his wings, drove in the enemy's skirmishers, and, when night closed, was in possession of all the ground previously held by the enemy. The victory-known as that of Cross-Keys-had been purchased by a small Confederate loss: 42 killed and 287 wounded. Gen. Ewell officially estimated the enemy's loss at 2,000. Gen. Fremont officially gives it at 625-exhibiting rather more than the usual difference between Federal and Confederate figures. Meanwhile Gen. Jackson was preparing to give the final blow to Shields on the other side of the river; and on the morning after their victory, Ewell's forces were recalled to join in the attack at Port Republic. As day broke they commenced their march to the other field of battle seven miles distant. The enemy had judiciously selected his position for defence. Upon a rising ground near the Lewis House, he had planted six guns, which commanded the road from Port Republic, and swept the plateau for a considerable distance in front. As Gen. Winder moved forward his brigade, a rapid and severe fire of shell was opened upon it. The artillery fire was well sustained by our batteries, which, however, proved unequal to that of the enemy. In the meantime, Winder, being now reinforced by a Louisiana. regiment, seeing no mode of silencing the Federal battery, or escaping its destructive missiles but by a rapid charge, and the capture of it, advanced with great boldness for some distance, but encountered such a heavy fire of artillery and small arms as greatly to disorganize his command, which fell back in disorder. The enemy advanced across the field, and, by a heavy musketry fire, forced back our infantry supports, in consequence of which our guns had to retire. It was just at this crisis, when the day seemed lost, that Ewell's forces appeared upon the scene. Two regiments-the 58th and 44th Virginiarushed with a shout upon the enemy, took him in flank and drove him back, for the first time that day in disorder. Meanwhile Gen. Taylor was employed on the Federal left and rear, and, his attack diverting attention. from the front, led to a concentration of the enemy's force upon him. Here the battle raged furiously. Although assailed by a superiour force in front and flank, with their guns in position within point blank range, the charge ordered by Taylor was gallantly made, and the enemy's battery, consisting of six guns, fell into our hands. Three times was this battery lost and won in the desperate and determined efforts to capture and recover it. At last, attacked in front and on flank, Taylor fell back to a skirt of woods. Winder, having rallied his command, moved to his support, and again opened upon the enemy, who were moving upon Taylor's left flank, apparently to surround him in the wood. The final attack was made. Taylor, with the reinforcement, pushed forward; he was assisted by the well-directed fire of our artillery; the enemy fell back; a few BATTLES OF CROSS-KEYS AND PORT REPUBLIC. 277 moments more, and he was in precipitate retreat. Four hundred and fifty prisoners were taken in the pursuit, and what remained of the enemy's artillery. While the forces of Shields were in full retreat, Fremont appeared on the opposite bank of the south fork of the Shenandoah, with his army, and opened his artillery with but little effect. The next day withdrawing his forces, he retreated down the Valley. The battle of Port Republic closed the campaign of the Valley. It had been fiercely contested by the enemy, and the Confederate loss was quite one thousand in killed and wounded. But the termination of the campaign found Jackson crowned with an almost marvellous success. In little more than two weeks, he had defeated three Federal armies; swept the Valley of Virginia of hostile forces; thrilled Washington with alarm; and thwarted whatever plan the enemy might have entertained, in other circumstances, of environing Richmond by large converging armies. On the 12th of June Jackson encamped near Weyer's Cave. Here the pious commander paused, to hold divine service in his army in commemoration of his victories. He was to be here but a few days before receiving orders to move towards Richmond, and to join in the impending contest for the capital. CHAPTER XVII. THE TARDINESS OF M'CLELLAŃ.--HOW THE CONFEDERATES AVAILED THEMSELVES OF IT.— SUPPORTED.-MAGRUDER'S IMPETUOUS AND DESPERATE CHARGE. THE SUBLIME SCENERY OF THE CONTEST.-FAILURE OF THE ATTACK.-M'OLELLAN CONTINUES HIS RETREAT TO HARRISON'S LANDING.-FRUITS OF THE CONFEDERATE SUCCESS.—GEN. LEE'S EXPLANATION OF M'OLELLAN'S ESCAPE.