CHAPTER IV.

THE MARCH TO WEST POINT.

From May 3d to May 5th, 1862.

THE ATTACK UPON FORT MAGRUDER.-KEARNEY AND HOOKER.-THE RENOWNED CHarge of HANCOCK.-COURAGE OF THE REBELS.-THEIR UTTER DEFEAT. SCENES AFTER THE BATTLE. ARRIVAL OF GENERAL MCCLELLAN.-FLIGHT OF THE ENEMY.-CAPTURE OF WILLIAMS

BURG.

GENERAL HOOKER, ever eager to strike prompt and heavy blows, resolved, notwithstanding the number and strong position of the foe, to lose no time. in making the attack. He knew that at the distance of but a few miles, thirty thousand rebel troops were stationed, and that from the whole rebel army of the Potomac reënforcements would be easily sent to crowd the fort with defenders. It was therefore necessary to make an immediate assault. At half-past seven the attack was commenced. General Grover led the First Massachusetts into the woods on the left of the road. The Second New Hampshire moved to the right. Both of these regiments were employed as skirmishers, to harass the gunners in Fort Magruder and the occupants of the rebel rifle-pits. Other regiments and batteries were moved forward with great skill and boldness, and such a deadly fire was opened upon Fort Magruder that, in less than an hour and a half, every gun of the rebels was silenced. At the same time there was a fierce conflict raging between bodies of infantry in the forest, extending far and wide around. The antagonistic parties were so concealed from each other by dense underbrush, that regiments drifted this way and that, guided mainly by the musketry fire which they heard.

At length it was deemed safe to send a couple of regiments--the Eleventh Massachusetts and the Twenty-sixth Pennsylvania-cautiously along the road, which approached the fort directly through the clearing. An incessant musketry fire was at this time kept up in all parts of the field. One Union regiment after another was drawn into action, as the rebels hurried reënforcements from their rear, until the battle assumed truly gigantic proportions, literally extending across the whole peninsula, from the York River to the James. All day long the conflict raged, with varying success. The rebels brought up twenty thousand men to oppose Hooker's division of not more than eight or nine thousand. A dismal storm of wind and rain still swept the plain. It was almost impossible to move the artillery over the yielding spongy soil.

General Hooker, on the left, was within a mile of James River, and, with characteristic impetuosity, launched his troops against the well-armed

redoubts which he encountered there; but such overpowering numbers came forward to meet him, that he was compelled slowly to fall back, disputing every inch of ground. For hours he struggled, unaided, against these overwhelming odds. Why he was not reënforced, when there were tens of thousands within sound of his guns, is still a mystery.

Towards the close of the day, General Kearney* arrived, leading his band of six thousand men through the exhausted and bleeding soldiers of Hooker's division. His impetuous charge checked the progress of the exultant foe. Immediately upon his arrival, Kearney performed one of those feats of daring which gave him such renown in the army. The rebels were in a concealed position, lying, as it were, in ambush. In order to draw their fire, that he might thus ascertain where they were, he dashed out at the head of his staff into the open field, and rode along the entire front of the line where he believed the foe to be concealed. Five thou sand muskets immediately opened their fire, and the balls rattled like hail around him. Two of his aides dropped dead at his side. The others were scattered, so that when he reached the end he was almost alone. Riding up to his troops, he said, "You now see, my boys, where to fire." Animated by such bravery, his soldiers held the enemy in check until General Hancock, by a flank movement, of which we shall soon speak, compelled their retreat within their works.

It is not easy to conceive why General Hooker's division should have been so long left to wage an unequal conflict against three times their number. Our troops in the vicinity decidedly outnumbered those of the foe, and yet, by good generalship on this, as on many other occasions, the rebels massed a superior force at the point of attack. The most experienced general in the rebel army, General J. E. Johnston,† directed the

*General Philip Kearney was born in New Jersey, of Irish descent. Though he studied for the law, after graduating at Columbia College, a strong taste for a military life led him to seek the adventures of the camp. In 1837 he joined the army, as Lieutenant in the United States First Dragoons. He first served, gallantly fighting the Indians, on the frontier. He attained so much distinction as a cavalry officer, that, about the year 1839, he was sent by the Government to France, to study and report upon French cavalry tactics. He entered the Polytechnic school, then joined the Chasseurs d'Afrique, and fought through the Algerine war. His gallantry was rewarded with the Cross of the Legion of Honor. Returning home, he entered the Mexican war, his squadron composing the body-guard of General Scott. He was then Captain, but was brevetted Major for gallant conduct in several conflicts, particularly in that at the San Antonio gate of Mexico, where he lost an arm. After the war, being in the enjoyment of a large fortune, he went to Europe, studied with a critical eye the operations of the Crimean war, and subsequently entered the French army, and again acquired great renown, by his skill and bravery at Magenta and Solferino. The attack of the rebels upon Sumter recalled him to his native land. Receiving a commission of Brigadier-General, during the remainder of his heroic career he was ever found where danger was most imminent. A more fearless man probably never lived.

