of
+logs was erected, from behind which the dastard invaders were pouring
+murderous volleys upon our troops. The pause made by our troops was but
+a brief breathing space. The voice of Law was heard, 'Forward, boys!
+charge them!' and with a wild, mad shout our impetuous soldiery dashed
+forward."[40]
+
+  [Footnote 40: Richmond Whig, June 29, 1862.]
+
+
+THE MOVEMENT TO JAMES RIVER.
+
+On the morning of the 28th, General Keyes and General Porter, followed
+by long trains of wagons and herds of cattle, moved towards the south,
+through the dark forests of White-Oak Swamp. At White-House landing,
+sloops, schooners, barges, and steamers were departing for Yorktown.
+At Savage Station the torch was applied to all the stores which could
+not be removed. Barrels of pork, beef, sugar, bags of coffee, boxes
+of bread, were destroyed. A railroad train loaded with ammunition was
+standing on the track. The engine was ready for use. Far down the
+track, there was a pillar of cloud rising from the burnt bridge across
+the Chickahominy. The cars were set on fire. The engineer stepped upon
+the engine for the last time, and pulled the throttle. The wheels
+began to turn. He opened the valve to its full width, and jumped upon
+the ground. The engine sprang down the descending grade, propelled by
+the pent-up power. It is two miles from the station to the bridge,
+and over this distance it rushed like an unchained tiger. Sparkling,
+crackling, roaring with increasing velocity, dashing along the fields,
+over the meadows, through the forests, a trail of fire, a streaming
+banner of flame and smoke, a linked thunderbolt, rumbling, growling,
+exploding, leaping from the abutment full forty feet, bursting into a
+million fragments, jarring the earth with the mighty concussion, and
+disappearing beneath the waters, a wreck, a ruin forever!
+
+General McClellan was obliged to leave some of his sick and wounded.
+Many soldiers shed tears as they bade a last farewell to their comrades.
+
+"I would rather die than fall into the hands of the Rebels," said one.
+
+"O my God! is this the reward I deserve for all the sacrifices I have
+made, the battles I have fought, and the agony I have endured from my
+wounds?"[41] was the despairing cry of another.
+
+  [Footnote 41: Peninsular Campaign.]
+
+"Do not be ashamed of your cause. Defend it boldly, and put your trust
+in God"; were the words of one noble chaplain, Rev. Mr. Marks, who
+would not leave them, but who remained to be a prisoner for their
+sakes. They prayed together and sang a hymn.
+
+    "Jesus, my God, I know his name,
+      His name is all my trust;
+    He will not put my soul to shame,
+      Nor let it e'er be lost."
+
+They were comforted, and resolved to meet their fate like men.
+
+The Rebels made no attack on Saturday. They were compelled to repair
+the bridges which had been destroyed, before they could cross the
+Chickahominy. General Sumner commanded the rear-guard. He retreated
+slowly on Saturday to Peach Orchard, and halted to destroy the supplies.
+
+On Sunday morning a portion of Lee's army advanced to attack Sumner,
+who was at Peach Orchard and Allen's Farm; but Hazard's and Pettit's
+batteries, with Sedgwick's division, quickly repulsed them.
+
+
+BATTLE OF SAVAGE STATION.
+
+Lee's divisions, one after another, filed across the hastily repaired
+bridges. General Franklin was north of the railroad. He saw them, and
+sent word to General Sumner, who fell back with Franklin to Savage
+Station. General Franklin was on the right, Sumner in the center, and
+Heintzelman nearer Richmond on the left. There was a misunderstanding
+of orders; and General Heintzelman moved across White-Oak Swamp, which
+exposed Sumner's left flank to the enemy.
+
+Through the long Sabbath hours, these troops stood upon the wide plain
+facing northwest, seemingly motionless almost as statues, while the
+long wagon trains moved into the woods towards the south. They were
+the rear-guard, and on them depended the salvation of the army.
+
+Following the wagons were thousands of sick and wounded, working their
+way towards the swamp, urged on by hope of escaping the hands of the
+Rebels. It was heart-rending to hear the words of those who were too
+badly wounded to be moved, or who could not be taken away.
+
+The sun went down. Evening was coming on, yet the twenty thousand
+men remained upon that field awaiting the attack,--three lines of
+resolute, determined men. Brooks's, Hancock's, and Burns's brigades
+were in front; with Osborn's, Bramhall's, Hazard's, and Pettit's
+batteries,--twenty-four guns.
+
+It was past five o'clock before the enemy opened the battle. An hour
+passed of constant artillery firing. Then the Rebels advanced across
+the wide and level plain with yellings and howlings.
+
+There was a stream of fire from Sumner's line,--a steady outpouring of
+deadly volleys. It was twenty thousand against forty thousand. There
+were answering volleys from the Rebel lines. Sumner's batteries left
+off firing shell and threw canister, and the lines, which had advanced
+so triumphantly, were sent in confusion across the field. Again they
+advanced, and were again repulsed. Longstreet and Jackson, once more
+under cover of the gathering darkness, urged on their reluctant
+troops. Sumner brought up his reserve brigades. It was a short, sharp
+struggle,--a wild night-tempest,--the roaring of fifty cannon, and
+thirty thousand muskets. The evening was unusually calm. Not a breath
+of air stirred the leaves of the trees. The stars shone brightly.
+Strange the scene,--so weird and terrible upon that plain! A thousand
+men dropped from the Union ranks, and thrice that number from the ranks
+of the Rebels.
+
+"Who are you?" asked an officer of the Fifth Vermont, dimly seeing a
+regiment in the darkness.
+
+There was a momentary silence, and then the question, "Who are you?"
+
+"The Fifth Vermont."
+
+"Let them have it, boys," were the words of command shouted by the
+Rebel officer. The Vermonters heard it. There was no flinching.
+Instantly their rifles came to their cheeks.
+
+There were two broad flashes of light, two rows of dead and wounded.
+But the Vermonters held their ground; and the Rebels, shattered,
+repulsed, and utterly defeated, disappeared in the gloom of night. It
+was hard for the brave men to go away from their fallen comrades and
+leave them upon the field which they had defended with their life's
+blood, but it was impossible to remove them; and the long lines closed
+in upon the wagons, marched down the forest road, and at daylight were
+south of White-Oak Swamp.
+
+
+BATTLE OF GLENDALE.
+
+"Glendale" is the euphonious name given by Mr. Nelson to his farm,
+which is located two miles south of White-Oak Swamp. It is a place
+where several roads meet; from the north, the Swamp road; from the
+east, the Long-Bridge road; from the south, the road leading to Malvern
+Hill; from the southwest, the Newmarket road; from the northwest, the
+Charles City road, leading to Richmond. There are farm-houses, groves,
+ravines, wheat-fields waving with grain. Upon the Malvern road, there
+is a church. West of the church, a half-mile, is the mansion of Mr.
+Frazier, where the Rebel lines were formed on the 30th of June.
+
+At sunrise on that morning, all the divisions of the Union army were
+south of the swamp. Richardson and Smith, with Naglee's brigade, of
+Casey's division, were guarding the passage at the swamp. Slocum was
+on the Charles City road, northwest of the church. Kearney was between
+that road and the Newmarket road. McCall was on the Newmarket road,
+with Hooker and Sedgwick behind him, nearer the church.
+
+Porter and Keyes were at Malvern with the trains, two miles distant.
+
+Lee divided his army. Jackson, D. H. Hill, and Ewell followed McClellan
+down the Swamp road; while A. P. Hill, Longstreet, Huger, Magruder,
+and Holmes made all haste down the Charles City road from Richmond, to
+strike McClellan on the flank and divide his army. The President of
+the Confederacy went out with A. P. Hill to see the Union army cut to
+pieces.
+
+Jackson reached the bridge across the sluggish stream in the swamp, but
+it was torn up; and on the southern bank stood Smith and Richardson.
+Hazard's, Ayres's, and Pettit's batteries were in position. Jackson
+brought up all his guns. There was a fierce artillery fight, lasting
+through the day. Jackson succeeded in getting a small infantry force
+across towards evening, but it was not strong enough to make an attack,
+and nothing came of all his efforts to harass the rear.
+
+During the afternoon, the pickets on the Charles City road discovered
+A. P. Hill's troops filing off from the road, west of Frazier's farm,
+toward the south. They went across the fields, and through the woods
+to the Newmarket road. While the main body was thus taking position, a
+small body of infantry and a battery opened fire upon Slocum; but he
+had cut down the forest in his front, forming an impassable barrier, so
+that he was secure from attack.
+
+General McCall formed his division of six thousand men, with
+Meade's brigade, north of the road, Seymour's south of it, and
+Reynolds's,--commanded in this battle by Colonel Simmons,--in reserve.
+He had five batteries,--Randall's on the right, Kerns's and Cooper's in
+the center, and Dietrich's and Kanerhun's on the left,--all in front of
+his infantry, looking down a gentle slope upon an open field; on the
+west there was a brook, fringed with a forest growth, with the farm of
+Mr. Frazier beyond.
+
+It was half past two before Hill was ready to make the attack. He
+threw out two regiments as skirmishers, which advanced to feel of
+McCall's lines; but they were repulsed by the Seventh and Twelfth
+Pennsylvania Reserves. Hill had twelve brigades, six of his own and six
+of Longstreet's. Magruder and Huger had not arrived. His plan was to
+strike with all his force at once.
+
+Brigade after brigade advanced, but recoiled before the direct fire of
+the batteries, sustained by the infantry.
+
+"The thunder of the cannon, the cracking of the musketry, from
+thousands of combatants, mingled with screams from the wounded and
+dying, were terrific to the ear and to the imagination," says a
+correspondent of the Cologne Gazette.
+
+ [Illustration: BATTLE OF GLENDALE.
+
+  1 Smith and Richardson.
+  2 Slocum.
+  3 Kearney.
+  4 Sumner.
+  5 Hooker.
+  6 McCall.
+
+  A Jackson, Ewell, and D. H. Hill.
+  B A. P. Hill and Longstreet.
+  C Newmarket road.
+  D Quaker road. ]
+
+"Volleys upon volleys streamed across our front in such quick
+succession that it seemed impossible for any human being to live under
+it,"[42] writes a Rebel officer.
+
+  [Footnote 42: Battle-Fields of the South, p. 170.]
+
+Five o'clock! The battle has raged two hours and a half, sustained
+wholly by McCall, and Hill has not driven him an inch.
+
+The Rebels desist from their direct attack in front, and throw all
+their force upon Seymour's left, south of the road. McCall sends over
+the Fifth and Eighth Regiments from his second line.
+
+"Change front with the infantry and artillery," is his order.
+
+Hill is pushing along his left flank to gain his rear.
+
+McCall orders a charge, and it is executed with a promptness and vigor
+sufficient to check the advancing troops. But his line has become
+disordered by the charge. Hill improves the opportunity, and hurries up
+his reserve brigades, which fire while advancing.
+
+The gunners of the German batteries leave their pieces. McCall rides
+among them, rallies them a moment, but the drivers are panic-stricken.
+They dash off to the rear, breaking through the infantry, and trampling
+down the men. The Rebels rush upon the deserted guns with unparalleled
+frenzy. The line of McCall is broken, and portions of his troops follow
+the fleeing cannoneers.
+
+General McCall tries to rally the fugitives, but they are deaf to all
+his orders. They stream on through Hooker's and Sumner's line.
+
+Will Hooker's men join the drifting current? Now or never they must be
+brave. Now or never their country is to be saved. All hearts feel it;
+all hands are ready. They stand in the gateway of centuries. Unnumbered
+millions are beckoning them to do their duty.
+
+Hooker has Grover's brigade on the right, Carr's in the center,
+and Sickles's on the left,--just the order in which they stood at
+Williamsburg.
+
+The Sixteenth Massachusetts, led by the heroic Colonel Wyman, met the
+pursuers. The Sixty-Ninth Pennsylvania, of Sedgwick's division, joining
+upon Hooker's right, delivered at the same moment a fire upon the flank
+of the enemy. Along Sumner's front, from King's, Kirby's, Tompkins's
+Owen's, and Bartlett's batteries, flashed double-shotted guns. It was
+as if a voice had said, "Thus far and no farther!" Hooker's infantry
+came into close battle-line, delivered a fire, which forced the Rebels
+over against Sumner's batteries; which, in turn, threw them against
+Kearney, and against Meade's brigade, which had not joined in the
+fight. Grover pushed on with the First and Sixteenth Massachusetts,
+the Second New Hampshire, and Twenty-Sixth Pennsylvania, with reckless
+daring. Hill was driven back over all the ground he had won, with great
+slaughter.
+
+It was a decided repulse, but costly to the Sixteenth Massachusetts.
+Its noble colonel fell at the head of his regiment. These were the last
+words of one of the soldiers of that regiment: "I thank God that I am
+permitted to die for my country, and I thank him yet more that I am
+prepared,--or at least I hope I am."
+
+So complete was the repulse that the Rebel troops became a mob, and
+fled in terror towards Richmond.
+
+"Many old soldiers," says a Rebel officer, "who had served on the
+plains of Arkansas and Missouri wept in the bitterness of their souls
+like children. Of what avail had it been to us that our best blood
+had flowed for six long days? Of what avail all of our unceasing and
+exhaustless endurance? Everything seemed lost, and a general depression
+came over all our hearts. Batteries dashed past in headlong flight.
+Ammunition, hospital, and supply wagons rushed along, and swept the
+troops away with them from the battle-field. In vain the most frantic
+exertions, entreaty, and self-sacrifice of the staff officers! The
+troops had lost their foothold, and all was over with the Southern
+Confederacy!"[43]
+
+  [Footnote 43: Cologne Gazette account.]
+
+General Magruder's arrival alone saved Hill from an ignominious flight.
+
+Through the night there was the red glare of torches upon the
+battle-field where the Rebel wounded were being gathered up. Great
+was the loss. Up to daylight there was no apparent diminution of the
+heart-rending cries and groans of the wounded. A mournful wail was
+heard from Glendale during that long, dismal night.[44]
+
+  [Footnote 44: Hooker's Report.]
+
+
+THE BATTLE OF MALVERN.
+
+The battle-field of July 1st, 1862, bears the pleasant name of Malvern.
+It is on the north bank of the James,--an elevated plain near the
+river, but declining gently towards the north,--divided into corn
+and wheat fields, bordered on the east and west and south by wooded
+ravines. The estate is owned by Dr. Carter. Although it bears a name so
+pleasant, there have been sad scenes upon those fertile fields,--not
+alone the shock, roar, and horror of a great battle, but the low
+wail of mothers for their infants, torn from their arms and sold to
+slave-traders,--the agonies of men under torture of the whip, their
+flesh torn and mangled by an unfeeling master.
+
+"Was he a good master?" I asked of an old negro at City Point, in July,
+1864.
+
+"No, sir. He was very bad, sir. He was de wussest dat eber was, sir. He
+was so bad dat we call him Hell Carter, sir. 'Cause we tink dat de Lord
+will send him to de bad place one ob dese days, sir. He go dere sure,
+sir."
+
+The mansion is a quaint old structure, built of red bricks, surrounded
+by elms, and commanding a wide panorama of the James, of the valley of
+the Appomattox, and the distant Richmond hills.
+
+The house was standing in the time of the Revolution, and was marked on
+the map of Cornwallis.
+
+West of Malvern are the Strawberry Plains. A streamlet, which rises in
+the vicinity of Glendale, courses to the James through a wooded ravine
+between the Strawberry grounds and Malvern. The hill is so sharp and
+steep and high that General Barnard was able to plant two tiers of
+guns upon the slope, and crown it with heavy siege guns. The trees in
+the ravine were felled, and rifle-pits thrown up, extending along the
+western side and across the open field towards the north, where the
+slope of the hill shades into the level plain.
+
+Eastward, the trees were felled and their branches lopped by the
+pioneers. It was a strong position, and these preparations made it
+impregnable. Lee must assail it from the northwest,--over the wide
+plain, exposed to the fire of sixty cannon.
+
+Porter's corps occupied the ravine between Malvern and the Plains.
+Couch's, Kearney's, and Hooker's divisions held the front towards the
+north. Sumner's and Franklin's corps held the left; the Pennsylvania
+Reserves and the remainder of Keyes's corps, the center. The line
+was semicircular, and so well concentrated were the troops, that
+reinforcements, if needed, might be had with little delay.
+
+In the James River, two miles distant, lay a fleet of five gunboats,
+carrying heavy guns,--near enough to throw shells upon the Strawberry
+Plains.
+
+The Rebels advanced cautiously. Jackson, Ewell, Whiting, and D. H.
+Hill moved down the Quaker road, while Magruder, Longstreet, Huger,
+and Holmes came down the Richmond road. Jackson, D. H. Hill, and Ewell
+appeared in front of Couch; Huger and Magruder, in front of Morell's
+division of Porter's corps; while Holmes filed through the woods
+towards the James, along the western edge of Strawberry Plains.
+
+Although the distance from Glendale is but two and a half miles, it
+was past ten o'clock before the head of Magruder's columns appeared in
+sight. A. P. Hill's division, which had been so terribly shattered at
+Glendale, was left behind.
+
+Magruder shelled the woods and advanced cautiously. There was a
+pattering skirmish fire through the forenoon, with an artillery duel at
+long range.
+
+Noon passed, and there was no apparent disposition on the part of the
+Rebels to make an attack. They dreaded the terrible fire from the
+numerous guns gleaming in the sun upon the hillside.
+
+  [Illustration: BATTLE OF MALVERN.
+
+  1 Warren's Brig., Sykes's Div.
+  2 Buchanan's " " "
+  8 Chapman's " " "
+  4 Griffin's " Morell's "
+  5 Martindale's " " "
+  6 Butterfield's " " "
+  7 Couch's Division.
+  8 Sumner's and Heintzelman's Corps.
+  9 McCall's Division.
+  10 Abatis.
+
+  A Jackson, D. H. Hill, and Ewell.
+  B Longstreet.
+  C Magruder and Huger.
+  D A. P. Hill.
+  E Holmes.]
+
+General Magruder brought all of the cannon into position which could be
+advantageously posted, and at two o'clock opened a rapid fire, which
+was replied to by the batteries on the hill. He threw forward his
+skirmishers at an earlier hour.
+
+Jackson moved forward a division upon Couch an hour later, but it was
+hurled back in confusion by the fire of the batteries, and the deadly
+volley delivered from the rifle-pits.
+
+Holmes, all the while, had been edging towards the river, to gain the
+rear of McClellan, but the enormous shells from the gunboats, which
+tore down the forests, paralyzed his soldiers.
+
+There was a consultation among the Rebel commanders. Lee had intrusted
+the command in his center to Magruder. His brigadier-generals did not
+want to advance over the plain.
+
+"I am unwilling to slaughter my brigade," said General Cobb, "but, if
+you command me, I shall make the charge if my last man falls."
+
+"I intend to make the charge, no matter what it costs," said Magruder.
+
+The commanders went to their brigades, murmuring that Magruder was
+drunk, that it would be madness to make the attack.[45]
+
+  [Footnote 45: Pollard, Southern Hist.]
+
+Magruder formed his line in the woods. Armistead's brigade moved upon
+the Union picket line and drove it back. "Advance rapidly, press
+forward your whole line, and follow up Armistead's successes. They are
+reported to be getting off," was Lee's message to Magruder.
+
+It was past six o'clock before Mahone, Ransom, Wright, Jones, and
+Cobb were ready. At the word of command, fifteen thousand men move
+from the shelter of the woods and appear upon the open plain, moving
+in solid phalanx,--close, compact, shoulder to shoulder, to capture,
+by a desperate charge, the batteries upon the hillside. It is madness!
+Success has made them reckless.
+
+With shoutings and howlings they break into a run. Instantly the hill
+is all aflame, from base to summit. Shells, shrapnel, and canister are
+poured upon them. There is the bellowing of a hundred cannon, mingled
+with the multitudinous rattling of thousands of small arms.
+
+The Rebel lines melt away,--whole squadrons tumbling headlong. In vain
+the effort, the men waver, turn, and disappear within the woods.
+
+Magruder is furious at the failure. Again the attempt,--again the same
+result.
+
+The sun is going down behind the hills when he makes his last
+effort. Meagher and Sickles go up from the right, and strengthen
+Porter's center. There is a shifting of batteries,--a movement to new
+positions,--a re-arranging of regiments. The artillery on both sides,
+and the gunboats, keep up a constant fire.
+
+The Rebels advance, but they are not able to reach the base of the
+hill. "From sixteen batteries," says the chaplain of the Fourth Texas,
+"and from their gunboats they beclouded the day and lit the night with
+a lurid glare. Add to this the light and noise of our own artillery,
+which had been brought forward, and, like an opposing volcano with
+a hundred craters, it gleamed, and flashed streams and sheets of
+fire,--while long lines of human forms cast their shadows upon the
+darkness in the background, and each joined with his firelock in hand
+to contribute to the terrors of the awful scene."[46]
+
+  [Footnote 46: Campaign from Texas to Maryland.]
+
+Officers and men, in this contest, go down in one indiscriminate
+slaughter. They are whirled into the air, torn, mangled, blown into
+fragments. They struggle against the merciless storm, break, and
+disappear in the darkness, panting, exhausted, foiled, dispirited,
+demoralized, refusing to be murdered, and uttering execrations upon the
+drunken Magruder.[47]
+
+  [Footnote 47: Battle-Fields of the South.]
+
+Although the army was upon James River, and in communication with
+the gunboats, and although the Rebels had been repulsed mainly by
+the artillery, orders were issued by General McClellan to retreat to
+Harrison's Landing. At midnight the troops were on the march, stealing
+noiselessly away, abandoning the wounded.
+
+"Although," says General McClellan, "the result of the battle of
+Malvern was a complete victory, it was necessary to fall back still
+farther, in order to reach a point where our supplies could be brought
+to us with certainty."[48]
+
+  [Footnote 48: Report, p. 140.]
+
+There were some officers who were much amazed at this order. They felt
+that having reached the river and defeated the enemy with terrible
+slaughter there should be no more falling back.
+
+"It is one of the strangest things in this week of disaster," says
+Chaplain Marks, "that General McClellan ordered a retreat to Harrison's
+Landing, six miles down James River, after we had gained so decided a
+victory. When the order was received by the impatient and eager army,
+consternation and amazement overwhelmed our patriotic and ardent hosts.
+Some refused to obey the command. General Martindale shed tears of
+shame. The brave and chivalrous Kearny said in the presence of many
+officers, 'I, Philip Kearny, an old soldier, enter my solemn protest
+against this order for retreat; we ought, instead of retreating, to
+follow up the enemy and take Richmond. And, in full view of all the
+responsibility of such a declaration, I say to you all, such an order
+can only be prompted by cowardice or treason.'"[49]
+
+  [Footnote 49: Peninsular Campaign, p. 294.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+AFFAIRS IN FRONT OF WASHINGTON.
+
+
+The prospects of the Rebels, which were so gloomy in April, were
+bright once more. They had driven the Army of the Potomac away from
+Richmond. It was August. A month had passed and General McClellan had
+shown no disposition to advance again upon Richmond. A consultation
+was held in that city. President Davis said that the time had come to
+strike a great blow. General Pope was in front of Washington with forty
+thousand men. It was determined to crush him, invade Maryland, and
+capture Baltimore and Washington. The Southern newspapers hinted that
+Tennessee, Kentucky, and the whole of Virginia were to be recovered,
+that Maryland was to be liberated from oppression, Philadelphia,
+Pittsburg, and Cincinnati assailed.
+
+General Lee's army numbered not far from one hundred thousand, having
+been reinforced by troops from the South. Those troops who had fought
+Burnside in North Carolina were hurried up; others were sent from South
+Carolina, Florida, and Georgia. Conscription was enforced vigorously.
+General Lee proposed to leave a force in Richmond large enough to hold
+it against McClellan, while he sent the main body of the army to fall
+like a thunderbolt on General Pope.
+
+These preparations were known in Washington, and on the 3d of August
+General Halleck, who had been placed in command of all the troops in
+the field, telegraphed to General McClellan to send his army to Aquia
+Creek as soon as possible. General Burnside's troops were withdrawn
+from Fortress Monroe, and united to Pope's army.
+
+General McClellan wished to remain upon the James and attack Richmond
+from that quarter, but General Halleck felt that it was absolutely
+necessary to unite the two armies. "You must move with all possible
+celerity," was the telegram sent on the 9th of August.
+
+But it was not till the 16th that the army broke up its camp and moved
+down the Peninsula, to Yorktown.
+
+While that despatch of the 9th was on the wires, Jackson, D. H. Hill,
+Ewell, and Winder were engaged with Pope on the Rapidan.
+
+General Pope had advanced from the Rappahannock, to hold the enemy
+in check till the Army of the Potomac could be brought back from the
+Peninsula.
+
+
+BATTLE OF CEDAR MOUNTAIN.
+
+Fertile and fair are the farms of Culpepper, as beautiful as any in
+the Old Dominion. They are watered by swiftly running streams. Their
+slopes are verdant and sunny, sheltered by the Blue Ridge from wintry
+blasts. Beyond the town of Culpepper, towards the south, there is a
+hillock, called Cedar Mountain, which rises abruptly, and in shape like
+a sugar-loaf. Near the Mountain is the house of Rev. Mr. Slaughter.
+Robinson's Creek winds through his farm, south of the Mountain, on its
+course to the Rapidan. North of the Mountain is the residence of Mrs.
+Crittenden. The house is shaded by overhanging trees. It stands on the
+west side of the highway leading from Culpepper to Madison. Standing
+there and looking towards the Mountain, we see fields of corn and
+wheat, groves and woods, bordering the field.
+
+General Crawford's brigade of Banks's corps, in the advance from
+Culpepper to the Rapidan, on the 8th of August, encountered Jackson's
+pickets at the base of the Mountain, upon the farm of Mr. Slaughter.
+
+On Saturday morning, the 9th instant, General Williams's division
+joined Crawford. As the troops approached the farm of Mrs. Crittenden,
+the base and summit of the Mountain seemingly became volcanic. There
+was an outburst of flame and smoke, a screaming in the air, and the
+deep reverberation of the cannonade.
+
+Williams's batteries were soon in position, and replied with shot and
+shells.
+
+General Banks arrived. He formed a line of battle, placing Williams's
+division west of the Madison road, near Mrs. Crittenden's house, and
+Augur's division east of it, nearer the Mountain. On the right of the
+line west of the house was Gordon's brigade, next Crawford, Geary,
+Greene, and Prince.
+
+Jackson, from his lookout on the Mountain, could see all the movements
+of General Banks. He threw out a line of skirmishers. Banks did the
+same. They met midway the armies, and began the contest. An hour
+passed of rapid artillery firing. Then the infantry became engaged,
+Jackson throwing his brigades upon Prince, turning his flank, and
+pushing him back. At the same time there was a furious attack upon
+Crawford. His men stood it awhile, then charged the Rebel lines, but
+were repulsed. Gordon moved in to take his place. The left of the
+line, Prince and Geary and Greene, was swinging back. Jackson was
+moving fresh brigades upon the center, but Gordon held them in check.
+His men dropped rapidly, but so destructive were his volleys that the
+Rebel line wavered and then retreated. But other brigades were thrown
+upon Gordon's right flank. They swept him with an enfilading fire, and
+he, too, was compelled to retreat or be cut off. He retired past Mrs.
+Crittenden's, across Cedar Creek. There Banks formed again, planted his
+artillery, and waited the advance of the enemy.
+
+Ricketts's division came up from McDowell's corps, ready to receive
+Jackson, but the Rebel general was content with what he had already
+accomplished.
+
+During the night there was an artillery duel, and a skirmish among the
+pickets.
+
+In the morning, a white flag was displayed on the field, and the
+wounded were gathered, and the dead buried. Officers from both armies
+met and conversed freely of the war. General Hartsuff, and the Rebel
+General Stuart, who were old acquaintances, shook hands upon the ground
+where the contest had been so fierce.
+
+General Jackson withdrew his forces after the battle towards
+Gordonsville, to wait the advance of the main army, under Lee, while
+General Pope pushed south to the Rapidan.
+
+On the 16th, General Pope's cavalry captured a Rebel courier, who was
+bearing a letter from Lee to Jackson, from which it was ascertained
+that the whole of Lee's army was moving north from Richmond, to
+crush Pope before McClellan could join him. General Pope was prompt
+to act upon this information. He retreated to the north bank of the
+Rappahannock, planted his artillery to cover the fords, hoping to hold
+Lee in check till he was reinforced.
+
+Lee followed rapidly with his whole army. He reached the Rappahannock
+on the 21st, attempted to cross, but was foiled in all his movements.
+
+Suddenly, on the night of the 22d, General Stuart fell upon the Orange
+and Alexandria Railroad at Catlett's Station, in General Pope's rear.
+It was a dark, rainy night. Many army wagons were there, and some were
+burned. All the horses were taken. General Pope lost his personal
+baggage.
+
+In the morning, General Pope understood that it was Lee's intention
+to gain his rear, and cut him off from Washington. Jackson was moving
+along the base of the Blue Ridge by swift marches.
