III. CONFEDERATE STRATEGY ON THE CHICKAHOMINY AND IN THE VALLEY OF THE SHENANDOAH. The brilliant historian of the war in the Spanish Peninsula lays down the maxim that "military operations are SO dependent upon accidental circumstances, that, to justly censure, it should always be shown that an unsuccessful general has violated the received maxims and established principles of war. Now as General McClellan's offensive movement towards Richmond really ended with the establishment of his army on the Chickahominy, and as the narrative of events to follow will show the enemy in an offensive attitude, and the army whose proper rôle was the aggressive reduced to the defensive, and finally compelled to retreat, it will be in place to follow attentively the course and causes of action with the view to discover whether the untoward events that befell the Union arms be traceable to any departure from those "established principles of war," the violation of which furnishes a just ground of censure. Upon McClellan's arrival on the Chickahominy, there were two objects which he had to keep in view: to secure a firm footing on the Richmond side of that stream with the view of carrying out the primal purpose of the campaign, and at the same time to so dispose his forces as to insure the junction of McDowell's column from Fredericksburg with the force before Richmond. The former purpose was accomplished by throwing the left wing of the Army of the Potomac across the Chickahominy at Bottom's Bridge, which the Confederates had left uncovered. Casey's division of Keyes' corps crossed on the 20th of May, and occupied the opposite * Napier History of the Peninsular War, vol. i., p. 8. : heights. Heintzelman's corps was then thrown forward in support, and Bottom's Bridge was immediately rebuilt. To secure the second object, McClellan extended his right wing well northward, and on the 24th carried the village of Mechanicsville, forcing the enemy across the Chickahominy at the Mechanicsville Bridge which the Confederates after crossing destroyed. He then awaited the march of McDowell to join him, in order to initiate operations against Richmond. I must now turn aside to show in what manner the object of this movement was baulked by the skill of the Confederates and the folly of those who controlled the operations of the Union armies. At the time the Army of the Potomac was toiling painfully up the Peninsula towards Richmond, the remaining forces in Northern Virginia presented the extraordinary spectacle of three distinct armies, planted on three separate lines of operations, under three independent commanders. The highland region of West Virginia had been formed into the "Mountain Department" under command of General Fremont; the Valley of the Shenandoah constituted the "Department of the Shenandoah" under General Banks; and the region covered by the direct lines of approach to Washington had been erected into the "Department of the Rappahannock," and assigned to General McDowell at the time his corps was detached from the Army of the Potomac. About the period reached by the narrative of events on the Peninsula, these armies were distributed as follows: General Fremont with a force of fifteen thousand men at Franklin, General Banks with a force of about sixteen thousand men at Strasburg, and General McDowell with a force of thirty thousand men at Fredericksburg on the Rappahannock. It need hardly be said that this arrangement, the like of which has not been seen since Napoleon scandalized the Austrians by destroying in succession half a dozen of their armies distributed after precisely this fashionnor indeed was ever seen before, save in periods of the eclipse of all military judgment was in violation of the true principles of war. One hardly wishes to inquire by whose crude and fatuitous inspiration these things were done; but such was the spectacle presented by the Union forces in Virginia: the main army already held in check on the Chickahominy, and these detached columns inviting destruction in detail. Not to have taken advantage of such an opportunity would have shown General Johnston to be a tyro in his trade. It came about, after the commencement of active operations on the Peninsula had drawn towards Richmond the main force of the Confederates and relieved the front of Washington from the pressure of their presence, that the Administration, growing more easy touching the safety of the capital, determined, in response to General McClellan's oft-repeated appeals for re-enforcements, to send forward McDowell's corps,-not, indeed, as he desired, to re-enforce him by water, but to advance overland to attack Richmond in co-operation with the Army of the Potomac. To this end, the division of Shields was detached from the command of General Banks in the Shenandoah Valley, and given to General McDowell; and this addition brought the latter's force up to forty-one thousand men and one hundred guns. General McClellan had received official notification of this intended movement; and on the march from Williamsburg to the Chickahominy, as has been shown, he threw his right wing well forward, so as to insure the junction of McDowell's force, when it should move forward from Fredericksburg.