1 Union Troops.3 Road by which the Rebels advanced.2 Rebel Troops.
1 Union Troops.
3 Road by which the Rebels advanced.
2 Rebel Troops.
One of the Mississippi regiments tried again to outflank Colonel Baker's left. The Rebels came within fifty feet of the California regiment; but the constant and steady fire given by that regiment again forced them back. It was an unbroken roll of musketry through the afternoon. The Union soldiers held their ground manfully, but their ammunition was giving out. The men, as fast as their cartridge-boxes became empty, helped themselves from the boxes of their fallen comrades. They could not obtain reinforcements for want of boats, although there were troops enough upon the Maryland shore to overwhelm the enemy. The boats were old and leaky, and were used to carry the wounded to the island. General Stone had taken no measures to obtain other boats. He was at Edward's Ferry, within sight and sound of the battle. He had fifteen hundred troops across the river at that point, and he might have ordered their advance towards Leesburg. They could have gained General Evans's rear, for there was no force to oppose them. The troops stood idly upon the bank, wondering that they were not ordered to march. So the brave men on the bluff, confronted by nearly twice their number, were left to their fate.
"We can cut our way through to Edward's Ferry," said Colonel Devens.
"If I had two more such regiments as the Massachusetts Fifteenth, I would cut my way to Leesburg," said Colonel Baker.
He went along the line encouraging the men to hold out to the last. His cool bearing, and the glance of his eagle eye, inspired the men and they compelled the Rebels again and again to fall back. Lieutenant-Colonel Wistar was wounded, but refused to leave the field. He remained with his men and kept a close watch upon the ravine and the hillock at his left hand. He saw that General Evans was making preparations for a desperate onset. He was gathering his troops in a mass behind the hill.
"Drive the Yankees into the Potomac," said General Evans, again. He had more than two thousand men.
"There is not a moment to lose. A heavy column is behind the hill and they are getting ready to advance," said Colonel Wistar, hastening to Colonel Baker.
Lieutenant Bramhall was ordered to open upon them with his rifled gun. He brought it into position and fired a round or two, but two of his cannoneers were instantly killed and five otherswounded. Colonel Baker, Colonel Wistar, and Colonel Cogswell used the rammer and sponges, and aided in firing it till other cannoneers arrived. Colonel Wistar was wounded again while serving the gun. They could not reach the main body of Rebels behind the hill, but kept the others in check with canister as often as they attempted to advance.
The force behind the hill suddenly came over it, yelling and whooping like savages. Colonel Baker was in front of his men, urging them to resist the impending shock. He was calm and collected, standing with his face to the foe, his left hand in his bosom. A man sprang from the Rebel ranks, ran up behind him, and with a self-cocking revolver fired six bullets into him. Two soldiers in front of him fired at the same time. One bullet tore open his side, another passed through his skull. Without a murmur, a groan, or a sigh, he fell dead.
But as he fell, Captain Beirel of the California regiment leaped from the ranks and blew out the fellow's brains with his pistol.
There was a fierce and terrible fight. The Californians rushed forward to save the body of their beloved commander. They fell upon the enemy with the fury of madmen. They thought not of life or death. They had no fear. Each man was a host in himself. There was a close hand-to-hand contest, bayonet-thrusts, desperate struggles, trials of strength. Men fell, but rose again, bleeding, yet still fighting, driving home the bayonet, pushing back the foe, clearing a space around the body of the fallen hero, and bearing it from the field.
While this contest was going on, some one said, "Fall back to the river." Some of the soldiers started upon the run.
"Stand your ground!" shouted Colonel Devens.
Some who had started for the river came back, but others kept on. The line was broken, and it was too late to recover what had been lost. They all ran to the bank of the river. Some halted on the edge of the bluff and formed in line, to make another stand, but hundreds rushed down the banks to the boats. They pushed off into the stream, but the overloaded flat-boat was whirled under by the swift current, and the soldiers were thrown into the water. Some sank instantly, others came up and clutched at sticks, thrust their arms towards the light, and with a wild, despairing cry went down. Some clung to floating planks, and floated far down the river, gaining the shore at Edward's Ferry. A few who could swim reached the island. All the while the Rebels from the bank poured a murderous fire upon the struggling victims in the water and upon the bank.