+
+The mountains, which at Leesburg are called the Catoctin Range, farther
+south are called the Bull Run Mountains. There is a gap at Aldie, and
+another one at the head of Broad Run, called Thoroughfare Gap. There
+the mountain is cut down sharp and square. There is room for the
+railroad, the turnpike, and the creek. A hundred men might hold it
+against a thousand. That part of the mountain south of the gap is about
+ten miles long.
+
+One day I climbed the ridge to take a look at the surrounding country.
+Northward I could see the gap. A mile or two east of it, on the
+Manassas Gap Railroad, was the little village of Gainsville. Directly
+east was the cluster of houses called Greenwich, on the Warrenton and
+Centreville Turnpike. Ten miles distant, a little south of east, was
+Manassas Junction. Bristow's Station is south; Catlett's, southwest.
+Warrenton, one of the prettiest towns in Virginia, lies at the foot of
+the mountain, southwest, with roads radiating in all directions, as if
+it were the body of a spider, and the highways were legs. Westward is
+the Blue Ridge, looming dark and high, like an ocean billow ready to
+break over all the surrounding plains. In the northwest are the Cobble
+Mountains,--hillocks which lie between Bull Run and the Blue Ridge.
+Upon the railroad which winds towards Manassas Gap is the town of Salem.
+
+If I had stood there on the 26th of August, I should have seen a body
+of Rebel troops moving across from the base of the Blue Ridge, through
+fields, through forests, and along the highways, towards Salem with
+great rapidity,--the men footsore, weary,--many of them barefoot,
+few of them decently dressed,--but urged on by their officers. It is
+Jackson's corps pushing for Thoroughfare Gap.
+
+At Warrenton, General McDowell is breaking camp, and moving east over
+the Centreville turnpike to reach Gainsville. General Sigel follows
+him. General Reno, with Burnside's troops, is marching for Greenwich.
+General Kearny's and General Hooker's men, who have fought at
+Williamsburg, Seven Pines, Glendale, and Malvern, have joined Pope, and
+are moving along the Orange and Alexandria Railroad. General Porter is
+at Warrenton Junction. General Banks is coming up near the Rappahannock
+to join Porter.
+
+On the 26th, General Ewell's division, having passed through
+Thoroughfare Gap, fell upon Manassas Junction, burnt the depot, an
+immense amount of stores, a railroad train, and the bridge across Bull
+Run.
+
+General Taylor's brigade, of Franklin's corps, reached the spot, but
+were obliged to fall back towards Fairfax, their commander mortally
+wounded.
+
+Lee was following Pope. He hoped to crush him,--to grind him to powder
+between his own and Jackson's force then in Pope's rear.
+
+West of Manassas Junction is Kettle Run. General Ewell formed his line
+on the eastern bank, and waited Pope's advance. Hooker fell upon him
+on the afternoon of the 27th, and defeated him. Ewell fell back upon
+Jackson and A. P. Hill.
+
+Hooker was out of ammunition. Pope ordered Porter to join him, but he
+did not obey the order.
+
+Jackson was in a dangerous place. He was not strong enough to advance
+and give battle to Pope, who was now pressing him. He must retreat and
+gain time,--delay an engagement till Lee could come up. He fell back
+before Pope from Manassas to Centreville, then turned west over the
+Warrenton turnpike, along which McDowell's army marched in the first
+battle of Bull Run, the 21st of July, 1861.
+
+At this moment McDowell was moving east on the same turnpike.
+
+At six o'clock King's division of McDowell's corps, which was in
+advance, came in collision with Jackson at Groveton, on the western
+edge of the old battle-field. Gibbon's and Doubleday's brigades were
+engaged a short time, but darkness put an end to the conflict.
+
+Pope, with Hooker, Kearny, and Reno, had reached Centreville; Porter
+was at Manassas Junction; Banks, south of it; while Sigel and McDowell
+were southwest of Jackson, towards Warrenton. Jackson was in danger of
+being crushed. Pope, instead of being ground to powder, had maneuvered
+so admirably that he felt almost sure that Jackson would be utterly
+routed.
+
+He lost no time in sending out orders. "Hold your ground at all
+hazards," was his despatch to General King. "Push on at one o'clock
+to-night," was the word sent to Kearny, who was to move west over
+Warrenton turnpike and attack Jackson's rear. "Assault vigorously at
+daylight," he added, "for Hooker and Reno will be on hand to help you."
+
+"Move on Centreville at the earliest dawn," was the order sent to
+Porter at Manassas.
+
+General Pope was sure that he could crumble Jackson before Longstreet,
+who, he knew, was rapidly advancing towards Thoroughfare Gap, could
+arrive. Ricketts's division was thrown north, to hold the gap.
+
+But General King's troops were exhausted. Instead of holding the
+ground, he fell back towards the junction.
+
+General Ricketts sent a small force up to the gap, but Longstreet, who
+had reached Salem, sent a part of his troops over the mountains north,
+gained their rear, forced them back, and thus opened the gate for the
+advance of his corps. Ricketts joined McDowell at the junction.
+
+All this made it necessary for General Pope to issue new orders. He
+sent out his aides.
+
+"Attack at once," was the word to Sigel.
+
+"Push down the turnpike, as soon as possible, towards any heavy firing
+you may hear," was the despatch to Kearny and Hooker, also to Reno,
+commanding a division of Burnside's corps.
+
+"Be on the field at daybreak," was the message to Porter.
+
+"Send your train to Manassas and Centreville. Repair the railroad to
+Bull Run. Work night and day," were the instructions to Banks, who was
+guarding the trains.
+
+It was of the utmost importance that the attack should be made
+instantly, before Longstreet arrived; and to that end General Pope
+directed all his energies.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+BATTLE OF GROVETON.
+
+
+The morning of the 29th dawned calm, clear, and beautiful. Sigel obeyed
+orders. He was on the northwest corner of the old battle-field, near
+Dogan's house. Jackson was north of the turnpike, his right resting
+on Bull Run, at Sudley Springs, and his left on the turnpike near
+Groveton, along the line of an unfinished railway.
+
+Schurz was on the right in Sigel's corps, Milroy in the center, Schenck
+on the left, with Steinwehr in reserve. For an hour there was the deep
+roll of artillery.
+
+Then the line advanced. There was a sharp contest,--Sigel occupying
+the ground which Jackson held in the first fight on that memorable
+field, and Jackson upon the ground, where Burnside, Howard, and Hunter
+formed their lines. Milroy was driven, but Schurz and Schenck held
+their position. Hooker and Kearny were astir at daylight. They crossed
+the stream at the Stone Bridge, swung out into the fields, and moved
+north towards Sudley Springs, forcing Jackson back on Longstreet, who
+was resting after his hard march, his men eating a hearty meal from the
+stores captured at Manassas. He was in no condition to fight at that
+early hour.
+
+Time slipped away--precious hours! McDowell had not come. Porter had
+not been heard from. "Longstreet is getting ready," was the report from
+the scouts.
+
+Noon passed. One o'clock came round. "Longstreet is joining Jackson,"
+was the word from the pickets. The attack must be made at once if ever.
+
+It began at two o'clock by Hooker and Kearny on the right, pushing
+through the woods and across the fields between Dogan's house and
+Sudley Church.[50]
+
+  [Footnote 50: See "My Days and Nights on the Battle-Field."]
+
+The veterans of the Peninsula move upon an enemy whom they have met
+before. Jackson has made the line of a half-finished railroad his
+defense, and his men are behind the embankments and in the excavations.
+It is a long, desperate conflict. There are charges upon the enemy's
+lines and repulses. Three,--four,--five o'clock, and Porter has not
+come. McDowell, who should have marched northwest to Groveton to meet
+Longstreet, has, through some mistake, marched east of that place, and
+joined the line where Kearny and Hooker are driving Jackson.
+
+At this hour, sunset, on August 29th, Kearny, Hooker, and Reno are
+pushing west, north of the turnpike, close upon the heels of Jackson.
+King's division of McDowell's corps is moving west along the turnpike
+past Dogan's house, to attack what has been Jackson's right center,
+but which is now the left center of the united forces of Jackson and
+Longstreet. Sigel's brigades have been shattered, and are merely
+holding their ground south of the turnpike. O, if Porter with his
+twelve thousand fresh troops was only there to fall on Jackson's right
+flank! But he is not in sight. Nothing has been heard from him. He has
+had all day to march five miles over an unobstructed road. He has had
+his imperative orders,--has heard the roar of battle. He is an officer
+in the Regular service, and knows that it is the first requisite of an
+officer or a soldier to obey orders.
+
+  [Illustration: BATTLE OF GROVETON.
+
+  1 Hooker.
+  2 Kearny.
+  3 Reno.
+  4 Porter.
+  5 McDowell.
+  6 Sigel.
+
+  A  Rebel left wing, commanded by Jackson.
+  B  Rebel right wing, commanded by Longstreet.
+  C  Stone Bridge.
+  D  Dogan's House.
+  RR Unfinished Railroad.]
+
+Longstreet is too late upon the ground to make an attack with his whole
+force. The sun goes down and darkness comes on. The contest for the day
+is over. Jackson has been driven on his right, and Heintzelman's corps
+holds the ground. Both armies sleep on their arms.
+
+The auspicious moment for crushing Jackson had passed. The most that
+Pope could hope for was to hold his ground till Franklin and Sumner,
+who had landed at Alexandria, could join him. Thus far the battle had
+been in his favor. He wished to save his wagons which were at Manassas.
+If he retreated across Bull Run and made that his line of defense, he
+must abandon his trains at Manassas. If he did this, Banks would be cut
+off. He hoped, with Porter's magnificent corps holding his left flank,
+to defeat Lee.
+
+The morning of the 30th dawned. The pickets of the two armies were
+within a hundred yards of each other. The air was calm, the sky clear,
+and the morning as bright and beautiful as that Sabbath when the first
+great battle of the war was fought.
+
+The Rebel line was crescent-shaped. Its left under Jackson reached from
+Sudley Springs to a point near the turnpike, about a mile and a half
+west of Groveton. Longstreet commanded the right wing, which extended
+from Jackson's command far to the southwest, stretching beyond the
+Manassas Gap Railroad.
+
+This point was the center of the Rebel line. It was a high knoll or
+ridge of land which commanded two thirds of Lee's front. Here were
+forty-eight pieces of artillery. It was a very strong position. From
+this knoll eastward, the Rebel artillerymen looked down a long slope
+broken by undulations, the ground partitioned by fences, dividing it
+into fields, pastures, and wooded hills and hollows.
+
+Pope had about forty thousand men, who stood face to face with the army
+which had driven McClellan from the Chickahominy, and which met him a
+few days later at Antietam.
+
+The troops which had come from the Army of the Potomac were worn and
+dispirited. Hooker's and Kearny's divisions had been in nearly all the
+battles of the Peninsula. Almost alone they had fought the battle of
+Williamsburg. They were at Seven Pines, in skirmish after skirmish on
+the Chickahominy, and at Glendale and Malvern. Hooker on this morning
+of the 30th had but two thousand four hundred and forty-one men--so
+sadly had disease and battle thinned the ranks.
+
+Porter came up tardily. He had twelve thousand men, but they did not
+like General Pope. They believed that General McClellan had been
+cruelly sacrificed by the government. There was no hearty co-operation
+by the officers of Porter's command with General Pope. Griffin's and
+Piatt's brigades took the road to Centreville, either by mistake or
+otherwise, and were not in the battle.[51] Instead of twelve thousand,
+Porter brought but seven thousand to the field. Sigel's troops were
+mainly Germans, wanting in discipline, vigor, energy, and endurance.
+Pope's army was a conglomeration, wanting coherence. He had, besides
+the troops from the Army of the Potomac, McDowell's, who had been
+an army by themselves; Sigel's, who had served under Fremont, whom
+they idolized; Reno's, who looked upon Burnside as the only commander
+who had achieved victories. General Pope was from the West. He was
+unacquainted with his troops, and they with him. He had issued an
+order permitting them to forage at will, which had produced laxity of
+discipline and demoralization. Yet with all these things against him,
+he felt it to be his duty to offer battle to Lee.
+
+  [Footnote 51: Pope's Report.]
+
+Porter arrived with his seven thousand about nine o'clock, more than
+twenty-four hours late. He came into position in front of Sigel on the
+turnpike. Pope's line was thus complete. Hooker on the right at Sudley;
+Kearny and Reno next reaching to the turnpike; Porter next, with Sigel
+in rear; and McDowell commanding Reynolds's, King's, and Ricketts's
+divisions on the left, near the ground where the Rebels made their last
+stand in the first battle of Manassas.
+
+Had General Pope awaited an attack, the battle might have had a
+different ending, but his provisions were exhausted, and he could not
+wait. He must fight at once and win a victory or retreat.
+
+He had sent to Alexandria for provisions. General McClellan was there.
+The Army of the Potomac, when it arrived there, was in the department
+commanded by General Pope, and was therefore subject to his orders,
+which left McClellan without a command. Franklin and Sumner, with
+thirty thousand men, were moving out and could guard the trains. At
+daylight, while General Pope was forming his lines, endeavoring to
+hold at bay the army before which McClellan had retired from the
+Chickahominy, Savage Station, Glendale, and Malvern, General McClellan
+informed General Pope that the supplies would be loaded into cars and
+wagons as soon as Pope would send in a cavalry escort, to guard the
+trains!
+
+"Such a letter," says General Pope, "when we were fighting the enemy,
+and Alexandria swarming with troops, needs no comment. Bad as was the
+situation of the cavalry, I was in no situation to spare troops from
+the front, nor could they have gone to Alexandria and returned within
+a time by which we must have had provisions or have fallen back in the
+direction of Washington. Nor do I see what service cavalry could give
+in guarding railroad trains. It was not till I received this letter,
+that I began to feel discouraged and nearly hopeless of any successful
+issue to the operations with which I was charged."[52]
+
+  [Footnote 52: Pope's Report.]
+
+The battle at that moment was beginning; the reveille of the cannonade
+at that early hour was waking thousands to engage in their last day's
+work in the service of their country. Through the forenoon there was a
+lively picket firing, accompanying an artillery duel.
+
+"The enemy is making a movement to turn our left," was Sigel's message
+to Pope a little past noon. Lee's division, as they passed down from
+Thoroughfare Gap, marched towards Manassas Junction, and came into line
+beyond McDowell.
+
+General Reynolds, who was south of the turnpike, advanced to feel of
+Longstreet's position. He found the enemy sheltered in the woods. The
+musketry began. Porter, southwest of Dogan's house, moved into the
+forest, where the battle had raged the night before. He was received
+with sharp volleys. His men fought but a short time and retreated.
+
+"Why are you retreating so soon?" General Sigel asked of the men.
+
+"We are out of ammunition."[53]
+
+  [Footnote 53: Sigel's Report.]
+
+They passed on to Sigel's rear.
+
+Suddenly there were thundering volleys on the left. Lee was attacking
+with great vigor. At the same moment, Hooker, Kearny, and Reno were
+driving Jackson towards Sudley, swinging him back from his advanced
+position.
+
+The battle line was swinging like a gate pivoted on its center. The
+Rebels followed Porter, cheering and shouting. Grover's brigade of
+Hooker's division, which had been facing west, changed its line of
+march to the south, came down past Dogan's house, to the line of
+unfinished railroad which Lee had taken for his defense.
+
+Milroy's brigade of Sigel's corps was lying in the road which leads
+from Groveton towards the south.
+
+The Rebels were advancing upon him. Schurz, who was still farther
+south, was retiring before the mass of Rebel troops, who came within
+reach of Milroy's guns, which thinned their ranks at every discharge.
+But the Rebels were on Milroy's left flank, which was bending like a
+bruised reed before their advance. Grover came down with those men who
+had never failed to do their whole duty.
+
+"We stood in three lines," said a wounded Rebel officer to me at
+Warrington, two months after the battle. "They fell upon us like a
+thunderbolt. They paid no attention to our volleys. We mowed them down,
+but they went right through our first line, through our second, and
+advanced to the railroad embankment, and there we stopped them. They
+did it so splendidly that we couldn't help cheering them. It made me
+feel bad to fire on such brave fellows."
+
+They had charged into the thickest of the enemy's columns, but could
+not hold the position, and were forced back.
+
+Lee formed his lines for the decisive onset. Making the point on the
+turnpike, where Longstreet's command joined Jackson's, he swung his
+right against McDowell, Sigel, and Porter.
+
+Hood was on the left of the charging column, nearest the turnpike;
+then Pickett, Jenkins, Toombs, and Kemper. Evans and Anderson were in
+reserve.
+
+It was impossible to withstand this force; yet it was a furious,
+obstinate, bloody fight.
+
+"It had been a task of almost superhuman labor," writes Pollard,
+the Southern historian, "to drive the enemy from his strong points,
+defended as they were by the best artillery and infantry in the Federal
+army, but in less than four hours from the commencement of the battle,
+our indomitable energy had accomplished everything. The arrival of
+Anderson with his reserves, proved a timely acquisition, and the
+handsome manner in which he brought his troops into position showed the
+cool and skilful general. Our generals, Lee, Longstreet, Hood, Kemper,
+Evans, Jones, Jenkins, and others, all shared the dangers to which they
+exposed their men."[54]
+
+  [Footnote 54: Southern History, Second Year, p. 113.]
+
+Night put an end to the conflict. When darkness came on, Lee found that
+he was still confronted by men in line, with cannon well posted on the
+eminences towards Stone Bridge. He had gained the battle-ground, but
+had not routed the Union army.
+
+The retreat was conducted in good order across Bull Run. General
+Stahl's brigade was the last to cross Stone Bridge, which was
+accomplished at midnight, without molestation from Lee, who was too
+much exhausted to make the attempt to rout the forty thousand men, who
+had resisted the attack of all his troops,--the same army which had
+compelled General McClellan, commanding an army of a hundred thousand,
+to move from the Chickahominy to the James.
+
+General Pope states his own force to have been not over forty thousand.
+If the whole of Porter's corps had been engaged, and if Banks had
+been available, he would have had about fifty thousand men. The force
+against him numbered not less than eighty thousand. In the subsequent
+battle of Antietam, Lee had the same army which fought this battle,
+estimated by General McClellan to number ninety-seven thousand men,[55]
+with the exception of those lost him at South Mountain and Harper's
+Ferry.
+
+  [Footnote 55: General McClellan's Report, p. 213.]
+
+The battle of Groveton was therefore one of the most bravely fought and
+obstinate contests of the war,--fought by General Pope under adverse
+circumstances,--great inferiority of numbers, with a subordinate
+commander who disobeyed orders; with other officers who manifested no
+hearty co-operation. It will be for the future historian to do full
+justice to the brave men who made so noble a fight, who, had they been
+supported as they should have been, would doubtless have won a glorious
+victory.
+
+
+THE RETREAT TO WASHINGTON.
+
+General Sumner and General Franklin joined General Pope at Centreville.
+But the army was disorganized. The defeat, the want of co-operation
+on the part of some of the officers of the Army of the Potomac, had a
+demoralizing influence.
+
+General McClellan was at Alexandria. On the 29th, while Pope was trying
+to crush Jackson before the arrival of Longstreet, waiting anxiously
+for the appearance of Porter, who had disobeyed the order given him,
+the President, solicitous to hear from the army, inquired by telegram
+of him: "What's the news from Manassas?"
+
+"Stragglers report," was the reply, "that the enemy are evacuating
+Centreville, and retiring through Thoroughfare Gap. I am clear that
+one of two courses should be adopted: first, to concentrate all our
+available force, to open communication with Pope; second, to leave Pope
+to get out of his scrape, and at once use all our means to make the
+capital safe."[56]
+
+  [Footnote 56: McClellan's Report.]
+
+General Pope had opened his communications unaided by General
+McClellan. He had moved to the Rapidan, to enable General McClellan to
+withdraw from the Peninsula; had held his ground till the Rebel cavalry
+cut the railroad at Manassas; then with great rapidity he had moved to
+crush Jackson, and had failed only through the deliberate disobedience
+of orders by General Porter.
+
+Lee, on the second day after the battle of Groveton, made another
+flank movement north of Centreville, to cut off the Union army from
+Washington. There was a fight at Chantilly, where the brave and
+impetuous Kearny was killed, and the enemy fell back behind the
+intrenchments in front of Washington, and passed from the hands of
+General Pope into the hands of General McClellan.
+
+It will be for the future historian to determine the measure of blame
+or praise upon him,--the causes of disaster to the Army of the Potomac
+on the Peninsula, and to the Army of Virginia at Manassas. A military
+tribunal, composed of the peers of General Porter, has pronounced its
+verdict upon him. He has been cashiered,--lost his place and his good
+name forever.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+INVASION OF MARYLAND.
+
+
+"We are going to liberate Maryland," said a Rebel officer to a friend
+of mine who was taken prisoner at Catlett's Station. Throughout the
+South it was believed that the people of Maryland were down-trodden and
+oppressed, that the soldiers of President Lincoln prevented them from
+expressing their sympathy with the rebellion. In every Southern home
+and in the Rebel army, there was one song more popular than all others,
+entitled "Maryland."
+
+    "The despot's heel is on thy shore,
+            Maryland!
+    His touch is at the temple door,
+            Maryland!
+    Avenge the patriotic gore
+    That flecked the streets of Baltimore,
+    And be the battle queen of yore,
+            Maryland! My Maryland!
+
+    Dear mother! burst the tyrant's chain,
+            Maryland!
+    Virginia should not call in vain,
+            Maryland!
+    She meets her sisters on the plain;
+    "_Sic semper!_" 'tis the fond refrain
+    That baffles millions back amain,
+            Maryland! My Maryland!
+
+    I hear the distant thunder hum,
+            Maryland!
+    The Old Line's bugle, fife, and drum.
+            Maryland!
+    She is not dead, nor deaf, nor dumb.
+    Huzza! she spurns the Northern scum.
+    She breathes,--she burns,--she'll come! she'll come!
+            Maryland! My Maryland!"
+
+General Lee had no intention of attacking Washington. It was his plan
+to raise the standard of revolt in Maryland, bring about a second
+uprising of the people of Baltimore, and transfer the war to the North.
+He issued strict orders that all private property in Maryland should be
+respected, that everything should be paid for.
+
+On the 5th of September, he crossed the Potomac at Noland's Ford, near
+Point of Rocks. Jackson led the column. When he reached the middle
+of the stream he halted his men, pulled off his cap, while the bands
+struck up "My Maryland," which was sung by the whole army with great
+enthusiasm.[57]
+
+  [Footnote 57: Life of Stonewall Jackson, p. 197.]
+
+Lee moved towards Frederick, a quiet old town, between the mountains
+and the Monocacy. It was the harvest season. The orchards were loaded
+with fruit; the barns were filled with hay; the granaries with wheat;
+and there were thousands of acres of corn rustling in the autumn winds.
+
+At ten o'clock on the morning of the 6th, General Stuart's cavalry
+entered the city. There were some Marylanders in the Rebel army,
+who were warmly welcomed by their friends. A few ladies waved their
+handkerchiefs, but the majority of the people of the city had made up
+their minds to stand by the old flag, and manifested no demonstrations
+of joy. Many of them, however, took down the stars and stripes, when
+they saw the Rebels advancing; but over one house it waved proudly in
+the morning breeze, as General Jackson rode into town. His soldiers
+dashed forward to tear it down.
+
+What followed has been beautifully told by Whittier.
+
+
+BARBARA FRIETCHIE.
+
+    "Up from the meadows rich with corn,
+    Clear in the cool September morn,
+    The clustered spires of Frederick stand,
+    Green-walled by the hills of Maryland.
+    Round about them orchards sweep,
+    Apple and peach-tree fruited deep,
+    Fair as the garden of the Lord
+    To the eyes of the famished Rebel horde,
+    On that pleasant morn of the early fall,
+    When Lee marched over the mountain-wall.
+    Over the mountain winding down,
+    Horse and foot, into Frederick town.
+    Forty flags with their silver stars,
+    Forty flags with their crimson bars,
+    Flapped in the morning wind: the sun
+    Of noon looked down and saw not one.
+    Up rose old Barbara Frietchie then,
+    Bowed with her four score years and ten;
+    Bravest of all in Frederick town,
+    She took up the flag the men hauled down;
+    In her attic window the staff she set,
+    To show that one heart was loyal yet.
+    Up the street came the Rebel tread,
+    Stonewall Jackson riding ahead.
+    Under his slouched hat left and right
+    He glanced, the Old Flag met his sight.
+    'Halt!' the dust brown ranks stood fast.
+    'Fire!' out blazed the rifle blast.
+    It shivered the window, pane, and sash.
+    It rent the banner with seam and gash.
+    Quick as it fell from the broken staff,
+    Dame Barbara snatched the silken scarf.
+    She leaned far out on the window-sill,
+    And shook it forth with a royal will.
+    'Shoot, if you must, this old gray head,
+    But spare your country's flag,' she said.
+    A shade of sadness, a blush of shame,
+    Over the face of the leader came.
+    The nobler nature within him stirred
+    To life, at that woman's deed and word.
+    'Who touches a hair of yon gray head
+    Dies like a dog! March on!' he said.
+    All day long through Frederick street
+    Sounded the tread of marching feet.
+    All day long that free flag tost
+    Over the heads of the Rebel host.
+    Ever its torn folds rose and fell
+    On the loyal winds that loved it well,
+    And through the hill-gap sunset light
+    Shone over it with a warm good night.
+    Barbara Frietchie's work is o'er;
+    And the Rebel rides on his raids no more.
+    Honor to her! And let a tear
+    Fall for her sake on Stonewall's bier,
+    Over Barbara Frietchie's grave,
+    Flag of freedom and union wave!
+    Peace, and order, and beauty draw
+    Round thy symbol of light and law.
+    And ever the stars above look down
+    On the stars below in Frederick town."
+
+General Lee had a plan to execute other than the liberation of
+Maryland,--the invasion of Pennsylvania.
+
+"We treat the people of Maryland well, for they are our brothers, but
+we intend to make the North howl," one of the officers said.
+
+"Lee will cut his way to Philadelphia, and dictate terms of peace
+in Independence Square. He will stand with torch in hand and demand
+Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri, and peace, or he will lay
+that city in ashes," said another.
+
+But before he could venture on an invasion of Pennsylvania he must have
+an open communication with Richmond. There were eleven thousand men
+under Colonel Mills at Harper's Ferry, who were strongly fortified. It
+would not do to leave them in his rear. If that place were captured he
+could move north.
+
+The geographical features of the country were favorable to the
+execution of his plans.
+
+Ten miles west of Frederick the South Mountain rises above the
+surrounding country, dark, steep, rocky, and clothed with forests. Its
+most northern spur is near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. There are two
+gaps in the range west of Frederick. If Lee could hold these with a
+portion of his force, he could surround Harper's Ferry, situated on the
+Potomac, where that winding and impetuous river leaps through the rocky
+gorge.
+
+If successful in capturing it, he could still hold the mountain gates,
+and pour the great bulk of his army north through the rich Cumberland
+valley. If McClellan was held at bay in his efforts to take the passes,
+and should move north, and come down the valley, then, pointing his
+guns in the passes westward upon McClellan, Lee could spring like a
+tiger on Baltimore and Washington.
+
+The first thing to be done after resting his army was to seize Harper's
+Ferry.
+
+The people of Frederick and the farmers round the city had a chance to
+sell all their goods,--their boots, shoes, clothes, flour, bacon, pigs,
+cattle, and horses, but they were paid in Confederate money, which was
+worth so many rags.
+
+Lee's army was very dirty and filthy. It had made hard marches. The
+men had no tents. They had slept on the ground, had lived some of the
+time on green corn and apples, had fought battles, had been for weeks
+exposed to storms, sunshine, rain, mud, and dust, with no change of
+clothing. They had thrown all their strength into this one grand
+invasion of the North, and had shown a wonderful vigor. The rest and
+repose, the good living which they found, were very acceptable. They
+obeyed General Lee's orders, and behaved well.
+
+General Lee issued an address to the people of Maryland.
+
+"The people of the South have seen with profound indignation their
+sister State deprived of every right and reduced to the condition of a
+conquered province.
+
+"Believing that the people of Maryland possessed a spirit too lofty to
+submit to such a government, the people of the South have long wished
+to aid you in throwing off this foreign yoke, to enable you again to
+enjoy the inalienable rights of freemen," read the address.
+
+But the people were not conscious of living under a foreign yoke,
+neither that they were a conquered province, and therefore did not
+respond to the call to rise in rebellion against the old flag.
+
+It was time for Lee to proceed to the execution of his plans. The Army
+of the Potomac was approaching Frederick. Lee directed Jackson to
+move on the 10th of September directly west, cross South Mountain at
+Boonsboro' Gap, move through the town of Sharpsburg, cross the Potomac,
+and fall upon Martinsburg, where Colonel White, with a brigade of Union
+troops, was guarding a large amount of stores. General McLaw's and
+Anderson's divisions were to occupy Maryland Heights--the termination
+of the South Mountain range in Maryland--while General Walker was
+sent across the river into Virginia to occupy Loudon Heights. Thus
+approaching from the north, east, south, and west, Colonel Miles would
+have no chance to escape. Longstreet was to move to Hagerstown to be
+ready for a sudden spring into Pennsylvania. Howell Cobb was to hold
+Crampton's Pass, and D. H. Hill the Boonsboro' Gap.
