CHAPTER XIII.

THE PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN.

The Magnificent Army of the Potomac-Its Movement on Richmond by Way of the Peninsula―The Retreat Across the Chickahominy -The Week of Battles-Malvern Hill.

It was the 4th of April, 1862, when General McClellan with his grand army set out for Richmond. As so much was expected from this expedition-the capture of Richmond, and most likely the closing up of the war-and as the Eastern States had been recruiting this army, and Connecticut and her Governor had taken a noble part in it, its operations assumed the deepest importance to them, as they soon did to all. For the next three months the anxiety and anguish caused by this campaign absorbed the interest of the country, and Richmond no less than Washington, and the South equally with New England, thrilled with every telegraphic dispatch, until it seemed as if that last "week of battles," with each succeeding day of fiercer fighting and deadlier loss, would break the nation's heart.

The distance from Fortress Monroe to Richmond was seventy miles in a direct line. Two or three days brought the army to Yorktown, where the British army surrendered to the combined troops of France and the Colonies, and our war of the Revolution was closed. The old fortifications remained, and these enlarged and strengthened would have commanded the Peninsula pretty well, if the Confederate force had been sufficient to man them properly. But General Magruder had not more than eight thousand troops for that purpose, and he had been ordered to withdraw them as our army approached. He, how

ever, was determined to maintain his position if possible, knowing that his disobedience would be pardoned if successful. So by his incessant activity and bold show of resistance, General McClellan was deterred from an assault, and deliberately sat down before the place to reduce it by a regular siege. An entire month was occupied in this, when the success of the expedition depended upon dispatch. Richmond was in no proper state of defense. The Confederacy was particularly exhausted of troops and funds, and discouraged by the Union successes. Then some of her best troops and commanders had been ordered elsewhere, like Stonewall Jackson to the Shenandoah valley, to draw away more of our force from Washington.* General McClellan's chief engineer through the campaign, reports to his commander at the close, that it was a mistake not to have assaulted those works at once, instead of subjecting the army to such hardships and toil in the trenches, and such malarial sickness in those swamps, and allowing the enemy so much time to recover their courage, gather their forces and commanders from a distance, and even pass and enforce a conscription law within this and the following month. These siege works were completed, and on the 6th of May were to have opened upon the enemy, when it was found that he had quietly withdrawn.

* At the time the Army of the Potomac landed on the Peninsula, the Rebel cause was at its lowest ebb; its armies were demoralized by the defeats of Port Royal, Mill Spring, Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, Roanoke Island and Pea Ridge; and reduced by sickness, loss in battle, expirations of period of service, etc.; while the conscription law was not yet even passed. It seemed as if it needed but one vigorous gripe to end forever this rebellion, so nearly throttled. How then happened it, that the day of the initiation of the campaign of this magnificent Army of the Potomac, was the day of the resuscitation of the Rebel cause, which seemed to grow pari passu, with the slow progress of its operations?

Our troops toiled a month in the trenches, or lay in the swamps of Warwick; we lost few men by the siege; but disease took a fearful hold of the army; and toil and hardship unredeemed by the excitement of combat, impaired their morale, We did not carry with us from Yorktown so good an army as we took there of the bitter fruits of that month gained by the enemy, we have tasted to our heart's content.-General John G. Barnard's Report- Greeley, Vol. 2, p. 122.