-ESTIMATE OF THE VICTORY BY LEE AND STONEWALL JACKSON. -RICHMOND ERECT AND EXULTANT. THE tardiness of McClellan afforded opportunity to the Confederates to recruit their forces, to realize the results of the conscription law, and to assemble before Richmond the largest army they were ever able to put on a single field in any time of the war. The enemy had had the start in the preparation of many months. He delayed the advance upon Richmond, hesitating which line to adopt, when an advance upon either of the proposed lines could hardly have failed of success. A month was lost before the advance was begun. Another month was occupied in the siege of Yorktown, where McClellan was held in check by eleven thousand men. Three weeks more were taken up in the cautious advance across the Peninsula. Thus three full months were lost by the Federal army before it was fairly in the neighbourhood of Richmond, and every day of these months was employed by the Confederates in enlarging their resources of defence. Having reached the Chickahominy, McClellan threw a portion of his army across the river, and, having thus established his left, proceeded to pivot upon it, and to extend his right by the right bank of the Pamunkey, so as to get to the north of Richmond. While conducting this manœuvre and delaying an attack, the Confederate army was rapidly receiving reinforcements, and drawing troops from distant points to make a decisive battle. Huger's army, from Norfolk, united with Johnston before Richmond; forces, under Branch, in North Carolina, were rapidly brought forward by rail; and even as far as Charleston, troops were withdrawn to match Johnston's numbers as far as possible with those of the enemy. And in this instance the match of numbers was probably closer than ever before or afterwards in the great conflicts of the war. With Jackson's command in the Valley which it was intended to put on the Richmond lines at the proper moment, the force defending the Confederate capital may be estimated at about ninety thousand men; and McClellan's, considering his losses on the Peninsula, could scarcely be more than one hundred and twenty or thirty thousand men. In the last days of May the position of the two armies around Richmond is described by the Chickahominy. This stream, tracing through heavy forests and swamps east of Richmond from a north-westerly to a south-easterly direction, formed the respective fronts of the two armiesthe Confederates occupying the western, the Federals the eastern banks. The line occupied by the enemy was nearly a right line from north-west to south-east. His forces were stretched from a short distance above New Bridge, where his right rested, to Bottom's Bridge, which constituted his left. The line was about ten miles long. Across it ran five roads in the following order, from west to east: the Brook turnpike; the Mechanicsville turnpike, (Mechanicsville being a village on the north side of the Chickahominy); the Nine Mile road; York River railroad; the Williamsburg road; the Charles City road; and the Darbytown road. Before the 30th of May, Gen. Johnston had ascertained that McClellan had thrown his left forward to a point within six miles of Richmond, a mile in front of a point locally designated the "Seven Pines,” where Casey's division was posted. Couch's division was encamped in his rear, his right resting in front of Fair Oaks station, about six miles due east of Richmond. Gen. Keyes commanded both divisions. In front there was a heavy forest, and a screen of dense undergrowth. A terrific thunderstorm had taken place on the night of the 29th of May, and floods of rain spirting in broad jets, had so swollen the Chickahominy in Keyes' rear, that Johnston indulged the prospect of having to deal with no other troops than those of this corps. In these circumstances, on the morning of the 30th May, he moved out to annihilate the enemy's left. BATTLE OF SEVEN PINES. Gen. Johnston's plan of battle was to embrace an attack at three points. Gen. D. H. Hill, supported by the division of Gen. Longstreet, (who had the direction of operations on the right,) was to advance by the Williamsburg road, to attack the enemy in front; Gen. Huger, with his division, was to move down the Charles City road, in order to atack in flank the troops who might be engaged with Hill and Longstreet; Gen. Smith was to march to the junction of the New Bridge road and the Nine Mile road, to be in readiness either to fall on Keyes's right flank, or to cover Longstreet's left. The greater part of the day was lost in vain expectation of Huger's movement-the most important part of the design, as it was to take the enemy's flank and insure his destruction. The movement was disappointed, as Huger could not cross the swollen stream in his front. At a late hour in the afternoon Longstreet determined to move upon the enemy with his own and Hill's division, and accomplish whatever results were possible in the far-spent day. Gen. Johnston remained with Smith on the left, to observe the field. Through the thick woods, on marshy ground, in water in many places two feet deep, Longstreet's regiments moved on, brushing off occasionally a cloud of skirmishers that disputed their passage. As they came upon the enemy's works, a sheet of fire blazed in their faces. It was sharp, rapid work. Some of the regiments crept through the low brushwood in front of the redoubt, and, at a given signal from the flanking parties, made a rush for the guns, cleared them, and, entering pell-mell into the earthwork, bayonetted all who opposed them. Line after line of the enemy's works was carried; the victorious career of the Confederates swept through his successive camps and entrenchments; and as night fell he had been driven about two miles, and had left a track of retreat through swamp and water red with carnage. On the left, where Johnston commanded in person, the enemy held his position until dark; Smith's division, with a portion of Whiting's, failing \to dislodge him. On this part of the field Gen. Johnston was disabled by a severe wound in the shoulder. |