+
+"The commands of General Jackson, McLaw, and Walker, after having
+accomplished the objects for which they have been detached, will join
+the main body of the army at Boonsboro' or Hagerstown," read the order.
+
+On the 11th, the last regiment of Rebels departed from Frederick, and
+soon after the advance of the Army of the Potomac entered the place.
+The inhabitants shouted, waved their flags once more, and hailed
+McClellan as their deliverer.
+
+
+BATTLE OF SOUTH MOUNTAIN.
+
+Early in the forenoon of Sunday, the 14th of September, General
+Burnside, leading the Union army, ascended a high hill, a few miles
+west of Frederick, and looked down upon one of the loveliest valleys
+in the world. At his feet was the village of Middletown; beyond it,
+in the bottom of the valley, the Catoctin Creek winds through ever
+verdant meadows, past old mansions, surrounded with well-filled barns.
+North and south, far as the eye can reach, are wheat and clover fields,
+and acres of corn putting on its russet hues. Beyond the creek, the
+road winds along the mountain side, past the little hamlet called
+Bolivar. There are ledges, loose stones, groves of oak, and thickets
+of mountain shrubs. There is a house on the summit,--once a tavern,
+where the teamsters and stagemen of former days watered their tired
+horses, and drank their ale, and ate a lunch. It is old and dilapidated
+now. But standing there and looking east, it seems as if a strong
+armed man might cast a stone upon Middletown, hundreds of feet below.
+Twelve miles away to the east are the spires of Frederick, gleaming in
+the sun. Westward from this mountain gate we many behold at our feet
+Boonsboro' and Keedysville, and the crooked Antietam; and still farther
+westward, the Potomac, making its great northern sweep to Williamsport.
+In the northwest, twelve miles distant, is Hagerstown, at the head of
+the Cumberland valley. Longstreet is there on this Sunday morning,
+sending his cavalry up to the Pennsylvania lines, gathering cattle,
+horses, and pigs.
+
+General D. H. Hill beholds the Union army spread out upon the plains
+before him, reaching all the way to Frederick city,--dark-blue masses
+moving towards him along the road, through the fields, with banners
+waving, their bright arms reflecting the morning sunshine.
+
+He is confident that he can hold the place,--so narrow,--the mountain
+sides so steep, and one Southerner equal to five Yankees. He hates the
+men of the north. He is a native of South Carolina, and was educated
+by the government at West Point. He was teacher of the North Carolina
+Military School. Before the war, he did what he could to stir up the
+people of the South to rebel. He told them that the South won nearly
+all the battles of the Revolution, but that the Northern historians
+had given the credit to the North, which was a "Yankee trick." He
+published an Algebra in 1857, which Stonewall Jackson pronounced
+superior to all others, in which his inveterate hatred appears. His
+problems are expressive of hatred and contempt.
+
+"A Yankee," he states, "mixes a certain number of wooden nutmegs, which
+cost him one fourth of a cent apiece, with real nutmegs worth four
+cents apiece, and sells the whole assortment for $44, and gains $3.75
+by the fraud. How many wooden nutmegs are there?"
+
+"At the Woman's Rights Convention, held at Syracuse, New York, composed
+of one hundred and fifty delegates, the old maids, childless wives, and
+bedlamites were to each other as the numbers 5, 7, and 3. How many were
+there of each class?"
+
+"The field of Buena Vista is six and a half miles from Saltillo. Two
+Indiana volunteers ran away from the field of battle at the same
+time; one ran half a mile per hour faster than the other, and reached
+Saltillo five minutes and fifty four and six elevenths seconds sooner
+than the other. Required their respective rates of travel."[58]
+
+  [Footnote 58: The Church and the Rebellion, p. 196.]
+
+On this bright morning, the men of the Nineteenth Indiana, troops
+from Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, Maine,--from nearly all the loyal
+States,--are preparing to climb the mountain to meet the man who has
+violated his oath, and who hates the government that gave him an
+education.
+
+The line of battle is formed by General Burnside along the Catoctin
+Creek. The Ninth corps, with General Cox's division in advance, is
+thrown south of the turnpike, and directed to move along a narrow road
+which unites with the turnpike in the gap.
+
+It is seven o'clock in the morning when Scammon's brigade of Ohio
+troops moves into position. Robertson's battery is south of the
+turnpike in a field, throwing shells up the mountain into the woods
+where Hill's men are lying sheltered from sight by the foliage.
+
+There is a reply from the gap. Solid shot and shells fly from the
+mountain to the valley. Hayne's battery joins with Robertson's, Simmons
+opens with his twenty-pounders, and McMullin with four heavy guns, and
+while church-bells far away are tolling the hour of worship, these
+cannon in the valley and on the mountain side wake the slumbering
+echoes, and play the prelude to the approaching strife.
+
+Scammon's brigade leads the way by the old Sharpsburg road, the men
+toiling slowly up the hill,--through the fields and pastures, over
+fences and walls, sometimes losing foothold, and falling headlong, or
+sliding downward.
+
+The brigade was preceded by a line of skirmishers, and was followed by
+Crook's brigade.
+
+The woods were full of Rebels, but the men moved on, driving back
+Hill's skirmishers, working up step by step, pushing them and the line
+supporting them toward the gap. A battery opened with canister, but
+the shot flew wild and high over their heads, and they pressed on.
+McMullin sent up two guns, but the gunners were picked off by the Rebel
+sharpshooters. The Twelfth Ohio charged up the hill, through a pasture,
+with a hurrah. Louder, deeper, longer was the cheer which rose from the
+valley far below, where Sturgis, and Wilcox, and Rodman were forming
+into line. On,--into the fire,--close up to the stonewall, where the
+Rebels were lying,--they charged, routing them from their shelter, and
+holding the ground. There were places on the hillside, where the green
+grass became crimson,--where brave men had stood a moment before full
+of life and vigor and devotion to their country, but motionless and
+silent now,--their part in the great struggle faithfully performed,
+their work done.
+
+Hill rallied his men. They dashed down the mountain to regain the
+ground. But having obtained it through costly sacrifice, the men from
+Ohio were not willing to yield it.
+
+There was a lull in the battle at noon. Hill, finding that the chances
+were against him, sent to Hagerstown for Longstreet.
+
+Burnside, on the other hand, waited for Hooker to arrive, who was next
+in the column. He commanded the First corps, composed of Ricketts's and
+King's divisions, and the Pennsylvania Reserves. He filed north of the
+turnpike, threw Ricketts's upon the extreme right, with the Reserves in
+the center, and King on the left. King was on the turnpike. There is
+a deep gorge between the turnpike and the old road south of it, which
+made a gap between Reno and Hooker.
+
+The afternoon wore away before the troops were ready. Longstreet's men
+were panting up the mountain on the western side, Hood's division in
+advance. They were thrown upon the hillside south of the old tavern in
+the gap. It was past four o'clock when the order to advance was given.
+Wilcox's division led upon the extreme left.
+
+It is a movement which will be decisive, for victory or defeat. The
+artillery--all the batteries which can be brought into position--send
+their shells up the mountain. Steadily onward moves the long line
+across the fields at the foot, up the pasture lands of the slope into
+the woods.
+
+There is a rattling of musketry,--then heavy rolls, peal on peal, wave
+on wave, and a steady, constant roar; giving not an inch, but advancing
+slowly, or holding their ground, the veterans of the Peninsula continue
+their fire. The mountain is white with the rising battle-cloud. The
+line of fire goes up the mountain. The Rebels are falling back,
+fighting bravely, but yielding. There are shouts, yells, outcries,
+mingling with the thunder of the artillery, echoing and reverberating
+along the valleys.
+
+Right and left and center are pushing on. Thousands on the plains below
+behold it, and wish that they were there to aid their brothers in arms.
+The day wanes, the shadows begin to deepen, revealing the flashes from
+cannon and musket. There is no giving back of Burnside's men, neither
+of Hooker's, but nearer to the crest, nearer the clouds, moves the
+starry banner.
+
+"Please open upon that house with your battery," was the order of
+Colonel Meredith, of the Nineteenth Indiana, commanding a brigade in
+King's division, to Lieutenant Stewart of the Fourth United States
+Artillery. The house was filled with sharpshooters. Lieutenant Stewart
+sights his guns. The second shell crashes through the side as if it
+were paper, tears through the rooms. The Rebels swarm out from doors
+and windows in hasty flight. The men from Indiana give a lusty cheer,
+and move nearer the enemy.
+
+In vain the efforts of Hill and Longstreet and Hood to stop the
+fiery tide, rising higher, rolling nearer, overflowing the mountain,
+threatening to sweep them into the western valley. The lines surge
+on. It is like the sweep of a great tidal wave. There is a rush, a
+short, desperate, decisive struggle. The Rebel line gives way. The
+men from Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, New York, Pennsylvania, Maine, and
+Massachusetts, pour into the gap, shouting their victorious hurrahs.
+
+General Hill has lost the battle. He has despised those men. He tried
+to injure their fair fame before the world in time of peace; he
+intimated that Northern men were arrant cowards; but after this battle
+at South Mountain he can issue an Algebra with a new statement of the
+wooden nutmeg and Buena Vista problems.
+
+
+SURRENDER OF HARPER'S FERRY.
+
+Lee was successful in what he had undertaken at Harper's Ferry. While
+Burnside was winning this victory, Colonel Miles was yielding that
+important post. He abandoned the strong position on Maryland Heights,
+tumbled the cannon down the mountain, when he might have kept McLaw
+and Anderson from gaining possession of the place. Jackson kept up a
+furious bombardment. Miles hung out the white flag, and was killed
+immediately after by a shell.
+
+His troops were indignant at the surrender. Some shed tears.
+
+"We have no country now," said one officer, wiping the tears from
+his face. If Miles had held out a little longer, he would have been
+relieved, for Franklin was driving General Cobb from Crampton's Pass,
+and would have been upon the rear of McLaw and Anderson.
+
+The cavalry made their escape under cover of the night. They followed
+winding forest-paths through the woods, at dead of night, avoiding
+the roads till they were north of Sharpsburg. While crossing the
+Williamsport and Hagerstown road they came upon Longstreet's ammunition
+train.
+
+"Hold!" said the officer commanding the cavalry to the forward driver,
+"you are on the wrong road. That is the way."
+
+The driver turned towards the north as directed, not knowing that the
+officer was a Yankee.
+
+"Hold on there! you are on the wrong road. Who told you to turn off
+here, I should like to know?" shouted the Rebel officer in charge of
+the train, dashing up on his horse.
+
+"I gave the order, sir."
+
+"Who are you, and what right have you to interfere with my train, sir,"
+said the officer, coming up in the darkness.
+
+"I am colonel of the Eighth New York cavalry, and you are my prisoner,"
+said the Union officer, presenting his pistol.
+
+The Rebel officer was astounded. He swore bad words, and said it was a
+mean Yankee trick.
+
+One hundred wagons and seventy-four men were thus quietly cut out from
+the Rebel trains.
+
+I saw the prisoners as they entered Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. There
+were several negroes among them.
+
+"As soon as I heard dat we was in de hands of de Yankees, I was mighty
+glad, sir, 'cause we darkees want to get to de Norf," he said.
+
+"Why do you want to get to the North?"
+
+"'Cause we be free up here. We don't get much to eat in the Souf," he
+said.
+
+At the head of this company of prisoners marched a man with downcast
+eyes, sunburned, dusty, dressed in gray, with a black feather in his
+hat. His name was Fitz Hugh Miller. He was a Pennsylvanian. It was he
+who arrested Cook, one of John Brown's accomplices, and delivered him
+over to Governor Wise. Cook was tried, found guilty, and hung. When the
+war broke out, Miller went South, and was a captain in Lee's army. The
+people of Chambersburg knew him. He was a traitor.
+
+"Hang him!" they shouted. "A rope!" "Get a rope!" There was a rush of
+men and women towards him. They were greatly excited. Some picked up
+stones to hurl at him, some shook their fists in his face, but the
+guards closed round him, and hurried the pale and trembling wretch off
+to prison as quickly as possible, and saved him from a violent death.
+
+General Lee had been successful in taking Harper's Ferry, but he was
+not in position to spring upon the North. The eastern gates were wide
+open. Burnside had pushed D. H. Hill and Longstreet down the Mountain,
+and the whole Yankee army which he intended to keep out of the Antietam
+and Cumberland valleys was pouring upon him. He had been successful
+in most of his battles. He had driven McClellan from Richmond to the
+gunboats, had defeated Pope at Groveton, had taken eleven thousand
+prisoners and immense supplies at Harper's Ferry. All that he had to
+do now was to defeat the new Army of the Potomac in a great pitched
+battle; then he could move on to Philadelphia and dictate terms of
+peace.
+
+He resolved to concentrate his army, choose his ground, and give battle
+to McClellan. He must do that before he could move on. The advance
+of the Rebel army towards Pennsylvania roused the citizens of that
+Commonwealth to take active measures for its defense.
+
+There were glorious exhibitions of pure patriotism. Governor Curtin
+called upon the people to organize at once; and fifty thousand men
+hastened to the various places of rendezvous. The old Revolutionary
+flame was rekindled. Disaster had not dispirited the people. The
+ministers from their pulpits urged their congregations to go, and
+themselves set the example. Judges, members of Congress, presidents of
+colleges, and professors took place in the ranks, and became soldiers.
+In every town the pulses of the people beat to the exigencies of the
+hour. Telegrams and letters poured in upon the Governor. "We are
+ready," "We shall march to-morrow," "Give us guns," they said.
+
+Mothers, wives, and daughters said, "Go!"
+
+There were tearful eyes and swelling bosoms, but brave hearts. Old men,
+gray-haired, weak, weary with the weight of years, encouraged the young
+and strong, and bestowed their blessings on those departing for the
+battle-field.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+BATTLE OF ANTIETAM.
+
+
+The army had been re-organized. It was not altogether the same army
+which had fought the battles of the Peninsula. The First corps, under
+the command of General Hooker, contained Doubleday's, Meade's, and
+Ricketts's divisions. Doubleday's troops were formerly under McDowell.
+They had been under fire at Cedar Mountain, and held the left at
+Groveton.
+
+Meade commanded the Pennsylvania Reserves. McCall, their first
+commander, was a prisoner. Reynolds, who succeeded to the command, was
+in Pennsylvania organizing the militia. The Reserves had been in many
+of the battles,--Dranesville, Mechanicsville, Gaines's Mills, Glendale,
+Malvern, Groveton, and South Mountain.
+
+Ricketts's troops were of McDowell's corps, formerly King's division.
+They too had been in the hottest of the fight at Groveton.
+
+The Second corps was still in the hands of the veteran Sumner.
+Sedgwick, Richardson, and French were his division commanders.
+
+Sedgwick and Richardson had been through the Peninsular campaign. They
+came up at Fair Oaks in a critical moment, and decided the day in that
+hard-fought battle. They had stood motionless through the long summer
+day at Savage Station,--a wall of adamant against Stonewall Jackson
+and Magruder. Richardson held the bridge at White-Oak Swamp, while
+Sedgwick with Hooker repulsed A. P. Hill at Glendale. French's troops
+had been under General Wool at Fortress Monroe and Norfolk. They
+had seen skirmishes, but had never been engaged in a great battle.
+French had one brigade of new troops, fresh from the home barracks,
+inexperienced in drill and discipline, and unacquainted with the
+indescribable realities of a great battle. It was a powerful corps.
+
+The Sixth corps was commanded by Franklin, and was composed of Smith's
+and Slocum's divisions, old soldiers of the Peninsula. A portion of
+them were engaged in the battle of Williamsburg. Smith's division was
+in the fight at Fair Oaks; and Slocum crossed to the north bank of the
+Chickahominy, in season to save Fitz-John Porter from annihilation in
+the battle of Gaines's Mills. They held the rear at White-Oak Swamp,
+and had borne their share in the battle of Malvern.
+
+The Fifth corps was commanded by Porter, and was composed of Sykes's
+division of Regulars and Morell's division; the same which had fought
+gloriously at Gaines's Mills, and Malvern, and reluctantly at Groveton.
+
+The Ninth corps was commanded by Burnside. He had four
+divisions,--Wilcox's, Sturgis's, Rodman's, and Cox's.
+
+Sturgis's and Rodman's troops were Burnside's own, which had a good
+record at Roanoke and Newbern. Wilcox's were of Sherman's army from
+Port Royal, and had seen some of the hardships of campaigning. They
+had been hurried up from the South, when it was discovered that Lee
+contemplated an invasion of the North. The Thirty-fifth Massachusetts
+in this corps had been but a few days in the service. How well they
+fought, we shall see hereafter.
+
+The troops commanded by General Cox were of the Kanawha
+division,--Western Virginia and Ohio soldiers, who had seen service
+among the mountains.
+
+The Twelfth corps, which had fought at Winchester and Cedar Mountain
+under Banks, was now commanded by General Mansfield. It contained but
+two divisions, Williams's and Greene's.
+
+Couch commanded an independent division, the troops which had stemmed
+the tide at Seven Pines.
+
+These corps composed the Army of the Potomac, which was organized into
+three grand divisions.
+
+Burnside commanded the right wing, having his own,--the Ninth and First
+corps. General Cox commanded the Ninth after the death of Reno at South
+Mountain, and the appointment of Burnside to the command of the grand
+division.
+
+The center was under the command of Sumner, and was composed of the
+Second and Twelfth corps,--his own and Mansfield's.
+
+The left wing was commanded by Franklin, and was composed of the Fifth
+and Sixth corps.
+
+General Lee's army was composed of the commands of Jackson, Longstreet,
+D. H. Hill, McLaw, and Walker.
+
+An estimate of his forces in the battle of Antietam, obtained from
+prisoners, deserters, and spies, is ninety-seven thousand.
+
+"It was fought for half a day with forty-five thousand men on the
+Confederate side, and for the remaining half with no more than an
+aggregate of seventy thousand,"[59] writes a Southern historian, who
+estimates McClellan's force at a hundred and thirty thousand.
+
+  [Footnote 59: Pollard, Vol. II. p. 137.]
+
+The ground which General Lee selected for a decisive trial of the
+strength of the two armies is near the village of Sharpsburg, between
+the Antietam and Potomac Rivers. It is a quiet little village at
+the junction of the Hagerstown turnpike, with the pike leading from
+Boonsboro' to Shepardstown. Hagerstown is twelve miles distant, due
+north; Shepardstown, three and a half miles, a little south of west, on
+the Potomac.
+
+In former years, it was a lively place. There were always country teams
+and market wagons rumbling through the town, but now the innkeepers
+have few travelers to eat their bacon and eggs. The villagers meet
+at nightfall at the hotel, smoke their pipes, drink a glass of the
+landlord's ale, and tell the story of the great battle.
+
+The Antietam is a rapid, crooked mill-stream. It rises north of
+Hagerstown, on the borders of Pennsylvania, runs toward the south, and
+empties into the Potomac, three miles south of Sharpsburg. Its banks
+are steep. In some places there are limestone ledges cropping out. At
+low water, it is fordable in many places, but when the clouds hang low
+upon the mountains and give out their showers, it roars, foams, tumbles
+like a cataract.
+
+Three miles northwest of the town, the Potomac makes a great bend to
+the east, comes within a half mile of the Hagerstown pike, then bears
+south toward Shepardstown.
+
+Across the Antietam, three miles from Sharpsburg, to the southeast, is
+the northern end of Elk Ridge,--a mountain running south to Harper's
+Ferry, forming the west wall of Pleasant Valley.
+
+The Antietam, below the Boonesboro' road, runs along the western
+base of the ridge. It is not more than four miles from the Antietam,
+opposite the head of the ridge, to the great bend in the Potomac,
+northwest of Sharpsburg. General Lee selected this narrow gate for his
+line of battle. It had many advantages. It was a short line. It could
+not be flanked. It was on commanding ground. General McClellan must
+attack in front. He must cross the Antietam, ascend the steep bank,
+over ground swept by hundreds of guns, and face a direct as well as a
+flanking fire. McClellan could not turn the right flank of the Rebels,
+because there the Antietam runs close to the base of Elk Ridge, then
+turns due west, and empties into the Potomac. He could not turn the
+left flank, for there the Rebel army leaned upon the Potomac.
+
+  [Illustration: The Battle Field of Antietam.
+
+  POSITIONS OF THE TWO ARMIES.
+
+  The diagram represents the general positions of the divisions as
+  they came upon the field.
+
+  1 Hooker's corps.
+  2 Mansfield's corps.
+  3 Sedgwick's division, Sumner's corps.
+  4 French's " " "
+  5 Richardson's "  "  "
+  6 Franklin's corps.
+  7 Porter's corps.
+  8 Burnside's corps.
+  9 McClellan's head-quarters.
+
+  A Jackson.
+  B D. H. Hill.
+  C Longstreet.
+  D A. P. Hill.
+  E Lee's head-quarters.
+
+  The dotted line passing through Jackson's position is a narrow
+  farm road, along which Jackson erected his defensive works.]
+
+Besides these protections to the flank, the line itself was very
+strong. There were hills, hollows, ravines, groves, ledges, fences,
+cornfields, orchards, stone-walls,--all of which are important in a
+great battle. Besides all of those natural defenses, General Lee threw
+up breastworks and rifle-pits to make his line as strong as possible.
+His line was on the ridge, between the Antietam and the Potomac.
+
+There are three stone bridges across the Antietam near where the battle
+was fought. One of them will be known in history as the Burnside
+Bridge, for there the troops commanded by General Burnside forced back
+the Rebel right wing, and crossed the stream. It is on the road which
+leads from Sharpsburg to the little village of Roherville in Pleasant
+Valley.
+
+A mile north, there is another at the crossing of the Boonesboro' and
+Sharpsburg turnpike. A half mile above, on the eastern bank, there is a
+large brick farm-house, where General McClellan had his head-quarters
+during the battle. Following the windings of the stream, we reach
+the upper bridge, on the road from Keedysville to Hagerstown. On the
+western bank are the farms of John Hoffman and D. Miller. There is a
+little cluster of houses called Smoketown.
+
+Traveling directly west from Hoffman's one mile across the fields, we
+reach the Sharpsburg and Hagerstown pike, near the residence of Mr.
+Middlekauff. A quarter of a mile farther would carry us to the great
+bend of the Potomac. But turning south, and traveling the turnpike, we
+reach the farm-house of Mr. John Poffenberger,[60] a wooden building
+standing with its gable towards the turnpike. There are peach-trees in
+front, and a workshop, and a bee-bench.
+
+  [Footnote 60: Upon the map accompanying General McClellan's Report
+  there are several residences marked Poffenberger; also several marked
+  D. Miller. But the residence here described was the one around which
+  the severest fighting occurred on the right,--Joseph Poffenberger's.]
+
+There is a high ridge behind the house, crowned by Poffenberger's barn.
+Standing upon the ridge and looking west, we behold the turnpike at our
+feet, a mown field beyond, and fifty or sixty rods distant a cornfield,
+and a grove of oaks. That cornfield and those oaks is the ground
+occupied by Jackson's left wing.
+
+A few rods south of Poffenberger's is the toll-gate. There a narrow
+lane runs west towards the Potomac. Another leads southwest, past an
+old house and barn, winding through the woods, and over the uneven
+ground where Jackson established his center. There is a grove of
+oaks between the toll-gate and the farm-house of Mr. J. Miller, a
+few rods further south. Mr. Miller had a large field in corn on the
+hillside east of his house at the time of the battle. Standing there
+upon the crest and looking east, we have a full view of the farm of
+John Hoffman. Here and on the ridge behind Poffenberger's, Jackson
+established his advanced line one half of a mile from his main line,
+west of the turnpike.
+
+The cornfield was bordered on the east by a narrow strip of woodland,
+on the south by a newly mown field extending to the turnpike.
+
+Walking across the smooth field to the turnpike again, we behold a
+small one-story brick building on the west side of the road, with an
+oak grove behind it. It has no tower or spire, but it is known as the
+Dunker Church. A road joins the turnpike in front of the church, coming
+in from the northeast from Hoffman's farm and the upper bridge across
+the Antietam.
+
+This building is on elevated ground. It was the pivot on which the
+fortunes of the day swung to and fro, where hinged the destiny of the
+nation. There Jackson's right wing joined D. H. Hill's division. There,
+around the church, fifty thousand men met in deadly strife.
+
+The land slopes towards the east. Rivulets spring from the hillside,
+and flow towards the Antietam. Seventy or eighty rods east of the
+church is the residence of Mr. Muma. There is a graveyard north of
+his dwelling, white headstones marking the burial-place. There is a
+farm-road leading past his house to Mr. Rulet's beyond. It winds along
+the hillside into the ravine by Mr. Rulet's. There are branch roads;
+one leading to Sharpsburg, one down the hill to the middle bridge
+across the Antietam. The farms of Mr. Muma, Mr. Rulet, and Dr. Piper
+are broken lands, hills, ravines, corn and wheat fields, orchards,
+pastures, and mowing-grounds. D. H. Hill occupied the high grounds on
+Mr. Muma's farm; Longstreet held Rulet's, Dr. Piper's, Sharpsburg, and
+the hills south of the town.
+
+Standing by the church and looking north, we see Poffenberger's house,
+three fourths of a mile distant; northeast we see Hoffman's farm,
+a mile and a half distant. Looking directly east over the house of
+Mr. Rulet, we behold the Antietam, one mile distant, with General
+McClellan's head-quarters on the hill beyond.
+
+Southeast, a mile and a quarter distant, is the middle bridge on the
+Boonesboro' pike. Directly south, along the Hagerstown turnpike, is
+Sharpsburg. Lee's head-quarters are in a field west of the town. Two
+miles distant, at the base of Elk Ridge, is the lower bridge. There the
+banks of the river are high, sharp, and steep. Behind the church are
+limestone ledges; in the woods, strong natural defenses.
+
+These are the main features of the field:--
+
+Hoffman's farm.
+
+Poffenberger's house, the ridge behind it, the woods, and cornfields
+west of it.
+
+Miller's house, the cornfield east, the mown field south, the turnpike
+and the woods west.
+
+The church, the field in front, the woods behind it.
+
+Muma's farm, Rulet's house, the orchard around it, the farm-road, and
+cornfield west of it.
+
+The lower bridge, and the hills on both sides of the stream.
+
+At daylight on Monday morning, after the battle at South Mountain,
+General Richardson's division of the Second Corps moved down the
+mountain side through Boonesboro' to Keedysville. It was found that
+General Lee was massing his troops on the west bank of the Antietam,
+and planting his batteries on the hills north of Sharpsburg. General
+Richardson deployed his troops. Captain Tidball and Captain Pettit
+ran their batteries up on the hills near Porterstown, and commenced a
+cannonade which lasted till night.
+
+General Hooker's, General Mansfield's, General Burnside's, General
+Sumner's, and General Porter's troops arrived during the night.
+
+On the morning of Tuesday, the 16th, General McClellan reconnoitered
+the position which Lee had chosen. The forenoon passed before the corps
+were in position to make an attack.
+
+General McClellan's plan was to attack the enemy's left with Hooker's
+and Mansfield's corps, supported by Sumner's; and, as soon as matters
+looked favorably there, to move Burnside across the lower bridge, and
+attack Lee's right, south of Sharpsburg. If either of these flank
+movements were successful, then he would move upon the center with all
+the forces at his disposal.
+
+About two o'clock in the afternoon, Hooker crossed the Antietam by the
+upper bridge and by the ford near Pray's Mill. The Rebel pickets were
+in the cornfields on Mr. Hoffman's farm, and their first line in the
+strip of woods east of Miller's cornfield. The Pennsylvania Reserves
+were in advance. There was a sharp skirmish and a brisk cannonade which
+lasted till dark. The Rebels were forced back. They retreated almost
+to Poffenberger's house. General Hooker advanced, planted his guns on
+the hill near Hoffman's, and threw out his pickets. His men lay down to
+sleep in the fields and amid the rustling corn.
+
+Mansfield crossed during the night. He went up from the stream but a
+short distance, halting nearly a mile in rear of Hooker. Sumner's corps
+remained east of the stream, near Pray's Mill. Porter was posted on the
+east side near General McClellan's head-quarters, while Burnside passed
+down through Porterstown and came into position on the farm of Mr.
+Rohrbach at the base of Elk Ridge, near the lower bridge.
+
+An auspicious hour had passed by never to return. Lee had only
+Longstreet, D. H. Hill, and two divisions of Jackson's corps on the
+ground on Tuesday, the 16th. Jackson arrived on the morning of the
+16th, after a hard night-march from Harper's Ferry. His troops were
+exhausted. They were not in condition to fight on Tuesday; but by the
+delay of General McClellan they obtained rest and strength. McLaw's,
+Anderson's, Walker's, and A. P. Hill's divisions had not arrived even
+when the great contest began on the 17th.[61]
+
+  [Footnote 61: Pollard, Vol. II. p. 125.]
+
+A portion of Lee's line on the morning of that day was weak and thin.
+Longstreet held the right, opposite Burnside; D. H. Hill was on Rulet's
+farm, Hood was at the Dunker Church, and Jackson northwest of it, in
+front of Poffenberger's house. Hood's men were exhausted; they had
+marched rapidly to reach the field, and had been sent to the front upon
+their arrival, to keep Hooker in check, as he moved through Hoffman's
+cornfields on the afternoon of the 16th. Lawton, commanding Ewell's old
+division in Jackson's corps, relieved him during the night. At daybreak
+the "Ragged Texans," as Hood's men were called by their comrades,
+were cooking their cakes and frying their pork in the fields south of
+the church. Lee's head-quarters were on a hill beyond Sharpsburg, so
+high that he could overlook a large portion of the field. He saw that
+McClellan intended to turn his left, and threw all his available troops
+towards the Dunker Church.