General Joseph Eccleston Johnston, born in Virginia about the year 1804, was educated at the expense of that Government, whose flag he was now striving to trail dishonored in the dust, Graduating at West Point in 1829, he entered the Fourth Artillery, but afterwards retired from Bervice. Again entering the army at the opening of the Florida war, he served during that contest in the Corps of Engineers. During the Mexican war he also fought under the Stars and Stripes. He took part in all the battles between Vera Cruz and Mexico. In these conflicts ho proved himself to be a brave man and a sagacious officer. He was twice wounded and twice brevetted. In 1860, his confiding country promoted him to the position of Quartermaster-General of the United States army, with the rank of Brigadier-General. At the breaking out of the slaveVOL. II.-4

rebel troops in person, aided by Generals Longstreet, Pryor, Gohlson, and Picket. General Hooker, in his official report, says:

"History will not be believed, when it is told that the noble officers and men of my division were permitted to carry on this unequal struggle from morning until night unaided, in the presence of more than thirty thousand of their comrades with arms in their hands. Nevertheless, it is true. If we failed to capture the rebel army on the plains of Williamsburg, it surely will not be ascribed to want of courage and conduct in my command."

The close of this eventful day presented one of the most brilliant scenes in the tragedy of war. The battle had been waged unintermittedly along the whole line, from morning till evening. Notwithstanding the utmost heroism of the Union troops, they were assailed by such superior numbers that they had hardly held their own. General Smith's division occupied the right of the National line of battle, near York River. From this position General Hancock's brigade was sent, with Wheeler's New York Battery, by a circuitous route, much of the way cutting their road through the woods, to attack Fort Magruder from the north. On their march they encountered several intrenchments, from which the rebels were impetuously driven.*

At length General Hancock came to an open plain, about two miles long, from north to south, and a mile wide. At the northern extremity of the plain there was a redoubt which General Hancock seized, precipitately expelling the enemy from it. At the southern extremity rose the strong bastions of Fort Magruder. Its crest, with substantial parapets, ditches, and magazines, extended half a mile. Nearly the whole of this plain was fringed with the forest. About half a mile from the northern entrance, through the woods, there was a farm-house, with a few out-buildings. A rail fence ran from this house to the forest on the right.

The redoubt which General Hancock had taken was near the farmhouse. Here he posted his men, and sent back urgent but unavailing appeals for reënforcements, stating that if properly supported, he could, from the position he then occupied, carry Fort Magruder without difficulty. He waited impatiently for the reënforcements, which did not come. It was now four o'clock in the afternoon. There was a moment's lull in the tempest of the battle, ominous of the increased fury with which the fight would be renewed. Wheeler's splendid battery was in position just east of the farm-house. A little in his rear, and on the east, the Sixth Maine holders' rebellion, General Johnston abandoned the flag he had so long and so honorably served, and joined the ranks of those who were banded for the overthrow of the American Union. No amount of courage or of skill can atone for such a crime.

* General Winfield Scott Hancock was born in Pennsylvania, in 1823. He entered the Military School at West Point when seventeen years of age, and graduated in 1814. The rebel General Buckner, of unenviable notoriety, was one of his class-mates. Entering the Fourth United States Infantry, he acquired distinction in several battles of the Mexican war, and was brevetted First Lieutenant in August, 1847. He gradually rose in rank, during years of peace, until he attained the rank of Captain, in 1855. The rebellion found him true to the flag which he had ever honored, and with glowing patriotism he drew his sword in its defence. He entered the Army of the Potomac as Brigadier-General of Volunteers. His brilliant exploit at Williamsburg gave him a position among the most heroic men of the war.

Regiment was stationed, upon the open plain, with a band of skirmishers thrown out a few hundred feet in advance, also in the open field. West of the farm-house, the Fifth Wisconsin and the Forty-Third New York Regiments were also in position, with skirmishers thrown out towards the woods west of them. A road passing by the farm-house ran through the centre of the plain.

