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The position of affairs admitted of no long pause at this point, however, and scarcely had the enemy been beaten off than Sumner and Franklin took up the march for White Oak Swamp, leaving behind a number of prisoners, all their dead and wounded, and the inmates of the hospitals.

The trains, meanwhile, were pushing on to the James, along a road leading by a long circuit to Turkey Bend, and which was unobstructed by the enemy. They were convoyed by portions of Keyes's and Porter's Corps, and reached the James River early Monday morning, the 30th, soon after which General McClellan arrived and took possession of Malvern Hill, previously described as a strong position, capable of a vigorous defence.

Meantime, Heintzelman had been closely pressed by Longstreet and Hill down the road to Charles City, while Jackson, on the right bank of the Chickahominy, was repairing Bottom Bridge to come in on our right. On the morning of Monday, the 30th, all the troops and all the trains were safely across White Oak Bridge on the way to the James River. Franklin, with his own corps and one of Sumner's divisions, remained to guard the bridge, in front of which the enemy, under Jackson, had commenced to arrive, while Heintzelman's Corps, Sumner's remaining division, and McCall's Division were distributed in front of the roads leading from Richmond. A heavy cannonade was maintained during the day between Jackson and Franklin, but the enemy gained no ground in that quarter, and after nightfall the Federal troops retired securely toward the river. With Heintzelman's and Sumner's troops, however, the case was very different. The country in that region is a swampy forest, dotted with clearings, having an area of fifty to one hundreds acres each. The Union artillery was posted in the woods, on the skirts of these clearings, and as the enemy approached near the openings thus commanded, their losses were heavy. They, however, pressed on with great vigor until within musket range, when the Union line delivered a staggering fire which brought them to a sudden halt. The conflict became now in the last degree terrible. The enemy was exposed point blank to the devouring fire of the double massed Union troops, and a cross fire from batteries admirably served. The air was filled with the shrieking missiles of death-the bursting shells and deep volleys of distant guns; every moment had its peculiar sound of terror, and every spot its ghastly horror. The enemy stood firmly to the work, although the weight of the Union artillery was evidently too much for him. Some fresh troops, now arriving, poured in such a volley as apparently decided the affair for the night, and General Hill withdrew from the conflict. It was now half-past ten. The enemy had been arrested, and the fight-one of the most stubbornly contested that had occurred-ended to the manifest advantage of the Federals. But in a few moments the tired troops were again called to arms. At 11 o'clock, Magruder's Corps, of some eight brigades, coming direct from Richmond, the advance under H. A. Wise, suddenly appeared at Charles City cross roads, on the Union left, flanking it, and capturing fifteen guns. This attack, had it occurred three hours earlier, according to Magruder's instructions, might have proved

serious. The corps of Porter and Keyes, that had reached James River early in the morning, were ordered back to Malvern Hill to resist the enemy, who was approaching amid a terrific cannonade under cover of the woods, and in great force. But the enemy were now within range of the gunboats, which moved as near as practicable, and opened with their heavy guns. The shells fell thick along the edge of the wood, where the enemy was lodged. The firing became more vigorous, and raged with great fury along the whole front. Heintzelman's Corps was then formed in line, and the gunboats being signalled to cease fire, it executed a charge which compelled the enemy to give ground, and won the James River for the army as a base. This engagement is known as the Battle of Glendale, or Nelson's Farm.

The tent of General McClellan was pitched upon the banks of the river, near Turkey Bend, and he here wrote dispatches for the Government, which he sent off by his aides, the Duke de Chartres and the Count de Paris, who here took leave of the service, and, with the Prince de Joinville, embarked on board the "Stepping Stones."

On Tuesday, July 1, the last of this series of battles was fought upon Malvern Hill. The ground is there for the most part open and undulating, and along its sloping sides the Union troops, during the night of the 30th, took up a strong position to receive the anticipated attack of the enemy on the following day. The corps of Keyes occupied the extreme right, and next in order came Franklin, Sumner, Heintzelman, Couch's Division, detached from Keyes, with Porter on the extreme left. It was not until 3 o'clock that the skirmishers of the enemy engaged and drove in those of Couch's Division, and a hot engagement took place, without material results. Later in the afternoon some field-pieces were brought forward, but they were silenced by the batteries of Hooker and Kearny. This cannonade was followed by a most determined attempt to force the positions of Porter and Couch, and turn the right. The efforts of the enemy became more desperate as night approached, and the battle was fairly maintained until dark, when they drew back with fearful loss, and in so utterly demoralized a condition that any thing like a show of pursuit would probably have driven them in confusion into Richmond. In the night, orders were issued for the troops to retire seven miles to Harrison's Landing, the position at Malvern being considered untenable.

