But the stake was so vast, the result to be sought after so important, the occasion so unexpected, and so favorable for striking a decisive blow, that, in our judgment, nothing should have prevented the army from attempting this operation at every risk. Here again it paid the penalty of that American tardiness, which is more marked in the character of the army than in that of its leader. It was not till seven in the evening that the resolution was taken of throwing over all the bridges, and passing the whole army over by daybreak, to the right bank. It was too late. Four hours had been lost, and the opportunity, that moment which is ever more fugitive in war than in any other occupation of life, had taken wing."*

About midnight the Union troops heard distinctly the words of command of the rebel officers, as they were arranging their forces for the attack of the next day. At the same time hundreds of axes were heard, felling trees to protect the front of the rebels from the advance of the patriots. Just at daybreak, a mounted rebel orderly rode out of the woods, and, mistaking a National for a rebel brigade, asked a colonel for General Anderson. "Here he is," was the reply; "what do you want with him?” “I have a dispatch for him from General Pryor." Much to his consternation, he was informed that he was in the National lines, and that he was a pris

oner.

* In reference to this charge "of that American tardiness, which is more marked in the character of the army than in that of its leader," the testimony given to the Congressional Committee in reference to the corps of General Sumner is in point:

"During the battle General Sumner, whose corps was on the left banks of the Chickahominy, was ordered by General McClellan to hold his forces in readiness to cross. General Sumner not only did that, but at once called out his forces, and moved them until the heads of the columns were at the bridges ready to cross, thereby saving between one and two hours. When the order came to cross, he immediately moved his forces in the direction of the battle-field, came up with and engaged the enemy, and relieved the pressure of the troops engaged upon his left."-Report of Congressional Committee, p. 10.

CHAPTER VIII.

BATTLE OF SEVEN PINES.

(From June 1st to June 15th, 1862.)

RENEWAL D? THE BATTLE-FEARFUL CARNAGE-BURIAL SCENES.-DISAGREEMENT BETWEEN GENERAL MCCLELLAN AND THE ADMINISTRATION.-GENERAL MCDOWELL'S CO-OPERATION.— CONTINUED DELAY.-STUART'S RAID.-SINGULAR DUEL.

Ar length the Sabbath morning sun dawned upon the two armies prepared for the renewal of the strife. It was the first day of June. It is a memorable fact, so often observed as to attract the attention of the most sceptical, that rarely has any party, during this war, made the attack on the Sabbath without being defeated. The rebels, with the earliest light, came rushing on in vast masses, feeling sure of an easy victory. The patriots, conscious of their great inferiority in numbers, and almost despairing of reënforcements, attempted but little more than to beat back the rebels and maintain their ground. Silently, but with the fiercest determination, they maintained the unequal conflict. Whenever they were too hardly pressed by the foe, they charged with the bayonet.

About six o'clock in the morning, General Heintzelman, who commanded the National force on the left, prepared for a charge. Generals Hooker and Sickles were ready, each with the dashing courage of a Murat, to lead the assault. General Patterson's New Jersey Brigade was also conspicuous in this majestic onset. At the word of command, with fixed bayonets, and pouring forth incessant volleys of grape, canister, and musketry, they moved onward, driving the enemy in confusion before them. For nearly a mile they advanced in an unbroken tide of victory. At the same time, General Meagher attacked and drove back, in a demoralized mass, the rebels on the right. Soon the whole National line, with loud cheers, was advancing, pouring its deadly volleys into the retreating foe. The rebels were driven tumultuously through the patriot camp, which they had captured, and for a mile beyond Seven Pines, to Fair Oaks. There the pursuit was relinquished, and the Union troops again took possession of the ground from which they had been driven. General Heintzelman was now in the advance, on the Williamsburg road, and General Sumner on the railroad. In a state of inextricable confusion, the rebels fled through the immense forests. "What might not have happened," says the Prince de Joinville, "if, at this moment, the thirty-five thousand fresh troops on the other bank of the Chickahominy could have appeared upon the flank of this disordered army?" The characteristic story is told of General Heintzelman, that, in the midst of this tremendous conflict, a

New York colonel, whose name we regret not to know, who had been absent from his regiment on picket duty, came hurrying, with true heroism, to the General, with two companies, earnestly inquiring where he could find his brigade. “That, Colonel, I cannot tell," the general coolly replied; "but if it is fighting you want, just go in, Colonel: there is plenty of good fighting all along the lines."

