Bridge, near Mechanicsville, now became the extreme right of the Army of the Potomac. The night of the 30th of May came, with darkness, wailing gusts of wind, and floods of rain. But, gloomy as was the night, the hearts of the intelligent and the reflective in the patriot camp were gloomier still. The tents of the army were scattered along a line more than twenty miles in extent, in the midst of tangled forests, stagnant pools, and pathless morasses. The troops, greatly weakened by the sickness engendered in the miasmatic swamps, were no longer strong enough to advance upon the fortifications, which the rebels had now, by the forced labor of the slaves, found ample time to render almost impregnable, and which they had crowded with reënforcements gathered from near and from far.

The patriot army could not long remain where it was, breathing the malaria of these pestilential bogs. Retreat, in the face of an outnumbering and vigilant foe, could only be accomplished with enormous loss, and at the hazard of the very existence of the army. Indeed, it was manifest to intelligent observers, who from a distance scanned the field, that the Army of the Potomac was imminently exposed to destruction. The eagleeyed foe, conscious of our peril, and equally conscious, from experience, that he had nothing to fear from any sudden and daring movement of the patriot Commander-in-Chief, leisurely massed his forces for an assault upon our right wing. He intended to crush it before the centre and left could struggle through the swamp to its rescue. To ordinary intelligence, it would seem that our army was placed in precisely the position which would invite attack from an enterprising fue, and which would render that attack most certainly successful.

It was soon evident that the enemy was preparing for this flank movement, which we had no power to resist. A precipitate retreat became our only salvation, a retreat which was mildly called a "change of base." This change could have been made without peril immediately after the destruction of the Merrimac. It could now be effected only with fearful loss. The campaign had proved an utter failure. The only question now was, how to rescue from destruction, probably the best and bravest army this world ever saw.

*

General Casey, who had deservedly a high reputation for his military

Brigadier-General Silas Casey was born in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, July 12, 1807. He entered West Point in 1822, and graduated as Brevet Second-Lieutenant in 1826. He was first stationed at Fort Lawson, on the Red River, in the Indian territory. He had several skirmishes with the Indians, and at one time, with sixteen men, pursued a party of Pawnee warriors a hundred miles to Blue River. Seven of the savages he succeeded in capturing. Lieutenant Casey was subsequently stationed at Sacket's Harbor, on Lake Ontario, at Fort Niagara, and at Fort Gratiot, Michigan. For several years he was then engaged in warfare with the Florida Indiana, signalizing himself by his gallantry and his military sagacity, when he was promoted to a Captaincy. In the Mexican war of 1847 he was with General Scott. At Contreras he commanded the leading division of one of our columns of attack. He was one of the first who entered the fort at Cherubusco, where he planted the colors of the Second Infantry. For his gallantry in these actions he received the brevet of Major. At Chapultepec, at the head of a storming party, he was severely wounded, and received the brevet of Lieutenant-Colonel. In 1848, Lieutenant-Colonel Casey went to California, where he spent several years very efficiently in the service of his country. In 1854 he was made member of a board which assembled at Washington and West Point to revise VOL. II.-6

ability, was stationed, on the 26th of May, contrary to his own judgment, with a small force of inexperienced troops, quite in advance of the rest of the army, within six miles of Richmond, nearly on the line of the Richmond and York River Railroad. Though General Casey's spirited reconnoissances had entitled him to the post of honor, his military judgment pronounced the encampment as too far advanced and too much exposed. He himself was in front, with five thousand men. Three-quarters of a mile in his rear, General Keyes was in command of a division of eight thousand. With Keyes's division thus in the rear, General Casey was exposed to a sudden assault from the foe, with no protection whatever on his right or left.

The

The

Fully conscious of his peril, he commenced vigorously digging rifle-pits and rearing abatis, while he pushed out his pickets two or three miles in advance. The spot occupied by this partially intrenched camp was called Fair Oaks, from a beautiful cluster of oak trees in that vicinity. country around was swampy, mostly covered with dense forests. railroad passed through these plains and morasses in a straight line, running nearly east and west. Fair Oaks was on this railroad. It was three-quarters of a mile back from here, on the Williamsburg and Richmond Railroad, that General Keyes was stationed. A road ran diagonally across, from the railroad to the turnpike. At the junction of this road with the turnpike, where General Keyes's encampment was planted, there was a small grove of pines, which gave the locality the name of Seven Pines. General Sumner was stationed several miles in the rear, on the other side of the Chickahominy, with about eight thousand troops. The remainder of the army was scattered along the same northern banks of the stream for many leagues. The Chickahominy was then a roaring flood, and all the morasses were so filled, that any rapid concentration of the army was impossible. Thus it will be seen how tempting was the bait presented to the rebel generals. They availed themselves of their opportunity with skill which was only thwarted by the indomitable heroism of the National troops.

infantry tactics. Some time after this he was again engaged in Indian wars, which he conducted with great energy and success. Upon the breaking out of the rebellion, he entered into the service of his country with the utmost zeal. In August, 1862, he was appointed Brigadier-General, and was stationed at Washington, to receive and organize the volunteer regiments. Soon after he took command of a division of the Army of the Potomac. The progress of the war has developed few characters of such high accomplishment, and such single-hearted devotion to the welfare of his country, as General Casey.