+
+On the morning of the 17th a breeze from the south swept up the valley,
+rolling dark clouds upon the mountains. There was a light fog upon
+the Antietam. Long before daylight the word, which roused the men
+from sleep, passed along the lines of Hooker's divisions. Without a
+drum-beat or bugle-call the soldiers rose, shook the dewdrops from
+their locks, rolled their blankets, and ate their breakfast.
+
+The pickets of the two armies were so near each other that each could
+hear the rustle of the corn as they paced to and fro amid the rows.
+Occasionally there was a shot. Once, in the night, there was a volley
+beyond the woods towards Muma's. General Hooker was asleep in a barn
+near Hoffman's. He sprang to his feet, stood by the door, and listened.
+"We have no troops in that direction. They are shooting at nothing," he
+said, and lay down once more.
+
+
+HOOKER'S ATTACK.
+
+Five o'clock. It is hardly daylight, as the pickets, straining their
+sight, bringing their muskets to a level with their eyes, aim at the
+dusky forms stirring amid the corn-leaves, and renew the contest. There
+are bright flashes from the strip of woods, and from the ridge behind
+Poffenberger's. The first Rebel shell bursts in the Sixth Wisconsin,
+prostrating eight men. Hooker's guns, in the edge of the woods west of
+Hoffman's, are quick to respond.
+
+Meade's division, composed of Seymour's, Magilton's, and Anderson's
+brigades, was in the center of Hooker's corps, and also in the
+advance. Doubleday was on the right, and Ricketts behind Meade.
+
+The order was given to Meade to move on, and to Ricketts and Doubleday
+to keep within close supporting distance. The direction taken by Meade
+brought him through the strip of woods northeast of Miller's house.
+Lawton's division of Jackson's corps held the ground by Miller's house,
+with Ripley, of D. H. Hill's division, joining on the narrow road north
+of Muma's, a quarter of a mile in front of the church.
+
+At this early hour, before any movement was made, Tuft, Langner, Von
+Kleizer, Weaver, Weed, and Benjamin, with twenty-pounder Parrott guns,
+planted on the hills east of the Antietam, between the center and
+lower bridges, opened upon Lee's lines, throwing shells and solid shot
+into Sharpsburg, and upon D. H. Hill on Rulet's farm. "It enfiladed my
+line, and was a damaging fire,"[62] says Stonewall Jackson, who brought
+up his batteries of heavy guns,--Prague's, Carpenter's, Raine's,
+Brokenbrough's, Caskie's, and Wooding's batteries.
+
+  [Footnote 62: Jackson's Report, Southern History, Vol. II. p. 132.]
+
+Meade's men went cheerily to the work. They began at long range to give
+their volleys; they were in the hollow, northeast of Miller's. Lawton's
+troops looked down upon them from their shelter beneath the trees and
+behind the hills.
+
+The Reserves began to drop beneath the galling fire. Hooker rode up to
+them upon a powerful white horse. The bullets flew past him, cutting
+down the corn, and bursting shells sprinkled him with earth; but he was
+calm amid it all, directing the troops and holding them up to the work
+by his mighty will.
+
+Nearer to the woods now, shorter the range, more deadly the fire.
+Ricketts came up on the left with Duryea's and Christian's brigades.
+
+There were heavier volleys from the cornfield and open ground, fainter
+replies from the woods. It was an indication that Lawton was growing
+weaker.
+
+"Forward!" It was an electric word. The Reserves, with Ricketts's two
+brigades, went up with a cheer into the woods, through into the open
+field, following the fleeing Rebels, who were streaming past Miller's,
+over the field in front of the church, into the woods behind it. The
+Reserves reached the middle of the field; but now from the woods into
+which Lawton had fled there were quick volleys of musketry and rapid
+cannon shots from Hayes's, and Trimble's, and Walker's, and Douglas's,
+and Starke's brigades of Jackson's division.
+
+The Reserves stopped in the middle of the field. They gave a few
+volleys. The men dropped fast. Some of the wounded crawled, some
+hobbled away; others lay where they fell, motionless forever. The
+living turned and sought the shelter of the woods, from which they had
+driven the enemy.
+
+The aspect of affairs suddenly changed. Jackson moved forward his whole
+line, not only across the field in front of the church, but extended
+farther north, towards Poffenberger's. "Send me your best brigade," was
+the message from Hooker to Ricketts. Hartsuff, of Ricketts's division,
+had not been engaged. A portion only of Doubleday's troops had been
+in. Hartsuff was on the hill behind Poffenberger. His troops, the
+Twelfth and Thirteenth Massachusetts, Ninth New York, and Eleventh
+Pennsylvania, went down the hill upon the run, south towards Miller's,
+past the retreating brigades, closing in like an iron gate between them
+and the exultant enemy. They came into line upon the crest of the hill,
+crowning it with their dark forms, and covering it with flame and smoke.
+
+"I think they will hold it," said General Hooker, as he watched them
+presenting an unbroken front. Jackson pushed on his brigades, but
+they recoiled before the steady and destructive fire rolled out by
+Hartsuff, also by Gibbons, and Patrick, who were holding the ridge by
+Poffenberger's. Jackson's line melted away. "At this early hour," says
+Jackson, in his report, "General Starke was killed; Colonel Douglas,
+commanding Lawton's brigade, was killed; General Lawton, commanding
+a division, and Colonel Walker, commanding a brigade, were severely
+wounded. More than half of the brigades of Lawton and Hayes were killed
+or wounded; and more than a third of Trimble's; and all the regimental
+commanders in those brigades except two, were killed or wounded."[63]
+
+  [Footnote 63: Southern Hist., Vol. II. p. 132.]
+
+Once more the Rebels retired to the woods behind the church. There was
+a lull in the storm. The shattered brigades of Jackson went to the
+rear, taking shelter behind the ledges. Hood, with his ragged Texans,
+came to the front by the church. Stuart, who was out on Jackson's left,
+towards the Potomac, came up with his artillery. Early's division also
+came to the front, all forming on the uneven ground west and northwest
+of the church in the woods; also Taliaferro's, Jones's, and Winder's
+brigades.
+
+Hooker was quick to plant his batteries. Those of Doubleday's division
+galloped to the ridge northeast of Poffenberger's house. Gibbons's,
+Cooper's, Easton's, Gerrish's, Durell's, and Monroe's, were wheeled
+into position. Projectiles of every form cut the air. The oak-trees
+of the grove by Miller's were splintered and torn, the branches were
+wrenched from the trunks, and hurled to the earth.
+
+Rebel shells tore through Poffenberger's house knocking out the gable,
+ripping up the roof, tossing boards and shingles into the air. The
+beehives in the yard were tumbled over, and the angry swarms went out,
+stinging friend and foe.
+
+Hooker had crossed the turnpike, and was a few hundred feet beyond
+the toll-house. Hartsuff was wounded and carried from the field. The
+Reserves, broken and exhausted, were in the rear, too much shattered to
+be relied on in an emergency. Ricketts's brigades, which had met D. H.
+Hill, had fallen back. Hartsuff's, Gibbons's, and Patrick's alone were
+in front.
+
+It was nearly eight o'clock, and Hooker's troops thus far had borne the
+whole of the contest unaided. They had driven Jackson from his front
+line, had assaulted his second, had received, like a stalwart knight of
+the olden time, unflinchingly the heavy blow which the Rebel commander
+had given.
+
+Hooker rode forward and reconnoitered.
+
+"That is the key to the position," he said, pointing toward the church.
+
+"Tell Mansfield to send up a division," was the order sent to this
+venerable officer, who was slowly advancing from Hoffman's farm.
+
+Williams's division went up into the strip of woods east of the
+cornfield, Crawford's brigade on the right, and Gordon's on the left.
+
+"Tell Doubleday to hold them on the right. Don't let them turn our
+flank," was the word sent up to Doubleday, who was quietly watching the
+Rebels from the cornfield west of Poffenberger's.
+
+There were signs of an advance of Jackson's line.
+
+"Keep them well stirred up," was the message to the artillerymen. The
+thirty-six guns planted on the ridge reopened.
+
+"I cannot advance, but I can hold my ground," said Ricketts.
+
+While Crawford and Gordon were forming, General Mansfield was mortally
+wounded and borne to the rear, and the command of the corps devolved on
+General Williams. Green's division came up and formed on the right of
+Williams's, now commanded by Gordon, reaching south nearly to Muma's
+house. King's, Cothran's and Hampton's batteries, belonging to the
+Twelfth Corps, opened a rapid fire. The One Hundred and Twenty-third
+Pennsylvania was pushed across the turnpike into the woods west of
+Miller's, near the toll-gate.
+
+While making these dispositions General Hooker dismounted and walked
+to the extreme front. There was a constant fire of musketry from the
+woods. He passed through it all, returned to his horse, and once
+more was in the saddle. He was in range of the Rebels. There was a
+heavy volley. A bullet entered his foot, inflicting a painful wound.
+Three men fell near him on the instant. But he issued his orders with
+coolness and deliberation. "Tell Crawford and Gordon to carry those
+woods and hold them," he said to his aide as he rode slowly to the
+rear. He tried to keep in the saddle, but fainted. "You must leave the
+field and have your wound attended to," said the surgeon. It was with
+great reluctance that he rode to the rear; but Sumner at that moment
+was going up with his superb corps, the Second, which had never quailed
+before the enemy.
+
+Williams formed his line, his own division on the right, and Green's on
+the left.
+
+Patrick and Gibbons were moved down to the turnpike. The troops were
+enthusiastic. They had driven the enemy, had captured battle-flags and
+prisoners.
+
+Gordon and Crawford advanced over the mown field, across the turnpike,
+into the woods, and poured in their fire. Jackson replied. The woods
+were all aflame. From every tree, and knoll, and ledge, and hillock,
+there were volleys of musketry, and flashes of artillery.
+
+It was a terrible fire. Gordon and Crawford were close upon the Rebel
+lines, behind the ledges and the breastwork which they had thrown up.
+They almost broke through. A little more power, the support of another
+brigade, the pushing in of another division at this moment, and Jackson
+would have been forced from his stronghold; and if driven from that
+position he must fight in the smooth fields beyond, or be folded back
+upon the center and right, with the door half opened for Hooker to
+march upon Shepardstown and cut off the retreat.
+
+It is nearly nine o'clock when Gordon and Crawford stand within three
+hundred feet of the Rebel line, in the woods northwest of the church.
+They face west. They fight Grigsby, Stafford, and Stuart of Jackson's
+corps.
+
+It is a critical moment with Jackson. The Yankees must be repulsed or
+all is lost. Early's and Hood's divisions are behind the church.
+
+Early moves north, sweeping past the church. He strikes Crawford's
+flank and rear, and forces him back. Green hastens up to sustain
+Crawford, and is also driven across the turnpike into the field nearly
+to the strip of woods west of it.
+
+
+SUMNER'S ATTACK.
+
+Sedgwick's division of Sumner's corps has been coming into line in
+Miller's cornfield. If it had been earlier on the ground it would
+have been of infinite value. It is a noble division, led by an able
+commander.
+
+General Sumner himself is there, gray-haired, sober, vigilant,
+watchful. He examines the ground and the positions of the enemy.
+
+Sedgwick forms his division in three lines. Dana in front, Gorman
+in the second, and Howard in the third line. They pass in front of
+Mansfield's troops towards the church.
+
+Jackson has been hurrying up reinforcements. The troops which have been
+on the march from Harper's Ferry are brought in.
+
+"By this time," says Jackson, "the expected reinforcements, consisting
+of Semmes's, and Anderson's, and a part of Barksdale's, of McLaw's
+division, arrived, and the whole, including Grigsby's command, now
+united, charged upon the enemy, checking his advance, then driving him
+back with great slaughter."[64]
+
+  [Footnote 64: Jackson's Report, Southern History, Vol. II. p. 133.]
+
+Jackson's line unites with D. H. Hill's in the field between the church
+and Muma's house. Muma's is east of the church. Sedgwick is northeast
+of it. As Sedgwick approaches the church, Jackson swings up his right
+wing from the field by Muma's. Sedgwick's second and third lines are
+close upon the first. The solid shot which the Rebel batteries fire
+cut through all the lines. The bullets which miss the men in Dana's
+brigade take effect in Gorman's, and those which pass Gorman strike
+down Howard's men.
+
+Dana's brigade was close upon the enemy. The hot blasts from the
+Rebel artillery, and the sheets of flame from the infantry, scorched
+and withered the line. The volleys given in return were exceedingly
+destructive. But Gorman's and Howard's men stood with ordered arms,
+chafing under the terrible fire, without being able to give a reply.
+They were so close upon Dana that they could do nothing. Fifteen
+minutes has passed. Dana's brigade is lost from sight. By stooping, and
+laying my eyes near the ground, I can see the dusky forms of the men
+through the drifting cloud. They are holding their position.
+
+But the troops which Jackson has been swinging up on his right, which
+have been hidden from Sedgwick and Sumner, suddenly appear. They seem
+to rise from the ground as they come over the ridge of land in the
+field between the church and Muma's house. They move northeast to gain
+Sedgwick's rear.
+
+"Change front!" is the quick, imperative order from Sumner to Howard.
+The third line under Howard has been facing southwest. The regiments
+break rank, move out in files, and form once more, facing southeast.
+
+There is confusion. Some men think it an order to retreat, and move
+towards Miller's cornfield. The Rebel line advances in beautiful order.
+Howard is beset by three times his number of men. Gorman is attacked on
+his left. The Rebels pour a volley into the backs of his men. The whole
+force is outflanked.
+
+A retreat is ordered, and the regiments fall back through Miller's
+cornfield to the woods.
+
+The Rebels are strong and exultant. They cheer and scream and swing
+their caps. They think that they have won a victory. They press on to
+regain the woods from which they were driven in the morning.
+
+"Form behind the batteries," shouts Sumner, riding along the lines. The
+troops are not panic-stricken. They are cool and deliberate.
+
+Tompkins, Kirby, Bartlett, and Owen are ready with their howitzers.
+"Give them canister!" is the order.
+
+The batteries are posted along the ridge, in the cornfield. The limbers
+and caissons are a few rods down the slope. The horses nibble the corn,
+they prick up their ears a little when a shot screams past, but are so
+accustomed to the firing that they do not mind it much.
+
+Gorman, Dana, and lastly Howard, who has stood like a protecting wall,
+gain the rear of the batteries, and the field is open for them.
+
+The Rebels advance. The batteries open. The discharges are rapid. No
+troops can live under such a fire. In five minutes it is decided that
+they cannot force the Union troops from the cornfield, nor from the
+woods east of it. They retreat once more to the church and to the
+ravine by Muma's.
+
+Sedgwick has been engaged a half hour, but his loss has been great.
+
+The Fifteenth Massachusetts was in Gorman's brigade,--the regiment
+which fought so nobly at Poolesville.
+
+Twenty-four officers and five hundred and eighty-two men marched
+towards the church, but in twenty minutes three hundred and forty-three
+were killed and wounded. Other regiments suffered as much.
+
+Jackson's loss was as severe as Sedgwick's.
+
+General Hood, in his official report, says: "Here I witnessed the most
+terrible clash of arms by far that has occurred during the war."[65]
+
+  [Footnote 65: Campaign from Texas to Maryland, p. 89.]
+
+"A little world of artillery was turned loose upon us," says the
+chaplain of the Fourth Texas.[66]
+
+  [Footnote 66: Ibid, p. 90.]
+
+  [Illustration: SEDGWICK'S ATTACK.
+
+  The diagram gives the position of the troops on this part of the
+  field at the time of Sedgwick's attack.
+
+  1 Dana's Brigade.
+  2 Gorman's Brigade.
+  3 Howard's, after change of front.
+  4 Green's and Williams's Divisions.
+  5 Ricketts's Division.
+  6 Meade's Division.
+  7 Doubleday's Division.
+  8 Position reached by Green and Williams.
+  9 Union batteries in Miller's cornfield.
+
+  J Jackson's head-quarters.
+  L Ledges with breastworks.
+  M Miller's.
+  P Poffenberger's.
+  T Toll House.
+  R Rebels attacking Sedgwick's flank.
+
+  The road running north from the church in the Hagerstown
+  turnpike. That running northeast from the church leads to
+  Hoffman's farm. The narrow way in the woods where Jackson
+  established his head-quarters, is a farm-road.]
+
+In Dana's line is the Nineteenth Massachusetts. It fought at Fair Oaks,
+Savage Station, White-Oak Swamp, Glendale, and Malvern. Its ranks have
+been sadly thinned. A great many brave men have fallen, but those who
+survive emulate the deeds of their comrades. They remember one who fell
+in front of Richmond,--a descendant of a glorious Revolutionary sire,
+the patriot Putnam, relative of the young officer,--Lieutenant Putnam,
+who fell mortally wounded at Ball's Bluff. He was born where the old
+General played in his childhood, before he became a rifle-ranger
+fighting the Indians in the dark forest bordering Lake Champlain. They
+could not forget Robert Winthrop Putnam, the frail and feeble boy. He
+was but sixteen years old when the flag was insulted at Sumter. His
+whole soul was on fire. He resolved to enlist. The surgeons would not
+accept him, he was so weak and slender. Again and again he tried to
+become a soldier, but was as often rejected.
+
+The fire of patriotism burned within his breast. He slept in the room
+which his great ancestor had occupied in his youth. He sat by the
+window through the moonlit nights, and carved a wooden sword, thus
+feeding the consuming flame. On one side he cut this motto:--
+
+    "NOT TO BE DRAWN WITHOUT JUSTICE;
+    NOT TO BE SHEATHED WITHOUT HONOR."
+
+Upon the other side, giving vent to his pent-up soul, were these
+words:--
+
+    "DEATH TO TRAITORS!"
+
+He brooded upon his disappointment by day and dreamed of it at night.
+He made one more effort. No questions were asked; he was accepted, and
+became a soldier. He was intelligent, manly, courageous, and temperate.
+His drink was cold water. Calmly and deliberately he bade farewell to
+his aged parents and his young sister and brother, turned from the
+dear scenes of home and childhood, hallowed by ever fragrant memories,
+buckled on his knapsack, and took his place in the ranks. When mortally
+wounded he refused to leave the field, but cheered his comrades in the
+fight. In his last letter, written to his sister, dated on the eve of
+battle, he wrote:--
+
+"I left home to help defend a Constitution that was second to none in
+the world, a flag which every nation on earth respected; and if I am to
+die, I shall be happy to die in the service of my country."
+
+The boy-soldier was gone from the ranks, but his spirit was there, an
+all-animating presence.
+
+When the battle began in the morning, I was at Hagerstown. It was ten
+miles to the field, but though so far, the cannonade seemed very near.
+It rolled along the valley and rumbled among the mountains. The people
+left their breakfasts, and climbed the hills and steeples to behold
+the battle-cloud. The women were pale, and stood with tearful eyes,
+forgetting their household cares.
+
+A ride directly down the Sharpsburg pike would have taken me to the
+rear of Lee's army. It would be a new and interesting experience to
+witness the fight from that side. I started down the pike, my horse
+upon the gallop. A mile out of town I met a farmer.
+
+"Where are you going?" he asked.
+
+"To see the battle."
+
+"You will run right into the Rebels if you keep on."
+
+"That is what I want to do. I want to see the battle from their side."
+
+"Let me advise you not to go. I was in their clutches yesterday. They
+threatened to take me to Richmond. They stole my horse and my money,
+and I am glad enough to get clear. Let me advise you again not to go.
+You had better go down to Boonesboro', and see the battle from our
+side."
+
+It was good advice, and I was soon upon the Boonesboro' road.
+
+I came across a Rebel soldier lying at the foot of an oak-tree. He was
+weak with sickness, worn down by long marches, and had dropped from the
+ranks. He belonged to Longstreet's corps. He was too weak to speak. His
+breathing was short and quick and faint. His cheeks were hollow, his
+eyes sunken. Two kind-hearted farmers came and took him into a house.
+
+"I am sorry I came up here to fight you," he whispered. He had lain
+beneath the oak a day and a night, waiting death, expecting no help or
+mercy from any one. The unexpected kindness filled his eyes with tears.
+
+Striking off from the turnpike I galloped across the fields, through
+woods, over hills and hollows, reached the Antietam, crossed it by a
+ford, and ascended the hill to Hoffman's farm.
+
+Sedgwick and Williams were fighting to hold their ground. It was
+a terrific fire. There were heavy surges, like breakers upon the
+sea-beaches, like angry thunder in the clouds,--ripples, rolls, waves,
+crashes! It was not like the voice of many waters, for that is deep,
+solemn, sweet, peaceful; the symbol of the song of the redeemed ones,
+which will ascend forever before the throne of God, when all war shall
+have ceased.
+
+It was a fearful contest in front of Sumner. Miller's cornfield was all
+aflame. The woods by the church smoked like a furnace. Hooker's cannon
+were silent, cooling their brazen lips after the morning's fever; but
+the men stood beside the guns, looking eagerly into the forest beyond
+the turnpike, watching for the first sign of advance from the Rebels.
+
+All the houses and barns near Hoffman's were taken for hospitals.
+There were thousands of wounded. Long lines of ambulances were coming
+down from the field. The surgeons were at work. It was not a pleasant
+sight to see so many torn, mangled arms, legs, heads; men with their
+eyes shot out, their arms off at the shoulders, their legs broken and
+crushed by cannon shot. But they were patient, cheerful, and hopeful.
+The nurses and attendants made them comfortable beds of straw upon the
+ground. The agents of the Sanitary and Christian Commissions gave them
+coffee and crackers. Many a noble hero said, "I thank you! God bless
+you!"
+
+In the hollow between Poffenberger's and Hoffman's were the
+Pennsylvania Reserves, what was left of them. Once they were fifteen
+thousand; now, a remnant. They were sad, but not disheartened. "We have
+had a terrible fight," said one. "Yes, and we thrashed the Rebels. Joe
+Hooker knows how to do it," another said. "We are badly cut up, though.
+We can't lose many more, because there ar'n't many more to lose," said
+the first.
+
+"I am sorry Hooker is wounded. We had licked the Rebels fairly when he
+left the field. I guess they won't put us in again to-day; we have
+done our share; but if they do, we are ready," said the others.
+
+The shells and solid shot from the Rebel batteries in the woods north
+of the church were dropping around us.
+
+"See there! see it tear the ground!" one shouted, and pointed towards
+the spot where a solid shot was throwing up the earth. "The man who
+owns that land is getting his plowing done for nothing," said another.
+
+"Ha! ha! ha!"
+
+Another shot struck near a soldier, and covered him with earth. "Fire
+away! you can't do that again, I'll bet," he said, as he brushed the
+dirt from his clothes.
+
+"Stand by the guns!" was the quick, imperative order. The men sprang to
+their feet. Those who were at the spring, in the hollow of the field,
+filling their canteens, came to the lines upon the run.
+
+"What's up?" asked an officer. "The Rebels are massing in front, and it
+looks as though they were going to attack."
+
+"Gibbons's brigade is across the turnpike; he will hold them, I
+reckon," said another officer.
+
+I rode up on the hill in rear of Poffenberger's. Captain Gibbons was in
+front of his battery, looking across the turnpike into the woods.
+
+"It is a little risky for you to be on horseback. Do you see that fence
+over there?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, the Rebel skirmishers are there, and we are in easy range. If
+you want to get a sight of them, you had better dismount, tie your
+horse, and creep down under the shelter of this fence."
+
+The cannon balls were thick upon the ground, and there were pools of
+blood where the artillery horses had fallen.
+
+"This was a warm place an hour ago, and may be again; for I see that
+the Rebels are up to something over there."
+
+I look as he directs, and see a column of troops moving through the
+woods. They are in sight but a moment. I walk along the line, past
+Gibbons's, Cooper's, Easton's, Durrell's, Muma's, and Gerrish's
+batteries, to Poffenberger's barn. Gerrish's battery is very near
+the building. The gunners are tired with their morning's work, and
+are sound asleep under the wheat-stacks, undisturbed by the roar a
+half-mile distant, where Sedgwick is at it, or by the shot and shells
+which scream past them.
+
+Dead and wounded men are lying in Poffenberger's door-yard. The ground
+is stained with blood. Two noble white horses are there, one with his
+head smashed, the other with his neck torn,--both killed by the same
+shot. There are dead men in the turnpike. Gibbons's brigade is behind
+the stone wall. The toll-house is riddled with bullets. There are
+flattened pieces of lead among the stones. The trees are scarred. There
+are fragments of shells. The ground is strown with knapsacks, guns,
+belts, canteens, and articles dropped in the fight.
+
+"I guess you are about near enough. This is the front line," says a
+soldier.
+
+I think so, too, for the bullets are singing over our heads and past
+us. I go up through the woods, south of Poffenberger's, to Miller's
+cornfield. The contest has lost some of its fury. The Rebels have been
+repulsed, and both sides are taking breath.
+
+Mansfield's corps is in the woods, east of Miller's. Sedgwick's
+division is in the cornfield, behind the batteries of Cothran,
+Woodruff, Mathews, and Thompson. The batteries are pouring a constant
+stream of shells into the woods beyond the church.
+
+The Union loss has been very heavy,--Hooker, Sedgwick, Dana, Hartsuff,
+wounded, and Mansfield killed. Meade commands Hooker's corps, and
+Howard, with his one arm, commands Sedgwick's division. He lost his
+right arm at Fair Oaks, but he is in the saddle again. The Rebel dead
+are thick around the church, and in the field in front of it, and along
+the turnpike, mingled with those who had fallen from the Union ranks.
+Five times the tide of battle has swept over the ground during the
+morning. The officers point out the exact spot where they stood. They
+tell what happened.
+
+"We stood out there, in the center of the field," says an officer of
+the Tenth Maine. "We came up just as Ricketts was giving way. The
+Rebels were outflanking him, and his troops were streaming through
+the cornfield. The Rebels were pushing north towards Miller's. Our
+line of march was towards the west, which brought us partly in rear
+of their line. Those dead men which you see out there belonged to the
+Twentieth Georgia. They were on the right of the Rebel line. We gave
+them a volley right into their backs. They didn't know what to make of
+it at first. They looked round, saw that we were in their rear, then
+they cut for the woods. It forced back the whole Rebel line. Just then
+Corporal Viele, of company K, of our regiment, and a corporal of the
+Second Massachusetts, dashed after them, and captured the Colonel of
+the Twentieth Georgia, and a lieutenant."
+
+"And Lieutenant-Colonel Dwight, of the Second Massachusetts, captured a
+battle-flag," says a soldier of that regiment, his eyes sparkling with
+enthusiasm. "He brought it in under a shower of bullets, waving it over
+his head. He got clear back to the lines, and then was wounded, they
+say mortally."
+
+
+THE CENTER.
+
+There was a lull in the battle after the terrible fight around the
+church.
+
+General French's division, of Sumner's corps, followed Sedgwick across
+the Antietam. The division, after crossing the stream, turned to the
+left, marching through the fields towards the house of Mr. Muma.
+Richardson, as soon as he crossed the bridge, filed to the left, moved
+along the bank of the river, crossed a little brook which springs from
+the hillside near Rulet's, encountered Hill's skirmishers, drove them
+up the ravine, and formed his line under cover of a hill.
+
+French is in the ravine. Half of his division is north of the brook,
+the other half south. He has Weber's, Kimball's, and Morris's brigades.
+He forms his brigades, as Sedgwick did his, in three lines,--Weber in
+front, Morris in the second, and Kimball in the third line.
+
+Morris's men have never been under fire. They are new troops. They
+have heard the roar of battle through the morning, and now, as they
+advance across the fields, the Rebel batteries on the hills all around
+Rulet's house open upon them, gun after gun, battery after battery. The
+hillside grows white. A silver cloud floats down the ravine. They are
+so near that it infolds them. There are flashes, jets of smoke, iron
+bolts in the air above, also tearing up the ground or cutting through
+the ranks; they feel the breath of the shot, the puff of air in their
+faces, and hear the terrifying shriek. A comrade leaps into the air,
+spins round, or falls like a log to the ground. They behold a torn and
+mangled body. They saw not the shot which wounded him. It is a terrible
+experience, yet they bear the trial firmly. They drop upon the ground
+while the lines are forming, and the shells do them little damage.
+
+Hill has his front line in the ravine by Muma's. The Rebel soldiers
+have an excellent opportunity to fill their canteens from the cool
+water bubbling up from his spring-house. The sharpshooters are in
+Muma's chambers, firing from the windows at French's troops as they
+advance over the field east of the house. There is a graveyard east of
+the house, and the skirmishers lie behind the graves, their muskets
+resting upon the white headstones.
+
+French's division joins Sedgwick's; it faces southwest, while
+Richardson's faces west. French arrives while Sedgwick is having the
+great struggle in front of the church. Kirby's, Bartlett's, and Owen's
+batteries of Sedgwick's division are on the hillside east of Miller's
+field, raking the Rebel lines.