The useless, fruitless battle was ended. A great victory was achieved, from which no results were obtained. "While it was raging this day,' says the Congressional Report, "General McClellan was with the main part of the army, on the left bank of the Chickahominy. After the fighting was over, he came across to the right bank of the river." The officers engaged in the battle, who have been examined, testify, "that the army could have pushed right on to the city of Richmond, with little resistance." But General McClellan declined moving forward a distance of four miles, stating, as his reason, that the roads were bad, and the water in the river high.

Upon a field scarcely a mile square, between seven and eight thousand dead and wounded men were lying. Many had been mutilated by the trampling of charging squadrons for twenty-four hours. Multitudes, wounded early in the battle, had perished for want of attention. Others had crawled away from the surgings of the fight, leaving a trail of blood behind them, to seek such shelter beneath the trees or in the swamps as could be reached. Their groans attracted the fatigue parties searching for them, who bore them back on stretchers or in ambulances to Savage's Station, in the rear. Rebels and patriots, placed on an equality by wounds and death, were treated with like humanity by the victors.

"Ah, I wish," says the Prince de Joinville, " that all those who, careless of the past, and urged on by I know not what selfish calculations, who have encouraged this fatal slaveholders' rebellion, could have looked in person upon this fratricidal strife. I could ask, as a just punishment, that they should be condemned to gaze upon that fearful battle-field, where the dead and dying were piled up by thousands. What varieties of misery! The houses were too few to contain even a small minority of the wounded. They were necessarily heaped up around the field. Though they uttered no complaints, their exposure, under the burning mid-day sun of June, soon became intolerable. Then they were to be seen gathering up what little strength was left to them, and crawling about in search of a little shade. I shall never forget a rose-bush in full bloom, the perfumed flowers of which I was admiring while I talked with a friend, when he pointed out to me, under the foliage, one of these poor creatures, who had just drawn his last breath. We looked at one another in silence, our hearts filled with the most painful emotions. Sad scenes! from which the pen of the writer, like the eye of the spectator, hastens to turn away."*

The sadness of these burial scenes cannot be imagined. During night and day they were continued, for nearly a week, as parties explored the

* "I cannot refrain from mentioning here a most characteristic incident. Newspaper venders were crying the latest New York papers on the battle-field, during the battle, and they found buyers."--Prince de Joinville.

battle-field, gathering the remains, which had already become loathsome through corruption. Upon one place, not forty feet square, fifty-seven dead rebels were found. The wounded in the vicinity begged piteously that the dead might be removed, as the sight and stench were intolerable. The wounded were so numerous, that, in many cases, forty-eight hours elapsed before they could be attended to. When they all were collected, they covered nearly three acres of open lawn. How awful the scene in the hospital tent! Ghastly wounds were probed, and bullets cut from quivering nerves, and mutilated, inflamed limbs amputated, while stout men shrieked in irrepressible agony beneath the keen cutting blade. The loss was heavy on both sides. The North, it is estimated, lost about six thousand, and the South at least ten thousand men. Both parties gained a victory. Both parties suffered a defeat. The rebels, however, met with the final repulse, and were entirely thwarted in the plan which they had attempted to carry into execution.

It is a truth not to be concealed, that in our army there were many surgeons who were merely brutal wretches. It is to be hoped, for the sake of humanity, that the soldiers will remember them, and hold them up to the execration of the world. They ought not to escape without the punishment of universal scorn and contempt. But there were others who were like ministering angels of mercy. They avoided no peril and no fatigue, that they might relieve the misery around them. Among those who, after the battle of Fair Oaks, rendered themselves conspicuous for their humanity, may be mentioned Doctors Page and Hall, of Boston, Doctor Bliss, of Michigan, and Doctor Swinburne, of Albany. There were, doubtless, others equally entitled to honorable mention, and whose unrecorded good deeds God will remember and reward.