Lieutenant Bramhall ran his cannon down the bank into the river, to save them from falling into the hands of the enemy. Some of the officers and soldiers secreted themselves in the bushes till darkness came on, then sprung into the river and swam to the island, and thus escaped,—reaching it naked, chilled, exhausted, to shiver through the long hours of a cold October night. Of the seventeen hundred who crossed the Potomac, nearly one half were killed, wounded, or captured by the enemy.
There was great rejoicing at Leesburg that night. The citizens who had been so frightened in the morning when they heard that the Yankees were coming, now illuminated their houses, and spread a feast for the Rebel soldiers. When the Union prisoners arrived in the town, the men and women called them hard names, shouted "Bull Run," "Yankee Invaders," but the men who had fought so bravely under such disadvantages were too noble to take any notice of the insults. Indians seldom taunt or insult their captives taken in war. Civilized nations everywhere respect those whom the fortunes of war have placed in their hands; but slavery uncivilizes men. It makes them intolerant, imperious, and brutal, and hence the men and women of the South, who accepted secession, who became traitors to their country, manifested a malignity and fiendishness towards Union prisoners which has no parallel in the history of civilized nations.
There was great rejoicing throughout the South. It gave the leaders and fomenters of the rebellion arguments which they used to prove that the Yankees were cowards, and would not fight, and that the North would soon be a conquered nation.
It was a sad sight at Poolesville. Tidings of the disaster reached the place during the evening. The wounded began to arrive. It was heart-rending to hear their accounts of the scene at the river bank, when the line gave way. Hundreds of soldiers came into the lines naked, having thrown away everything to enable them to swim the river. The night set in dark andstormy. After swimming the river, they had crowded along the Maryland shore, through briers, thorns, and thistles, stumbling over fallen trees and stones in the darkness, while endeavoring to reach their encampments. Many were found in the woods in the morning, having fallen through exhaustion.
Thus by the incompetency of those in command, a terrible disaster was brought about. General McClellan and General Stone were both severely censured by the people for this needless, inexcusable sacrifice. Grave doubts were entertained in regard to the loyalty of General Stone, for he permitted the wives of officers in the Rebel service to pass into Maryland and return to Virginia, with packages and bundles, whenever they pleased, and he ordered his pickets to heed any signals they might see from the Rebels, and to receive any packages they might send, and forward them to his quarters.3
When these facts became known to the War Department, General Stone was arrested and confined in Fort Warren in Boston Harbor, but he was subsequently released, having no charges preferred against him.
Lieutenant Putnam of the Twentieth Massachusetts, who was so young that he was called the "boy soldier," was mortally wounded in the battle, was carried to Poolesville, where he died the next day. He came of noble blood. His father was descended from the ancestor of old General Putnam, who fought the French and Indians on the shores of Lake Champlain, who did not stop to unyoke his oxen in the field, when heheard of the affair at Lexington, and hastened to meet the enemy.
Rev. James Freeman Clarke, at his funeral said:—
"His mother's family has given to usstatesmen, sages, patriots, poets, scholars, orators, economists, philanthropists, and now gives us also a hero and a martyr. His great grandfather, Judge Lowell, inserted in the Bill of Rights, prefixed to the Constitution of this State, the clause declaring that 'all men are born free and equal,' for the purpose, as he avowed at the time, of abolishing slavery in Massachusetts, and he was appointed by Washington, federal judge of the district.
"His grandfather was minister of this church, [West Church, Boston,] honored and loved as few men have been, for more than half a century.
"Born in Boston in 1840, he was educated in Europe, where he went when eleven years old, and where in France, Germany, and Italy he showed that he possessed the ancestral faculty of mastering easily all languages, and where he faithfully studied classic and Christian antiquity and art. Under the best and most loving guidance, he read with joy the vivid descriptions of Virgil, while looking down from the hill of Posilippo, on the headland of Misenum, and the ruins of Cumæ. He studied with diligence the remains of Etruscan art, of which, perhaps, no American scholar, though he was so young, knew more.
