batteries of rifled guns on both shores, at little more than one-fourth of a mile distant. The batteries at Yorktown and Gloucester Point were erected on the very lines held by the opposing armies in the Revolution. At this time, as appears from the report of the rebel commander, General Magruder, the combined garrisons of Yorktown and Gloucester did not exceed eleven thousand men, although, before the close of the siege, it was very largely re-enforced.

It had formed part of the plan of the campaign for General McDowell, with his thirty-five thousand men, to follow McClellan down the Potomac, and, landing on Severn, north of Gloucester, to storm that place. He was then to ascend the river, cross the Pamunkey near West Point, and coming in between the enemy and Richmond, shut them up in the Peninsula. At this point in the operations the President, acting on the report of Generals Thomas and Hitchcock, above referred to, withdrew the corps of McDowell from his command, and also detached from it the command of General Wool, which had been promised to McClellan. The latter, though fully aware of the decision of the council of corps commanders, and of the duty devolving upon him of leaving a sufficient force to garrison and cover Washington, professed to be much surprised at this action of the President; and the urgency with which he now telegraphed for re-enforcements, drew from Mr. Lincoln the following letter:

"To Major-General MCCLELLAN :

"WASHINGTON, April 9, 1862.

"MY DEAR SIR:-Your dispatches complaining that you are not properly sustained, while they do not offend me, pain me very much. Blenker's Division was withdrawn before you left here, and you know the pressure under which I did it, and, as I thought, acquiesced in it, certainly not without reluctance. After you left, I ascertained that less than twenty thousand unorganized men, without a field-battery, were all you designed to be left for the defence of Washington and Manassas Junction, and part of this even was to go to General Hooker's old position. General Banks's Corps, once designed for Manassas Junction, was divided and tied up on the line of the Winchester and Strasburg, and could not leave it without again exposing the Upper Potomac and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. This presented, or would present, when McDowell and Sumner should be gone, a great temptation for the enemy to turn back from the Rappahannock and sack Washington. My explicit directions, that Washington should, by the judgment of all the commanders of corps, be left secure, had been entirely neglected. It was precisely this that drove me to detain McDowell. I do not forget that I was satisfied with his arrangements to leave Banks at Manassas Junction. when that arrangement was broken up, and nothing was substituted for it, of course I was not satisfied. I was constrained to substitute something for it myself. And now allow me to ask you, do you really think I could permit the line from Richmond vid Manasass Junction to this city to be entirely open, except what resistance could be presented by less than twenty thousand unorganized troops? This is a question which the country will not allow me to evade. There is a curious mystery about the number of troops now with you.

But

"I telegraphed you on the 6th, saying that you had over one hundred thousand men with you. I had just obtained from the Secretary of War a statement, taken, as he said, from your own returns, making one hundred and eight thousand then with you and en route to you. You now say you will have but eighty-five thousand when all those en route to you shall have reached you. How can this discrepancy of thirtyfive thousand be accounted for? As to General Wool's command, I understand that it is doing precisely what a like number of your own would have to do if that command was away. I suppose the whole force which has gone forward to you is with you by this time, and if so, I think it is the precise time for you to strike a blow. By

H

delay the enemy will readily gain on you; that is, he will gain faster by fortifications and re enforcements than you can by re-enforcements 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 noting now 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 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.

"Yours, very truly,

ABRAHAM LINCOLN."

Franklin's Division of eleven thousand men, belonging to MeDowell's Corps, was, however, sent him, but was nearly fourteen days in reaching him.

The distance between the York and James Rivers at Yorktown is about six miles, and the country is of a soft, marshy character, impassable for artillery in rainy weather, and in the hot season very unhealthy from the malaria of the swamps. The land is very fertile, and the people most wealthy. The city of Yorktown itself is composed of about thirty old-fashioned wood and brick houses, and the remains of the ancient fortifications are visible around it. After the battle of Big Bethel the Confederates set themselves to strengthen this position. The passage of the York River was regarded as very difficult, and such advantage was taken of the nature of the ground as to make the advance by land up the Peninsula a hazardous operation. General J. B. Magruder had been in command nearly a year, and some two thousand blacks had been employed at Yorktown and Gloucester, with a force of about seven thousand men. An immense connected fortification, with numerous salient angles, mounted with heavy guns, with a lofty parapet difficult to scale, and a deep, dry ditch commanded the river, where was also a formidable waterbattery. Running towards the right of the lines there was a long breast work, not pierced for guns, but having in front a ditch of the same depth as that before the fort. This breast work connected a redoubt of considerable magnitude, and another breastwork of the same description connected another redoubt beyond, still further to the left. On this redoubt there had been mounted a number of columbiads and Dahlgren naval guns, with one siege howitzer. In front of these works there is an immense area of open ground, which was completely commanded by the rebel guns. Trees which were of large growth had been cut down by the Confederates to give free range to their artillery. Deep gorges and ravines were inside and about these fortifications, furnishing good cover for the besieged against artillery fire, and rendering the position difficult to assault. To the left of the Yorktown road-the enemy's right-as the town is approached, other fortifications had been constructed.