The night was very dark; and so much confusion took place among the retreating troops, that numbers of the wounded were abandoned. The position of the army was now, July 2, seventeen miles southeast of Richmond by land, and fifty miles by water. It was five miles below City Point, occupied a space five miles on the river and three miles broad, entirely protected by the gunboats, and was well suited for defence. Thus from the evening of June 25th, when General McClellan telegraphed that the affair was over and the troops "where I want them," the army had retreated to the James in six days of almost continual fighting, and had met serious losses of men, munitions, and stores. The base of the army, with all its advantages, on York River, had been lost, and the cover of the gunboats on James River gained by the most incredible devotion, endurance, and valor of the troops:

these qualities were recognized by the general in his address to the troops :

GENERAL M'CLELLAN'S ADDRESS TO HIS SOLDIERS.

"HEAD-QUARTERS, ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, "CAMP NEAR HARRISON'S LANDING, July 4, 1862. [ "SOLDIERS OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC!-Your achievements of the last ten days have illustrated the valor and endurance of the American soldier. Attacked by superior forces, and without hope of re-enforcements, you have succeeded in changing your base of operations by a flank movement, always regarded as the most hazardous of military expedients. You have saved all your material, all your trains, and all your guns, except a few lost in battle, taking, in return, guns and colors from the enemy. Upon your march you have been assailed day after day with desperate fury, by men of the same race and nation, skilfully massed and led. Under every disadvantage of number, and necessarily of position also, you have in every conflict beaten back your foes with enormous slaughter. Your conduct ranks you among the celebrated armies of history. No one will now question that each of you may always with pride say, I belong to the Army of the Potomac.' You have reached the new base, complete in organization and unimpaired in spirit. The enemy may at any time attack you. We are prepared to meet them. I have personally established your lines. Let them come, and we will convert their repulse into a final defeat. Your Government is strengthening you with the resources of a great people. On this, our nation's birthday, we declare to our foes, who are rebels against the best interests of mankind, that this army shall enter the capital of the so-called confederacy; that our National Constitution shall prevail; and that the Union, which can alone insure internal peace, and external security to each State, 'Must and shall be preserved,' cost what it may in time, treasure, and blood. GEORGE B. MCCLELLAN."

The aggregate of Federal losses from the 26th of June to the 1st of July, inclusive, was stated by General McClellan as follows:

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The losses of the enemy in these engagements were very large, but were not publicly announced. Jefferson Davis, on the 8th July, made the following address to the troops;

"TO THE ARMY IN EASTERN VIRGINIA:

"SOLDIERS-I congratulate you on the series of brilliant victories which, under the favor of Divine Providence, you have lately won; and, as the President of the Confederate States, do heartily tender to you the thanks of the country, whose just cause you have so skilfully and heroically served. Ten days ago an invading army, vastly superior to you in numbers and in the material of war, closely beleaguered your capital and vauntingly proclaimed its speedy conquest; you marched to attack the enemy in his entrenchments; with well-directed movements and death-defying valor you charged upon him in his strong positions, drove him from field to field over a distance of more than thirty-five miles, and, despite his re-enforcements, compelled him to seek shelter under the cover of his gunboats, where he now lies cowering before the army so lately derided and threatened with entire subjugation.

"The fortitude with which you have borne toil and privation, the gallantry with which you have entered into each successive battle, must have been witnessed to be fully appreciated; but a grateful people will not fail to recognize you and to bear you in loved remembrance. Well may it be said of you, that you have 'done enough for glory; but duty to a suffering country and to the cause of constitutional liberty, claims from you yet further effort. Let it be your pride to relax in nothing which can promote your future efficiency; your one great object being to drive the invader from your soil, and, carrying your standards beyond the outer boundaries of the Confederacy, to wring from an unscrupulous foe the recognition of your birthright, community, independence. (Signed) "JEFFERSON DAVIS."

