Pond. He (Lieutenant Custer) asked for my map, and sketched with a pencil a line extending between those limits. How or by what force it was intended to occupy that position I was not informed.

I took the road by McGee's house to New Cold Harbor and to Dr. Gaines's; thence back on to the spur on the right of Dr. Gaines's; thence through the woods to New Cold Harbor again; thence to Old Cold Harbor; thence by the road to Dispatch Station to near where I started; thence by the same road to near Barker's sawmill.

"It was late when I commenced, and I had been obliged to ride fast. When I reached Barker's Mill it was getting dark and I proceeded from thence back to camp. I thought that a position moderately favorable for a large force to fight a battle, in equal or not greatly inferior numbers, might be taken along this line, but not one which gave any very decided advantages. According to the force in which it was occupied, its left would rest on the first spur to the right (east) of Dr. Gaines's house, embracing the woods; or, contracting the front, rest on the spur where Watt's house is, partially embracing the woods in front, and running in front of McGee's house. The right would extend past McGee's house, along the Dispatch Station road through the woods, to the eminence near where a house is marked on the map; or, perhaps still better, keep along the edge of the woods toward the Chickahominy.

66

'When I returned to headquarters camp after dark I found that the commanding general had left for General Porter's camp, having been summoned either by General Porter himself, or by the sound of the attack made late that afternoon. At 10 P. M. I received a telegram directing me to repair at once to General Porter's headquarters. I reached there about midnight, and found the commanding general and General Porter together in bivouac (all camp equipage, wagons, etc., having been sent to the other side). After explaining on the map to the commanding gen

eral what I had done in the afternoon, he rose to leave, intimating that he desired me to remain with General Porter.

"On his leaving, General Porter seemed to be in doubt whether he should withdraw his troops from their actual positions. Finding that he had no positive instructions, I told him that I supposed it indispensable to fall back, at least to the position covering the bridges, in order to put himself in communication with the rest of the army; and he issued his orders to this effect about I A. M. (27th), and at dawn or early daylight the troops were in motion near us, falling back.

At this time the doubts seemed to have revived in General Porter's mind as to the expediency of the movement, he alleging the probability of McCall's division being cut to pieces in the operation. I could only repeat my conviction that it was indispensable in order to put himself in connection with the rest of the army, and it was continued; and we proceeded together to the ground I visited the evening before. On the way, or before starting, he asked me how many troops I thought he ought to be re-enforced with. I replied substantially that I could not answer the question; that, according to any understanding I had of the matter, I supposed that the whole army was to fight on one side or the other; that I had all along supposed that he was to retire to the other side.

After reaching the ground he put his left on the spur of Watt's house, and, riding farther along the position, he concluded he could not extend his right beyond the clearing and spur where McGee's house is. After this I returned to headquarters, presuming that in reference to the arrangements of the day the commanding general might have further instructions for me. I reached headquarters about 9 or 10 A. M., and, being informed that the commanding general was reposing, I went to my tent and remained there until afternoon.

"I have gone somewhat minutely into the history of my connection with that battlefield, because upon

this battle, fought by General Porter with twenty-seven thousand men, hinged the fate of the campaign.'

66

From this narration it is evident that the important position selected to cover the bridges by Porter's corps was hurriedly chosen. For more than a month the site had been in undisturbed possession of the Union forces, and for half of that period had been within touch of general headquarters. Certainly from the 24th the probability of its occupation should have been patent to the commanding general, and it was especially his duty to see that its natural defensive features should have been improved to the utmost by every means known to field fortification. Believing," says Porter, "my force too small to defend successfully this long line, I asked of General Barnard, who had selected and pointed out this position, to represent to the major general commanding the necessity of re-enforcement, and he was to send me felling axes for defensive purposes." But it was not till afterward that he learned that this message was not delivered, and a second call for axes brought them so late that they could not be helved in time to be made useful. The barricades prepared by borrowing the axes of the artillery," he says, insured desperate and prolonged resistance, and had the call for axes first asked for and the troops been delivered and filled, the fate of the day and the result of the campaign upon the prolonged contest between the two sections of our country may have been most materially changed." Whether the fact that the commanding general was reposing at the time of Barnard's arrival at headquarters prevented the reception and action upon Porter's message it is impossible to say, but at all events the failure to convey so vital a message is a sad commentary upon the competency of the headquarters staff in the transaction of urgent public business that involved the safety of the army.

66

Upon McClellan's return to his headquarters on the south side of the Chickahominy he found no

* Official War Records, vol. xi, part i, p. 116.

340

change in the situation to warrant holding Porter at
Beaver Dam, and therefore sent him the order to with-
draw to the selected position at Gaines's Mill; this
order reached Porter after midnight, which necessitated
the execution of this delicate operation in the face of
a greatly superior force in the broad light of day. For-
tunately the severe punishment inflicted by McCall's
division upon A. P. Hill's the afternoon before caused
the Confederates to be less enterprising than would
Thanks to the admi-
otherwise have been the case.
rable manner in which Seymour's brigade covered the
retreat and the strong opposition offered by the rear
guards along the roads and at the bridge crossings,
Porter was enabled to dispose his corps for a defen-
sive battle in the new position before noon with an
inconsiderable loss of men and supplies, and to save
also the heavy siege guns that had been posted in the
vicinity of Hogan's and Gaines's farms.

The accompanying map indicates the characteristic features of the ground upon which the battle of Gaines's Mill was fought. The valley of the creek that drained into Boatswain Swamp formed a natural ditch that covered its west and north front, while its eastern flank was somewhat protected by thick woods and the creek that flowed into Barker's Mill Pond.

Its weakest point was very near the center of its front, due to the intrusion of a well-wooded valley by which the road from New Cold Harbor ascended to the plateau. Had time allowed attention to its defensive features, those which Nature had provided could have been, with little labor, immensely strengthened, and the timber which enabled the Confederates to form their lines for attack unseen could have been felled, and there is every reason to believe that the result of the battle would have proved disastrous to the Confederate attack.

Porter, believing that the enemy outnumbered him three to one, was forced to fight a purely defensive battle, and from the configuration of the ground his line presented a convex front toward the enemy, and although its extent was much too great for the num