+
+  [Illustration: FRENCH'S AND RICHARDSON'S ATTACK.
+
+  The diagram shows the positions occupied by French and Richardson,
+  also by Franklin's and Porter's corps.
+
+  1 French's Division in brigades.
+  2 Richardson's "    "     "
+  3 Richardson's batteries, with Sykes, of Porter's corps, in support.
+  4 Taft's and Weber's heavy batteries, and Porter's corps.
+  5 Slocum's and Smith's Divisions, Franklin's corps.
+  6 Sedgwick's.
+
+  B  Boonesboro' Bridge.
+  H  D. H. Hill.
+  Hd Hood in reserve.
+  L  Longstreet.
+  M  Muma's house, and burial-ground.
+  P  Dr. Piper's.
+  R  Rulet's.
+
+  Smith relieved French in the afternoon.
+
+  The roads are narrow carriage-ways leading to the farm-houses.]
+
+The Rebels occupying Muma's house and barn annoy Sumner's artillerymen,
+who in turn aim their guns at the buildings. A shell bursts in the
+barn and sets it on fire. A black cloud rises. The flames burst forth.
+The Rebels, finding the place too hot for them, apply the torch to the
+house, and retreat to Rulet's orchard. The dark pillar of cloud, the
+bright flames beneath, the constant flashing of the artillery, and the
+hillsides alive with thousands of troops, their banners waving, their
+bayonets gleaming, is a scene of terrible grandeur.
+
+Weber's brigade advances steadily, throwing down the fences, scaling
+the stone-walls, preserving a regular line. Not so with Morris's, which
+is thrown into confusion. The time has come to strike a great blow.
+
+"Tell General Kimball to move to the front, and come in on the left of
+Weber," was French's order to General Kimball.
+
+The brigade swings towards the south, past Morris's brigade, enters the
+ravine, and pushes on towards Rulet's.
+
+It is a magnificent movement. Richardson at the moment is crowning the
+hill south of the brook, while Tidball's battery is throwing shells up
+the ravine into the orchard beyond Rulet's.
+
+The hills are covered with troops. Far up the hillside in Rulet's,
+Muma's, and Dr. Piper's cornfields are Longstreet's and D. H. Hill's
+troops. On the hills south of Sharpsburg is A. P. Hill, just arriving
+from Harper's Ferry. The Rebel infantry is behind the stone walls and
+rail fences. All of the hills are smoking with artillery. Jackson's
+batteries by the church are still thundering at Howard, who, now that
+Sedgwick has been carried from the field, commands that division of
+Sumner's corps. Burnside's batteries by the bridge are all in operation.
+
+Mr. Rulet and Mr. Muma live about half a mile from the Hagerstown
+pike. A narrow path leads along the hillside to the pike. Just beyond
+Mr. Muma's, the road is sunk below the surface of the ground. It has
+been used many years, and has been washed by rains, forming a natural
+rifle-pit, in which D. H. Hill posts his first line. Between this
+pathway and the pike is a cornfield, in which he stations his second
+line. His artillery is planted on the knoll, higher up, near the
+turnpike.
+
+It is but a few rods from Muma's to the road. "Bloody Lane," the
+inhabitants call it now. The distance from Rulet's is less. There is an
+apple-orchard west of Rulet's house. Beyond that the ground rises sharp
+and steep. It is a rounded knoll, sloping towards the west into the
+sunken path.
+
+The line of advance taken by Weber carries him directly towards the
+smoking ruins of Muma's buildings, while Kimball passes between Muma's
+and Rulet's.
+
+It is a gallant advance which they make. Weber's troops move over the
+mown field, past the burial-ground, leaping the fences. Some of the men
+pause a moment, rest their rifles on the rails and the tombstones, and
+take a long shot at the dark line in the cornfield. They cannot see the
+nearer line of Hill's division, lying close in the hidden road.
+
+Kimball, a little farther south, joining his right to Weber's left,
+sweeps on in splendid order past Muma's spring-house, his left wing
+touching the apple-trees around Rulet's. The Rebel cannon on the hills
+are sending down a steady stream of shells. The Union batteries east of
+the Antietam--the twenty-pounder Parrotts--are throwing rifled shot
+in reply. Richardson's batteries on the hillock beyond the ravine are
+firing from the southeast, while Kirby, Owen, Thompson, and Bartlett,
+are raining all kinds of shot from the north. It is a tumultuous roar.
+Under cover of this tremendous fire, French moves up the hill. His men
+reach the crest, and stand within ten rods of the sunken road. There is
+a rail fence between them and the road. Suddenly, thousands of men seem
+to grow out of the ground. The long line rises. The Rebels thrust the
+muzzles of their muskets between the rails. The work of death begins.
+French's men, instead of fleeing from this unexpected foe, intrenched
+in so strong a position, rush with a loud hurrah towards the fence.
+Hundreds fall while running, but those who survive pour their fire
+into the road. The combatants are not ten paces apart. Hill's line in
+the road is consumed like a straw in a candle's flame. It melts like
+lead in a crucible. Officers and men go down, falling in heaps. The
+few who are left after the tremendous volleys flee into the cornfield,
+towards the turnpike. French's men are wild with the enthusiasm which
+comes with success. They tear away the rails, leap over the fence,
+plunge into the road, trampling down the dying and dead, over the
+second fence, into the cornfield, and rush upon the second line with
+uncontrollable fury, scattering it, breaking it, like a bundle of
+brittle fagots. It is a terrible struggle. There are hand to hand
+fights in the corn-rows; Union and Rebel fall together, literally in
+heaps, like sticks of wood tossed together by choppers!
+
+    "See the smoke how the lightning is cleaving asunder,
+    Hark! the guns, peal and peal, how they boom in the thunder!
+    From host to host with kindling sound,
+    The shouting circle signals round;
+    Ay, shout it forth to life or death,--
+    Freer already breathes the breath!
+    The war is waging, slaughter raging,
+    And heavy through the reeking pall
+        The iron death-dice fall!
+    Nearer they close--foes upon foes;
+    'Ready!' from square to square it goes.
+
+    "They kneel as one man from flank to flank,
+    And the sharp fire comes from the foremost rank.
+    Many a soldier to earth is sent,
+    Many a gap by the ball is rent;
+    O'er the corpse before springs the hinder man,
+    That the line may not fail to the fearless van.
+    To the right, to the left, and around and around,
+    Death whirls in its dance on the bloody ground.
+    God's sunlight is quenched in the fiery fight,
+    Over the host falls a brooding night!
+    _Brothers, God grant, when this life is o'er,
+    In the life to come that we meet once more!_"
+
+
+RICHARDSON'S ATTACK.
+
+While French was thus dealing with General D. H. Hill, Richardson was
+engaging Longstreet. Richardson crossed the Antietam about ten o'clock.
+He marched down the western bank, across the farm of Mr. Newkirch,
+crossing the little stream coming down from Rulet's.
+
+He moved to gain the high knolls between Rulet's and the Boonesboro'
+road. Having crossed the brook, he faced west, drove in the Rebel
+pickets, and ascended the nearest knoll.
+
+All of Longstreet's batteries opened upon him, but his men moved round
+the hillock, through the hollows, and marched well up to the Rebel
+lines with little loss. General Meagher, with his Irish brigade, was
+on the right, the tip of its wing touching Rulet's garden. Caldwell's
+brigade was on the left, reaching down nearly to the Boonesboro'
+turnpike. Brooks's brigade was in reserve.
+
+Longstreet's batteries were on the hills around Dr. Piper's, and his
+troops a part of them in the pathway, the upper end of which was held
+by D. H. Hill. His line was so formed, and such was the ground, that
+Caldwell, instead of swinging round upon Sharpsburg, was obliged to
+fall in rear of Meagher, and become a second line, instead of a part of
+the first.
+
+It was eleven o'clock when Richardson moved forward. French was
+pouring in his volleys north of Rulet's, and now Meagher, climbing
+the knolls, and rushing up the ravines, came upon the Rebels in the
+road. It was a repetition, or rather a continuation, of the terrible
+scene then enacting a few rods further north,--hundreds falling at
+every discharge. The courage of the Irish brigade did not flag for an
+instant. They fought till their ammunition was exhausted. They drove
+the Rebels from the road and held it. Again and again Longstreet
+endeavored to recover it, but could not succeed.
+
+General Richardson was wounded and carried from the field. General
+Meagher was bruised by the falling of his horse. His men worn,
+exhausted, half their number killed and wounded, were withdrawn. He
+retired by breaking ranks and filing to the rear, Caldwell's troops
+filing to the front at the same moment and taking their places. It was
+done as deliberately as a dress parade.
+
+The ground towards the Boonesboro' pike is very much broken. There are
+numerous hillocks and ravines, cornfields, stone walls, and fences.
+Under shelter of these, Longstreet stealthily moved a division to
+attack Caldwell's right flank in the cornfield west of the sunken road.
+It was a part of the force attacking French. Brooks's brigade went upon
+the run up the ravine, and filled the gap between Caldwell and Kimball,
+and held it against all the assaults of the enemy.
+
+On Caldwell's left, the sunken road winds among the hills. The Rebels
+still held that section. Colonel Barlow reconnoitered the ground. He
+commanded the Sixty-first and Sixty-fourth New York regiments. He
+ordered them to march by the left flank. They pushed out into the
+fields towards Sharpsburg, gained the rear of the Rebels still holding
+the road, and forced three hundred to surrender. He also captured their
+stand of colors.
+
+There is once more a lull in the battle. Longstreet is making
+preparations to regain his lost ground. Having failed on French's
+right, by Rulet's, he renews the attack on the left. But Colonel Cross
+of the Fifth New Hampshire, who has watched with eagle eye the Indians
+of the western plains, who has tracked the grizzly bears of the Rocky
+Mountains, who is brave as well as vigilant, discovers the movement.
+It is the same which has been successful against Sedgwick. The left
+of Caldwell is far advanced towards Dr. Piper's, when Colonel Cross
+discovers the Rebel force making a rapid movement to gain a hill in his
+rear. He changes front, and moves his regiment to gain the hill. The
+two lines are within close musket range. They make a parallel movement,
+firing as they run. It is an exciting race. Colonel Cross cheers his
+men, and inspires them with his own untamable enthusiasm. He gains
+the hill, faces his troops towards the enemy, and delivers a volley.
+It checks their advance a moment, but, rallied by the officers, they
+rush on, charging up the hill. Cross, reinforced by the Eighty-first
+Pennsylvania, which has followed him, gives the word.
+
+"At them, boys!" He leads the counter charge. His troops rush down the
+hill. The Rebels do not wait their coming, but break in confusion.
+Another stand of colors, those of the Fourth North Carolina, and more
+prisoners, are the trophies.
+
+Again Longstreet tries to drive back the center, and regain the road;
+and again Barlow repulses him, charging up through the cornfield,
+almost up to the Hagerstown turnpike, and gaining Dr. Piper's house.
+Vincent's and Graham's batteries gallop to the hills south of Rulet's,
+wheel into position, and reply to the batteries on the hills along
+the turnpike, north of Piper's. But the Rebel batteries by the church
+enfilade the ground west of the sunken road. Hancock, who now commands
+Richardson's division, can hold his ground, but he cannot advance.
+Thus by one o'clock, Lee has been pushed from his advanced lines on
+the right and on the center. He still holds the rocky ledges in
+the woods behind the church; he maintains his position along the
+turnpike, and holds the lower bridge, where Burnside is endeavoring
+to force a crossing. All the while, there is a continuous cannonade
+by Poffenberger's, by Miller's, and in front of the church. There
+are occasional volleys of musketry, and a rattling fire from the
+skirmishers.
+
+
+GENERAL FRANKLIN'S ARRIVAL.
+
+It was past noon when General Franklin's corps arrived upon the
+field. The troops had marched all the morning from Crampton's Pass.
+General Smith's division was in advance, followed by Slocum's. The
+corps crossed the Antietam, following the line over which Sedgwick had
+marched.
+
+The Rebels were, at that hour, moving down from Sharpsburg to turn
+Caldwell's left flank. Hancock had just taken command of the division.
+He sent to Franklin for help. He was short of artillery. Franklin sent
+him Hexamer's battery, and two regiments. One of them was the Seventh
+Maine, commanded by Major Hyde. They were of Hancock's own brigade.
+He had tried them at Williamsburg, at White-Oak Swamp, and Malvern.
+General Hancock assigned them a perilous duty. "The Rebel skirmishers
+behind the hill are picking off our gunners. I want them driven from
+that position," he said. The regiment started towards the hill. The
+Rebels saw the movement and commenced a rapid fire. Major Hyde halted,
+gave a volley and marched on, the men loading their muskets as they
+advanced.
+
+It was a brave movement. Unsupported by other troops, the small body,
+numbering only one hundred and sixty-five men, and fifteen officers,
+struck out boldly towards the enemy. The batteries on the hills beyond
+Dr. Piper's played on them. The guns on the hill towards the church
+sent down their shells. The cannon on the knolls north of Sharpsburg
+sent solid shot across the ravine, diagonally through the line. The
+infantry in front of them gave rapid volleys. Shells from the Union
+batteries north of Muma's, mistaking them for Rebels, fired upon them.
+Yet not a man faltered.[67]
+
+  [Footnote 67: Major Hyde's Report.]
+
+Once more beneath the terrible storm from foe and friend, Major Hyde
+halts his men, delivers a volley, and then with a cheer dashes upon the
+Rebel skirmishers, who are behind a wall, driving them back to the main
+line. Then marching by the left flank, seeking the shelter of a hill,
+he keeps up a steady fire. Officers and men fight with great bravery.
+Among the officers is Lieutenant Brown. He left the classic halls of
+Bowdoin College when his country called for the services of patriots.
+His captain falls. The company show signs of faltering. He springs to
+the front. He is their commander now.
+
+"_Rally, boys! Rally!_" he shouts. But while the words are on his lips,
+he falls, shot through the brain.[68]
+
+  [Footnote 68: Maine Adjutant General's Report, 1862.]
+
+The Rebels came down in great force, and Major Hyde is obliged to fall
+back. Hexamer has used up his ammunition. He has been of great service.
+Woodruff takes his place. Pleasanton, commanding the artillery, brings
+sixteen guns to bear upon the advancing troops. The fire is so steady
+and effective that the Rebel line retires without making an attack.
+
+While this is taking place on the left, or south of Rulet's, the
+contest is still raging by Muma's. Hill is making desperate efforts to
+recover his lost ground in the cornfield and the sunken road.
+
+French has been compelled to fall back into the shelter of the ravine
+by Muma's. His men are out of ammunition, and unless reinforced must
+yield.
+
+It is at this moment that Franklin's two divisions move over the field
+northeast of Muma's. The men are weary with their long marching. They
+have heard the battle echoing along Pleasant Valley all the morning,
+and have hastened on to aid their comrades. They cross the fields
+with their standards waving. Irwin's brigade is in advance. It pushes
+through the corner of the woods, east of Miller's cornfield, passes
+Thomas's battery, and reaches the open field north of Muma's. Hill has
+a brigade lying upon the ground, behind a ledge. Irwin charges them.
+There is a short contest at the ledge. The Rebels yield and retreat
+across the turnpike, followed by Irwin.
+
+The ground slopes gently from the church to the east. Jackson's
+batteries are where they have been all the morning, in the woods behind
+the church. They have full sweep of the field. They open upon Irwin,
+whose right flank is near the church, on the ground which Howard
+occupied in the forenoon. It is an enfilading fire. It is impossible
+for Irwin to advance. He cannot remain. He retires a short distance,
+and his men drop upon the ground, sheltered by the ridge from the
+enemy's batteries, holding their position through the remainder of the
+day.
+
+The Vermont brigade relieves General French. The Rebels have come down
+into the cornfield west of Muma's, from which they have been driven,
+and are rifling the pockets of the dead and wounded. General Smith
+gives the word. The Vermont brigade charges over the ground once more,
+driving the Rebels to the hills along the turnpike.
+
+Slocum's division relieves Sedgwick's in the woods east of Miller's.
+General Franklin, as soon as he comes into position, orders an
+assault. Slocum forms his men to make the advance across the field
+where Mansfield and Sedgwick have fought. General Sumner is Franklin's
+superior officer, and he does not think it advisable to attack. He
+is not always free from despondent moods. His own corps has suffered
+severely. Sedgwick has been driven. French and Richardson are
+exhausted. There is a consultation among the officers commanding the
+corps and divisions and brigades, in the woods, in rear of Slocum's
+line. Sumner, Franklin, Smith, Slocum, Newton are there; also General
+Hunt, commanding the artillery.
+
+Franklin wishes to attack with all his force. Smith, Slocum, and Newton
+second his wishes. Sumner alone is opposed. "My plan is," said General
+Franklin, "to bring up fifty pieces of the reserve artillery, plant
+them here, rain shells upon the enemy for a half hour, and then charge
+with my two divisions, and break their line."
+
+Gen. McClellan visits the field, and directs the commanders to hold
+their positions, but to make no attack.[69]
+
+  [Footnote 69: McClellan's Report, p. 208.]
+
+Some of the subordinate commanders retire gloomily to their commands.
+They disagree in opinion with their commander. They believe that the
+hour has come when the decisive blow can be given. As good soldiers,
+it is their duty to obey; but they sit down by the fence in the edge
+of the woods, dissatisfied with the decision of General McClellan. The
+reserve artillery is in the field northeast, a few rods distant,--a
+hundred guns. They believe that the time has come to use it. They
+do not like the plan of fighting in detachments--Hooker in the
+morning--then Mansfield--then Sedgwick's division--then French, and
+Richardson, and Burnside--who is separated from the main army, and has
+a hard task assigned him.
+
+During the afternoon, the Rebels made a demonstration on the right by
+Poffenberger's. It was done to cover up their real intentions. I was
+talking with General Howard when an officer dashed up.
+
+"The Rebels are advancing to attack us," said he.
+
+"Let them have the heaviest fire possible from the batteries," was the
+reply.
+
+As I rode towards the batteries on the ridge by Poffenberger's, thirty
+guns opened their brazen lips, each piece speaking three times a
+minute. The dark gray masses, dimly discerned through the woods and
+among the tasseled corn, wavered, staggered, reeled, swayed to and fro,
+advanced a few steps, then disappeared.
+
+
+GENERAL BURNSIDE'S ATTACK.
+
+General Burnside's task was the hardest of all. The banks of the river
+by the lower bridge are steep and high, and the land on both sides is
+broken. The road leading to the bridge winds down a narrow ravine. The
+bridge is of stone, with three arches. It is twelve feet wide, and one
+hundred and fifty feet long.
+
+The western bank is so steep that one can hardly climb it.
+Oak-trees shade it. Half-way up the hill there is a limestone
+quarry,--excavations affording shelter to sharpshooters. At the top
+there is a stone wall, a hundred feet above the water of the winding
+stream, and yet so near that a stone may be thrown by a strong-armed
+man across the stream.
+
+A brigade of Rebels, with four pieces of artillery, guarded the
+bridge. There were sharpshooters beneath the willows, and in the thick
+underbrush along the bank of the stream. There were riflemen in the
+excavations on the hillside and behind the trees. The four cannon
+were behind the wall, with the great body of infantry in support.
+The bridge, the hills and hollows on the eastern bank, are raked and
+searched in every part by the infantry.
+
+South of Sharpsburg there are numerous batteries ready to throw solid
+shot and shells over the heads of the brigade by the bridge. If
+Burnside carries the bridge, there are the heights beyond, the ground
+in front all open, swept and enfiladed by batteries arranged in a
+semicircle, supported by A. P. Hill's and a portion of Longstreet's
+troops. A. P. Hill was not on the ground in the morning, but arrived
+while the battle was in progress on the right and center.
+
+General Burnside formed his troops on the farm of Mr. Rohrbach, with
+Sturgis's division on the right, Wilcox in the center, Rodman on the
+left, and Cox's division, commanded by Crook, in reserve. Benjamin's
+battery of twenty-pounder Parrotts, Simmons's, McMullen's, Durrell's,
+Clark's, Muhlenburgh's, and Cook's batteries were stationed on the
+hills and knolls of Rohrbach's estate during the night of the 16th. The
+troops lay on their arms, prepared to move whenever General McClellan
+issued the order.
+
+At daybreak the Rebel batteries on the Sharpsburg hills began a rapid
+fire. The shells fell among the troops. Here and there a man was struck
+down, but they maintained their ground with great endurance. It was a
+severe test to the new regiments, which never had been under fire. It
+requires strong nerves to lie passive, hour after hour, exposed to a
+cannonade. But the men soon learned to be indifferent to the screaming
+of the something unseen in the air. They ate their hard tack, and
+watched the distant flashes from the white cloud upon the Sharpsburg
+hills. They talked of the guns, and learned to distinguish them by the
+sound.
+
+"That is a rifle shot."
+
+"There comes a shell."
+
+"I wonder where that will strike."
+
+With such remarks they whiled away the moments.
+
+The Rebel brigade holding the bridge was commanded by General Toombs.
+Before the arrival of A. P. Hill, the force of the enemy on this part
+of the field was about six thousand.
+
+So vigorous was Burnside's attack, that nothing but the arrival of Hill
+prevented an irretrievable defeat.[70]
+
+  [Footnote 70: Charleston Courier's account of the battle.]
+
+Burnside received his orders at ten o'clock.[71] Hooker had been at it
+all the morning. Standing by his head-quarters, Burnside could see the
+dark lines moving to and fro on Miller's field. Mansfield was going up
+the slope. Sumner was crossing the Antietam. The batteries all along
+the line were thundering.
+
+  [Footnote 71: Burnside's Testimony.]
+
+"You are to carry the bridge, gain the heights beyond, and advance
+along their crest to Sharpsburg, and reach the rear of the enemy," was
+the order from General McClellan to General Burnside. Easily ordered;
+not so easily accomplished. Burnside has less than fourteen thousand
+men to accomplish a task harder than that assigned to any other
+commander. He must carry the bridge, gain the ridge, then move over an
+open field to attack the heights beyond, which are steeper and more
+easily defended than the ledges by the church, or the hills west of the
+sunken road. It is by nature the strongest part of the line.
+
+Burnside's batteries opened with renewed vigor. Cox, commanding the
+corps (Burnside commanding the left wing), detailed Colonel Kingsbury
+with the Eleventh Connecticut to act as skirmishers, and drive the
+Rebel sharpshooters from the head of the bridge.
+
+A short distance--a third of a mile--below the bridge there is a ford.
+Rodman's division was ordered to cross at that point, while Crook and
+Sturgis were ordered to carry the bridge.
+
+The Eleventh Connecticut advanced, winding among the hills, deploying
+in the fields, firing from the fences, the trees, and stone walls. But
+from the woods, the quarry, the wall upon the crest of the hill, the
+road upon the western bank, they received a murderous fire. Crook's
+column, which had been sheltered by a ridge, marched down the road. The
+cannon upon the opposite bank threw shells with short fuses. The column
+halted and opened fire. Sturgis's division passed in their rear, and
+reached the bridge, under cover of the hot fire kept up by Crook.
+
+The Second Maryland and Sixth New Hampshire charged upon the bridge.
+Instantly the hillside blazed anew with musketry. There were broad
+sheets of flame from the wall upon the crest, where the cannon,
+double-shotted, poured streams of canister upon the narrow passage. The
+head of the column melted in an instant. Vain the effort. The troops
+fell back under cover of the ridge sheltering the road leading to
+Rohrbach's.
+
+General McClellan sent an aide to General Burnside with the message:--
+
+"Assault the bridge and carry it at all hazards."
+
+It was nearly one o'clock before the dispositions were all made for
+another attempt. Ferrero's brigade, consisting of the Fifty-first
+New York, Fifty-first Pennsylvania, Thirty-fifth and Twenty-first
+Massachusetts, was selected to make the decisive attack.
+
+In Napoleon's campaigns, the bridge of Lodi and the causeway at
+Arcola, swept by artillery and infantry, were carried by the bravery
+and daring and enthusiasm of his troops; but the task assigned to
+Ferrero's brigade was not a whit easier than those historic efforts.
+The Thirty-fifth Massachusetts had been in the service less than a
+month. They were hardy mechanics and farmers; Napoleon's soldiers
+were such by profession, who had endured the trials, hardships, and
+discipline of successive campaigns; but these men, gathering in solid
+column at noon behind the ridge, on this September day, had left their
+plows and anvils and benches, not because they loved military life,
+or the excitement of battle, or the routine of camp life, but because
+they loved their country. The Twenty-first Massachusetts had been with
+Burnside in North Carolina. Their commander, Colonel Clark, at home,
+was a teacher of youth, accustomed to the lecture-room of Amherst; but
+he had left his crucibles and retorts, and the shaded walks of the
+college he loved, and the pleasant society of the beautiful town, to
+serve his country. He was wounded at South Mountain, and Major King
+commanded them now.
+
+The men from New York left their wheat-fields and mills, and the
+men from Pennsylvania their coal-mines and foundries, to be citizen
+soldiers. They have not learned the art of war.
+
+The troops upon the opposite bank were also citizen soldiers, serving
+the so-called Confederacy with bravery and valor. They were sheltered
+by woods, by excavations, by walls and fences, ravines and hills. They
+had great advantage in position, and confidently expected to hold the
+ground. Their commander could look down from his head-quarters on the
+Sharpsburg hills, and behold their gallantry.
+
+To carry that bridge would be an achievement which would have forever a
+place in the history of the nation. Men, when preparing to do a great
+duty, where life and honor are at stake, sometimes, with clear vision,
+look down the path of ages. The mind asks itself, How will those who
+come after me look upon the work of to-day? The soul feels the weight
+of the hour, the responsibility of the moment, the duty of the instant.
+With the truly brave there can be no faltering then, in the face of
+danger. They can die if need be, but they cannot turn from their duty.
+
+Once more the effort. Simmons plants two of his guns to sweep the
+hillside across the stream. The brave and noble Colonel Kingsbury leads
+out his regiment once more. The assaulting column prepare for the
+decisive movement. They fix their bayonets firmly, throw aside their
+knapsacks and all that encumbers them.
+
+All is ready. The signal is given. The Eleventh Connecticut spring to
+their work. They dash down to the river, firing rapidly. Their Colonel
+falls, mortally wounded, but his men fight on. Enraged now at their
+loss, they fight to avenge him. The long, dark column is in motion. It
+emerges from the shelter of the ridge. Again the hillside and the wall
+above become a sheet of flame. Up to the bridge, upon it, dash the men
+in blue, their eyes glaring, their muscles iron, their nerves steel.
+The front rank goes down. Men pitch headlong from the parapet into the
+water. Stones fly from the arches. Shells, shrapnel, canister, tear
+the ranks asunder, but on, to the center of the bridge and across it,
+with a yell louder than the battle, up the steep hillside, creeping,
+climbing, holding their breath, summoning all the heroism of life, all
+energy, into one effort, charging with the gleaming bayonet, they drive
+the Rebels from the bushes, the trees, the quarries, the wall!
+
+The work is accomplished. The ground is theirs, won from General
+Toombs, who, before the war began, boasted that the time would come
+when he would call the roll of his slaves on Bunker Hill.
+
+The Rebels flee in confusion across the field to gain the heights
+nearer the town. Ferrero's men lie down behind the wall and on the
+hillside, under shelter at last. They bathe their fevered brows, and
+satisfy their thirst in the stream, while the other divisions of the
+corps move down from their positions of the morning. It was gloriously
+done, and the place will be known, forever, in history, as the Burnside
+Bridge.
+
+General Burnside was now separated from the main army. Longstreet held
+the hills east of the town, and from his batteries there, could partly
+enfilade Richardson on the one hand, and Burnside on the other. His
+cannon swept the bridge on the Boonesboro' pike. None of McClellan's
+troops had crossed there. It was nearly two miles from Richardson to
+Burnside. General McClellan was fearful that Lee would cross the middle
+bridge to the east side of the Antietam and cut off Burnside; therefore
+General Porter's corps was held in reserve east of the river by the
+heavy guns.[72] But Lee would have found it a difficult task, for
+Porter's heavy guns commanded the approach to the bridge from the west.
+If McClellan could not cross the bridge because Longstreet's guns swept
+it, neither could Lee have crossed under the fire of Taft, Langner, Von
+Kleizer, Weaver, Weed, and Benjamin.
+
+  [Footnote 72: McClellan's Report, p. 207.]
+
+The Antietam, a half-mile below Burnside's bridge, makes a sudden
+curve toward the west. It is crossed by one other bridge, at Antietam
+Iron-works, and then joins the Potomac. By throwing General Burnside
+across the Antietam, General McClellan designed not to turn the right
+of Lee and gain possession of his only line of retreat to Shepardstown,
+but to carry the heights, then pass along the crest towards the
+right.[73] But this movement isolated General Burnside from the army.
+He must hold the bridge or be cut off. He would be in a _cul de sac_, a
+bag with only one place of escape, at the Antietam Iron-works.
+
+  [Footnote 73: McClellan's Report, p. 201.]
+
+When General Lee saw the preparations of Burnside to advance, after
+having carried the bridge, he weakened his left to strengthen his
+right. Hood, who was lying in reserve behind Jackson, was sent down.
+Longstreet moved some of his brigades. Jackson made a demonstration at
+Poffenberger's, already noticed, to make McClellan fear an attack at
+that point.
