CHAP. LV.] THE RETREAT. 407 Quaker Road which comes from the swamp down toward Malvern Hill. Through the swamp and down the Quaker Road was the line of McClellan's retreat. Confederates, On the morning of the 28th, Lee was in doubt as to Movements of the the course McClellan had taken. Cavalry reconnoissances, however, satisfied him that he was not crossing the lower bridges of the Chickahominy with an intention of passing down the peninsula, but was on his way to James River. Thereupon Lee determined by forced marches to intercept him. Longstreet and A. P. Hill crossed the Chickahominy at New Bridge, which had been already repaired. They were to move past Richmond and then along the Central Road. Magruder was on the Williamsburg, and Huger marched along the Charles City Road. These movements would bring them on the flank of McClellan's retreat. Jackson, crossing the Chickahominy at the Grapevine Bridge, was to follow the retreating columns and press upon their rear. and of the national troops. McClellan ordered Keyes to move his corps across Whiteoak Creek and seize strong positions on the opposite side, to cover the troops and trains, and guard their retreat. Franklin and Porter followed by the same route. Heintzelman and Sumner were to fall back to Savage's Station from the works in front, and then cross the swamp and unite with the rest of the army. The rear-guard of the retreating column was to keep a bold front toward its pursuers, and special directions were given to guard against flank attacks on the three roads radiating from Richmond. The day was hot and stifling. The vast caravan, with less confusion than might have been anticipated, pursued its dusty way. At 11 A.M. the telegraph wires to White House ceased to work; the enemy had cut them. Whatever munitions or supplies could not be car 408 SAVAGE'S STATION. [SECT. XI. ried away were destroyed. Under the bushes in the woods by the roadside many a sick and wounded man was left, casting imploring looks on the receding column as it passed by. Sumner at Sayage's Station. The fourth Day, Sunday, June 29th. Savage's Station. -The morning was suffocating and hot. Magruder, moving along the Williamsburg Road, found the works at Fair Oaks abandoned. Sumner and Heintzelman were retiring toward Savage's Station, which they reached in the afternoon. Their orders were to hold that point until night, but, through some misunderstanding, Heintzelman retired before the appointed time, and crossed the swamp, having first destroyed the stores and ammunition which could not be carried away. A locomotive, with a train of cars heaped up with supplies and shells, was turned loose on the railroad, and sent headlong over the broken bridge into the Chickahominy. The train had been set on fire before it started, and the shells were exploding as it went. Abandonment of Magruder made an attack on Sumner's corps about half past 5 P.M. It was still in front of Savage's Station. The action continued until dark, Sumner maintaining his ground. During the night he passed into the Whiteoak Swamp, leaving 2500 sick and the hospitals. wounded in the hospital at the station. Magruder now received orders to leave the Williamsburg Road and cross over to the Newmarket. Before sunrise the national troops had passed Whiteoak Bridge, which was then destroyed. The fifth Day, Monday, June 30th. Frazier's Farm. -The day was exceedingly hot, but the Confederate general vigorously pursued McClellan's retreating army. Longstreet and A. P. Hill had crossed the Chickahominy at New Bridge, and, having moved round the head of the swamp, marched rapidly down the Central Road, in ex CHAP. LV.] BATTLE OF FRAZIER'S FARM. 409 pectation of striking McClellan's flank. They hoped to Battle of Frazier's pierce his line and throw the rear of his colFarm, or Glendale. umn back upon Jackson and D. H. Hill, who had crossed over Grapevine Bridge, and were approaching on his track. On all sides Jackson encountered a vast wreck of military stores. Blue overcoats in countless numbers had been thrown into the bushes or trod den under foot in the decaying leaves or in the dust of the roads. To aid in piercing McClellan's line, which was more than eight miles long, Magruder and Huger were now marching parallel to Longstreet. A brigade was also brought over the James River from Fort Darling. It was expected that 80,000 men would be brought to bear on the national line. Jefferson Davis came from Richmond to witness the apparently inevitable national catastrophe. federate attack. Longstreet and Hill encountered the retreating line Vigor of the Con- about 