CHAPTER VII.

THE BATTLE AT FAIR OAKS.

(From May 29th to June 3d, 1862.)

POSITION OF GENERAL CASEY'S DIVISION.-GENERALS KEYES, COUCH, AND SUMNER.-CONCENTRATION OF THE REBELS.-THE ATTACK.-HEROISM OF CASEY'S DIVISION.-EFFECT OF CANISTER.— LOSS OF BATES'S BATTERY.-KEARNEY'S TESTIMONY.-PROMPTNESS OF GENERAL SUMNER.— THE CHARGE AND THE REPULSE.

On the 29th and 30th of May, detachments of the rebels, striving to ascertain the exact position of our troops, attacked the National pickets several times, and quite fiercely; but they were driven back with loss. During the whole night of the 30th, the cars were heard running out from Richmond, indicating that the enemy was approaching in large force. In the morning General Casey, who had reason to be very anxious, hastened from Fair Oaks across to Seven Pines, to inform General Keyes of the threatening aspect of affairs. They both made all the preparation in their power to guard against surprise and to repel a sudden assault, though conscious that they were liable, while beyond the reach of any immediate help, to be assailed by treble or quadruple their own numbers.

General Keyes, according to his statement before the Congressional Committee, had for several days sent to General McClellan reports of his condition, and of the menacing attitude of the enemy, and had urged that General Sumner should be sent across the Chickahominy for his support. For some unexplained reason, this request was disregarded. In the meantime, the rebels were making vigorous and secret preparations for a resistless onset. General Hill, with sixteen thousand men, was to march from Richmond, along the Williamsburg Road, towards Seven Pines; General Longstreet, with sixteen thousand more, was to support his right wing; General Huger, with sixteen thousand more, was appointed to protect his left flank, prepared to fall, with all possible impetuosity, upon the right wing of the National troops; General Smith, with sixteen thousand more, was to make a détour through the woods, to fall upon the rear of Casey's division and cut off their retreat. Thus sixty-four thousand men were concentrated and put in motion to overwhelm the few Union troops who had been placed unprotected upon the Richmond side of the Chickahominy. Such was the generalship of the rebel officers. Often, with decidedly inferior numbers, they so massed their troops as to present superior numbers on the field of battle. It was indeed a fearful thunderbolt which was about to burst upon the devoted camp.

In the earliest dawn of Saturday morning, the 31st of May, sixty

thousand rebels were thus stealthily on the march for the destruction of General Casey's corps. The military sagacity of General Casey enabled him fully to comprehend the peril of his position. He had remonstrated against the exposure, and was now doing every thing in his power to prepare to meet an assault in which no possible courage or sagacity could give him the victory. About 11 o'clock in the morning, a mounted vedette came riding at full speed into the camp, reporting that quite a large body of rebel troops were seen approaching on the Richmond Road. The firing of the pickets almost immediately commenced, and at the same time two shells from the rebel artillery came shrieking through the air, and fell be yond the encampment.

The troops were instantly called to arms. All the men at work upon the intrenchments were dispatched to their regiments; the artillery was harnessed up, the batteries placed in position, and the One Hundred and First Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers was sent down the road to check the force and support the pickets. Thus far no one knew the magnitude of the advancing force, and it was generally supposed that nothing was impend ing but one of those sharp skirmishes in which the troops had engaged on both the preceding days. The Pennsylvania troops, about six hundred in number, marched briskly along the Richmond Road, little imagining that they were throwing themselves upon the bayonets of sixteen thousand rebels.

Just as this little band of patriot troops emerged from the forest upon a clearing, to their surprise and consternation they encountered an army but a few rods before them, and were instantly assailed by a murderous discharge of bullets, which swept thickly as hailstones through their ranks. One-fifth of their whole number, at the first volley, fell dead or wounded. There was no refuge for this handful of men but in precipitate flight. In twenty minutes they would have been entirely surrounded, and every man would have been killed or a prisoner. General McClellan, who was in the far rear, and who did not always know what was going on in the front ranks of his army, inconsiderately, and with unintentional cruelty, telegraphed Secretary Stanton, that General Casey's division gave way "unaccountably and discreditably." The retreat of this feeble band, before such overwhelming numbers, reflects not at all upon their heroism. The Old Guard of Napoleon, under similar circumstances, would have retired.*

Thirty-two thousand rebels were now in battle array, advancing upon the small band exposed apparently to inevitable destruction. Elated with the highest anticipations of success, these solid battalions, with wild cheers, swept through the woods and burst into the clearing, where five thousand National troops were waiting to receive them. The Union batteries instantly opened upon the rebels, pouring a murderous fire into their dense ranks. General Casey ordered a charge. With a war-cry which rose loud above the tumult of the battle, these heroic men sprang forward to throw

*"About twenty minutes to one o'clock, the enemy commenced the attack in force, supposed to amount to thirty-five thousand men, attacking in front and on both flanks. After fighting for some time, the enemy continuing to come on in force, the forces in front fell back to the rifle-pits, and fought there until nearly surrounded."-Report of Congressional Committee, p. 10.