+
+General Lee intended to do more than merely hold his line against
+Burnside.[74] By massing his troops at Sharpsburg, when Burnside was
+far enough advanced, Lee intended to seize the bridge and cut off
+Burnside's retreat.
+
+  [Footnote 74: Statement of a Rebel officer after the battle,--a
+  prisoner.]
+
+Burnside's divisions crossed the stream at the bridge and at the ford,
+and formed for an advance upon the heights near the town. Wilcox was on
+the right, supported by Rodman in the center, Scammon's brigade on the
+left, and Sturgis in rear of Rodman.
+
+While the troops were crossing and forming, Longstreet's and A. P.
+Hill's batteries kept up a constant fire of shells. Clark's, Durrell's,
+Cook's, and Simmons's batteries went across the bridge, gained the
+crest of the hill beyond, came into position, and opened fire in reply.
+
+General Wilcox was on the road leading from the bridge to Sharpsburg,
+which passes up a ravine. A brook which has its rise beyond the town,
+gurgles by the roadside. Rebel batteries on the hills in front of the
+town enfiladed the ravine, sweeping it from the town to the river.
+There was no shelter for the troops while advancing. They must take the
+storm in their faces.
+
+Neither was there any cover for Rodman, Sturgis, and Scammon. The
+ground, from the stone wall on the top of the river bank to the hills
+occupied by Hill and Longstreet, was all tillage land,--wheat-fields,
+and pastures, and patches of corn. There were fences to throw down,
+hills to climb, all to be done under fire from cannon arranged in
+crescent form, pouring down a concentrated fire from the heights.
+
+The signal officer, upon Elk Ridge, five hundred feet above the
+battle-field, beholds all the operations of the Rebel army. From his
+lookout, with his telescope, he can sweep the entire field. His
+assistant waves a flag, and an officer, with his eye at the telescope
+by McClellan's head-quarters, reads a message of this import,
+transmitted by the little flag.
+
+"The Rebels are weakening their left, and concentrating their troops
+upon their right."
+
+The officer writes it in his message book, tears out the leaf, and
+hands it to General McClellan. He thus knows Lee's movements, the
+disposition of his forces, as well as if he himself had looked from the
+mountain summit upon the moving column.
+
+He can make a counter movement, if he chooses, by weakening his own
+right to help Burnside, or he can throw in Porter's corps of twelve
+thousand strong, to help Burnside, by a dash upon the center, or leave
+Burnside to struggle against the superior force in front of him, move
+Porter upon the double quick to the right, unite him with Franklin,
+order up fifty or eighty guns from his reserve artillery, gather the
+brigades of Hooker's, Williams's, and Sumner's corps to hold the
+line, while Franklin and Porter, twenty thousand strong, fall like a
+thunderbolt upon Jackson, and break him in pieces. He can adopt one
+other plan,--hold what has already been gained. He adopts the last, and
+makes no movement.
+
+It was three o'clock before Burnside's troops were in position for the
+advance. The entire line moved, Wilcox and Crook up the ravine and on
+both sides of it, Rodman across the fields south of the highway, and
+Scammon along the river bank.
+
+A. P. Hill, from his position, enfiladed Rodman, who was obliged to
+change his line of march. He severed his right from Wilcox, and
+wheeled towards the southwest.
+
+He was obliged to make this maneuver, to meet Hill face to face, but it
+brought upon his line an enfilading fire from the cannon and infantry
+nearer the town, and it opened a wide gap in the line, which Burnside
+was obliged to fill by pushing in Sturgis,--his only reserve.
+
+The troops move quickly to the attack. Wilcox and Crook sweep all
+before them. The Rebel batteries which have had possession of the hills
+east of the town through the day are compelled to fall back from knoll
+to knoll.
+
+There is a mill by the roadside, a half-mile east of the town. The
+hills opposite the mill on the right hand are sharp and steep. It is
+about half a mile across the fields to the Boonesboro' pike, where
+Richardson's left has been struggling to gain a foothold.
+
+The Rebel batteries, which have been thundering all day from these
+hillocks between the Boonesboro' road and the highway to Burnside's
+bridge, have enfiladed Richardson. They have answered Taft, and Weber
+and Porter's batteries upon the east bank of the river; they have
+thrown solid shot almost to the head-quarters of General McClellan; but
+now, under the resolute advance of Wilcox and Crook, they are forced to
+withdraw.
+
+Rodman meanwhile is wheeling in the open field, under a fire from
+front, right and left, pouring hot upon him like the concentrating rays
+of a lens.
+
+Hill had his own division, consisting of Branch's, Gregg's, Field's,
+Pender's and Archer's brigades, also Jenkins and Toombs. Hood was sent
+down from the church, and held in reserve.[75]
+
+  [Footnote 75: Campaign from Texas to Maryland, and Charleston
+  Courier.]
+
+  [Illustration: BURNSIDE'S SECOND ATTACK.
+
+  1 Wilcox's Division.
+  2 Sturgis's   "
+  3 Rodman's    "
+  4 Scammon's brigade.
+  5 Union batteries on ground from which the Rebels had been driven.
+  6 Batteries of heavy guns.
+
+  H  A. P. Hill.
+  L  Part of Longstreet's command.
+  Hd Hood.
+  T  Toombs's brigade.
+  S  Sharpsburg.
+  M  Mill.
+  R  Rohrbach's house.]
+
+Rodman and Fairchild's and Harland's brigades; Scammon had his own and
+Ewing's. They drove Hill's first line back upon the second. Fairchild
+ordered a charge. His troops went across the field, through the waving
+corn with a huzzah. They faced a destructive fire. One shell killed
+eight men of the Ninth New York. The color-bearers were shot. The
+guards fell. Captain Leboir seized one, Captain Lehay the other, and
+led the regiment up the hill to the road leading south from Sharpsburg.
+They found shelter under the wall, and halted.
+
+The other regiments of the brigade joined them. Harland found greater
+opposition. His troops were cut down by a volley from a brigade of
+Rebels lying in a cornfield. They fought a while, became confused,
+crowded together, and were forced back.
+
+General McClellan, from his head-quarters, can see all that is going
+on, for there is an unobstructed view of the field. He is with
+Fitz-John Porter on the high hill east of the Antietam.
+
+An officer rides up swiftly. He is Burnside's aide. His horse pants.
+
+"I must have more troops and guns. If you do not send them I cannot
+hold my position half an hour."
+
+That is the message. Fitz-John Porter has twelve thousand troops. They
+have been spectators of the battle through the day. They have had
+breakfast and dinner, and nearly two days of rest since their arrival
+upon the ground. They might be a thunderbolt at this moment. Couch's
+and Humphrey's divisions will be up during the night.
+
+But they are the only reserves present. Slocum has taken Sedgwick's
+place. He has not been engaged, and his men stand with ordered arms.
+Shall Porter be put in? McClellan consults Porter and Sykes, and then
+replies:--
+
+"Tell General Burnside that I will send him Miller's battery. I have
+no infantry to spare. He must hold his ground till dark. Tell him if
+he cannot hold his ground, he may fall back to the bridge; but he must
+hold that, or all is lost."
+
+Porter's corps and Slocum's division of Franklin's, eighteen thousand
+men in all, have taken no part in the battle. Smith is holding an
+important position. He has made one gallant charge, but his troops
+are ready to fight. There are twenty thousand men which can take the
+offensive, and nearly a hundred guns of the artillery.[76]
+
+  [Footnote 76: See McClellan's statement of the number of troops
+  present, p. 214, Report.]
+
+The right flank of the Rebels is all but turned. Wilcox is close upon
+the town. Rodman has driven Hill, and is holding his ground. Such is
+the condition of affairs as the sun goes down.
+
+It is useless for Burnside to struggle without supports. He fights till
+the coming on of twilight, and then recalls his troops.
+
+The regiments of Fairchild's brigade, far up on the hillside, upon
+ground won from the enemy by their valor, go back reluctantly.
+
+"The men," says Lieutenant-Colonel Kimball, of the Ninth New York,
+"retired in good order, at a slow step, and with tears in their eyes,
+at the necessity which compelled them to leave the field they had so
+dearly won."[77]
+
+  [Footnote 77: Lieutenant-Colonel Kimball's Report.]
+
+It was a necessity. Without reinforcements he could not hold his
+ground, and Lee could cut him off if he remained so far from the bridge.
+
+The daylight is dying out. Through the hours from early morning the
+roar of battle has been unceasing. Four hundred cannon have shaken
+the earth, and nearly two hundred thousand men have struggled for
+the mastery. At times the storm has lulled a little, like the wind
+at night, then rising again to the fierceness of a tornado. In the
+intervals of the cannonade, low moans come up from the hollows, like
+the wail of the night-wind on a lonely shore.
+
+On the right, through the morning, the fiery surges ebbed and flowed,
+and dashed to and fro, now against the ledges in the woods, and now
+against the ridge by Poffenberger's. They have left crimson stains
+upon the threshold of the church. The sunken road has drunk the blood
+of thousands. The cornfields, changing from the green of Summer to the
+russet of Autumn are sprinkled with magenta dyes. The battle is at this
+hour indecisive, but the artillery of both armies put on new vigor as
+the sun goes down, as if each was saying to the other, "We are not
+beaten."
+
+Once more the firing is renewed. Standing on the high hill east of the
+Antietam, occupied by Porter, I can see almost up to Poffenberger's.
+The batteries upon the hill in rear of his house are thundering. I
+can see the glimmer of the flashes, and the great white cloud rising
+above the trees, by Miller's. And there in the cornfield, Porter's,
+Williston's, and Walcott's batteries are pounding the ledges behind
+the church, and sweeping the hillside. The woods which shade the
+church where Jackson stands, are smoking like a furnace. Richardson's
+batteries, in front of Lee, are throwing shells into the cornfield
+beyond Rulet's.
+
+The twenty-pounder Parrotts on the hill by my side open once more their
+iron lips. The hills all around Sharpsburg are flaming with Rebel guns.
+The sharpshooters all along the line keep up a rattling fire. Near the
+town, hay-stacks, barns, and houses are in flames. At my left hand,
+Burnside's heavy guns, east of the river, are at work. His lighter
+batteries are beyond the bridge. His men are along the hillside, a dark
+line, dimly seen, covered by a bank of cloud, illuminating it with
+constant flashes. All the country is flaming, smoking, and burning, as
+if the last great day, the judgment day of the Lord, had come.
+
+Gradually the thunder dies away. The flashes are fewer. The musketry
+ceases, and silence comes on, broken only by an occasional volley, and
+single shots, like the last drops after a shower.
+
+Thirty thousand men, who in the morning were full of life, are bleeding
+at this hour. The sky is bright with lurid flames of burning buildings,
+and they need no torches who go out upon the bloody field to gather up
+the wounded. Thousands of bivouac fires gleam along the hillsides, as
+if a great city had lighted its lamps. Cannon rumble along the roads.
+Supply wagons come up. Long trains of ambulances go by. Thousands of
+slightly wounded work their way to the rear, dropping by the roadside,
+or finding a bed of straw by wheat-stacks and in stables. There is the
+clatter of hoofs,--the cavalry dashing by, and the tramp, tramp, tramp
+of Couch's and Humphrey's divisions, marching to the field.
+
+There are low wails of men in distress, and sharp shrieks from those
+who are under the surgeon's hands.
+
+While obtaining hay for my horse at a barn, I heard the soldiers
+singing. They were wounded, but happy; for they had done their duty.
+They had been supplied with rations,--hard tack and coffee,--and were
+lying on their beds of straw. I listened to their song. It was about
+the dear old flag.
+
+    "Our flag is there! Our flag is there!
+      We'll hail it with three loud huzzahs!
+    Our flag is there! Our flag is there!
+      Behold the glorious stripes and stars!
+    Stout hearts have fought for that bright flag,
+      Strong hands sustained it mast-head high,
+    And oh! to see how proud it waves
+      Brings tears of joy to every eye.
+
+    "That flag has stood the battle's roar,
+      With foeman stout and foeman brave;
+    Strong hands have sought that flag to lower,
+      And found a traitor's speedy grave.
+    That flag is known on every shore,
+      The standard of a gallant band,
+    Alike unstained in peace or war,
+      It floats o'er Freedom's happy land."
+
+Then there came thoughts of home, of loved ones, of past scenes, and
+pleasant memories, and the songs become plaintive. They sung the old
+song:--
+
+    "Do they miss me at home--do they miss me
+      At morning, at noon, or at night?
+
+    And lingers a gloomy shade round them,
+      That only my presence can light?
+    Are joys less invitingly welcome,
+      And pleasures less bright than before,
+    Because one is missed from the circle,--
+      Because I am with them no more?"
+
+There was sadness, but not discouragement. It was the welling up of
+affection, the return of sweet recollections, which neither hardship,
+suffering, privation, or long absence could efface. They loved home,
+but they loved the old flag better. Missed at home? Ah! how sadly!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+AFTER THE BATTLE.
+
+
+The army commanded by General Lee in the battle, according to Pollard,
+the Southern historian, numbered seventy thousand. General McClellan
+states in his report that it was ninety-seven thousand. His estimate
+was made up from information obtained from deserters, spies, and
+prisoners:--
+
+  Jackson's corps,                  24,778
+  Longstreet's corps,               23,342
+  D. H. Hill,                       15,525
+  Stuart,                            6,400
+  Ransom and Jenkins,                3,000
+  Detached regiments,               18,400
+  Artillery, 400 guns,               6,000
+                                    ------
+                                    97,445
+
+General McClellan's forces were:--
+
+   1st corps, Hooker's,             14,856
+   2d    "    Sumner's,             18,813
+   5th   "    Porter's,             12,930
+   6th   "    Franklin's,           12,300
+   9th   "    Burnside's,           13,819
+  12th   "    Mansfield's,          10,126
+              Cavalry,               4,320
+                                    ------
+                                    87,164
+
+Each division had its own artillery, which is enumerated in the above
+statement.
+
+There were twelve thousand four hundred and sixty-nine killed, wounded,
+and missing from McClellan's army in this battle. About two thousand of
+them were killed, and nine thousand five hundred missing.
+
+The Rebel loss is supposed to have been about fifteen thousand.
+
+Thirteen guns, fifteen thousand small arms, six thousand prisoners,
+and thirty-nine colors were taken from the Rebels at Antietam, South
+Mountain, and Crampton's Pass.
+
+The army expected a renewal of the attack on the morning of the
+18th. It was a beautiful day. Two divisions, Couch's and Humphrey's,
+had arrived, which, with Porter's corps and Slocum's division of
+Franklin's, were fresh. Smith had been engaged but a short time on
+the 17th. There were nearly thirty-five thousand troops which could
+be relied upon for a vigorous attack. The reserve artillery could
+be brought in. There were several thousand Pennsylvania militia at
+Hagerstown, not of much account for fighting, but which could be used
+for train guards.
+
+"Whether to renew the attack on the 18th, or to defer it, even with the
+risk of the enemy's retirement, was the question with me," says General
+McClellan.
+
+He deliberated, and decided not to attack for the reasons, that,
+if he lost the battle, Lee could march on Washington, Baltimore,
+Philadelphia, and New York, without an enemy to oppose him, living on
+the country; the troops were tired; and the supply trains were in the
+rear. Sedgwick's division and Hooker's corps were somewhat demoralized
+and scattered. Sumner thought Sedgwick's division could not be relied
+upon to attack the enemy vigorously. Meade commanding Hooker's corps,
+said his troops could resist better than make an attack. The efficiency
+of the troops was good as far as it went.
+
+"The morale of some of the new troops under Burnside was impaired,"
+says General McClellan.[78]
+
+  [Footnote 78: Report, p. 212.]
+
+"My command was in good condition, holding its position on the opposite
+side of Antietam. One brigade had been severely handled, but I
+considered it in fighting condition," says General Burnside.[79]
+
+  [Footnote 79: Burnside's Testimony, p. 642.]
+
+General McClellan expected fourteen thousand more men, and taking all
+things into consideration he decided not to renew the attack.
+
+General Lee's army had seen great hardship. The Rebels had marched
+from Richmond. "One fifth of them were barefoot, one half of them in
+rags, and the whole of them famished," writes Pollard the Southern
+historian.[80] Lee was far from his supplies. He had no reinforcements
+at hand. His troops were much exhausted. A. P. Hill had marched with
+great rapidity from Harper's Ferry. Jackson's corps had suffered
+as severely as Hooker's. D. H. Hill had lost more than Sedgwick.
+Longstreet could hardly be a match for French, Richardson, and the
+whole of Franklin's corps. Lee, if defeated, had a great river in his
+rear which must be crossed at one ford, which would give McClellan
+the shortest line to Richmond. Sigel was in front of Washington.
+Heintzelman was at Alexandria. Keyes was at Yorktown. Could not
+these forces cut off his retreat to Richmond? He was in a perilous
+situation. He sent his wounded across the Potomac to Martinsburg
+and Winchester,--also his wagons, and made preparations for a rapid
+movement of his army into Virginia.
+
+  [Footnote 80: Vol. II., p. 142.]
+
+Early in the morning I rode to the right, came upon the line by
+Poffenberger's. Rations had been served; and the troops were in
+position, expecting orders to move.
+
+Colonel Andrews, commanding Gordon's brigade in Mansfield's corps, was
+riding along the line. "How are your men, Colonel?"
+
+"All right. They had a pretty hard time yesterday; but having had a
+good breakfast, they feel well. We expect to advance in a few moments."
+
+I talked with the soldiers. "We gave them a good thrashing yesterday,
+and mean to drive them into the Potomac to-day," said one. The
+sharpshooters were lying in the field in front of the church. All were
+ready.
+
+At noon, I rode once more along the lines. Some of the batteries
+which had exhausted their ammunition in the battle had refilled their
+caissons, and were waiting orders to take position. The gunners were
+lying on the ground.
+
+"Do you think there will be a battle to-day?" I asked an officer.
+
+"O, yes. We shall be at it in a few minutes. We are all ready."
+
+One o'clock,--the wounded men were all removed. The flag of truce had
+been taken down.
+
+Two o'clock,--and no order to begin the attack. Officers were
+impatient. They wondered at the delay. I rode to Elk Ridge, and went
+up the mountain's side. Beyond Sharpsburg there was a cloud of dust.
+Baggage wagons were moving west. Lee's troops were in line, where they
+had been in the morning, but there were some indications of a retreat.
+
+At sunset, I looked once more from the mountain. The evidences had
+increased that Lee intended to cross the Potomac.
+
+The morning of the 19th dawned. Lee was gone! He took away all his
+artillery, except one iron gun and some disabled caissons and wagons.
+
+Riding now over all the field, I found many Rebel dead in the woods by
+the church. Among them were bodies clothed in the Union blue, lying
+where they fell, close up to the Rebel line.
+
+There was one soldier whose pulse was forever still, whose eyes looked
+straight toward the sky. The ground was stained with his blood, which
+had flowed from a wound in his breast. Upon his countenance there was
+a pleasant smile, and a brightness as if a ray of glory had fallen upon
+him from heaven. His Bible was open upon his heart. I read:--
+
+"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in
+green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my
+soul; he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
+Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will
+fear no evil, for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
+me."
+
+I could not discover his name. He was unknown to the living. He
+belonged to a New York regiment, that was all I could learn. Doubtless
+the Lord was with him when he passed through the valley.
+
+The slaughter had been terrible in the sunken road, where French and
+Richardson had charged. Across the fences, twenty thousand muskets
+had flashed. Williston's, Walcott's, Owen's, and Ayer's batteries had
+made terrible havoc in the ranks of Hill. Some of the enemy had fallen
+towards the advancing columns; some were lying across the fence behind
+them, shot while endeavoring to escape; some were killed while loading
+their guns; one while tearing the cartridge with his teeth. He had died
+instantly, and the cartridge was in his hand.
+
+There was an officer still grasping his sword. He had fallen while
+cheering his men, with all his muscles set, his nerves under tension,
+the word of command on his lips. It was a fearful sight along that
+road. It was as if a mighty mower had swept them down at a single
+stroke.
+
+Sharpsburg was full of Rebel wounded. I conversed with an officer of
+Walker's command.
+
+"I have been in all the battles before Richmond and at Manassas, but I
+never experienced such a fire as you gave us yesterday," he said.
+
+"I noticed that you lost heavily at the sunken road."
+
+"Yes. It was a terrible slaughter. We couldn't keep our ranks closed,
+and if your troops had pressed on they might have broken through our
+line."
+
+"They came pretty near it as it was, did they not?"
+
+"Yes. We were all tired out. We got up from Harper's Ferry on the
+morning of the battle. We had no supper Tuesday, marched all night, had
+no breakfast, and went right into the fight as soon as we reached the
+field. We have lived on green corn and apples half of the time since we
+left Richmond. Half of our men are barefoot. We were in no condition to
+fight. We wondered that McClellan did not renew the battle yesterday.
+We expected it."
+
+General McClellan was at the hotel, looking careworn and troubled.
+Lee was beyond his reach. The army was pouring through the town. Some
+soldiers cheered him as they passed, while others expressed their
+dissatisfaction because Lee had escaped.
+
+The invasion of the North was ended. Neither Washington nor Baltimore
+had fallen into the hands of the Rebels. Lee had not dictated terms of
+peace in Independence Square. Maryland had not responded to the call to
+join the Confederacy.
+
+The dreams indulged at the South of an uprising of the people of the
+State had proved delusive. Lee had captured Harper's Ferry through
+the incompetency of the commander of the place. That was the only
+material advantage gained. He had won a victory at Groveton, through
+the treasonable failure of General Porter to join General Pope, and the
+tardiness of General McClellan's withdrawal from the Peninsula, but had
+been defeated at South Mountain and Antietam.
+
+General Lee retreated to Martinsburg and Winchester to rest his
+exhausted troops. General McClellan marched to Harper's Ferry and
+Berlin, on the Potomac, and went into camp. Lee could not take the
+offensive. His troops were worn and disheartened. They had marched with
+great rapidity; fought at Groveton; had moved on to Maryland; fought,
+some of them at South Mountain, others at Harper's Ferry; had lived on
+short rations, making up the lack of food with green corn. They were
+barefoot and ragged. They slept without tents or blankets. They were
+exposed to all the storms. The men of Georgia and Alabama and Texas
+shivered with the ague in the keen air of the mountains through the
+October nights. Some of them, for the first time in their lives, beheld
+the beautiful spangles of the hoar-frosts. At Winchester, in the heart
+of one of the loveliest and most fertile valleys in America, they were
+in want of food. Lee seized all the forage and provisions he could find
+among the farmers. He was obliged to wagon his supplies from Culpepper,
+eighty miles distant, over roads which became muddy after a half-hour's
+rain.
+
+General McClellan, on the other hand, received his supplies by rail
+within a mile or two of his camp. He thought that the army was not
+in condition to undertake another campaign; nor to bring on another
+battle, unless it had great advantages over the enemy.
+
+"My present purpose," he wrote to General Halleck on the 27th, "is to
+hold the army about as it is now, rendering Harper's Ferry secure, and
+watching the river closely, intending to attack the enemy should he
+attempt to cross."
+
+President Lincoln visited the army, and urged General McClellan to
+attack Lee. There was a favorable opportunity. Large reinforcements had
+been received, and the troops were in good spirits; the weather was
+favorable. Lee was far from his supplies; his army was smaller than
+McClellan's. But General McClellan was not disposed to move. On the
+6th of October, he received orders from General Halleck to cross the
+Potomac and give battle to the enemy, or drive him south. "You must
+move while the roads are good," was the telegram.
+
+Some of the troops needed clothing, and were in want of shoes. The
+cavalry were deficient of horses. Complaint was made that supplies were
+withheld.
+
+"The railroads are now embarrassed to supply you; and supplies here
+wait for the return of cars detained while loaded near your position,"
+was the telegram of General Meigs from Washington.
+
+On the 10th of October, General Stuart with two thousand Rebel cavalry
+crossed the Potomac, near the town of Hancock; visited Chambersburg,
+Pennsylvania, turned toward the east, rode round McClellan's army, and
+escaped with little loss into Virginia. General McClellan's plans for
+his capture failed. The army was mortified, and the people indignant;
+but the raid, although nothing came of it, gave great pleasure to the
+Rebels.
+
+President Lincoln sent a friendly letter to General McClellan.
+
+"You remember," he wrote, "my speaking to you, of what I called your
+over-cautiousness. Are you not over-cautious when you assume, that you
+cannot do what the enemy is constantly doing? Should you not claim
+to be, at least, his equal in power, and act upon the claim? As I
+understand, you telegraph General Halleck, that you cannot subsist
+your army at Winchester, unless the railroad from Harper's Ferry to
+that point be put in working order. But the enemy does now subsist
+his army at Winchester, at a distance twice as great from railroad
+transportation as you would have to do without the railroad last named.
+Again, one of the standard maxims of war, as you know, is to operate
+upon the enemy's communications as much as possible without exposing
+your own. You seem to act as if this applies _against_ you, but cannot
+apply in your _favor_. Change positions with the enemy, and think
+you not, he would break your communications with Richmond within the
+next twenty-four hours? You dread his going into Pennsylvania. But
+if he does so in full force, he gives up his communications to you
+absolutely, and you have nothing to do but to follow and ruin him;
+if he does so with less than full force, fall upon and beat what is
+left behind all the easier.... You know, I desired but did not order
+you to cross the Potomac below, instead of above, the Shenandoah and
+Blue Ridge. My idea was, that this would at once menace the enemy's
+communications, which I would seize, if he would permit. If he should
+move northward, I would follow him closely, holding his communications.
+If he should prevent our seizing his communications and move toward
+Richmond, I would press closely to him, fight him, if a favorable
+opportunity should present, and at least try to beat him to Richmond on
+the inside track.
+
+"I say 'try.' If we never try we never shall succeed. If he make a
+stand at Winchester, moving neither north nor south, I would fight him
+there, on the idea that if we cannot beat him when he bears the wastage
+of communication to us, we never can when we bear the wastage of going
+to him. This proposition is a simple truth, and is too important to be
+lost sight of for a moment.
+
+"As we must beat him somewhere, or fail finally, we can do it, if at
+all, easier near us, than far away. If we cannot beat the enemy where
+he now is, we never can, he again being within the intrenchments of
+Richmond."[81]
+
+  [Footnote 81: President's Letter.]
+
+The army numbered one hundred and twenty-three thousand men present and
+fit for duty. If General McClellan moved east of the Blue Ridge he was
+to receive thirty-five thousand reinforcements from Washington, making
+a total of about one hundred and sixty thousand.[82] Lee's army was
+supposed to number about eighty thousand.
+
+  [Footnote 82: Adjutant-General's Report.]
+
+General McClellan still delayed to advance. "The troops are in want
+of clothing," he said. But the chief quartermaster of the army cleared
+the government from all blame. "You have always very promptly met all
+my requirements. I foresee no time when an army of over one hundred
+thousand men will not call for clothing and other articles," was the
+telegram of Colonel Ingalls to General Meigs.
+
+Among the wounded in the hospitals at Antietam was a young soldier of
+the Nineteenth Massachusetts. He was an only child of his parents. He
+had been kindly nurtured, and knew nothing of hardship till he enlisted
+in the army. He was very patient. He had no word of complaint. He
+trusted in Jesus, and had no fear of death. His mother came from her
+Massachusetts home to see him.
+
+"Do you know that we think you cannot recover?" said the chaplain one
+day to him. It did not startle him.
+
+"I am safe. Living or dying, I am in God's hands," he calmly replied.
+
+"Are you not sorry, my son, that you entered the army, and left home to
+suffer all this?" his mother asked.
+
+"O mother, how can you ask me such a question as that? You know I am
+not sorry. I loved my country, and for her cause I came," he replied.
+
+He wanted to be baptized. It was Sabbath morning. The soldier lay upon
+a stretcher, and the weeping mother knelt by his side,--her only child.
+There was some water in his canteen. The chaplain poured it upon his
+marble brow, where death was soon to set his seal, and baptized him
+in the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit. Thus trusting in God and
+loving his country, he passed into a better life.[83]
+
+  [Footnote 83: Report Christian Commission.]
+
+There was another soldier who had been wounded in the leg.
+Mortification set in. The surgeons told him it must be amputated. He
+knew there was little chance for him to live, but calmly, as if lying
+down to slumber, he went to the amputating table, singing cheerfully,
+as if he were on the threshold of heaven:
+
+    "There'll be no sorrow there!
+    In heaven above, where all is love,
+    There'll be no sorrow there."
+
+He took the chloroform, became insensible. The limb was taken off.
+He never knew his loss, for after a few hours of drowsy, half-waking
+slumber, his spirit passed away.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+THE MARCH FROM HARPER'S FERRY TO WARRENTON.
+
+
+The month of October passed. Pontoons were finally laid across the
+Potomac. They were down several days before the enemy moved, and
+General Lee, through his scouts and spies, undoubtedly had information
+of what was going on.
+
+The army commenced crossing on the 27th, but the divisions were not all
+over till the 1st of November. Lee had moved a week before, and was at
+Culpepper, with the exception of his rear-guard, Stuart's cavalry, and
+a force in the Shenandoah Valley.
