will relatively gain upon you—that is, he will gain faster by fortifications and re-enforcements than you can by reenforcements alone. And once more let me tell you, it is indispensable to you that you strike a blow. I am powerless to help this. You will do me the justice to remember I always insisted that going down the bay in search of a field, instead of fighting at or near Manassas, was only shifting, and not surmounting, a difficulty; that we would find the same enemy, and the same or equal intrenchments, at either place. The country will not fail to note, is now noting, that the present hesitation to move upon an intrenched enemy is but the story of Manassas repeated.

I beg to assure you that I have never written you or spoken to you in greater kindness of feeling than now, nor with a fuller purpose to sustain you, so far as, in my most anxious judgment, I consistently can. But you must act.

At what seemed the earliest day practicable, Secretary Stanton telegraphed to the General, granting his request for Franklin's division. He was also given permission to draw at will upon General Wool, commanding at Fortress Monroe. To later inquiries about McDowell, whose best division had been withdrawn from him, only to linger on shipboard at the mouth of the York, the President answered on the 21st: "Fredericksburg is evacuated and the bridge destroyed by the enemy, and a small part of McDowell's command occupies this side of the Rappahannock opposite the town. He purposes moving his whole force to that point." On the last day of April the General reported his army as numbering over one hundred and thirty thousand men, of whom more than one hundred and twelve thousand were effective. The President was surprised to receive from him at the same time a request for more siege guns, and with sadly wearied patience replied (May 1st): “Your call for Parrott guns from Washing

ton alarms me

chiefly because it augurs indefinite procrastination. Is anything to be done?"

But two days after, on the night of May 3d, Magruder himself relieved the trying tension by silently and safely decamping. On the morning of the 4th McClellan announced a "brilliant success," and promised to "push the enemy to the wall." His dispatches of the next day were less jubilant. It was “raining hard," the "roads infamous," "horrible." At 10 o'clock that night he reported from his "Bivouac in front of Williamsburg" that he had been "urgently sent for," and on his arrival had found Johnston in his front with a strong force, "probably greater a good deal" than his own. Hancock had taken two redoubts, repulsing Early's brigade "by a real charge with the bayonet." The conduct of Hancock" was brilliant in the extreme."

In fact, a serious battle had been fought that day, to the main features of which he made no allusion. Stoneman, with a force of cavalry and artillery, had been sent in pursuit of the enemy on the morning of the 4th, and coming under fire as he neared Williamsburg, a dozen miles from Yorktown, he retired out of range to await the arrival of Hooker's division (Heintzelman's corps), which was following in support. Smith's division (Keyes's corps), marching by another road, reached Stoneman's position in the afternoon, in advance of Hooker, who, being thus obstructed, did not arrive until early the next morning, coming in front of Fort Magruder. This, the principal of the enemy's works extending quite across the Peninsula, here but narrow, was at the junction of the road from Hampton with that

from Yorktown, and had an open space before it about half a mile in width, "dotted all over with rifle-pits." The approaches were obstructed with felled timber, and the enemy's movements were much shielded by surrounding woods. McClellan in person was still at Yorktown, attending to the dispatch of Franklin's and other troops up the river on transports.

Hooker was joined on his right by Smith, whose division formed the center after the later arrival of Hancock's brigade and other forces, extending the line eastward. The divisions of Couch and Casey (Keyes's corps) did not reach the scene until late in the day. Fire was opened at half-past 7 in the morning by Hooker, who advanced his infantry, encountering a deadly hail from the rifle-pits and repeated assaults, repulsed only by desperate fighting. This contest lasted for several hours, Heintzelman anxiously looking for Kearney's division, which had been expected early in the morning, but was delayed by the confusion consequent upon the lack of well-understood marching orders. When Kearney arrived, after 3 o'clock, the ammunition of Hooker's infantry was nearly exhausted, and the men were much wearied. The fresh division now relieved them, and the enemy was finally repulsed. Hancock, on the right, attempted to turn the enemy's flank, but met with such resistance that he was recalled by Sumner, the ranking officer in the field. Some hours later, Smith's division and Naglee's brigade were sent to his support by McClellan, who had arrived between 4 and 5 o'clock; and then came Hancock's brilliant bayonet charge and his occupation of the works in his front.

Johnston (then commander of the Richmond army) abandoned the contest as night closed in.

The brunt of the battle was borne by Hooker and Kearney, as attested by the losses the former's division losing 337 out of a total of 456 killed, and 902 of the 1,400 wounded. Johnston lost 288 killed and 976 wounded. Six days after his hasty dispatch on the night of the battle, McClellan telegraphed to the Secretary of War his wish to "bear testimony to the splendid conduct of Hooker's and Kearney's divisions, under command of General Heintzelman, at the battle of Williamsburg, adding: “Their bearing was worthy of veterans. Hooker's division for hours gallantly withstood the attack of greatly superior numbers, with very heavy loss. Kearney's division arrived in time to restore the fortunes of the day, and came most gallantly into action. Had I had the full information I now have in regard to the troops above named when I first telegraphed, they would have been specially mentioned and commended."

Early on the morning of the 7th, Franklin landed. his division on the right bank of the Pamunkey River, opposite West Point, which is between that stream and the Mattapony, at their junction to form the York River. The place was of importance as the terminus of the York River railway to Richmond, and as connected by navigable water with the Chesapeake Bay. Sedgwick's division began arriving, also by water, later the same morning. In the middle of the day there was skirmishing with the enemy's rear guard, which soon

fell back toward Richmond. Later, the divisions of Richardson and Fitz-John Porter also arrived on transports from Yorktown. The other troops, after a brief rest at Williamsburg, marched to join their comrades in camp near West Point.

While the army was getting together in the vicinity of West Point, the President and Secretaries Chase and Stanton visited Old Point Comfort. A Confederate force under General Huger occupied Norfolk, and the reappearance of the Merrimac, daily expected, was watched for by the Monitor. Lincoln determined that prompt action should be taken for gaining control of the James River and for the possession of Norfolk.

On the 8th of May, Sewell's Point, where the enemy had long had an annoying battery, was bombarded, but though the Monitor, the ironclad Naugatuck, and four other vessels joined in the attack, the battery was not silenced. Next day, after exploration, a landing-place below the Rip-raps was chosen for an expedition to be sent against Norfolk in the rear. During the night and the following morning six regiments of infantry, a battalion of riflemen, and a battery of the regular artillery about six thousand men in all were landed at

Ocean View, across the harbor, six miles from Fort Monroe, and put in motion towards Norfolk. Arriving at his destination near night, General Wool received the surrender of the city from its civil authorities, Huger having just before retired with its garrison of three thousand men. Direct communication was thus opened between Burnside (in North Carolina) and Wool; and command was gained of the lower James. Another