"Thus accomplished, he returned to his native land, but, modest and earnest, he made no display of his acquisitions, and very few knew thathe had acquired anything. When the war broke out, his conscience and heart urged him to go to the service of his country. His strong sense of duty overcame the reluctance of his parents, and they consented. A presentiment that he should not return alive was very strong in his mind and theirs, but he gave himself cheerfully, and said, in entire strength of his purpose, that 'to die would be easy in such a cause.' In the full conviction of immortality he added, 'What is death, mother? it is nothing but a step in our life.'
"His fidelity to every duty gained him the respect of his superior officers, and his generous, constant interest in his companions and soldiers brought to him an unexampled affection. He realized fully that this war must enlarge the area of freedom, if it was to attain its true end,—and in one of his last letters he expressed the earnest prayer that it might not cease till it opened the way for universal liberty. These earnest opinions were connected with a feeling of the wrong done to the African race and an interest in its improvement. He took with him to the war as a body servant a colored lad named George Brown, who repaid the kindness of Lieutenant Lowell by gratitude and faithful service. George Brown followed his master across the Potomac into the battle, nursed him in his tent, and tended his remains back to Boston. Nor let the devoted courage of Lieutenant Henry Sturgis be forgotten, who lifted his wounded friend and comrade from the ground, and carried him on his back a long distance to the boat, and returned again into the fight.
"Farewell, dear child, brave heart, soul ofsweetness and fire! We shall see no more that fair, candid brow, with its sunny hair, those sincere eyes, that cheek flushed with the commingling roses of modesty and courage! Go and join the noble group of devoted souls, our heroes and saints! Go with Ellsworth, protomartyr of this great cause of freedom. Go with Winthrop, poet and soldier, our Korner, with sword and lyre. Go with the chivalric Lyon, bravest of the brave, leader of men. Go with Baker, to whose utterance the united murmurs of Atlantic and Pacific Oceans gave eloquent rhythm, and whose words flowed so early into heroic action. Go with our noble Massachusetts boys, in whose veins runs the best blood of the age!"
I saw Colonel Baker often as I rode through the army. He had a great love for his soldiers. I had a long talk with him a few days before his death. He felt keenly the humiliations which had come upon the nation at Bull Run, but was confident that in the next battle the soldiers would redeem their good name.
Colonel Baker was mourned for by the whole nation. Eloquent eulogies were pronounced upon him in the Senate of the United States. It was on the 11th of December, and President Lincoln was present to do honor to the dead.
Senator McDougall spoke of his noble character, his great gifts, his love of music and poetry. Many years before they were out together upon the plains of the West riding at night, and Colonel Baker recited the "Battle of Ivry" as if in anticipation of the hour when he was to stand upon the battle-field:—
"The king has come to marshal us, in all his armor drest;And he has bound a snow-white plume upon his gallant crest.He looked upon hispeople, and a tear was in his eye;He looked upon the traitors, and his glance was stern and high.Right graciously he smiled on us, as ran from wing to wing,Down all our line a deafening shout, 'God save our Lord the King!'And if my standard-bearer fall, as fall full well he may,For never saw I promise yet of such a bloody fray,Press where ye see my white plume shines amid the ranks of war,And be your oriflamme to-day the helmet of Navarre."
"The king has come to marshal us, in all his armor drest;And he has bound a snow-white plume upon his gallant crest.He looked upon hispeople, and a tear was in his eye;He looked upon the traitors, and his glance was stern and high.Right graciously he smiled on us, as ran from wing to wing,Down all our line a deafening shout, 'God save our Lord the King!'And if my standard-bearer fall, as fall full well he may,For never saw I promise yet of such a bloody fray,Press where ye see my white plume shines amid the ranks of war,And be your oriflamme to-day the helmet of Navarre."
Senator Summer said of him:—
"He died with his face to the foe; and he died so instantly that he passed without pain from the service of his country to the service of his God, while with him was more than one gallant youth, the hope of family and friends, sent forth by my own honored Commonwealth. It is sweet and becoming to die for one's country. Such a death, sudden, but not unprepared for, is the crown of the patriot soldier's life."