+
+Up to this period of the war there had been but few brilliant cavalry
+achievements on either side. At Springfield, Missouri, Zagonyi,
+with his fearless riders, had cut their way through the hosts which
+surrounded them. It was gloriously done. The cavalry, with the army
+of the Potomac on the Peninsula, had accomplished nothing worthy of
+mention.
+
+General Stuart, commanding the Rebel cavalry, had audaciously rode
+round General McClellan's army at the Chickahominy and at Harper's
+Ferry. On the march from Berlin to Warrenton, General Pleasanton
+commanded the Union cavalry. He had the advance in the line of march.
+General Stuart covered the retreat of Lee. Day after day, from morning
+till night, there was an interchange of shots by the flying artillery
+of both armies,--Stuart holding his ground till Pleasanton's fire
+became too hot, then limbering up his guns, and retiring a mile to a
+new position.
+
+The Rebels had not all left the Shenandoah Valley. But a force of
+ten thousand men remained there prepared to pass through the gaps of
+the Blue Ridge, and fall on McClellan's rear, if he left it exposed.
+General Hancock's division of Porter's corps, which was nearest the
+Blue Ridge, or which held the right of the army, in its march, moved
+upon Snicker's Gap. Arriving at the top and looking westward, there
+was a beautiful panorama; the town of Winchester, its white houses and
+church spires gleaming in the November sun; the trees yet wearing their
+gorgeous livery; the numerous camp-fires of the enemy on the western
+bank of the Shenandoah; the blue smoke rising in columns and spirals
+to the clouds, the troops of the enemy moving with their long baggage
+trains towards the south.
+
+Captain Pettit wheeled his Parrott guns into position on the top of the
+mountain, and sighted the guns. The first shell exploded in the Rebel
+line. In an instant, evidently without waiting for orders, the men took
+to their heels, disappearing in the woods. An unexpected shot sometimes
+unnerves old soldiers, who never think of shrinking from duty on the
+battle-field.
+
+On the ridge west of the Shenandoah, two Rebel batteries were in
+position, with jets of white smoke bursting from the cannon in quick
+discharges. There was a small body of Rebels east of the river. Colonel
+Sargent, commanding the First Massachusetts cavalry, was ordered to
+drive them across the river. His troops deployed in the open field.
+At the word of command, they dashed down the hill, supported by a
+detachment of General Sykes's infantry. The Rebel cavalry did not wait
+their charge, but fled across the Shenandoah.
+
+"Advance skirmishers!" was the order of Colonel Sargent. He had no
+intention of moving his whole detachment to the river bank, but only
+his skirmishers.
+
+The cavalry and infantry misunderstood the order. Their blood was up.
+Away they went with a hurrah down to the river-bank. The houses on the
+other side were full of Rebel infantry. Two cannon commanded the ford,
+and swept it with canister.
+
+"Down! down!" shouted Colonel Sargent. He meant that the soldiers
+should fall upon the ground, and not expose themselves to the terrible
+fire which was coming upon them. They thought that he would have
+them rush down the steep bank and cross the stream, and with wilder
+enthusiasm--that which sometimes comes to men when in the greatest
+danger--they went down to the water's edge; some of them into the
+stream. There they saw their mistake, but they faced the storm a while,
+and gave volley for volley, although ordered back by their commander.
+
+Six or eight were killed, and thirty wounded, during the few moments
+they were there.
+
+Among the killed was the brave Captain Pratt, of the cavalry, shot
+through the heart. His pulse had just ceased its beating as I stood
+over him. The blood, still warm, was flowing from the wound. His
+countenance was calm and peaceful. He had died while doing his duty,--a
+duty he loved to perform, for he felt that he could not do too much for
+his country:--
+
+            "Wrap round him the banner,
+              It cost him his breath,
+            He loved it in life,
+              Let it shroud him in death.
+    Let it silently sweep in its gorgeous fold
+    O'er the heart asleep, and the lips that are cold."
+
+Having secured Snicker's Gap, Pleasanton pushed on to Piedmont and
+Markham, pleasant places on the Manassas Gap Railroad. Markham is
+nestled easily at the foot of the mountain, where the railroad begins
+its long, steep gradient to reach the summit of the gap. At this
+place, Stuart planted his guns, and a spirited engagement took place.
+
+Pleasanton dismounted his cavalry, and advanced them as infantry, and
+drove Stuart, who retreated a mile, made another stand, and was again
+driven. The last fight took place in front of a pretty farm-house,
+occupied by a near relative of the Rebel General Ashby, who commanded
+a body of cavalry in 1861, and who was killed in Western Virginia. He
+was the boldest of all the Southern horsemen. He trained his horses to
+leap a five-barred gate. He could pick a handkerchief from the ground
+while his horse was upon a run. He was dashing, brave, and gallant,
+and a great favorite with the Southern ladies, who called him the bold
+cavalier.
+
+After the battle, my friend and I visited the farm-house. Our appetites
+were keen, and we wanted dinner.
+
+I found the owner at the door.
+
+"Can I obtain dinner for myself, and oats for my horse?" was the
+question.
+
+"Yes, sir, I reckon. That is, if my wife is willing. She don't like
+Yankees very well. Besides, the soldiers have stolen all our poultry,
+with the exception of one turkey, which she is going to have for
+dinner."
+
+Roast turkey in old Virginia, after weeks of hard-tack and pork, was a
+dinner worth having.
+
+"Please tell your wife that, although I am a Yankee, I expect to pay
+for my dinner."
+
+A conference was had in-doors, resulting in an affirmative answer to my
+request.
+
+A friend was with me. The cloth was laid, and a little colored girl
+and boy brought in from time to time the things for the table. At last,
+there came the turkey, done to a nice brown, steaming hot from the
+oven, filling the room with a flavor refreshing to a hungry man, after
+the events of the morning. The hostess made her appearance, entering
+like a queen in stateliness and dignity. She was tall, and in the prime
+of womanhood. Her eyes were jet. They shone upon us like electric
+flashes. Her greeting was a defiance. Seated at the table, she opened
+the conversation.
+
+"I should like to know what you are down here for, stealing our
+chickens and niggers?"
+
+It was the first gun of the battle,--a rifle shot. Without any
+skirmishing, she had opened battery.
+
+"Your Union soldiers, your thieves and ragamuffins, have stolen all my
+chickens and turkeys, and I had to kill this one to save it. And you
+have run off my niggers. I should have lost this turkey if I had not
+aimed a pistol at the soldier who was about to take it. I threatened to
+shoot him, and the coward sneaked off."
+
+"Our generals do not permit depredations upon private citizens, when
+they can help it, but there are thieves in all armies," was the reply.
+
+"O, yes; it is very well for you to apologize! But you are all thieves.
+General Geary's men, when they were here, stole all they could lay
+their hands on, and so did Blenker's, and so do McClellan's. You want
+to steal our niggers. We never should have had this war if you had
+minded your own business, and let our niggers alone."
+
+"I am not aware that we stole your negroes before the war, but, on the
+contrary, our free citizens of the North were kidnapped, and sold into
+Slavery. South Carolina began the war by firing on the flag. It was the
+duty of President Lincoln to defend it."
+
+"Lincoln! old Lincoln! He's an ape. I would shoot him if I could have
+the chance!"
+
+"That would be a tragedy worth writing up for the papers. You would
+immortalize your name by the act. You would go down to history. The
+illustrated papers would have sketches of the thrilling scene," said my
+friend with provoking good humor.
+
+"Yes, you would do just as you have done for twenty years,--get up
+lying pictures and stories about the South. You are a pack of liars.
+You think you are going to crush us, but you won't. Never, never! We
+will fight till the last man, woman, and child are dead before we will
+surrender!"
+
+She was at a white heat of passion, pale and trembling with rage, the
+tears for a moment hiding the lightning flashes of her eyes.
+
+"My dear madam, we may as well understand each other first as last. The
+people of the North have made up their minds to crush this rebellion.
+They have counted the cost, and the war will go on till every man,
+woman, and child in the South are exterminated, unless they yield. We
+are several millions more than you, and we shall conquer you."
+
+"Never,--never,--never,--never,--never,--never!--Never!--Never!--Never!"
+
+It was a sudden outburst of passion and defiance; a sudden explosion,
+like the howl of a bulldog. All of her energy, hate, and bitterness
+was thrown into the word. Her lip quivered; her cheek put on a sudden
+whiteness. I was prepared to see the carving-knife hurled across the
+table, or a dish of gravy dashed in my face. She could utter only the
+one word--never! After the whirlwind, there was a shower of tears. Then
+she regained her composure.
+
+"You outnumber us, but you can't subdue us. Never! never! We are a
+superior people. We belong to a high-born race. You are a set of mean,
+sneaking Yankees."
+
+My brother-correspondent informed the lady that he had lived in
+the South; had traveled from Maryland to Savannah, Mobile and New
+Orleans many times, and was well acquainted with Southern society
+in all its aspects; and that the people of the South could lay no
+claim to superiority, unless it was in following the example of the
+patriarchs--sustaining the system of concubinage, and selling their own
+children into slavery.
+
+A blush overspread her features. She knew that the assertion was true.
+But notwithstanding this home-thrust, she continued: "We are not half
+so bad as you represent us to be. You Yankees, from Massachusetts and
+Vermont, who go down South, do nothing but lie about us."
+
+"I am not from Massachusetts, madam," said my friend. "I am a
+Pennsylvania Dutchman. I was born in Lancaster, and am well acquainted
+with your friend, James Buchanan."
+
+"You Pennsylvanians are the meanest of all Yankees. You are an ignorant
+set. You live on cabbage and sour-krout. You are a mean, stupid set
+of thieves as ever lived. General Geary's men stole all my cabbages. I
+hope both of you will be captured and put in prison. I hope you will
+get shot. If you will stay here to-night, I will have both of you on
+your way to Richmond before morning. There is a brigade of Rebels up in
+the gap."
+
+"We are aware of that, and do not doubt, madam, that you would hand us
+over to them if you could, but we will keep our eyes open."
+
+It was somewhat hazardous to get dinner so near a large body of
+Rebels, with no Union troops near at hand, but the flavor of roast
+turkey, after weeks of camp fare, was not to be resisted under the
+circumstances.
+
+It would require much space to give a full report of our "table talk"
+on that occasion. It was rare and entertaining. But the dinner over,
+and our bills paid to the satisfaction of host and hostess, I said:--
+
+"I hope that you will be delivered from the horrors of war. I do not
+wish you to suffer, but I do hope that those who have caused the war,
+who are now in arms, will be speedily crushed; and when the conflict is
+over, I hope we shall meet under more auspicious circumstances."
+
+The storm of passion had subsided. "I beg your pardon, sir. You have
+treated me like gentlemen, and I have acted like a fool," she replied,
+extending her hand, and we parted good friends. There was, after all, a
+tender place in her heart.
+
+After dinner we rode on again. Stuart, instead of passing through
+the gap, had turned south along a rough and rocky road. Six miles
+below Markham, he made another stand at a place called Barbee's
+cross-roads,--roads which crossed from Markham to Chester Gap, from
+Thornton's Gap to Warrenton.
+
+There was a rickety old house, once a tavern, where travelers from the
+valley to Warrenton and Alexandria found refreshment for themselves
+and food for their horses. But now grass was growing in the roads.
+There were old hats and cast-off garments in the windows. The roof was
+falling in; and there were props against the sides of the house to keep
+it from falling flat to the ground. The few farm-houses around were
+also tumbling down. Energy, enterprise, and industry had fled from the
+place; and it was as if the curse of God was upon it and upon the whole
+State. The people were reaping the inevitable reward which sooner or
+later must, according to the immutable laws of nature, come upon those
+who deliberately and systematically raise slaves for sale, as they
+would cattle, horses, sheep, and pigs.
+
+Stuart placed three of his guns under the locust-trees, which shaded
+the road west of the old tavern. There were two more guns on a knoll,
+east of the tavern and south of it, hidden from sight, but so placed,
+that if Pleasanton charged down the turnpike, he would be cut to pieces
+by grape and canister. Stuart thought to get Pleasanton into a trap. He
+erected a barricade in the road behind a knoll, which Pleasanton could
+not see. He piled up wagons, rails, plows, harrows, boxes, and barrels.
+If Pleasanton charged, he would bring up against the barricade, where
+he would be destroyed by the cross-fire of the batteries.
+
+But Pleasanton was cautious as well as courageous. He came into
+position half a mile distant, and opened a fire which cut down the
+locust-trees, tore through the old tavern, and made it more than ever
+a ruin. He kept three hundred men in the road sheltered by a hill, and
+out of Stuart's sight, ready for a charge, and deployed a squadron of
+the Eighth Illinois, the Eighth New York, and a portion of the Sixth
+Regulars in the fields on the right-hand side of the road, keeping them
+mounted. They faced south. He dismounted the remainder of the Sixth
+Regulars, who left their horses in the woods, and moved round upon
+Stuart's left, east of the old tavern. They saw the barricade, and told
+Pleasanton what they had discovered. They commenced a sharp fire, to
+which Stuart replied. He weakened his force behind the locust-trees,
+and sent reinforcements to his right to hold in check the dismounted
+Regulars.
+
+Suddenly the bugles on Pleasanton's right sounded a charge. The men
+drew their sabers. The sharp, shrill music set their blood in motion.
+It thrilled them.
+
+"Forward!"
+
+Away they dashed. The three hundred men filing from the road into the
+field on the right, deploying into line, wheeling, then, with a hurrah,
+with a trampling of hoofs which shook the earth, increasing from a
+trot to a gallop, they fell upon Stuart's left. The Rebels fired their
+carbines.
+
+The Rebel artillerymen under the locust-trees wheeled their guns
+towards the northwest, but before they could fire, the three hundred
+were upon them. Instead of firing, the cannoneers leaped upon their
+horses, and made all haste to escape. They succeeded in carrying off
+their guns, but left twenty-two prisoners in the hands of Pleasanton.
+
+The affair did not last more than twenty minutes, but it was the most
+brilliant of all the operations of the cavalry connected with the army
+of the Potomac up to that date,--the 6th of November, 1862.
+
+The orders which General McClellan had issued to the army forbade the
+soldiers to forage. If supplies were wanted, the quartermasters and
+commissaries would supply them. Notwithstanding the order, however,
+the soldiers managed to have roast chickens and turkeys, and delicious
+mutton-chops, legs of veal, and pork-steaks. At night, there was
+stewing, frying, and roasting by the bivouac fires.
+
+One night, I found lodgings with a farmer. He had a large farm, a great
+barn, and a well-filled granary. Fat turkeys roosted in the trees
+around his stables, and a flock of sheep cropped the clover of his
+fields.
+
+He was a secessionist. "I was for the Union till the President called
+for seventy-five thousand men to put down the rebellion, as he calls
+it," said he.
+
+"Why did you become a secessionist then?"
+
+"Because that was interfering with State rights. The government has no
+right to coerce a State. So, when Virginia seceded, I went with her."
+
+We were sitting by the cheerful fire in his kitchen. The evening was
+stealing on. There was a squeaking among his poultry. We went out, and
+were in season to see the dusky forms of men in blue moving towards the
+camp-fires. Every turkey had disappeared.
+
+"I notice that you have a fine flock of sheep yonder," I said.
+
+"Yes, sir, seventy Southdowns. One of the best flocks in the Old
+Dominion."
+
+"I am afraid you will find some of them missing in the morning."
+
+"I will get them into the barn," he said. "Here, you lazy niggers!
+Peter, John, Sam,--turn out and get up the sheep!"
+
+He had twenty or more negroes. Those who were called started to get the
+sheep.
+
+A half dozen soldiers unexpectedly appeared in the field.
+
+"We will help you get up your sheep," they said.
+
+The flock came slowly towards the fold, driven by the soldiers.
+
+"Sho----o!" they suddenly shouted and made a rush forward. The sheep
+scattered everywhere, disappearing in the darkness, followed by the
+soldiers, laughing and chuckling, leaving the negroes and the farmer
+astonished and amazed. It was too dark to collect them again.
+
+Morning came. The flock had disappeared. The nearest encampment was
+that of a regiment of Zouaves. The farmer, raving over his loss,
+visited it, and saw seventy sheep-skins lying behind the wall near the
+encampment. He called upon the Colonel of the regiment, who received
+him with courtesy.
+
+"Colonel," he said, "I see that your soldiers have killed my flock of
+sheep, and I want pay for them."
+
+"You are mistaken, sir. The orders are very strict against taking
+anything. The quartermaster and commissary alone can forage. I do not
+allow any marauding."
+
+"Well, sir, whether you allow it or not, they have stolen my sheep."
+
+"I will see about that, sir. If I find that my men have been marauding,
+I will have them punished," said the Colonel. The regiment was ordered
+to appear on parade. The men were questioned, and all denied having
+killed any sheep. The camp was searched, but no saddles of mutton were
+discovered.
+
+"It must have been some other regiment, sir, who committed the
+depredation," said the Colonel.
+
+The farmer visited the next regiment, the Fifth New Hampshire,
+commanded by Colonel Cross.
+
+"I come to see, sir, if it was your soldiers who stole my sheep last
+night," said the farmer.
+
+"Impossible, sir. It couldn't have been the soldiers of this regiment.
+My men are from New Hampshire, sir,--the Old Granite State,--the State
+of Daniel Webster and Franklin Pierce. My soldiers would scorn to do
+a mean thing, sir. They come from a moral community. They are above
+suspicion, sir," said Colonel Cross.
+
+"Will you have the camp searched, Colonel?"
+
+"I could not think of such a thing, sir. I should wrong the men. I
+would not have them think that I suspected them, sir. If an officer is
+continually suspecting his men they lose confidence in him. It never
+would do to let them mistrust that I had a doubt of their honor."
+
+The farmer visited other regiments, but with no better success. He
+could not find out who had taken the sheep. The evidence was all
+against the Zouaves, the pelts being in their encampment.
+
+At noon I dined with Colonel Cross. We sat around the camp-chest, which
+was our table. There was a saddle of mutton, hot, juicy, tender, and
+savory.
+
+"My cook has a wonderful faculty of finding mutton, chickens, and
+pigs," said the Colonel, "but I obey the injunction of the apostle
+Paul, to eat what is set before me, asking no questions for conscience'
+sake." As I passed through the camp, on my way to the Colonel's
+quarters, I saw that the soldiers generally were dining on mutton.
+
+"You live well," I said to a soldier.
+
+"Yes, sir, I found a leg of mutton last night. Strange, wasn't it?"
+
+He chuckled merrily and looked knowingly.
+
+"I'll tell you how it was," said he. "The Zouaves played a joke on us
+a while ago, so last night we paid them. We knocked over the sheep and
+divided the spoil. We kept the carcasses and left them the pelts. That
+was fair, wasn't it." He chuckled again as he thought of the fun of
+the thing. "Of course the Colonel and the other officers don't know
+anything about it. They never smell round through the camp." He laughed
+again.
+
+Thus the soldiers had their fun and their fresh provisions,
+notwithstanding the orders from headquarters. Few of the officers
+thought it worth while to inquire of the soldiers where they purchased
+their chickens, turkeys, and mutton.
+
+The next day was cold, raw, and snowy,--an unusual day in the Old
+Dominion. The forests were in russet and yellow, for the leaves had
+not fallen. Winter had ushered itself prematurely into the presence
+of retiring Autumn. The driving storm shut the Blue Ridge from sight.
+My horse had lost his shoes. I found a blacksmith-shop built of logs.
+While the smith was putting on the shoes, I sat upon the forge warming
+my feet. The wind was high, and swept through the forest with a wild,
+surging roar, and came into the shop through the cracks and crevices,
+drowning the roar of the bellows. The snow-flakes sifted through the
+crazy roof, which had lost nearly half its time-worn shingles. Let the
+reader sit by my side on an old box, and take a look at the blacksmith.
+
+He is fifty years old. We are reminded of the village blacksmith
+described by Longfellow, whose shop was beneath a spreading chestnut
+tree.
+
+    "His hair is crisp, and black, and long,
+    His face is like the tan;
+    His brow is wet with honest sweat,
+    He earns whate'er he can,
+    And looks the whole world in the face,
+    For he owes not any man."
+
+While fitting the shoes he gives a little of his experience in life.
+He has been a blacksmith thirty-five years. Last year, unassisted by
+any one, in this little dingy shop, he earned about eleven hundred
+dollars; this year, he thinks it will be about thirteen hundred! The
+farmers hereabouts like his work. When we rode up, he was fitting the
+axles of a two-horse wagon. He is an excellent horse-shoer, can set
+wagon-tires, and do all sorts of handy things. His business with the
+farmers is a credit-business, but he has many cash customers. His wife
+and his young children live at Salem, four miles distant. He lives an
+isolated life. He takes his meals at a little log hut near by, with
+a free negro, but sleeps in the shop. Summer and winter he sleeps
+here, lying on the bare ground in summer, and curling up upon the warm
+cinders of the forge in winter. There is his bed, an old blanket.
+To-night, when his day's work is done, he will wrap himself in it, and
+lie down to refreshing sleep. Saturday night he goes home to Salem to
+see his wife, and returns at daylight on Monday. So he has lived for
+fourteen years. A singular life, but not a voluntary one. No. _He is
+a slave!_ His owner lives down there, in that large white farm-house,
+with numerous out-buildings. Looking through between the logs of the
+shop, I can see the proprietor of this blood, bones, and brains; an
+old man, white-haired, walking with a cane about his stables, looking
+out for the comfort of his four-legged cattle on this snowy day. For
+thirty years has this man before me wielded the hammer, and made the
+anvil ring with his heavy strokes for his master; a thousand dollars a
+year has been the aggregate earnings. Thirty thousand dollars earned!
+of course it is not net earnings, but so much business done by one man,
+who has received nothing in return. Thirty thousand dollars' worth of
+unrequited labor. His wife is a slave, and his children are slaves,
+sold South, some of them. He will behold them no more. One has taken
+himself up North into freedom, and one daughter is singing of freedom
+in the presence of God.
+
+"How much business do you do a year, uncle?"
+
+"Last year I earned between ten and eleven hundred dollars; but this
+year it will be about thirteen hundred."
+
+"Of course your master gives you a liberal share of what you earn."
+
+"Not a cent, sir. I gets nothing only what the gentlemen gives me. I
+haved worked hard, sir, and master says if I take good care of the
+tools and shop, he will give 'em to me when he dies, so I takes good
+care of 'em."
+
+"How old is your master?"
+
+"He is seventy years old."
+
+"I should think, when so many negroes are running away, you would want
+to get your freedom, for fear they would sell you down South."
+
+"I told my master I would always stay with him, and so he has promised
+to give me the tools."
+
+"I should think you would like to be where you could live with your
+wife."
+
+"Yes, I would, sir; but they don't think of a man's feelings here. We
+ain't no more than their stock, sir! They abuse us, 'cause they's got
+the power."
+
+"You have some money, haven't you, uncle?"
+
+"Yes, I'se got about three hundred dollars. About fifty dollars is
+Southern confederate money. I'se mighty oneasy about that. 'Fraid I
+shall lose it. The rest is in Virginia bank notes. I'se been saving it
+this long while."
+
+"Don't you find it rather hard times?"
+
+"Mighty hard, sir. Hain't had no sugar nor coffee this long while. One
+of your soldiers gave me a spoonful of sugar yesterday. You'se got a
+mighty fine army, sir. There's more good clothes in one regiment that
+went by yesterday, than in the entire Southern army."
+
+"Then you have seen the Southern army?"
+
+"O yes, General Walker's division went down a week ago to-day, and
+Longstreet went down a week ago day before yesterday."
+
+This was important information, for all of my previous inquiries of
+white residents upon the matter, had brought only unsatisfactory
+replies.
+
+"Walker's division, you say, wasn't very well clothed?"
+
+"No, sir; they was miserably clothed. Lots on 'em was barefoot. One
+on 'em offered me six dollars for these ere shoes I'se got on, and I
+pitied him so, I was a good mind to let him have 'em; then I thought
+may be I couldn't get another pair. I was 'fraid he would suffer."
+
+"I should think, uncle, you would be lonesome here, nights."
+
+"O, I'se got used to it. It was kind of lonesome, at first, but I don't
+have anybody to trouble me, and so I gets along first-rate."
+
+While he shaped the shoes and fastened them upon the feet of the
+horse with a dexterity equal to that of any New England blacksmith, I
+fell into revery. There was the smith--stout, hale, hearty, earning
+a handsome fortune for his master--robbed of his wages, of his wife,
+his children, less cared for than the dumb beasts seeking the shelter
+of the stables in the storm,--a human being with a soul to be saved,
+with capabilities of immortal life, of glory unspeakable with the
+angels, with Jesus, God, and all the society of heaven, and yet, in
+the estimation of every white man in the slave states and one-half of
+the population of the free states, he has no rights which a white man
+is bound to respect! Men forget that justice is the mightiest power in
+the universe. There is judgment for every crime, and retribution for
+every wrong. The wheels of justice never stand still, but turn forever.
+Therefore there are vacant places by many firesides, and aching voids
+in many a heart, and wounds which time can never heal.
+
+
+REMOVAL OF GENERAL McLELLAN.
+
+It was a pleasant march from Harper's Ferry to Warrenton. The roads
+were in excellent condition; dry and hard. The troops were in good
+spirits; living on turkeys, chickens, pigs, and mutton. They marched
+ten or twelve miles a day, built roaring fires at night, and enjoyed
+the campaign. The army was a week in reaching Warrenton. General
+McClellan was waited upon there by a messenger from Washington, who
+delivered him a sealed envelope containing orders relieving him of the
+command of the army and appointing General Burnside as his successor.
+The matter was soon noised abroad. There was much discussion upon the
+subject, relative to the cause of the removal. Some officers said that
+the Government wanted to destroy the army, and had begun with General
+McClellan; others that the President, General Halleck, and Secretary
+Stanton were afraid of General McClellan's popularity; others, that
+they were wearied with his delays, and that there were no political
+reasons for the change.
+
+The reasons for the removal undoubtedly have been truly stated by Mr.
+Montgomery Blair, who was at that time a member of the President's
+cabinet, that the President was friendly to General McClellan, but
+the military authorities at Washington and many of the officers of
+the army were hostile to him. They held that his delay to attack the
+Rebels at Manassas in the fall and winter; the delay at Yorktown; the
+keeping the army in the swamps of the Chickahominy; the operations on
+the Peninsula, showed conclusively that the command ought to pass into
+other hands.
+
+The President resisted all the importunities of those who desired his
+removal when the affairs were so disastrous in front of Washington.
+The success at Antietam gave the President new confidence, but the
+failure to renew the attack with his reserves; the refusal of McClellan
+to cross the Potomac and attack Lee; his long delay at Berlin and
+Harper's Ferry, gave great dissatisfaction. These were the causes of
+his removal.[84]
+
+  [Footnote 84: Speech at Ellicott's Mills, 1864.]
+
+General McClellan was much loved by a portion of his troops. When he
+rode along the lines for the last time, they cheered him. Some could
+not refrain from shedding tears. They believed that he was a good man,
+and that he had been thwarted in all his plans by General Halleck,
+Secretary Stanton, the President, and members of Congress; and that if
+he could have had his own way, he would have won great victories.
+
+There were other soldiers who did not join in the cheers. They rejoiced
+at his removal and the appointment of General Burnside. They felt that
+he had failed as a commander, and that he was incompetent to command a
+great army. They remembered their hardships, privations, sufferings,
+and losses on the Peninsula; they recalled the fact, that while the
+battle was raging at Malvern, he was on board a gunboat. Perhaps
+they did not fully weigh all the circumstances of the case--that it
+was necessary for him to consult Commodore Rogers relative to joint
+operations of the army and navy; but it looked like cowardice. General
+Kearny, the idol of his division, then sleeping in a soldier's grave,
+had declared it to be cowardice or treason; and the soldiers who had
+fought under the command of one who had been in the battle-clouds on
+the heights of Chapultepec and on the plains of Solferino, who had
+dashed like a lion upon the enemy at Williamsburg, Fair Oaks, Glendale,
+and Groveton, were not likely to forget the sentiments of one so brave
+and brilliant as he.
+
+In all the battles of the Peninsula, they could not remember that
+General McClellan had been upon the field. When Fair Oaks was fought,
+he was north of the Chickahominy; when Lee with his whole army
+approached Gaines's Mills, he removed to the south side of the river.
+He passed White-Oak Swamp before the enemy came to Savage Station. He
+was at Malvern when they appeared at Glendale, and on board the gunboat
+when they came to Malvern. They did not consider that he rode to
+Malvern once during the day. Sitting by their camp-fires, the soldiers
+talked over the matter. There was no disaffection. They were too good
+soldiers to make any demonstration of disapprobation. Besides, General
+Burnside had been successful at Roanoke, Newbern, and South Mountain;
+and success gives confidence.
+
+The soldiers were in earnest in carrying on the war. The people were
+impatient at the delays of General McClellan in the east, and General
+Buell in the west.
+
+Riding from the east to the west and back again in the cars, after the
+battle of Antietam, I had an opportunity to know how the people were
+affected by the war. It was the last week in October. The mountains
+were purple, scarlet, and crimson, and had it not been that there
+was war in the land, one might have dreamed that he was in Eden,--so
+beautiful the landscape, so resplendent the days. But there were sad
+scenes. A mother bidding farewell to her son, the wife to her husband,
+the father to his children, taking them in his arms, perhaps, for the
+last time, dashing aside the tears, kissing them again and again,
+folding them to his heart, tearing himself away at last, sitting down
+by himself and weeping, while the swift train bore them away. It was
+not for military glory, not for honor, or fame, but for his country!