The campaign of the Peninsula was thus virtually closed. The troops indeed remained at Harrison's Landing some weeks longer, but without hope of renewing the attack upon Richmond. We may recall the leading events of the spring advance in Virginia. This had been in four columns, under Fremont, Banks, McDowell, and McClellan. The two first mentioned had made considerable progress, and at the date of the fall of Yorktown, threatened to unite at Staunton at the head of the valley. From that moment McClellan gradually advanced up the Peninsula and extended his right to the north of Richmond to give the hand to McDowell, whose left was approaching from Fredericksburg. While McClellan was advancing up the Peninsula, Jackson came down the valley of the Shenandoah, driving Fremont's Corps back to the mountains, and Banks's over the Potomac, and creating so much alarm at Washington that McDowell was ordered to the valley. He arrived there on the same day that the left of McClellan under Casey was attacked at Fair Oaks. McClellan, as we have seen, failed to avail himself of the advantages which that battle secured to him. The important battle that he had announced May 25th, was deferred a month, when it was forced upon him by the enemy, who had then assembled a force, according to General McClellan, of two hundred thousand men. On the 13th June, instead of forming a junction with McDowell before Richmond, the division of McCall and other troops joined him by water, and were assigned to the extreme right, where, on the 27th, they were overwhelmed by Jackson, coming from the valley to aid in the main attack upon the Union line, which, the entrenchments being turned, was forced back upon the James River, completely on the defensive. Meantime the corps of Fremont, Banks, and McDowell were combined under Pope, who menaced Richmond in front, while McClellan was preparing to evacuate the Peninsula. In all these movements, the bravery, endurance, and devotion of the Union troops were unsurpassed by any veteran troops of any age or nation.

cess.

It would be premature, perhaps, at the present time to go into any elaborate inquiry of the causes which led to the lame and impotent conclusion of a campaign commenced with such high hopes of sucGeneral McClellan has attributed his failure to the withholding of re-enforcements by the President, to the diversion of McDowell's Corps at a time when its co-operation would have insured the capture of Richmond, and to the unprecedented rainy weather and bad roads which the army encountered from the moment it landed on the Pen

insula. The reasons for withholding McDowell's Corps have been fully stated in a previous chapter; but two of its divisions, Franklin's and McCall's, numbering twenty-two thousand men, were subsequently sent to McClellan, in addition to which he received about eleven thousand men from Baltimore and Fortress Monroe, and, towards the latter part of June, some five thousand men of Shields's Division, making, with the army which he carried with him, a total of nearly one hundred and sixty thousand men in three months. The weakening of McDowell to re-enforce McClellan made it necessary to strengthen the former by one of Banks's Divisions, and we have seen how the last-named general thereby became so weak in May as to be incapable of resisting the advance of Jackson down the Valley of the Shenandoah. It was doubtless true, as McClellan telegraphed to the President, that this movement of Jackson was intended to prevent re-enforcements being sent to the Peninsula; but the wide-spread consternation and panic which it created, formed, to say the least, a plausible reason for dispatching McDowell to the aid of Banks. "If McDowell's force," telegraphs the President to McClellan, on the 25th of May, "was now beyond our reach, we should be entirely helpless. Apprehensions of something like this, and no unwillingness to sustain you, has always been my reason for withholding McDowell's forces from you." That the diversion of McDowell, when his pickets had almost met those of Porter, extended beyond Hanover Court-House, was unfortunate, there can be no doubt; but under the circumstances it was unavoidable, and, as has been justly remarked, "whether it was wise or unwise, it was one of those things resulting from the taking of a line of operations which did not then cover Washington."

But admitting that McClellan might have had more troops, that the diversion of McDowell's Corps was unnecessary, and that the roads were bad, there are still several points in reference to the conduct of the campaign on which criticisms adverse to McClellan have been pronounced. Some of these have already been alluded to, such as the unnecessarily long siege of Yorktown, defended at the outset by a weak garrison, the tardy march up the Peninsula, and the failure to follow up the success of the second day of Fair Oaks. In the opinion of many military men, McClellan, after hearing of the destruction of the Merrimac, should have immediately marched his army for the James instead of the Pamunkey River. He would thus have secured a good water-base within less than twenty miles of Richmond, and would have avoided the deadly and almost impassable swamps of the Chickahominy, by whose pestilential exhalations many thousands of his army were prostrated. Again, with regard to the battle of Gaines's Mill, General McClellan has stated in his official report, that after Porter had retreated across the Chickahominy and destroyed the bridges, the whole Federal army, being concentrated on the right bank of the stream, while the main rebel body was on the left bank, might have marched rapidly upon Richmond. But while he gives reasons for not pursuing this course, he omits to explain why he allowed less than two corps to withstand twice or thrice their number on the left bank of the river, when he could, without serious risk, have

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