CHAPTER XVII. BATTLES OF MECHANICSVILIE AND GAINES'S MILL-TRANSFER OF THE ARMY TO THE JAMES G ENERAL LEE put General McClellan on the defensive when, on the 26th of June (1862), he sent "Stonewall Jackson," with a considerable force from Hanover Court-House, to turn the right wing of the National army and fall upon their base of supplies at the "White House." Jackson had been quietly withdrawn from the Shenandoah Valley, and at the proper time made the aggressive movement with much celerity. At the same time a heavier force, under General Longstreet and others, crossed the Chickahominy near Mechanicsville, and attacked McClellan's right wing commanded by General Fitz John Porter. Near Ellison's Mill, not far from Mechanicsville, a terrific battle was fought that day, in which the Confederates were defeated with a loss of between three and four thousand men. The Nationals, advantageously posted, lost about four hundred. This event is known in history as the battle of Mechanicsville. By this victory, Richmond was placed at the mercy of the National troops; but McClellan, considering his army and stores in peril, immediately prepared to transfer both to the James River. This movement was so secretly and skillfully made, that Lee was not certified of the fact until twenty-four hours after it was actually begun on the morning of the 27th of June. McClellan ordered his stores at the White House to be destroyed if they could not be taken away; and the duty of protecting them in their removal was assigned to the corps of Fitz John Porter. That corps was also charged with the duty of carrying away the siege guns and covering the army in its march for the James River. These troops were accordingly arranged on the rising ground near Gaines's Mill, on the arc of a circle. between Cool Arbor and the Chickahominy, where they were attacked in CHAP. XVII. AN IMPORTANT CHANGE OF BASE. 1591 the afternoon (June 27) by a heavy Confederate force led by Generals Longstreet and Hill. The battle that ensued was very severe. Hard pressed, Porter sent to McClellan, who was on the opposite side of the river, for help; but the latter, believing Magruder's twenty-five thousand men at Richmond to be sixty thousand, sent only Slocum's division of Franklin's corps. Finding that the battle still raged with great fury, and doubtful of the issue, the commander-in-chief then sent the brigades of Richardson and Meagher across the river. They arrived just in time to save Porter's corps from destruction. His shattered column was falling back in disorder, closely pressed, when the shouts of the fresh troops checked the pursuers and so inspirited the fugitives that they rallied and drove the Confederates back to the field they had won. So ended the battle of Gaines's Mill, with a loss to the Nationals of eight thousand men, and to the Confederates, of about five thousand. Porter also lost twenty-two siege guns. During the night succeeding the battle his corps withdrew to the right side of the Chickahominy, destroying the bridges behind them. Before the dawn of the 28th the National army moved toward Turkey Bend of the James River. General Keyes led the way through White Oak Swamp, followed by Porter's shattered corps. Then came a train of five thousand wagons laden with ammunition, stores and baggage, and a drove of twenty-five hundred head of beef cattle. This movement was so skillfully masked that General Lee, who suspected McClellan was about to give battle on the northern side of the Chickahominy, in defence of his stores at the "White House," or was preparing to retreat down the Peninsula, was completely deceived; and it was late in the night of the 28th (June, 1862) when the astounding fact was announced to him that the Army of the Potomac were far on their way toward a new position on the James River. He had then just been informed that a large portion of the stores at the “White House" had been removed, and that the remainder, with the mansion itself, were in flames. To overtake and destroy the retiring army was now Lee's first duty, and he prosecuted the effort with so much vigor, that the Nationals had a desperate struggle to escape. The divisions of Sedgwick, Richardson, Heintzelman and Smith, of Franklin's corps, were at Savage's Station, under the general command of Sumner. These formed McClellan's rear-guard. There they were assailed by a Confederate force under Magruder, whom Lee had sent for the purpose, and who first attacked Sedgwick at about nine o'clock on the 29th. Then a battle of great severity was fought, and it ended only at evening, after darkness had come on. Magruder was repulsed by the brigade of General Burns, supported by those of Brooke and Hancock. The Nationals fell back to White Oak Swamp covered by French's brigade, leaving twentyfive hundred of them wounded at Savage's Station, who became prisoners to the Confederates. By five o'clock the next morning the entire army had passed the Swamp, and destroyed the bridge behind them that spanned a creek which they had crossed in the passage. There were severe contests on the morning of the 30th of June, at the main bridge in White Oak Swamp and at Glendale, near by. McClellan's main army had then reached the open country in the region of Malvern Hill. General Franklin had been left with a rear-guard to protect the passage of the bridge and cover the withdrawal of the wagon-trains from that point, and it was with him that the Confederate pursuers had a sharp contest which lasted nearly all day. The latter were kept back; and that night, the Nationals, having destroyed the bridge, withdrew, leaving behind them three hundred of their sick and