+
+I saw an old man, whose head was crowned with years. He was on his way
+to Washington, to take back with him to his Pennsylvania home the body
+of his youngest son, who had died in the hospital. He had three other
+sons in the army. He was calm, yet a tear rolled down his cheek as he
+talked of his loss.
+
+"I shall take the body home, and bury it in the family ground. I shall
+miss my boy. But I gave him to the country. I want the government to
+push on the war. I want our generals to move. I want this rebellion
+crushed out," he said.
+
+The stout-hearted Pennsylvania farmer left the car, and a lady sat in
+the seat he had occupied by my side.
+
+She, too, was advanced in life. She had traveled all day, was sick and
+weary, but she had received a letter that one of her sons was dying at
+Frederick. He had been wounded at Antietam,--shot through the breast.
+She had three sons; two in the army, and one, a little one, at home.
+
+"I am a widow," she said. "My husband was a sea-captain, and was lost
+at sea years ago. My boys supported me. When the war broke out, they
+wanted to go, and I couldn't say no. Joseph, the youngest, is not old
+enough to be a soldier; if he was, he would be with them. I should like
+to see my son once more. I hope God will spare him till I get there;
+but I am not sorry I let him go."
+
+Opposite sat a well-dressed lady from Philadelphia. She had received a
+message, "Your son is dying; come quick if you would see him."
+
+Tears were dropping from her eyelids. The train was not swift enough.
+
+"Why don't they go faster?" she impatiently asked. She had a basket
+with wine, cordials, and delicacies.
+
+"I thought I would take them, for if he don't want them, somebody
+will."
+
+The two mothers, the one poor, earning her living by her needle, now
+that her brave boys were in the army; the other rich, able to have all
+that money can purchase, sat down together, and talked of their hopes
+and fears, both longing to clasp their loved ones to their hearts once
+more. There was no complaining, no regret that they had given their
+consent when their sons asked if they might enlist.
+
+There was sorrow all over the land, for loved ones who had fallen at
+Williamsburg, Fair Oaks, Glendale, and Malvern, for those who were
+sleeping beside the Chickahominy, and for those who reposed beneath the
+shadow of South Mountain, and on the field of Antietam.
+
+But a great change was going on in the minds of men. They had said:
+"We will have the Union as it was, and the Constitution as it is," not
+discerning that it was a war of moral elements, a contest between right
+and wrong, justice and injustice, freedom and slavery, civilization and
+barbarism.
+
+But they began to discern that the elements of the contest were the
+rights of men, and God's eternal laws; that the armies of the Union
+were serving in the cause which had inspired Leonidas at Thermopylæ,
+and Miltiades at Marathon; that the reveille which waked the soldier
+from his slumber was the drum-beat of all ages; that they were moving,
+not by the force of men's wills, not by opinions or acts of men in
+positions of honor and power, but by the resistless propulsion of God's
+immutable, changeless, eternal laws, which wither, blast, and destroy,
+when resisted, but which are as the dews of the morning, like sweet
+summer showers, vivifying, strengthening and sustaining, when accepted
+and obeyed.
+
+They mourned for the fallen, but they felt that they had lived for a
+great purpose, and had not died in vain. With defeat and disappointment
+there came a sublimer trust in God. There was a rekindling of faith and
+hope, a confidence,--
+
+    "That nothing walks with aimless feet,
+      That not one life shall be destroyed,
+      Or cast as rubbish to the void,
+    When God hath made the pile complete."
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+
+The Army of the Potomac was organized in October, 1861. There was a
+reorganization in April, 1862, and again in August of that year. The
+organization of that portion of the army which fought the battle of the
+Peninsula is annexed; also those troops which fought the great battle
+of Antietam. By means of this table and the accompanying diagrams the
+reader will be able to ascertain in most instances the positions of the
+several regiments,--not their exact locality, for regiments in battle
+are often detached to other parts of the field, as reserves, pickets,
+skirmishers, or guards.
+
+The troops which took part in the battles of the Peninsula were the
+Second Corps (Sumner's), Third Corps (Heintzelman's), Fourth Corps
+(Keyes's), and Franklin's and McCall's divisions of the First Corps
+(McDowell's). McCall joined the army when it was on the Chickahominy.
+Shields's division of the Fifth Corps (Banks's) was sent to the
+Peninsula after the retreat to Harrison's Landing. It took no part in
+active operations there.
+
+In the reorganization after the battle of Groveton and the retreat
+of Pope's army to Washington, the army was composed of six corps, as
+described p. 175. Many of the troops which had fought on the Peninsula
+were left at Alexandria, and other troops--Burnside's, from North
+Carolina; Sherman's, from Port Royal; Cox's from Western Virginia; new
+troops which had been but a few days in the service, and regiments from
+Wadsworth's command at Washington--were put in to fill their places.
+
+It has not been possible to obtain a complete and correct list of
+all the regiments engaged in that battle. Some regiments, after the
+battle of South Mountain, were detached from their brigades, and
+sent on special service; others were kept in the rear, to guard the
+trains; others were sent on flank movements. But much care has been
+taken in the description of that battle to give the exact position
+of the divisions engaged, and also the brigades, so that it will be
+comparatively easy to ascertain the general position of most of the
+regiments.
+
+
+ORGANIZATION OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, APRIL, 1862.
+
+
+CAVALRY RESERVE. BRIG.-GEN. P. ST. G. COOK.
+
+
+_Emory's Brigade._
+
+  5th U. S. Cavalry.
+  6th   "      "
+  6th Penn.    "
+
+
+_Blake's Brigade._
+
+  1st U. S. Cavalry.
+  8th Penn.    "
+  Barker's Squadron, Ill. Cavalry.
+
+
+ARTILLERY RESERVE. COL. HENRY J. HUNT.
+
+  Graham's Battery "K" & "G"     1st U. S.  6 Napoleon guns.
+  Randall's   "      "E"         1st   "    6    "      "
+
+  Carlisle's Battery "E"         2d  U. S.  6 20-pds. Parrott guns.
+  Robertson's   "                2d    "    6 3-in. ordnance    "
+  Benson's      "    "M"         2d    "    6   "       "       "
+  Tidball's     "    "A"         2d    "    6   "       "       "
+  Edwards's     "  "L" & "M"     3d    "    6 10-pds. Parrott   "
+  Gibson's      "  "C" & "G"     3d    "    6 3-in. ordnance    "
+  Livingston's  "  "F" & "K"     3d    "    4 10-pds. Parrott   "
+  Howe's        "    "G"         4th   "    6 Napoleon          "
+  De Russy's    "    "K"         4th   "    6    "              "
+  Weed's        "    "I"         5th   "    6 3-in. ordnance    "
+  Smead's       "    "K"         5th   "    4 Napoleon          "
+  Ames's        "    "A"         5th   "    6 { 4 10-pds. Parr.}"
+                                              { 2 Napoleon     }"
+  Diederick's   "    "A" N. Y.  Art. Batt'n 6 20-pds. Parrott   "
+  Voegelie's    "    "B"  "       "      "    4   "       "     "
+  Knieriem's    "    "C"  "       "      "    4   "       "     "
+  Grimm's       "    "D"  "       "      "    6 32-pds. Howitzers.
+                                         ----
+                                          100 guns.
+
+
+VOLUNTEER ENGINEER TROOPS. GEN. WOODBURY.
+
+  15th New York Volunteers.
+  50th  "   "       "
+
+
+REGULAR ENGINEER TROOPS. CAPT. DUANE.
+
+Companies "A," "B," and "C," U. S. Engineers.
+
+
+ARTILLERY TROOPS WITH SIEGE TRAIN.
+
+1st Connecticut Heavy Artillery. _Col. Tyler._
+
+
+SECOND CORPS. GEN. SUMNER.
+
+
+_Cavalry._
+
+  8th Illinois Cavalry. _Col. Farnsworth._
+  One Squadron 6th New York Cavalry.
+
+
+RICHARDSON'S DIVISION.
+
+
+_Artillery._
+
+  Clark's Battery  "A" & "C"  4th U. S.  6 Napoleon guns.
+  Frank's    "        "G"     1st N. Y.  6 10-pds. Parrott guns.
+  Pettit's   "        "B"     1st   "    6   "        "     "
+  Hogan's    "        "A"     2d    "    6   "        "     "
+
+
+_Infantry._
+
+
+_Howard's Brigade._
+
+  5th N. H. Vols.
+  81st Penn.  "
+  61st N. Y.  "
+  64th   "    "
+
+
+_Meagher's Brigade._
+
+  69th N. Y. Vols.
+  63d    "    "
+  88th   "    "
+
+
+_French's Brigade._
+
+  52d N. Y. Vols.
+  57th  "    "
+  66th  "    "
+  53d Penn.  "
+
+
+SEDGWICK'S DIVISION.
+
+
+_Artillery._
+
+  Kirby's Battery  "I"  1st U. S.  6 Napoleon guns.
+  Tompkin's   "    "A"  1st R. I.  6 { 4 10-pds. Parrott   } guns.
+                                     { 2 12-pds. Howitzers }
+  Bartlett's  "    "B"  1st   "    6 { 4 10-pds. Parrott   }
+                                     { 2 12-pds. Howitzers }  "
+  Owen's      "    "G"  ----       6   3-in. ordnance guns.
+
+
+_Infantry._
+
+
+_Gorman's Brigade._
+
+  2d N. Y. S. M.
+  15th Mass. Vols.
+  34th N. Y.  "
+  1st Minn.   "
+
+
+_Burns's Brigade._
+
+  69th Penn. Vols.
+  71st  "     "
+  72d   "     "
+  106th "     "
+
+
+_Dana's Brigade._
+
+  19th Mass. Vols.
+  7th Mich.   "
+  42d N. Y.   "
+  20th Mass.  "
+
+    NOTE.--_Blenker's division_ detached and assigned to the
+    _Mountain Department_.
+
+
+THIRD CORPS. GEN. HEINTZELMAN.
+
+
+_Cavalry._
+
+3d Pennsylvania Cavalry. _Col. Averill._
+
+
+PORTER'S DIVISION.
+
+
+_Artillery._
+
+  Griffin's Battery  "K"  5th U. S.  6 10-pds. Parrott guns.
+  Weeden's     "     "C"  R. I.      --    --     --    --
+  Martin's     "     "C"  Mass.      6 Napoleon guns.
+  Allen's      "     "E"   "         6 3-in. ordnance guns.
+
+
+_Infantry._
+
+
+_Martindale's Brigade._
+
+  2d Maine Vols.
+  18th Mass. "
+  22d   "    "
+  25th N. Y. "
+  13th  "    "
+  1st Berdan Sharpshooters.
+
+
+_Morell's Brigade._
+
+  14th N. Y. Vols.
+  4th Mich.   "
+  9th Mass.   "
+  62d Penn.   "
+
+
+_Butterfield's Brigade._
+
+  17th N. Y. Vols.
+  83d Penn.   "
+  44th N. Y.  "
+  Stockton's Michigan.
+  12th N. Y. Vols.
+
+
+HOOKER'S DIVISION.
+
+
+_Artillery._
+
+  Hall's Battery  "H"  1st U. S.        6 { 4 10-pds Parrott    } guns.
+                                          { 2 12-pds. Howitzers }
+  Smith's    "    4th  N. Y. Battery    6   10-pds. Parrott        "
+  Bramhall's "    6th    "     "        6   3-in. ordnance         "
+  Osborn's   "    "D"  1st N. Y. Arty.  4   "       "              "
+
+
+_Infantry._
+
+
+_Sickles's Brigade._
+  1st Excelsior (N. Y.)
+  2d     "         "
+  3d     "         "
+  4th    "         "
+  5th    "         "
+
+
+_Grover's Brigade._
+
+  1st Mass. Vols.
+  11th  "     "
+  26th Penn.  "
+  2d N. H.    "
+
+
+_Col. Starr's Brigade._
+
+  5th N. J. Vols.
+  6th   "    "
+  7th   "    "
+  8th   "    "
+
+
+KEARNY'S DIVISION.
+
+
+_Artillery._
+
+  Thompson's Battery  "G"  2d U. S.  6 Napoleon guns.
+  Beam's        "     "B"  N. J.     6 { 4 10-pds Parrott } guns.
+                                       { 2 Napoleon       }
+
+  Randolph's Battery  "E"  R. I.     6 { 4 10-pds Parrott } guns.
+                                       { 2 Napoleon       }
+
+
+_Infantry._
+
+
+_Jameson's Brigade._
+
+  105th Penn. Vols.
+  63d     "    "
+  57th    "    "
+  87th N. Y.   "
+
+
+_Birney's Brigade.
+
+  38th N. Y. Vols.
+  40th   "    "
+  3d Maine    "
+  4th  "      "
+
+
+_Berry's Brigade._
+
+  2d Mich. Vols.
+  3d  "      "
+  5th "      "
+  37th N. Y. "
+
+
+FOURTH CORPS. GEN. KEYES.
+
+
+_Cavalry._
+
+
+COUCH'S DIVISION.
+
+
+_Artillery._
+
+  McCarthy's Battery  "C"  1st Penn.  4 10-pds. Parrott guns.
+  Flood's         "   "D"  1st  "     6   "        "     "
+  Miller's        "   "E"  1st  "     4 Napoleon         "
+  Brady's         "   "F"  1st  "     4 10-pds. Parrott  "
+
+
+_Infantry._
+
+
+_Graham's[85] Brigade._
+
+  67th N. Y. Vols. (1st L. I.)
+  65th   "    "    (1st U. S. Chas.)
+  23d Penn.   "
+  31st "      "
+  61st "      "
+
+  [Footnote 85: In General McClellan's report of the battle of Fair
+  Oaks, he calls this brigade "Abercrombie's,"--evidently a mistake.]
+
+
+_Peck's Brigade._
+
+  98th Penn. Vols.
+  102d "      "
+  93d  "      "
+  62d N. Y.   "
+  55th  "     "
+
+
+_Devens's Brig._
+
+  2d R. I. Vols.
+  7th Mass.  "
+  10th  "    "
+  36th N. Y. "
+
+
+SMITH'S DIVISION.
+
+
+_Artillery._
+
+  Ayre's Battery  "F"  5th U. S.      6 { 4 10-pds. Parrott } guns
+                                        { 2 Napoleon        }
+  Mott's    "     3d   N. Y. Battery  6 { 4 10-pds. Parrott }  "
+                                        { 2 Napoleon        }
+  Wheeler's "     "E"  1st N. Y.      4 3-in. ordnance         "
+  Kennedy's "     1st  N. Y. Battery  6   "      "             "
+
+
+_Infantry._
+
+
+_Hancock's Brigade._
+
+  5th Wis.  Vols.
+  49th Penn. "
+  43d N. Y.  "
+  6th Maine  "
+
+
+_Brooks's Brigade._
+
+  2d Vermont Vols.
+  3d    "     "
+  4th   "     "
+  5th   "     "
+  6th   "     "
+
+
+_Davidson's Brigade._
+
+  33d N. Y. Vols.
+  77th  "    "
+  49th  "    "
+  7th Maine  "
+
+
+CASEY'S DIVISION.
+
+
+_Artillery._
+
+  Regan's Battery  7th N. Y. Battery    6 3-in. ordnance guns.
+  Fitch's    "     8th  "       "       6  "       "       "
+  Bates's    "     "A" 1st N. Y. Art'y  6 Napoleon         "
+  Spratt's   "     "H" 1st   "     "    4 3-in. ordnance   "
+
+
+_Infantry._
+
+
+_Wessel's Brigade._
+
+  85th Penn. Vols.
+  101st  "    "
+  103d   "    "
+  96th N. Y.  "
+
+
+_Palmer's Brigade._
+
+  85th N. Y. Vols.
+  98th   "    "
+  92d    "    "
+  81st   "    "
+  93d    "    "
+
+
+_Naglee's Brigade._
+
+  104th Penn. Vols.
+  52d    "     "
+  56th N. Y.   "
+  100th  "     "
+  11th Maine   "
+
+
+PROVOST GUARD.
+
+  2nd U. S. Cavalry.
+  Battalion 8th and 17th U. S. Infantry.
+
+
+AT GENERAL HEAD-QUARTERS.
+
+  2 Cos. 4th U. S. Cavalry.
+  1 Co. Oneida Cav. (N. Y. Vols.)
+  1 Co. Sturgis Rifles (Ill. Vols.)
+
+
+FIRST CORPS. GEN. McDOWELL.
+
+
+_Cavalry._
+
+  1st New York Cavalry.
+  2d      "       "
+  4th New York Cavalry.
+  1st Pennsylvania  "
+
+
+_Sharpshooters._
+
+  2d Regiment Berdan's Sharpshooters.
+
+
+FRANKLIN'S DIVISION.
+
+
+_Artillery._
+
+  Platt's Battery  "D"  2d U. S.         6 Napoleon guns.
+  Porter's   "     "A"  Mass.            6 { 4 10-pds. Parrott  } guns.
+                                           { 2 12-pds Howitzers }
+  Hexamer's  "     "A"  N. J.            6 { 4 10-pds. Parrott  }  "
+                                           { 2 12-pds Howitzers }
+  Wilson's   "     "F"  1st N. Y. Art'y  4 3-in. ordnance          "
+
+
+_Infantry._
+
+
+_Kearny's[86] Brigade._
+
+  1st N. J. Vols.
+  2d    "    "
+  3d    "    "
+  4th   "    "
+
+  [Footnote 86: Kearny was appointed division commander of the
+  Third Corps (Heintzelman's) at the commencement of the Peninsular
+  campaign.]
+
+
+_Slocum's Brigade._
+
+  16th N. Y. Vols.
+  27th   "    "
+  5th Maine   "
+  96th Penn.  "
+
+
+_Newton's Brigade._
+
+  18th N. Y. Vols.
+  31st   "    "
+  32d    "    "
+  95th Penn.  "
+
+
+McCALL'S DIVISION.
+
+
+_Artillery._
+
+  Seymour's Battery  "C"  5th U. S.  6 Napoleon guns.
+  Eaton's     "      "A"  1st Penn.  4    "      "
+  Cooper's    "      "B"  1st  "     6 10-pds. Parrott guns.
+  Kein's      "      "C"  1st  "     6 { 2 10-pds Parrott   } guns.
+                                       { 4 12-pds Howitzers }
+
+
+_Infantry._
+
+
+_Reynolds's Brigade._
+
+  1st Penn. Res. Reg't.
+  2d    "    "    "
+  5th   "    "    "
+  8th   "    "    "
+
+
+_Meade's Brigade._
+
+  3d Penn. Res. Reg't.
+  4th  "    "    "
+  7th  "    "    "
+  11th "    "    "
+  1 Penn. Res. Rifles.
+
+
+_Ord's Brigade._
+
+  6th Penn. Res. Reg't.
+  9th   "    "    "
+  10th  "    "    "
+  12th  "    "    "
+
+
+KING'S DIVISION.
+
+
+_Artillery._
+
+  Gibbon's Battery  "B"    4th U. S.  6 Napoleon guns.
+  Monroe's   "      "D"    1st R. I.  6 10-pds. Parrott guns.
+  Gerrish's  "      "A"    N. H.      6 Napoleon         "
+  Durrell's  "      Penn.             6 10-pds Parrott   "
+
+
+_Infantry._
+
+_---- Brigade._
+
+  2d Wis. Vols.
+  6th "     "
+  7th "     "
+  19th Ind. "
+
+
+_Patrick's Brigade._
+
+  20th N. Y. S. M.
+  21st   "  Vols.
+  23d    "   "
+  25th   "   "
+
+
+_Augur's Brigade._
+
+  14th N. Y. S. M.
+  22d    "  Vols.
+  24th   "   "
+  30th   "   "
+
+
+FIFTH CORPS, GEN. BANKS.
+
+
+_Cavalry._
+
+  1st Maine Cavalry.
+  1st Vermont  "
+  1st Michigan "
+  1st R. I.    "
+  5th New York Cavalry.
+  8th    "       "
+  Keyes's Battal'n Penn. Cavalry
+  18 Cos. Maryland         "
+  1 Squadron Virginia      "
+
+
+_Unattached._
+
+28th Penn. Vols.
+4th Reg't Potom.
+Home Guards (Maryl. Vols.)
+
+
+WILLIAMS'S DIVISION.
+
+
+_Artillery._
+
+  Best's   Battery  "F"  4th U. S.   6 Napoleon guns
+  Hampton's   "     Maryland         4 10-pds. Parrott guns.
+  Thompson's  "        "             4   "        "     "
+  Mathew's    "     "F" Penn.        6 3-in. ordnance   "
+  ----        "     "M" 1st N. Y.    6 10-pds. Parrott  "
+  Knapp's     "     Penn.            6   "        "     "
+  McMahon's   "     N. Y.            6 3-in. ordnance   "
+
+
+_Infantry._
+
+
+_Abercrombie's Brigade._
+
+  12th Mass. Vols.
+  2d    "     "
+  16th Ind.   "
+  1st Potom. Home Brig. (Md. Vols.)
+  1 Co. Zouav. d'Afrique (Penn. Vols.)
+
+
+_---- Brigade._
+
+  9th N. Y. S. M.
+  29th Penn. Vols.
+  27th Ind.   "
+  3d Wis.     "
+
+
+_---- Brig._
+
+  28th N. Y. V.
+  5th Conn.  "
+  46th Penn. "
+  1st Md.    "
+  12th Ind.  "
+  13th Mass. "
+
+
+SHIELDS'S DIVISION.
+
+
+_Artillery._
+
+  Clark's    Battery  "E"  4th U. S.  6 10-pds. guns.
+  Jenk's        "     "A"  1st Va.    6 { 4 10-pds. Parrott }  guns.
+                                        { 2 6-pds.     "    }
+  Davy's        "     "B"  1st  "     2 10-pds. Parrott         "
+  Huntington's  "     "A"  1st Ohio   6 13-pds. James           "
+  Robinson's    "     "L"  1st  "     6 { 2 12-pds. Howitzers } "
+                                        { 4 6-pds.            }
+  4th Ohio Infantry                   1 6-pds.                  "
+
+
+_Infantry._
+
+
+_Brigade._
+  14th Ind. Vols.
+  4th Ohio   "
+  8th  "     "
+  7th Va.    "
+  67th Ohio  "
+  84th Penn. "
+
+
+_Brigade._
+
+  5th Ohio Vols.
+  62d  "    "
+  66th "    "
+  13th Ind. "
+  39th Ill. "
+
+
+_Brigade._
+
+  7th Ohio Vols.
+  29th "     "
+  7th  "     "
+  1st Va.    "
+  11th Penn. "
+  Andrew Sharpshooters
+
+
+GENERAL WADSWORTH'S COMMAND.
+
+
+_Cavalry._
+
+  1st New Jersey Cavalry.  At Alexandria.
+  4th Pennsylvania  "      East of the Capital.
+
+
+_Artillery and Infantry._
+
+  10th New Jersey Vols.            Bladensburg Road.
+  104th N. Y. Vols.                Kalorama Heights.
+  1st Wis. Heavy Art'y.            Fort "Cass," Va.
+  3 Batteries N. Y. "              Forts "Ethan Allen" & "Marcy."
+  Depot of N. Y. Light Art'y.      Camp "Barry."
+  2d D. C. Vols.                   Washington City.
+  26th Penn. "                     "G" St. Wharf.
+  26th N. Y. "                     Fort "Lyon."
+  95th   "   "                     Camp "Thomas."
+  94th   "   "                     Alexandria.
+  88th Penn. " (Detachment)          "
+  91st   "   "                     Franklin Square Barracks.
+  4th N. Y. Art'y                  Forts "Carroll" & "Greble."
+  112th Penn. Vols.                Fort "Saratoga."
+  76th N. Y.   "                    "   "Massachusetts."
+  59th  "      "                    "   "Pennsylvania."
+  88th Penn.   " (Detachment)       "   "Good Hope."
+  99th  "      "                    "   "Mahan."
+  2d N. Y. Light Art'y.            Forts "Ward," "Worth," and "Blenker."
+  107th Penn. Vols.                Kendall Green.
+  54th   "     "                      "      "
+  Dickerson's Light Art'y          East of the Capital.
+  86th N. Y. Vols.                  "     "       "
+  88th Penn.  " (Detachment)        "     "       "
+                                 { Forts "Albany," "Tellinghast,"
+  14th Mass.  " (Heavy Art'y)  } { "Richardson," "Runyon,"
+  56th Penn.  "                } { "Jackson," "Barnard,"
+                                 { "Craig," "Scott."
+  4th U. S. Art'y (Detachment) } { Fort "Washington."
+  37th N. Y. Vols. (Detachment)} {  "        "
+  97th   "    "                    Fort "Corcoran."
+  101st  "    "
+  12th Va.    "
+  91st N. Y.  "
+
+
+IN CAMP NEAR WASHINGTON.
+
+  6th New York Cavalry.  Dismounted.
+  10th    "        "          "
+  Swain's "        "          "
+  2nd Pennsylvania "          "
+
+
+GENERAL DIX'S COMMAND. (BALTIMORE.)
+
+
+_Cavalry._
+
+  1st Maryland Cavalry.
+  Detachment of Cav. Purnell Legion.
+
+
+_Artillery._
+
+  Battery "I"   2d U. S. Artillery.
+     "    ----  Maryland    "
+     "    "L"   1st New York Artillery.
+  2 Independent Batteries Pennsylvania Artillery.
+
+
+_Infantry._
+
+  3d New York Volunteers.
+  4th    "           "
+  11th Pennsylvania  "
+  87th       "       "
+  111th      "       "
+  21st Massachusetts "   (Detachment.)
+  2d Delaware        "
+  2d Maryland        "
+  1st Eastern Shore Home Guards (Maryland Volunteers).
+  2d     "      "    "     "        "         "
+  Purnell Legion.                   "         "
+  2 Battalions.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+Reasons why you should obtain a Catalogue of our Publications
+
+_A postal to us will place it in your hands_
+
+
+1. You will possess a comprehensive and classified list of all the best
+standard books published, at prices less than offered by others.
+
+2. You will find listed in our catalogue books on every topic: Poetry,
+Fiction, Romance, Travel, Adventure, Humor, Science, History, Religion,
+Biography, Drama, etc., besides Dictionaries and Manuals, Bibles,
+Recitation and Hand Books, Sets, Octavos, Presentation Books and
+Juvenile and Nursery Literature in immense variety.
+
+3. You will be able to purchase books at prices within your reach; as
+low as 10 cents for paper covered books, to $5.00 for books bound in
+cloth or leather, adaptable for gift and presentation purposes, to suit
+the tastes of the most critical.
+
+4. You will save considerable money by taking advantage of our SPECIAL
+DISCOUNTS, which we offer to those whose purchases are large enough to
+warrant us in making a reduction.
+
+  HURST & CO., _Publishers_,
+  395, 397, 399 Broadway, New York.
+
+
+
+
+  BOOKS BY
+  Charles Carleton Coffin
+
+  Author of
+  "Boys of '76"
+  "Boys of '61"
+
+
+CHARLES CARLETON COFFIN'S specialty is books pertaining to the War. His
+celebrated writings with reference to the Great Rebellion have been
+read by thousands. We have popularized him by publishing his best works
+at reduced prices.
+
+  =Following the Flag.=                     Charles Carleton Coffin
+  =My Days and Nights on the Battlefield.=  Charles Carleton Coffin
+  =Winning His Way.=                        Charles Carleton Coffin
+  =Six Nights in a Block House.=            Henry C. Watson
+
+=Be= sure to get one of each. Price, postpaid, Fifty Cents.
+
+Obtain our latest complete catalogue.
+
+HURST & CO., Publishers, NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note
+
+
+Footnotes have been moved below the paragraph to which they
+relate. Illustrations have been moved near the relevant section
+of the text.
+
+"=" is used in the text to indicate bolded text.
+
+Inconsistencies have been retained in spelling, hyphenation,
+punctuation, and grammar, except where indicated in the list
+below:
+
+  - Quote added before "WINNING" on Page 1
+  - Comma changed to a period after "heart" on Page 15
+  - Comma removed after "positions" on Page 20
+  - "states men" changed to "statesmen" on Page 35
+  - Period changed to a comma after "people" on Page 38
+  - Quote added before "Our" on Page 48
+  - "magnificient" changed to "magnificent" on Page 66
+  - "were" changed to "where" on Page 96
+  - "2" changed to "3" on Page 116
+  - "sieze" changed to "seize" on Page 119
+  - Comma changed to a period after "1862" in Footnote 40
+  - "imposible" changed to "impossible" on Page 128
+  - Period added after "Dr" on Page 131
+  - "mutitudinous" changed to "multitudinous" on Page 136
+  - Double quote changed to a single quote before "I" on Page 138
+  - Single quote added after "treason." on Page 138
+  - "ermitting" changed to "permitting" on Page 152
+  - "sucessful" changed to "successful" on Page 153
+  - Comma changed to a period after "213" in Footnote 55
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Following the Flag, by Charles Carleton Coffin
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43641 ***