CHAPTER IV.

T

THE SIEGE OF YORKTOWN.

HE Rebel army suddenly evacuated Centreville, Manassas, and the line of the Potomac, carrying off everything of value. The Army of the Potomac moved on the 9th of March to Manassas, beheld the deserted encampments, returned to Alexandria, and sailed for Fortress Monroe. General McClellan decided to advance upon Richmond by the Peninsula, between the York and James Rivers. General McDowell, with McCall's and King's divisions, was stationed at Fredericksburg, to cover Washington. Blenker's division was detached from Sumner's corps, and sent to the Shenandoah Valley. All the other divisions sailed down the Chesapeake. The troops landed at Newport News and went into camp.

The Rebel General Magruder occupied Yorktown. He was fortifying it and the Peninsula, erecting batteries to command York River, and to cover the approaches by land. The iron-clad Merrimack, with the Teazer and the Jamestown gunboats, were in the James River. Admiral Goldsborough, with the Monitor, the Minnesota, and several gunboats, was watching them, and guarding the shipping at Fortress Monroe.

General McClellan submitted his plans to the President. He had two methods of operation in view; - one, to attack Magruder's works, between the York and the James, which might require siege operations, and a delay of many weeks; the other, to obtain aid from the navy, attack the water-batteries at Yorktown, silence them, and then go up the York River with his army, sailing to West Point, within twenty-five miles from Richmond. Admiral Goldsborough could not spare gun

boats enough to attack the batteries, and therefore General McClellan adopted the other plan.'

On the evening of April 3d the army received orders to march the next morning.

It was a beautiful night. The sky was cloudless. A new moon shed its silver light upon the vast encampment. The soldiers had been waiting two weeks. They were one hundred thousand strong, while the Rebel force did not number more than ten or twelve thousand.2

They expected to move to victory. They sang songs, wrote letters to their friends, burnished their guns, heaped the fires with fresh fuel, and rejoiced that after so many months of waiting they were to be active.

There were some who had a true appreciation of the work before them, and realized that they might fall in the hour of battle.

One who had fought at Bull Run, whose heart was in the great cause, prepared his last will and testament. At the close of it he

wrote:

"And now, having arranged for the disposition of my worldly estate, I will say that, possessing a full confidence in the Christian religion, and believing in the righteousness of the cause in which I am engaged, I am ready to offer my poor life in vindication of that cause, and in sustaining a government the mildest and most beneficent the world has ever known." 3

At three o'clock in the morning the soldiers were astir, roused by the drum-beat and the bugle. The fading fires were rekindled. Their coffee was soon bubbling on the coals. Before daylight they had their knapsacks packed, their tents taken down, and all things ready for the march. By sunrise they were on the road, General Heintzelman's corps leading the column. The roads were deep with mud, and the marching was heavy, but so enthusiastic were the soldiers that by ten o'clock the head of the column encountered the enemy's pickets in front of Yorktown.

Both armies were upon historic ground. It was at Yorktown that

2 General Heintzelman's testimony.

1 General McClellan's Report, p. 66. General's Report, 1862, p. 142. Captain B. M. Smith.

Maine Adjutant

the British army under Lord Cornwallis laid down its arms in 1781. It was a flourishing village then. There were fine mansions, surrounded with shrubbery, shaded by old oaks and lindens. Virginia in those days had many wealthy families. The Peninsula was the first settled territory in America, and many of the planters had immense estates. One of the signers of the Declaration of Independence resided at Yorktown, Governor Nelson. His house is yet standing, -a large two-story brick building, which General Magruder occupied for his headquarters. It bears the marks of shot which were fired by the Americans during the siege in 1781. Governor Nelson commanded the Virginia militia then. He was a noble patriot, and aimed the cannon himself at his own house to drive out the British who had possession of it.

Cornwallis had a line of earthworks around Yorktown, and those which Magruder erected were on pretty much the same line, only Magruder's, besides encircling the town, also reached across the Peninsula. The English general had between seven and eight thousand men. General Washington and Count Rochambeau had about fifteen thousand. They were large armies for those days, but very small when compared with that commanded by General McClellan.

It was a long march which the French and American troops made to reach Yorktown. They marched from New York, in July, through Philadelphia, Baltimore, Annapolis, Mount Vernon, and Williamsburg. They had no transports to take them down the Chesapeake; besides, there was an English fleet in the bay which might have captured the entire army had it moved by water.

In the American army were officers whose names are inseparably connected with the history of our country, General Knox, Baron Steuben, Lafayette, General Clinton, General Lincoln, Colonel Scammell, the brave New Hampshire officer who was shot by a Hessian soldier. In the French army were Count Rochambeau, Marquis St. Simon, and Baron Viomeil. In the bay floated the English ships of war, and outside, near Cape Henry, was the Count de Grasse, with his formidable fleet.

On Sunday morning, the 13th of October, the place was completely