The position was deemed impregnable by its commander, and after reconnoitring, General McClellan set down before it to besiege it in form.

There were crossing the Peninsula three main lines of defensive

works. The first of these commenced at a point on the York River, and extended south until it met the head of Warwick River, which, running about four miles south, empties into the James. In the rear of this was another line of detached works, and still further in the rear a third line, extending in front of Williamsburg. In front of the first line of defence there were numerous detached works, from which the enemy were successively driven. The army gradually approached this line. Several skirmishes occurred, but nothing serious until the 16th of April, when it was ascertained that the enemy had thrown up a new battery on the Warwick, about one mile above Lee's Mills. This was the left of the Union lines held by General Keyes. General Brooks's brigade with Mott's battery moved forward to within twelve hundred yards of the new work. The ground on the Union side front of the work was open, but with woods on either flank. The batteries of Ayers, Wheeler, Mott, and Kennedy advanced to this open space in front of the enemy, and began a terrific fire at eight hundred yards distant. The Sixth Vermont, Colonel Lord, the Fourth, Colonel Stoughton, and the Third, Colonel Hyde, approached both flanks of the enemy through the woods to reconnoitre. They were received with a telling fire of musketry, which drove them back. Four companies of the Third Vermont then made a rush at the stream, and attempted to ford, the water being waist deep; but the fire of the enemy overpowered them. The Sixth Vermont left the woods on the right, in support of the Third, dashed across the stream, and actually entered the work; but, not being properly supported, they were subjected to a murderous fire from the rifle-pits, which drove them back with heavy loss. This action produced much sensation in consequence of the dauntless bravery displayed by the men, and the apparently useless nature of the sacrifice of life, and in the opinion of competent officers might, if properly conducted, have secured the Federal troops a lodgment on the right bank of the Warwick River. It has been mentioned how weak the rebel garrison was at the arrival of the Federal army. It may now be added that evidence of that fact was presented to the commander-in-chief, but had no effect upon his determination to conduct regular siege operations.

The idea of forcing the enemy's lines seems after this to have been abandoned, and the siege progressed very steadily with the immense resources at the command of General McClellan. The transports on the Chesapeake Bay brought supplies freely to either flank of his army on the York or James River, and to Ship's Point, which, after it was abandoned by the enemy, became an important dépôt. Lines of approach were commenced against the place on a large scale, and batteries established to command important points. The enemy showed activity in his attempts to impede and destroy these works, and frequent encounters along the line tested the courage and address of the men. The front of our lines was occupied by sharpshooters, who were very efficient in picking off the enemy's gunners, in some cases silencing the guns that most annoyed the trenchers. As suitable positions were reached, siege-guns were placed in battery. On the 25th of April, General Grover sent a portion of the First Massachu

setts to carry a lunette, which the Confederates had constructed on the east side of the Warwick, near its head. This work, having a strong parapet and ditch six feet deep, was manned by two companies of infantry, who deserted the place before the vigorous charge of the Massachusetts men. These operations were continued as the works progressed, aided by the occasional shelling of Yorktown and Gloucester by the gunboats. The enemy, in the mean time, continually strengthened his works, constructing batteries to answer those erected by the Union troops, and on both sides the most formidable preparations were made for the final struggle which was now approaching. By the close of April, there had been constructed fourteen powerful batteries and three redoubts within breaching distance of the enemy's works. These contained ninety-six heavy guns in position ready to thunder against the opposing walls. Of the number there were two 200-pounders, three 100-pounders, ten 13-inch mortars, forty-three 10-inch mortars, and twenty-five Parrott guns of different calibre. These were well supplied, and nearly ready for the attack on May 1st.

