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bloody field on which their dead were strewn in heaps. Night again cast her mantle on the scene. The stern combat had ceased. The combatants bivouacked on the spot where they had fought in deadly strife. The opposing armies were so closely encamped, that the pickets of each could talk with those of the other. The dead were strewn around. The dying were there, breathing their last sighs of agony. Brave men lay down in balmy slumber, and lost the consciousness of their situation in dreams of home. To many of them, it was their last sleep on earth. The earth would be their resting-place ere the next day's decline; but sleep now simulated that which knows not waking.

On the 1st of June-a calm, peaceful Sabbath day-the roll of the drum roused the soldier from his bed on the damp earth, to the field of battle. The rebel commander, Johnston, had been wounded in the first day's battle and carried to Richmond, and could not lead his troops to the attack, after they had enjoyed the spoils of Casey's and Couch's camps. By daylight, Hooker's division lay on the railroad, Richardson and Sedgwick, in a crescent shape, joined his right with their left. Heintzelman and Hooker, at six o'clock, made out the order of battle. The enemy was massed on both the Union flanks. Sickles' brigade, composed of the five New York Excelsior regiments, and the Fifth and Sixth New Jersey, advanced a few minutes past seven, and formed a line of battle on the rebel front. This drew on the fire of the latter, and the battle began. The invincible Excelsior regiments stood firm. Every volley did its work of death in the ranks of the Fifth and Sixth New Jersey, but they loaded and fired with cool precision. The Excelsior regiments pressed forward, firing as they advanced. Sickles, seeing the enemy had the advantage of being covered by the thickets, sent the Second Excelsior to to clear them out with the bayonet. This brave regiment rushed to the charge, and the levelled pieces and glittering steel approached nearer and nearer. The rebels, with flashing eyes and undaunted courage, gazed on the steady line as it advanced. Reserving their fire until the Federals were within sixty yards, a sheet of flame ran along their ranks, and a deadly volley swept the brave regiment, which, with one long, wild sho t, darted on the foe. The smoke cleared. The deadly line o steel flashed on the enemy. The closed

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ranks swept on, carrying dismay to the breasts of the foe, who broke and fled, as loud shouts of victory rent the skies. These heroic deeds were emulated by the gallant regiments on the centre and right, where the tide of battle was now rolling fiercely on. Where the deadly fire of their guns could not clear the Confederates from their path, these regiments finished the work with the bayonet. Meanwhile, Richardson and Sedgwick were grappling fiercely with the foe. The right wing, which they held in a semicircle, had a cleared field in which to operate, more favorable than the ground on the left of the division, where Hooker held the railroad; woods, except in a few places, covering the ground held by the latter. Richardson, therefore, planted a battery of ten pound Parrott guns in the open space, and with French's brigade, and a regiment of Howard's, made the first line. The second line consisted of Howard's three remaining regiments, and the third of Meagher's artillery-eighteen pieces. Early in the morning the enemy's skirmishers formed in line of battle, with a body of cavalry ready to charge. They advanced on the batteries, but were shortly dispersed by the Parrott guns. They now wheeled to the left, and descended in great force on the railroad track to the point where it is intersected by two roads. They sent heavy columns quickly up these roads, and deployed in line of battle. As they approached, Howard and French swept their ranks an hour and a half with tremendous effect. Howard, gallantly exposing himself where the danger was the greatest, had his arm shattered by a ball. Waving the fractured limb above him, he animated his brave troops and was then carried to the rear. Reinforcements now were received by the enemy, and with loud yells they again moved on to the charge. General Francis Meagher, at the head of his famous Irish brigade, advanced gallantly, and charging with great fierceness, mowed down the rebels by platoons; they were compelled to retreat, while a storm of shells from the Parrott guns accelerated their flight. The enemy, along the whole line of battle, were repelled at every point.

As McClellan, at noon, rode over the field with his staff, he was cheered by the troops with the greatest enthusiasm. He sat down by He ntzelman on the ground beneath a tree, and other generals coming up, a picturesque group was

LOSSES ON BOTH SIDES.

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formed, as reports came in that the enemy was falling back. The field was won, and had all the troops been across the river, or its swollen state permitted, McClellan would have led on his victorious troops to the rebel capital.

Deafening shouts greeted the commander as he rode through the victorious ranks. The poor wounded soldiers raised their heads and joined in the deafening cheers which re-echoed over the field won at such heavy cost. It was indeed won, but presented a terrible spectacle on the Sabbath evening which witnessed men of the same race and religion laying slaughtered in thousands. The Union loss was five thousand seven hundred and thirty-nine killed, wounded, and missing, many prisoners, nineteen cannon taken from Casey's division, and stores of different kinds in abundance. The Confederate loss has been variously estimated at from ten to twelve thousand men. General Pettigrew, of South Carolina, was taken prisoner, and Johnston, the Confederate commander-in-chief, was wounded. A pile was made of four hundred horses which had been killed in the action, and their bodies consumed by fire. The tactics of the enemy were the same in this battle as in that of Pittsburg Landing. In both cases they attempted to drive one portion of the troops into the river, and then attack the other. In both they massed their men, and in both failed. Both sides as then claimed the victory, but the battle was indecisive. McClellan was not interrupted in his designs by this battle, but a disaster to the Union arms in the Shenandoah valley, tended at length to visit him and his army with serious

consequences.

CHAPTER XVIII.

MAY, 1862.

MCCLELLAN'S REPORT OF THE BATTLE-MCDOWELL ABOUT TC JOIN ON THE RIGHT WING-SHIELDS ON THE WAY-BANKS AT STRASBURG-JACKSON DETERMINES ON AN ATTACK-GREAT HEROISM OF COLONEL KENLY AT FRONT ROYAL-BANKS' FAMOUS RETREAT TO THE POTOMAC-BATTLE OF WINCHESTER-THE MILITIA CALLED OUT-MCDOWELL AND FREMONT ORDERED TO CUT OFF JACKSON'S RETREAT-HALLECK AT CORINTH-NAVAL ACTION AT FORT WRIGHT-SPLENDID CAVALRY CHARGE-FIGHT AT FARMINGTON-EVACUATION OF CORINTH-GENERAL BUTLER AT NEW

ORLEANS.

THE despatch of McClellan to the Government, announc ing victory, spoke in terms of great eulogy of all the troops except those of Casey's division. "It gave way," says the report, unaccountably and discreditably." Better information caused some modification later, but the commanderin-chief continued to feel that its behavior in face of the enemy was disgraceful, and that it brought the army to the verge of destruction.

General McDowell, previous to the battle of Fair Oaks, was preparing to leave Fredericksburg and join McClellan. News arrived that his division had crossed the Rappahannock, and it was anticipated that an advance would at once be made on Richmond. It was said that General Shields would augment his forces by fifteen thousand men, and that he had left Banks' division for that purpose.

Banks had for awhile pursued "Stonewall" Jackson after the victory over him at Winchester, but had not succeeded in bringing on a battle. His movements were for a time suspended, and the evacuation of Yorktown made no change in his position nor in that of McDowell. Both remained as they were before. Banks was at Strasburg with five thousand men, including fifteen hundred cavalry, and should Jackson advance, he must retreat. On the departure of Shields, Banks quietly remained at Strasburg, and placed Colonel Kenly, with a Maryland regiment, at Front Royal, twelve miles in advance. Jackson was not long in finding out that Shields had departed, and thus weakened Banks'

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