4 P.M. at Frazier's Farm. It was McCall's division which happened to be passing their front. They threw upon it brigade after brigade, and tried to break and pierce through it. McCall, in his report of this portion of the battle, says, "Randall's battery was charged upon by the enemy in great force, with a reckless impetuosity I never saw equaled. They advanced at a run over six hundred yards of open ground. The guns of the battery mowed them down, yet they nev er paused. A volley of musketry was poured into them at a short distance by the Fourth Regiment, in support of this battery, but it did not check them for an instant; they dashed on, and pistoled and bayoneted the cannoniers at their guns. Notwithstanding these determined efforts, the attack The national col- failed; the national line was not pierced. Magruder and Huger did not get up; the umn unbroken. 410 BATTLE OF FRAZIER'S FARM. [SECT. XI. troops from Fort Darling were driven back by shells from the gun-boats. Jackson in check at Jackson, who was to have attacked the rear-guard of the retreating army, reached Whiteoak Whiteoak Bridge. Creek about noon. He found the bridge over it destroyed, and Franklin barring his passage. In spite of his utmost efforts, he was kept at bay the whole afternoon. The contest continued until after dark; the advance of the Confederates was checked; the national army securely fell back during the night to Malvern Hill. The rear of the supply trains and the reserve artillery had reached that point on the previous afternoon. Losses in the battle. Of McCall's division, nearly one fourth had been killed or wounded. He himself, riding out after nightfall to reconnoitre, was taken prisoner. General Meade had been severely wounded. On the part of the Confederates, the losses had been awful; for instance, General Pryor, of the fifth brigade of Longstreet's corps, speaking of the Fourteenth Alabama, says it was nearly annihilated. He adds: "I crossed the Chickahominy on the 26th with 1400 men; in the fights that fol lowed I suffered a loss of 849 killed and wounded, and 11 missing. Battle of Malvern Hill. ·Sixth Day, Tuesday, July 1st. Malvern Hill.—Malvern Hill, to which the national army had now retreated, and on which it prepared to make a stand against its pursuers, is "an elevated plateau, cleared of timber, about a mile and a half long by three fourths of a mile wide, with several converging roads running over it. In front are numerous defensible ravines, the ground sloping gradually toward the north and east to the woodland, giving clear ranges for ar tillery in those directions. Toward the northwest the plateau falls off'more abruptly to a ravine, Topography of the field. CHAP. LV.] MALVERN HILL. 411 which extends to James River. From the position of the enemy, his most obvious lines of attack were from the direction of Richmond and Whiteoak Swamp, and would almost of necessity strike the national army on its left wing. Here, therefore, the lines were strengthened by massing the troops and collecting the principal part of the artillery." Position of the national army. On this formidable position McClellan's wayworn troops, weary with marching by night and fighting by day, overwhelmed with the midsummer heat, and sickened with the pestiferous miasma, were at last concentrated. Both flanks of the army rested on James River, under the protection of the gun-boats. The order in which the troops lay, from their left to their right, was, Porter, Heintzelman, Sumner, Franklin, Keyes. The approaches to the position were commanded by about seventy guns, several of them heavy siege cannon. position. As soon as Franklin had withdrawn from the Whiteoak Creek, Jackson crossed over, following the retreating columns to Malvern. Between 9 and 10 A.M., the Confederates commenced feeling along the national left wing with artillery and skirmishers. Their fire, however, soon died away. They perceived the difficulties before them. There were crouching cannon waiting for them, and Strength of the ready to defend all the approaches. Sheltered by fences, ditches, ravines, were swarms of infantry. There were horsemen picturesquely careering over the noontide and sun-seared field. Tier after tier of batteries were grimly visible upon the slope, which rose in the form of an amphitheatre. With a fan-shaped sheet of fire they could sweep the incline, a sort of natu ral glacis up which the assailants must advance. A crown of cannon was on the brow of the hill. The first line of batteries could only be reached by traversing an open space of from three to four hundred yards, exposed |