Το

After the battle of Seven Pines, the troops remained for several days without any essential change in the positions they occupied. General McClellan's army still remained astride the Chickahominy. Four corps were on the Richmond side of the river, and one on the other side. guard against another such surprise as that at Fair Oaks, large masses of National troops were kept together, supported by strong intrenchments. It seems that General McClellan, after the signal repulse of the foe, contemplated an immediate movement upon Richmond. The day after the battle, on the 2d of June, he wrote to Mr. Stanton, Secretary of War:

"The enemy attacked, with force and with great spirit, yesterday morning, but were everywhere most signally repulsed with great loss. Our troops charged frequently on both days, and uniformly broke the enemy. The result is, that our left is within four miles of Richmond. I only wait for the river to fall, to cross with the rest of the force, and make a general attack. Should I find them holding firm in a very strong position, I may wait for what troops I can bring up from Fortress Monroe. But the morale of my troops is now such, that I can venture much. I do not fear for odds against me. The victory is complete, and all credit is due to our officers and men."

Still General McClellan continued to implore that reënforcements might be sent him. In response to these importunities, on the 2d of

June, General McCall's division of General McDowell's corps was ordered to the Chickahominy. General McDowell was also directed to move down by land from Fredericksburg to the Peninsula, that he might co-operate in every way in his power with General McClellan, while still General McDowell was to retain his independent command. This arrangement, however, was not at all satisfactory to General McClellan, for on the 16th of June, he telegraphed the Secretary of War:

"It ought to be distinctly understood that McDowell and his troops are completely under my control. I received a telegram from him, requesting that McCall's division might be placed so as to join him immediately upon his arrival. That request does not breathe the proper spirit. Whatever troops come to me must be disposed of so as to do most good. I do not feel that, in such circumstances as those in which I am now placed, General McDowell should wish the general interest to be sacrificed for the purpose of increasing his command. If I cannot fully control all his troops, I want none of them, but would prefer to fight the battle with what I have, and let others be responsible for the results."*

Still, days and weeks passed away, and there was no decisive movement. On the 20th of June, General McClellan gave to the Adjutant-General the following statement as to the strength of his army: Present for duty, one hundred and fifteen thousand one hundred and two; special duty, sick, and in arrest, twelve thousand two hundred and twenty-five; absent, twenty-nine thousand five hundred and eleven; total, one hundred and fifty-six thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine. This was an immense force. The rebel army was by this time so much reënforced as to amount, probably, to about the same number. For a month these two hostile armies stood looking each other in the face. Their lines were so near that artillery-shot were easily interchanged. The enemy, however, were daily growing stronger in numbers and more powerful in their intrenchments. We were growing weaker. It was the most gloomy period of the war. heat was intense. The incessantly falling rains converted the grounds of the encampments into quagmires. Thousands of the soldiers were in the hospitals. Disease was thinning out the ranks of the army more rapidly than battle could have done. The impatience of the Nation, in view of this long and inexplicable inaction, became feverish.

The

The patriot troops were, however, kept constantly employed in constructing massive bridges, spanning the narrow stream in so many places, that the valley of the Chickahominy could be freely traversed in all directions. It was desired to place the two wings of the army, separated by the river, in the most intimate communication with each other. Το

The following note from General McDowell to General McClellan, under date of June 10th, illustrates the character of General McDowell, a pure patriot, a brave soldier, and a noble

man:

"For a third time I am ordered to join you, and hope this time to get through. In reference to the remarks made with reference to my leaving you and not joining you before, by your friends, and of something I have heard as coming from you on that subject, I wish to say, I go with the greatest satisfaction, and hope to arrive, with my main body, in time to be of service. McCall goes in advance by water. I will be with you in ten days, with the remainder, by Fredericksburg."