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Seventh Day, Wednesday, July 2d.

McClellan retreats

ing.

The Retreat to

Harrison's Landing.-Not even in the awful night that followed this awful battle was rest allotted to Harrison's Land- to the national army. In less than two hours after the roar of the conflict had ceased, or ders were given to resume the retreat, and march to Harrison's Landing. At midnight the utterly exhausted soldiers were groping their staggering way along a road described as desperate, in all the confusion of a fleeing and routed army. There was but one narrow pass through which the army could retreat, and though the distance was only seven miles, it was not until the middle of the next day that Harrison's Landing was reached. The mud was actually ankle-deep all over the ground. The last of the wagons did not reach the selected site until after dark on the 3d of July. The rear-guard then moved into their camp, and every thing was secure. The paralyzed Confederates made a feeble pursuit, and on the 8th went back to Richmond.

national army.

Not without profound reluctance was the order to Indignation in the continue the retreat to Harrison's Landing obeyed. General Kearny, than whom there was not a more noble soldier in the whole army, exclaimed, in a group of indignant officers, "I, Philip Kearny, an old soldier, enter my solemn protest against this order to 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 that such an order can only be prompted by cowardice or treason."

The French princes left the army early the next morn The French princes ing. Its condition was, to all appearances, abandon the army. desperate. They went on board a steamer, and soon after departed for the North.

The Committee of Congress on the Conduct of the War,

CHAP. LV.]

Perilous condition of the national army.

THE CONFEDERATE TRIUMPH.

415

referring to these events, declare, "The retreat of the army from Malvern to Harrison's Bar was very precipitate. The troops,

upon their arrival there, were huddled together in great confusion, the entire army being collected within a space of about three miles along the river. No orders were given the first day for occupying the heights which commanded the position, nor were the troops so placed as to be able to resist an attack in force by the enemy, and nothing but a heavy rain, thereby preventing the enemy from bringing up their artillery, saved the army from de

struction."

Its condition at the close of the cam

paign.

There had been sent to the Peninsula about one hundred and sixty thousand men (159,500). On the 3d of July, after this great army had reached the protection of the gun-boats at Harrison's Landing, McClellan telegraphed to the Secre tary of War that he presumed he had not "over 50,000 men left with their colors." Hereupon President Lincoln (July 7) went to Harrison's Landing, and found that there were about 86,000 men there.

Lee's report of the Confederate triumph.

Lee, in his report, says: "The siege of Richmond was raised, and the object of a campaign, which had been prosecuted after months of preparation, at an enormous expenditure of men and money, completely frustrated. More than 10,000 prisoners, including officers of rank, 52 pieces of artillery, and upward of 35,000 stand of small- arms, were cap tured. The stores and supplies of every description which fell into our hands were great in amount and value, but small in comparison with those destroyed by the enemy. His losses in battle exceeded our own, as attested by the thousands of dead and wounded left on every field, while his subsequent inaction shows in what condition the survivors reached the protection to which they fled."

Withdrawal of the

the Peninsula.

General McClellan remained at Harrison's Landing until the 4th of August, when he received national army from an order to withdraw his army to Acquia Creek, to aid in repelling the Confederate movement toward Washington. Most reluctantly did he comply with this order. The bulk of the army moved by land to Fortress Monroe. The general left that place on the 23d of August, and reached Acquia Creek the next day.

Total failure of

campaign.

Thus ended the great, the ill-starred, the melancholy Peninsular expedition. It had no presiding the Peninsular genius, no controlling mind. There was an incredible sluggishness in the advance; it actually gave the Confederates time to pass their conscription law and bring their conscripts into the field. The magnificent army, which had been organized with so much pageantry at Washington, and moved down Ches apeake Bay with so much pomp, had sickened in the dismal trenches of Yorktown, and left thousands upon thousands in the dark glades and gloomy marshes of the blood-stained Chickahominy. It is the testimony of the corps commanders that they were left as best they might to conduct the fatal retreat. The general was importunately demanding of the government more troops-never using all that he had. Countless millions of money had been wasted, tens of thousands of men had been destroyed.

From the inception of the campaign to its end, military audacity was pitted against military timidity, promptness against procrastination, and the result could not be other than it was. The Confederates at Centreville, in inferior numbers and in contemptible works, held McClellan at bay. They did the same at Yorktown, though he had much more than ten times their strength. Their au dacity culminated in their march to the north bank of the

CHAP. LV.] CLOSE OF THE PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN.

417

Chickahominy, when they actually divided their army in his presence, putting the mass of it on the more distant side of a river which he might have rendered impassable, and leaving nothing between him and Richmond but a body of troops which he might have overwhelmed without difficulty.

II.-D D

CHAPTER LVI.

THE BATTLE OF THE IRON SHIPS.

The steam frigate Merrimack was converted by the Confederates into an armored ship.

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Coming out of Norfolk, she destroyed the wooden war-ships Cumberland and Con

gress.

Ericsson's armored turret-ship, the Monitor, built expressly for the purpose, obtained a victory over her, and disabled her.

Importance of this battle to naval powers.

The Merrimack con

WHEN the navy yard at Norfolk was seized by Vir ginia, among the ships partly destroyed was verted into an iron- the steam frigate Merrimack, of forty guns (p. 84). She was one of the finest vessels in the navy, and was worth, when equipped, nearly a million and a quarter of dollars.

clad.

She had been set on fire, and also

cers who had charge of the yard.

scuttled by the offi

Her

Her upper works alone, therefore, had suffered. Her hull and machinery were comparatively uninjured.

Particulars of her

The Confederate government caused her to be raised and turned into an extemporaneous ironconstruction. clad. As mentioned (p. 207), her hull was cut down, and a stout timber roof built upon it. This was then strongly plated with three layers of iron, each one inch and a quarter thick, the first layer being placed horizontally, the second obliquely, the third perpendicularly. The armature reached two feet below the waterline, and, rose ten feet above. The ends were constructed in the same manner. A false bow was added for the purpose of dividing the water, and beyond it projected an iron beak. Outwardly she presented the appearance of

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