Onthe old turnpike which leads from the Chain Bridge above Georgetown to Leesburg there is a hamlet of a half-dozen houses, called Dranesville. The great road to Alexandria joins the turnpike there, also a road which leads to Centreville. Near the junction of the roads, onthe west side of the turnpike, there is a large brick house, a fine old Virginia mansion, owned by Mr. Thornton, surrounded by old trees. Just beyond Mr. Thornton's, as we go toward Leesburg, is Mr. Coleman's store, and a small church. Doctor Day's house is opposite the store. There are other small, white-washed houses scattered along the roadside, and years ago, before the Alexandria and Leesburg railroad was built, before Virginia gave up the cultivation of corn and wheat for the raising of negroes for the South, it was a great highway. Stage-coaches filled with passengers rumbled over the road, and long lines of canvas-covered wagons, like a moving caravan.
It is a rich and fertile country. The fields of Loudon are ever verdant; there are no hillsides more sunny or valleys more pleasant. Wheat and corn and cattle are raised in great abundance.
On the 20th of December, 1861, General McCall, whose division of Union troops was at Lewinsville, sent General Ord with a brigade and a large number of wagons to Dranesville to gather forage. On the same morning the Rebel General Stuart started from Centreville with a brigade bound on the same errand.
General Ord had the Sixth, Ninth, Tenth, and Twelfth Regiments of Pennsylvania Reserves, with four guns of Easton's battery, and a company of cavalry. One of the regiments wore bucktails in their caps instead of plumes. The soldiers of that regiment were excellent marksmen. They were from the Alleghany Mountains, and often had the valleys and forests and hillsides rung with the crack of their rifles. Theyhad hunted the deer, the squirrels, and partridges, and could bring down a squirrel from the tallest tree by their unerring aim.
General Stuart had the First Kentucky, Sixth South Carolina, Tenth Alabama, Eleventh Virginia, with the First South Carolina Battery, commanded by Captain Cutts, also a company of cavalry. The two forces were nearly equal.
General Ord started early in the morning. The ground was frozen, the air was clear, there was a beautiful sunshine, and the men marched cheerily along the road, thinking of the chickens and turkeys which might fall into their hands, and would be very acceptable for Christmas dinners. They reached Difficult Creek at noon where the troops halted, kindled their fires, cooked their coffee, ate their beef and bread, and then pushed on towards Dranesville.
An officer of the cavalry came back in haste from the advance, and reported having seen a rebel cavalryman.
"Keep a sharp lookout," was the order. The column moved on; but General Ord was prudent and threw out companies of flankers, who threaded their way through the woods, keeping a sharp eye for Rebels, for they had heard that the enemy was near at hand.
On reaching Dranesville, General Ord sent a company down the Centreville road to reconnoitre. It was not long before they reported that the woods were full of Rebels. General Ord formed his men on both sides of the Centreville road. He sent the Ninth and Twelfth west of Mr. Thornton's house, into the woods, posted the Bucktails in front of the house, put three ofEaston's guns into position on a hill east of it, put the Tenth Regiment and the cavalry in rear of the battery on the Chain Bridge road, sent one cannon down the Chain Bridge road a short distance to open a flank fire, and directed the Sixth Regiment to take position west of the Centreville road, to support the Bucktails, and detached one company of the Tenth to move down the Alexandria road to cover the flanking cannon.
Battle of Dranesville.1 General Ord's line.2 General Stuart's line.3 Road to Georgetown.4 Road to Alexandria.5 Road to Centreville.
Battle of Dranesville.
1 General Ord's line.
2 General Stuart's line.
3 Road to Georgetown.
4 Road to Alexandria.
5 Road to Centreville.
Standing by Thornton's house, and looking south, we see the Rebels on a hill, about half a mile distant. General Stuart plants his six guns on both sides of the road, to fire toward the Bucktails. The Eleventh Virginia and Tenth Alabama are deployed on the right of the road, and the Sixth South Carolina and the First Kentucky are sent to the left. The cavalry is drawn up behind the battery.
Having defeated the Yankees at Manassas and Ball's Bluff, the rebel soldiers were confident that they would win an easy victory. As soon as General Stuart formed his line, Cutt's Battery opened fire, sending shells down the road towards the Bucktails. The guns were not well aimed and did no damage. Easton's battery was hurried up from the turnpike. So eager were the artillerymen to get into position, that one gun was upset, and the men were obliged to lift it from the ground. But General Ord told the men where to place the guns. He jumped from his horse and sighted them so accurately, that they threw their shells with great precision into the Rebel ranks. The cannonade went on for a half-hour, Easton's shells tearing the Rebel ranks, while those fired by the Rebels did no damage whatever. One of Easton's shells went through a Rebel caisson, which exploded and killed several men and horses. So severe was his fire, that, although the Rebels had two more guns than he, they were obliged to retreat.