The army then moved on to Williamsburg, where it encountered more serious opposition. The Confederate army, under General Joseph E. Johnston, was being vigorously re-enforced with Longstreet's division of their main army and Jackson's veterans from the valley of the Shenandoah, and several of the best of their commanders. When General Johnston was severely wounded soon after at Fair Oaks, General Robert E. Lee took command, and he gathered about him the best military advisers of the Confederacy. At times President Davis was upon the field, if he did not personally command in some of the battles. At any rate, our army had no sooner approached Williamsburg, than they found themselves confronted by Longstreet, occupying a formidable series of redoubts, from which we, without any knowledge of the position or the force holding it, undertook to dislodge them, with heavy loss. General McClellan was not at hand, having remained behind to forward the army. Of the corps commanders, General Stoneman of the cavalry, suffering from the fire of the redoubts, and obliged to leave one of his guns stuck immovably in the swamp, had retired a little to wait for the infantry, when General Sumner, whose rank gave him the command, hearing the battle, pushed on, and was all ready to take part in it, when "darkness shut him in, and he was obliged to wait for the morning. Insisting upon reconnoitering the enemy's position in person, he fell among their pickets, was fired upon at short range, became lost in a swamp from which he was unable to extricate himself, and passed the entire night at the foot of a tree between the two hostile lines." But General Hooker was at hand the next morning, and though he could obtain no orders he began his work early, and sustained the fight alone for nine long hours, and until he had been obliged to engage his very last men and supply them with ammunition from their fallen comrades. Fortunately, toward the middle of

the afternoon, General Kearney appeared with his division and pressed to the front, allowing General Hooker's thinned regiments to withdraw and be held as a reserve, while he at this point, and General Hancock on his right, by desperate fighting held the Confederates back until the next morning, when they had abandoned their position. This first check, however, had been attended with fearful loss, particularly to General Hooker's division, who reports it at 1,575 killed, wounded and missing. General McClellan makes the total loss that day 2,228.

It was now two months since the Potomac army set out for Richmond, but it was only halfway there, and had only fought its first battle, and was about to plunge into the swamps of the Chickahominy, which seem an unheardof place for campaigning with siege trains and batteries of heavy artillery. This stream, which comes within four or five miles of Richmond and runs off toward the southeast, is at its ordinary stage not more than fifty feet wide, fringed with a dense growth of forest trees, and bordered by low, marshy lands, varying from half a mile to a mile in width. It is subject to sudden and great freshets, and a violent storm, however brief, swells the stream and overflows those bottom lands, until it is impassable except by long and strong bridges. The whole surrounding country will be more or less under water, and woe to troops that get caught at a disadvantage in trying to push their columns, especially with their baggage trains and heavy batteries, through the pitfalls of such a region.

At the time of this advance on Richmond the cause of the Confederacy was at a low ebb. Norfolk had been taken and burned, and nothing but the works at Drury's Bluff prevented the James river from being open up to the city. The danger then was felt to be so great that the archives wero shipped to Columbia, S. C., and the public treasures were kept on cars ready for removal. The city was not fortified, and there were few troops there. Before McClellan

was near the city, troops had been assembled in large numbers and fortifications thrown up on the side that was threatened.-" War Book," Vol. II, p. 263.

The Confederacy put its army under General Joseph E. Johnston, one of their ablest generals, to be succeeded by General Lee. It called to their aid such men as Stonewall Jackson, Longstreet, Ewell and the Hills. And they brought with them large numbers of veteran troops, as well as raw conscripts. Jackson brought with him 30,000 of such veterans. The Confederates were for a long time perplexed to divine McClellan's plans, and when they did, had he not changed them, it seems as if they would have involved the loss of his whole army. IIe set out to go to Richmond along the north side of the Chickahominy, and at one time his advance was within four miles of the city. But in doing so, he had allowed his army to be divided by the river. He had posted two-thirds of his army on the north side of the Chickahominy and left the other third on the south side, between which there could be no communication except across that uncertain stream and those unstable bridges; even then they must march a dozen miles to make any connection, while the Confederates in front of Richmond had only to march four or five miles to support any of their movements. Johnston was quick to take advantage of this situation. Leaving only six brigades to hold in check the bulk of our army on the north side of the river, he launched the other twenty-eight brigades of his army upon the two corps of Heintzelman and Keyes on the south side, enough to crush them with mere weight of numbers, had it not been for the prompt and magnanimous succor they received from General Sumner. He had been ordered to render them assistance should they need it, but without waiting until they did need it, he prepared to furnish it. He built two bridges