On the other hand, the enemy had so strengthened his position as to deem it impregnable against any assaults from without, and re-enforcements were within reach from Richmond, to supply his three lines of defence. He had so fortified Yorktown and Gloucester, opposite, with the heaviest description of guns, commanding the narrow passage up the York River, that it was deemed impossible for any vessels to pass. The naval officers decided the position too strong. If the York River could be forced, the position of Yorktown could not be held; on the other hand, as long as the passage between Yorktown and Gloucester could be commanded, the works of Yorktown were good against any assaults of the besiegers. The Confederates therefore continued the defence with a confidence that had been strengthened by the results of the naval combat of March 8th, when the iron-clad Merrimac made havoc with the wooden ships in Hampton Roads, an event which not only created a great sensation in the North, but startled all Europe.

CHAPTER XX.

Iron-plated Ships.-Merrimac.-Federal Fleet.-Hampton Roads.-Destruction of the Cumberland and Congress.-Monitor.-Iron-clad Duel.-Repulse of the Merrimac.

THE mode of constructing wood vessels by plating them with iron had long engaged the attention of the maritime nations of Europe, and great expense had been incurred in constructing such vessels in France and England. The Confederate States were the first to employ one in actual war. When Norfolk was abandoned in April, 1861, it will be remembered that among the steamers left behind was the Merrimac, which was scuttled and sunk. The Confederates, however, raised her, cut her down to the water's edge, and plated her

with interlapped railroad iron, placed sloping in such a manner that all shot must strike her at angles. She was provided with an iron beak for the purpose of crushing the sides of an enemy's vessel when run into. Her armament consisted of four eleven-inch guns on each side, and two one hundred-pounders at bow and stern. Nine months were spent in equipping her, and on the 8th of March, with a picked crew, under the command of Captain Buchanan,* formerly of the United States service, she left Norfolk, and made her appearance in Hampton Roads. The National fleet then in the Roads embraced the Congress, fifty guns; the Cumberland, twenty-two guns; the Minnesota, forty guns; the Roanoke, forty guns; the St. Lawrence, fifty guns; the gunboats Zouave, Dragon, and Whitehall, and some smaller vessels. These were all wooden vessels, very efficient of their class, and ably commanded. Of the larger vessels, only the Minnesota and Roanoke were propelled by steam. The Cumberland and the Congress lay off Newport News, covering the entrance of the Nansemond and James Rivers, and blockading in the latter the Confederate steamers the Jamestown and the Yorktown, or Patrick Henry, as she was called. These two vessels had been packetsteamers, running to New York, and were seized and converted into war-steamers at the outbreak of the war. The Minnesota, the St. Lawrence, and the Roanoke were at anchor near the Rip Raps, just without the range of the large rifled guns on Sewell's Point.

Rumors in relation to the Merrimac and her state of forwardness had long been rife, when on the 8th, at 1 P. M., she was descried from the deck of the Minnesota, rounding Sewell's Point. Signal was immediately made from the Roanoke, Captain Marston, for the vessels to engage. The Minnesota slipped her cables, and made sail for the stranger. In passing Sewell's Point, her mast was injured by a rifleshot, and the vessel grounded within one and a half miles of Newport News. The Merrimac, meantime, passed the Congress, and made directly for the Cumberland, which had promptly cleared for action, and which had opened fire upon her as she neared. The steamer did not reply till she struck the Cumberland under the starboard forechannels, staving in her side, and pouring in her shot at the same "moment. The guns of the Cumberland played upon her with great vigor and rapidity, but with no apparent effect. In ten minutes the water had risen to the main hatchway, in spite of the pumps, drowning out the powder-magazines. The ship then canted to port, and all hands sprang to save the wounded. The rapidly sinking ship how

Franklin Buchanan, the first commander of the Merrimac, was a native of Maryland, but was appointed to the United States Navy from Pennsylvania. He entered the service on the 28th of January, 1815, and steadily advanced through the various gradations of promotion, until, at the commencement of 1861, his name

was No. 47 on the list of captains. While in the Union service. he received his captain's commission on the 14th September, 1855, His total seaservice had been about sixteen years and a half, and his total service under the United States Government over forty-six years. When he resigned, he was Commandant of the Navy-Yard at Wash

ington-a post of honor, and one which he had held for a length of time. Upon finding that Maryland did not secede from the Union, he asked to be restored to his commission, and, his request being refused, he entered the rebel naval service. He commanded the Merrimac in the action of March 8th, in which he was severely wounded; and, upon the evacuation of Norfolk, blew up the vessel. Subsequently, he was made admiral, and commanded the rebel fleet in the action in Mobile Bay, August 5, 1864, where he was captured in his flag-ship, the ram Tennessee, so severely wounded that his leg had to be amputated.