the Hanover and Ashland roads, while the Eighty-third Pennsylvania and Sixteenth Michigan pushed down the railroad. The troops last named moved with great rapidity. They came suddenly upon the left flank of the enemy. The Rebels evidently were not expecting to be attacked from that quarter. They fled through the woods in great confusion. The cavalry rode among them, and hundreds threw down their arms and gave themselves up as prisoners.

General McClellan, in his Report, thus speaks of this gallant affair: "Some two hundred of the enemy's dead were buried by our troops, seven hundred and thirty prisoners sent to the rear, one twelve-pound howitzer, one caisson, a large number of small arms, and two railroad trains captured." The Union loss amounted to fifty-three killed and three hundred and forty-four wounded and missing.

The force encountered was General Branch's division of North Carolina and Georgia troops, numbering about nine thousand. Their camp at Hanover Court-House was taken and destroyed.

General Porter fell back to Coal Harbor. The engineers made a survey of the Chickahominy and of the approaches to Richmond, and began to build bridges across the stream and throw up earthworks.

The days were hot and sultry. There were heavy thunder-storms, succeeded by intense heat. The soldiers were provided with axes and shovels, and were set to work in the dark, miry swamps, working all day up to their waists in the muddy water. Disease in all its frightful forms of fever and dysentery made its appearance. The air was full of malaria. Hundreds died, and thousands were sent to the hospitals.

One day a fine youth, who with ardor and enthusiasm had enlisted as a soldier, was brought into the hospital. He had been taken violently and suddenly with fever while in the marshes. The nurses laid him on a cot, gave him cold water, bathed his hot brow. He had a likeness of his mother, who had gone into the better land, and of his sister, who was far away in his pleasant home, in a gold locket on his neck. He dreamed and talked of home, and said, “I have a sister on my heart, - a sister on my heart, a sister, a sister." The fever burned within, a

The disease made rapid progress.

consuming flame which, before sunrise, had devoured all his young life.

He was buried in the afternoon beneath the forest trees.

It was wearing work, the bridge-building, the construction of roads, and throwing up of intrenchments. Besides, there was the necessity of keeping close watch upon the enemy. If there were sad scenes, there were also amusing incidents.

A party of Maine boys, on picket, one day, saw a pair of wagonwheels. Not far off were the Rebel pickets, in an open field. The Down-East Yankees thought they would have some fun. They mounted a log upon the wheels, and brought the mock cannon into position. One of them pretended to sponge it, another put in the cartridge, a third primed, a fourth sighted it, while a fifth stood ready to fire. The Rebels watched the operation a moment, and then scampered for the woods to get under cover! The Maine boys did not fire, but had a merry chuckle among themselves, and a hearty laugh with their comrades when they told the story in camp.

CHAPTER VII.

FAIR OAKS.

EVEN miles from Richmond, near the York River Railroad, there

SEV

is a grove of oaks, so green, so beautiful and fair, that the railroad station has received the name of Fair Oaks. A highway from Richmond crosses the railroad near the station, called the Nine-Mile Road. The railroad runs east, and the Nine-Mile Road south-east. The highway from Richmond to Williamsburg runs parallel to the railroad about a mile south of it, and is crossed by the Nine-Mile Road a mile south-east from Fair Oaks. At the junction of the two highways are seven pines, standing in a cluster on the south side of the Williamsburg road.

The country around is level and covered mainly by a dense forest, but there is cleared land along the Williamsburg road toward Richmond. On the 23d of May, General Keyes was ordered to advance to Fair Oaks and hold the position. General Couch's division was halted at Seven Pines, while Casey's was thrown forward to Fair Oaks, encamped on Baker's farm. General Keyes cut down the trees in front of his line beyond Fair Oaks to form an abatis. They were also felled in front of Couch.

On Friday night, the 30th of May, there was a terrific thunder-storm. The heavens were sheets of flame, and the clouds poured torrents of water which deluged the country and flooded the Chickahominy.

Early in the morning on Saturday, the 31st, it was whispered in the Rebel camp that General Johnston was going to attack the Yankees who were south of the Chickahominy.1

'Battle-Fields of the South.

"In such weather?" it was asked.

"The bridges are washed away, and it is impossible for McClellan to send over his right and centre to the assistance of his left. His army is divided, and we can crush the force on the south side before he can re-enforce it," was the answer.

General Huger's division moved out from Richmond at six o'clock, taking the Charles City road, which is south of the Williamsburg road, and which runs south of White-Oak Swamp. He was to make a long and rapid march east, then turn north, cross the swamp, gain the rear of General Couch, and cut off his retreat to Bottom's Bridge. He was to reach his position and begin the attack at eight o'clock. General Longstreet's division moved down the Williamsburg road and halted in the woods. General Whiting moved down the Nine-Mile Road and halted in the woods in front of Fair Oaks.

President Davis and his Cabinet went out with Longstreet to see the fight. Eight o'clock - nine o'clock ten passed, and there was no sound of Huger's guns. He was toiling in the mud, moving at a snail's pace. Longstreet and Whiting were impatiently waiting, concealed from observation in the woods.

At ten o'clock, General Keyes's pickets captured an aide of General Johnston in the edge of the woods. He was brought before General Keyes. While the General was talking with him, two musket-shots were fired in the woods, which produced an emotion in the young officer so marked that it was noticed by General Keyes, who feared that something might be going on in his front, and who immediately issued orders for his troops to be under arms.

Eleven o'clock came, and General Longstreet, getting out of patience at Huger's delay, ordered his troops to advance and begin the attack. His skirmishers went through the woods quickly, and came upon Casey's skirmishers on the Williamsburg road, and the firing began. But his regiments were slow in getting on. His artillery

sank in the mud.

The rapid increase of the fire along the picket line alarmed General Keyes, who made quick preparations for whatever might happen.

Casey's division faced towards Richmond; Naglee's brigade was on the railroad, - two regiments north of it; Wessell's brigade was in the centre, near Fair Oaks, and Palmer's was on the left, south of the Williamsburg road. Spratt's battery was near the Oaks. Regan's battery was in rear of Spratt's. Bates's battery was south of the Williamsburg road, in a redoubt, while Fitch's battery was in rear of the redoubt. Couch's division at Seven Pines was lying with Graham's brigade between the Williamsburg road and the railroad, Devens's brigade on the Williamsburg road, and Peck's brigade on the left.

Up to twelve o'clock there was little firing except by the pickets, and the men in Casey's command laid aside their arms and prepared to eat dinner. Soon after noon two shells were thrown into Casey's camp.

Suddenly there was a heavy roll of musketry in the woods. Officers sprang to their feet. They knew that it portended trouble. There was a quick saddling of horses and buckling on of belts. Orders were issued in imperious tones.

The men left their coffee-pots and plates of rice, seized their guns, and formed in line.

Casey's division was composed of undisciplined troops which had joined the army after its arrival upon the Peninsula. The men had had no experience, and yet they were placed in advance, nearest the enemy, an oversight which was dearly paid for.

The force which Johnston had brought out numbered not far from thirty thousand. Casey's division numbered not far from seven thousand. Like an avalanche was the advance of the Rebels upon this small, undisciplined force. Generals Anderson, D. H. Hill, Jenkins, Pegram, and Wilcox swept along the Williamsburg road, striking Palmer's brigade on the left flank.

General Casey's pickets were but a short distance from camp, and they came streaming back in confusion, followed by the Rebels in masses. General Keyes saw that it was no feint, but an attack by an overwhelming force. He despatched a messenger to General Heintzelman, who was behind him towards Bottom's Bridge, for re-enforcements. The firing became quick and heavy. General Sumner, three miles