wounded and some disabled guns. While the strife was going on there, a sanguinary battle was fought at Glendale, not far off, between the Nationals and a column of Confederates led by Longstreet and Hill. In that conflict, Pennsylvania troops, under General McCall, suffered much. That leader was captured, and General Meade was severely wounded. Fresh troops under Hooker, Meagher and Taylor, arrived in time to give the victory at Glendale to the Nationals; and the next day (July 1, 1862) the Army of the Potomac, united for the first time since it was divided by the Chickahominy, were in a strong position on Malvern Hill, within the reach of National gun-boats on the James River. But General McClellan thought the position not a safe one, notwithstanding it is a high plateau, with a bold bank sloping toward the river and flanked by deep ravines; and on the morning of the first of July he went down the James River on the gun-boat Galena and selected a spot at Harrison's Landing, not far from Malvern Hill, as a secure place for his army and base of supplies. By vigorous movements, Lee compelled the Nationals to fight while their chief leader was away. The Confederates were concentrated at Glendale, and were moved, in a heavy line under Lee's best generals, to carry Malvern Hill by storm. They fell with intense fury upon the Nationals, and one of the most terrible battles of the war was there fought. The brunt of it was borne by the troops of Porter, Couch and Kearney, until toward evening, when Meagher and Richardson came to their aid with fresh soldiers. The Confederates were sorely smitten by well-directed bombshells from the gun-boats. This fierce contest continued, with varying fortunes for both parties, until nine o'clock in the evening, when the Confederates were driven to the CHAP. XVII. OPERATIONS OF THE ARMY OF VIRGINIA. 1593 The shelter of the woods and swamps, utterly broken and dispirited. victory for the Nationals was so decisive that their leaders expected to pursue Lee's shattered army in the morning, and march into Richmond within twenty-four hours. Their disappointment was grievous when General McClellan, who had been on board the Galena nearly all day while the army was fighting, ordered that army to fall back and encamp at Harrison's Landing. The chief officers felt that the prize for which they were contending, namely, the defeat of Lee's army and the capture of Richmond, now within their grasp, was snatched from them by a timid hand, and obedience was reluctantly but promptly given. It seemed to be a fitting ending of a campaign which had been a series of signal failures, with little fruit, excepting the loss since the 23d of May of more than fifteen thousand men. The army lingered long among the malarious vapors of the James River, until many more had fallen victims of disease. When Halleck succeeded McClellan as chief of the armies, he arranged the troops for the defence of Washington in three corps; and placing them under the command of General John Pope, who had been called from the West, named these forces the Army of Virginia. These corps were commanded respectively by Generals McDowell, Banks and Sigel. When McClellan had retreated to Harrison's Landing, the Confederates at Richmond, satisfied that no further attempts to take that city would he made at that time, ordered Lee to make a dash on Washington. Having information of Lee's preparations for a raid to the northward, Halleck ordered Pope, at the middle of July, to meet the invaders at the outset of the raid. National cavalry were first sent by General Rufus King, at Fredericksburg, who made excursions to within thirty or forty miles of the Confederate capital, and destroyed railway tracks and bridges. At that time "Stonewall Jackson" was at Gordonsville with a heavy force, and Pope's main army was near Culpepper Court-House. The former, by Lee's orders, crossed the Rapid Anné; and at the foot of Cedar Mountain, a few miles west of the Court-House, he was met by General Banks toward the evening of the 9th of August. There occurred one of the most sanguinary battles of the war. Some of the time the struggle was carried on hand-to-hand, under an awful pall of smoke which, after nightfall, obscured the light of the moon. Banks was pressed back by overwhelming numbers, and sorely pressed, until the timely arrival of Rickett's division of McDowell's corps, which checked the pursuers. In this conflict Banks was ably assisted by Generals Crawford, Augur, Geary and others. The battle ceased at nine o'clock in the evening, though cannonading was kept up until midnight. "I have witnessed many battles during the war," wrote a news paper correspondent, "but I have seen none where the tenacious obstinacy of the American character was so fully displayed." The National loss was about two thousand men, killed and wounded, and that of the Confederates was about the same. Jackson held fast to his mountain position until the night of the 11th (August, 1862) when, hearing of the approach of National troops from the Rappahannock, he fell back behind the Rapid Anné. Pope took position along the line of that stream, where he was reinforced by troops from the Carolinas under Generals Burnside and Stevens. The Confederates were now concentrated for a march on Washington, in heavy columns. Halleck, meanwhile, perceiving possible danger to the capital, had issued a positive order to McClellan, on the 3d of August, for the immediate transfer of the Army of the Potomac to the vicinity of Washington. That commander instructed his superior officer that "the true defence of Washington" was "on the banks of the James." The order was |