* After numerous delays, the time of advance of this column was at length fixed for the 26th of May, a date closely coincident with the arrival of the Army of the Potomac on the Chickahominy. The head of McDowell's column had already been pushed eight miles * It should not be forgotten that this was the controlling consideration in the choice by General McClellan of the line of advance by the Pamunkey, instead of swinging his army across to the James immediately after the battle of Williamsburg and the destruction of the Merrimac immediately thereon,— a course the adoption of which would, in all probability, have altered the entire character of the campaign. south of Fredericksburg; and McClellan, to clear all opposition from his path, sent forward Porter's corps to Hanover Junction, where he had a sharp encounter with a force of the enemy under General Branch, whom he repulsed with a loss of two hundred killed and seven hundred prisoners, and established the right of the Army of the Potomac within fifteen miles, or one march, of McDowell's van. McDowell was eager to advance, and McClellan was equally anxious for his arrival, when there happened an event which frustrated this plan and all the hopes that had been based thereon. This event was the irruption of Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley. The keen-eyed soldier at the head of the main Confederate army, discerning the intended junction between McDowell and McClellan, quickly seized his opportunity, and intrusted the execution of a bold coup to that vigorous lieutenant who had already made the Valley ring with his exploits. Jackson, on retiring from his last raid in the Shenandoah Valley, which had ended in his repulse by Shields at Winchester (March 27), had retreated up the Valley by way of Harrisonburg, and turning to the Blue Ridge, took up a position between the south fork of the Shenandoah and Swift Run Gap. Here he was retained by Johnston, after the main body of the Confederate army had been drawn in towards Richmond. Jackson was joined by Ewell's division from Gordonsville on the 30th April, and at the same time he received the further accession of the two brigades of General Edward Johnson, who had held an independent command in Southwest Virginia. This raised his force to about fifteen thousand men. Banks' force, reduced by the detachment of Shields' division, sent to General McDowell, to about five thousand men, was posted at Harrisonburg. Fremont was at Franklin, across the mountains; but one of his brigades, under Milroy, had burst beyond the limits of the Mountain Department, and seemed to be moving to make a junction with Banks, with the design, as Jackson thought, of advancing on Staunton. Jackson determined to attack these forces in detail. Accordingly, he posted Ewell so as to hold Banks in check, whilst he himself moved to Staunton. From here he threw forward five brigades, under General Edward Johnson (May 7), to attack Milroy. The latter retreated to his mountain fastness, and took position at a point named McDowell, where, re-enforced by the brigade of Schenck, he engaged Johnson, but was forced to retire on Fremont's main body at Franklin. Having thus thrown off Milroy eccentrically from communication with Banks, Jackson returned (May 14) to destroy the force under that officer. But during Jackson's pursuit of Milroy, Banks, discovering his danger, had retired to Strasburg, followed by Ewell. Jackson therefore followed also, and at New Market he formed a junction with Ewell. Instead of marching direct on Strasburg, however, Jackson diverged on a line to the eastward by way of Luray Valley, and moved on Front Royal, with the view of cutting off Banks' retreat from Strasburg, interposing between him and reenforcements, and compelling his surrender. The 23d he entered Front Royal, capturing the garrison of seven hundred men there under Colonel Kenly; and thence he moved to Middletown by a road to the right of the main Valley road, hoping there to cut off Banks. But the latter was too quick for him so that when he reached Middletown, he struck only the rear of the retreating Union column. Banks, with his small force, offered such resistance as he could to the advance of Jackson, and took position on the heights of Winchester (May 24), where he gave fight, till, being assailed on both flanks, he retired hastily to the north bank of the Potomac (May 25), making a march of fifty-three miles in forty-eight hours. Jackson continued the pursuit as far as Halltown, within two miles of Harper's Ferry, where he remained till the 30th, when, finding heavy forces converging on his rear, he began a retrograde movement up the Valley. The tidings of Jackson's apparition at Winchester on the 24th, and his subsequent advance to Harper's Ferry, fell like a thunderbolt on the war-council at Washington. The order for McDowell's advance from Fredericksburg, to unite with |