APPENDIX.

I.

THE SEVEN DAYS' CONTESTS.

JUNE 25-JULY 1, 1862.

(By a Prussian Officer in the Confederate Army.)

UPON the approach of the terrible Union armada we were forced to abandon our position on the peninsula at Yorktown, and after we had partially spiked our guns we drew back to our defensive fastness at Williamsburg, so as at that point to cover our capital, Richmond, by throwing up strong fortified works, and perfecting a compact military formation. McClellan, the commanding general of the Union troops, did not allow himself to be so far deceived by our voluntary withdrawal from our position at Yorktown as to regard us a beaten army, but with great celerity and skill continued the disembarkation of his troops, and began to fortify his position. It was not until he had completed his preliminary measures that he advanced with hostile demonstrations against our line. The lines at Williamsburg were also given up by us without any great resistance, although it was very difficult to persuade the old fighting Gen. Magruder of the propriety of the step, for he loved the position as a father loves his child; and, to tell the truth, all the fortifications had been constructed with much talent under his personal directions. The hard-headed old soldier was won over only after renewed debate and expostulation. At length, however, after a few cavalry affairs, the place was evacuated by our troops, and we took up our march, in two columns, for Richmond. In the mean while the most fearful panic fell upon Richmond, and all who could possibly get away packed up every thing they had and fled southward.

The nearer the hostile army approached the city the fiercer the tumult and uproar became. The burning waves of popular alarm could not be stayed. The government itself furthered the confusion. Instead of resolving to triumph or to fall with the army in front of Richmond, it at once ordered all the different bureaux to pack up, and caused the officers of ordnance to empty their magazines, and convey their stores further south. Even President Davis took to the road and hastened, with his wife and children, to North Carolina. As may be readily divined, this loss of presence of mind threw the people at large into the most frantic excess of terror. There was nothing on all sides but shouting and uproar, and confusion reached its utmost height. The secret police of Gen. Winder had lost all control. The civil authorities of Richmond were anxious to do something, but knew not what, and also lost their senses. A small number of the Baltimore rabble took advantage of the hubbub, and, in public meeting, passed resolutions condemning Richmond to conflagration as soon as the Union troops should enter it. Yet all who could escape did so. The sick and the wounded were carried further into the interior; many public and private buildings were marked out for destruction; and, in short, a frightful catastrophe seemed to be impending over the Southern capital.

At this most critical moment the General-in-chief commanding our forces (Johnston) was wounded at the battle of Seven Pines, and the command fell into the able hands of Gen. Lee, who was exactly the man to bring quiet and order again out of this unreasonable chaos. He went to work with great zeal and energy to discharge his onerous task. All disposable troops were hastily summoned from the interior; Gen. Stonewall Jackson's army corps was ordered to Richmond; all the hospitals were cleared of their occupants, and preparations made for ten thousand wounded men; artillery and ammunition wagons rattled by day and night through the streets, while aids and orderlies galloped to and fro in wild hurryskurry with their dispatches.

Masses of troops came pouring in daily, yes, hourly, but without music or any other military pomp. Sternly and silently these ragged, half-starved swarms of men moved onward through the thoroughfares, but the fire in their eyes

showed that they were determined to defend their freedom or to perish.

On the 25th of June another great council of war was held. In it were assembled nearly all that was eminent in the Confederate army. There stood like a rock Gen. Lee, gazing cheerfully over the countenances of his comrades, for each of whom he had a part already assigned. Thoughtfully his eyes wandered from one to the other, as though he wished to stamp the features of each upon his memory, with the feeling that he, perhaps, should never behold many of them again. Close beside him towered the knightly form of Gen. Baldwin; at his left leaned pensively Stonewall Jackson, the idol of his troops, impatiently swinging his sabre to and fro, as though the quiet room were too narrow for him, and he were longing to be once more at the head of his columns. A little aside quietly stood the two Hills, arm in arm, while in front of them old Gen. Wise was energetically speaking. Further to the right stood Generals Huger, Longstreet, Branch, Anderson, Whiting, Ripley, and Magruder in a group. When all these generals had assembled, Gen. Lee laid his plans before them, and in a few stirring words pointed out to each his allotted task. The scheme had already been elaborated. It was compact, concentrated action, and the result could not fail to be brilliant.

When the conference terminated, all shook hands and hastened away to their respective army corps, to enter upon immediate activity.

Now, in looking at the positions of the two armies, it will be seen that unquestionably the advantage was with the Southern host; for Gen. McClellan had his forces necessarily on both sides of the Chickahominy, and, owing to the many ravines in his neighborhood, could not, without great difficulty and much loss of time, execute his military movements. His front line reached over a distance of more than twenty miles, in the form of a semicircle, extending from the James river towards Richmond and Ashland. While one part of his army crossed the Chickahominy, he took position with the main body on the north side of the river, from Meadow bridge to Bottom bridge. The heights on the banks of the stream were fortified, so that his army, notwithstanding the great length of its lines, had excellent defensive cover.

On the 26th of June, in the morning, our troops took up their positions: Jackson hastened by forced marches to Ashland, there to commence his out-flanking operations against the enemy. Having arrived there, his advanced guard drove in the weakly posted foe, and pushed on without loss of time. to Hanover Court-house, where he threw forward Gen. Branch's brigade, between the Chickahominy and Pamunkey rivers, to establish a junction with Gen. Hill (first), who had to cross the stream at Meadow bridge. Gen. Hill very gallantly opened the offensive, and began his operations against the little town of Mechanicsville. The enemy who were stationed here made a brave resistance. Storming attacks were made again and again, with a fury, and as often repelled with a cool determination that awakened admiration. In vain did Gen. Hill send his aids in quest of Gen. Branch. The latter had encountered so many topographical difficulties that he reached his position in front of Mechanicsville only late at night, when the conflict was at an end. The morning of the 27th had scarcely begun to dawn ere our artillery opened a tremendous fire upon the enemy's front, so that the latter, when they also saw Branch's brigade advancing to the attack on their right, abandoned their position at Mechanicsville, and fell back, fighting upon their second defensive line, further down the stream. Just at the moment when we had established the crossing of the Chickaliominy, arrived Gen. Longstreet's magnificent army corpsold, experienced veterans of the Army of the Potomac-and the division of Gen. Hill (second). At once the order to advance was given all along the line. The divisions of Gens. Hill (second), Anderson, and Whiting formed the centre, and moved towards Coal Harbor, while Jackson, Hill (first), and Longstreet formed the left, and marched down along the bank of the river. Magruder, commanding the right wing, was, on account of the swampy nature of the ground he occupied, ordered to hold himself merely on the defensive. Gen. Wise took command of Fort Darling, on the James river. All these military offensive operations, and the two preceding fights, must have given Gen. McClellan knowledge of our intention to change our inconvenient position at Richmond, and to procure for ourselves more space and freedom of motion. He should, then, have instantly ordered the army corps of McDowell, which for