All these movements were made in plain view of the rebels, massed behind the ramparts and in front of Fort Magruder. The patriot battery, of beautiful brass field pieces, directly before them, and slightly guarded, presented a glittering prize greatly to be coveted. The rebels accordingly collected in the rear of the fort a body of three thousand men, who were concealed from the Union lines by the earthworks and the forest. The duty assigned them was to take the battery. All things being arranged for an impetuous charge, they rapidly defiled from their covert. First there emerged from the woods a battalion of rebel cavalry; these were followed by three regiments of infantry supporting it. With magic precision they were formed in battle array, and immediately the whole line, with rapid tread, advanced upon the guns. Captain Wheeler had every man in his place, and instantly opened upon the foe a deadly fire from his well-manned battery. At the same moment the skirmishers commenced a carefully aimed and rapid fire of musketry. The rebels, evincing courage which extorted admiration from the lips of the patriots, regardless of the storm of balls which was thinning their ranks, pressed forward very rapidly, in three parallel lines, but a few yards apart. On they came, resistlessly, sublimely, like the ocean surges, and still leaving behind them, at every step, the mutilated, the dying, and the dead. The Union skirmishers, keeping up a scattering fire, slowly retired to their main lines in the rear of the battery.

Three thousand men, filling the air with war-cries which rose above the roar of battle, were now within a few yards of the battery, and its capture seemed inevitable. The field-pieces were, by this time, almost hidden from view, in the clouds of smoke which enveloped them. For a moment, while wrapped in this volcanic shroud, their fire ceased. Then the guns were all seen emerging, in the rear, from the smoke-cloud, and, with the horses on the full run, were dragged a few hundred yards to another position, where their infantry lines were ready to receive them under their protection. Again the heated pieces were unlimbered, and, at shortest range, belched forth anew their murderous fire. The rebels now, rushing on at the double-quick, were within three hundred feet of the battery. The Forty-Third New York and the Fifth Wisconsin drew up close upon the right, near the pieces. The muzzles of their muskets fell to a level. The bosoms of the rebels were almost near enough to be scorched by the powder of the discharge. There was a blaze of fire, a rattling peal, a storm of bullets, and the advancing line reeled and staggered before the leaden tempest, which apparently laid one-half their number in the dust. The moment the rattle of musketry had ceased, and ere the smoke had cleared away, General Hancock waved his hat and shouted, in the courtly language of chivalric days,

"Now, gentlemen, the bayonet!"

The gleaming blades were brought to a level. With a bound and a shout, such as the enthusiasm of the hour alone could have inspired, the whole line sprang forward, with its terrible array of keen and bristling steel. Mortal valor could not be expected to stand such a charge. The rebels, brave as they had proved themselves to be, broke and fled in a thorough panic, leaving behind them five hundred killed and wounded, and one hundred and forty-five prisoners. The courage the rebels had displayed so excited the admiration of the patriots, and the intelligent Northern troops were so well satisfied that the unintelligent rank and file of the Southern army were duped by their traitorous leaders, that these prisoners were treated with almost the affection of brothers.

Thus closed this bloody day. Through all its dreary hours the Union army had fought nearly upon the same spot, making no advance. The intrenchments of the foe still frowned before them. This brilliant charge by General Hancock, driving back the rebels into Fort Magruder, was merely one of the incidents of the battle on our right wing. No one felt disposed to claim a victory, though a practised, military eye could see that, from the position the army occupied that evening, we had an ample force at hand to carry the fort, in the morning, by storm.

The roar of the battle had abated. The air was suffocating with the volumes of sulphurous smoke which had settled down upon the field. The sun was sinking behind the clouds, which still wept, and the gloom of a dark and rainy night was setting in, when the clattering of hoofs was heard in the rear, which rose above the subdued murmurs of the dying battle. All eyes were turned in that direction, when suddenly there emerged from the rain and mist General McClellan, accompanied by his magnificent staff. The General, a man of irreproachable morals and of the kindliest sympathies, was exceedingly beloved by his troops. All the day long he had been impatiently expected. As the brilliant cavalcade swept by, regiment after regiment greeted the young chieftain with cheers, which proved how thoroughly he was enthroned in their confidence and affection. His garments were penetrated through and through with the rain and spattered with mud. He rode rapidly to the head quarters of General Keyes, and, without dismounting, held a brief consultation with him, expressed himself satisfied with the course which had been pursued; and, after a hurried ride over a portion of the field, for night was already upon him, sought shelter from the storm in a room reserved for him at head-quarters.*

The night succeeding this terrible battle was one of indescribable gloom and woe. A pitiless storm was raging. Many of our young soldiers were from the most comfortable and even luxurious homes of the

* "The battle of Williamsburg appears to have been fought under many and serious disadvantages. Nothing was known of the nature of the country, or the defensive works of the enemy, until our troops arrived before them. There was no controlling mind in charge of the movements; there was uncertainty in regard to who was in command; each General fought as he considered best; and by the time the General Commanding appeared on the field, the principal part of the fighting was over."-Report of Congressional Committee on the Operations of the Army of the Potomac.