Meanwhile General Ord's infantry advanced. The Ninth came upon the First Kentucky in the woods. The pines were very dense, shutting out completely the rays of the winter sun, then low down in the western horizon. At the same time the Bucktails were advancing directly south. The men of the Ninth, when they discovered the Rebels, thought they were the Bucktails.
"Don't fire on us,—we are your friends!" shouted a Rebel.
"Are you the Bucktails?" asked one of the Ninth.
"Yes!" was the reply, followed by a terrific volley from the Rebel line.
The Ninth, though deceived, were not thrown into confusion. They gave an answering volley. The Bucktails hearing the firing advanced, while the Twelfth followed, the Ninth supporting them.
Upon the other side of the road a body of Rebels had taken shelter in a house. "Let them fellows have some shells," was the order to the gunners.
Crash! crash! went the shells into and through the house, smashing in the sides, knocking two rooms into one, strewing the floor with laths and plaster, and making the house smoke with dust. The Rebels came out in a hurry, and took shelter behind the fences, trees, and outbuildings.
"Colonel, I wish you to advance and drive back those fellows," said General Ord to the commander of the Sixth Regiment.
Captain Easton ordered his gunners to cease firing, for fear of injuring the advancing troops. The Sixth moved rapidly across the field, firing as they advanced. The Rebels behind the fences fired a volley, but so wild was their aim that nearly all the bullets passed over the heads of the Sixth. In the field and in the woods there was a constant rattle of musketry. The men on both sides sheltered themselves behind trees and fences, or crept like Indians through the almost impenetrable thickets.
The Bucktails were accustomed to creeping through the forests, and taking partridges and pigeons on the wing. Their fire was very destructive to the enemy. Stuart's lines began to waver before them. The South Carolinians fellback a little, and then a little more, as the Bucktails kept edging on. The fire of the skilled mountaineers was constant and steady. It was too severe for the Rebels to withstand. They gave way suddenly on all sides, and fled in wild confusion down the Centreville road, throwing away their guns, clothing, knapsacks, and cartridge-boxes, leaving one caisson and limber of their artillery behind in their haste to get away. Nearly all of their severely wounded were left on the field. The Union loss was seven killed and sixty-one wounded, while so destructive was the fire of the Pennsylvanians that the Rebel loss was two hundred and thirty.4
The affair, though short, was decisive. The effect was thrilling throughout the army. The Union troops,—held in contempt by the Rebels,—defeated at Manassas, Ball's Bluff, and at Bethel, by superior forces, had met an equal number of the enemy, and in a fair fight had won a signal victory. It was a proud day to the brave men who had thus shown their ability to conquer a foe equal in numbers. They returned from Dranesville in high spirits, and were received with cheers, long and loud, by their comrades, who had heard the distant firing, and who had been informed of their victory.
Christmas came. The men were in winter quarters, and merry times they had,—dinners of roast turkey, plum-pudding and mince-pies, sent by their friends at home. After dinner they had games, sports, and dances, chasing a greased pig, climbing a greasy pole, running in a meal-bag, playing ball, pitching quoits, playing leap-frog, singing and dancing, around the camp-fires through the long Christmas evening.
The winter passed away without any event to break the monotony of camp-life.
Officers and soldiers alike became disaffected at the long delay of General McClellan. The President and the people also were dissatisfied. President Lincoln, being commander-in-chief, selected the 22d of February, the birthday of Washington, on which all the armies of the Union were to make an advance upon the enemy; but it was midwinter, the roads were deep with mud, and the order was withdrawn. General Grant all the while was winning victories at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, and General Sherman and the navy had taken Port Royal, while the great Army of the Potomac, on which the country had lavished its means, and granted all that its commander asked for, was doing nothing.
The President, in March, issued an order to General McClellan to complete the organization of the army into corps, with such promptness and despatch as not to delay the commencement of the operations which he had already directed to be undertaken by the Army of the Potomac. General McClellan complied with the order.
The First Corps was composed of Franklin's, McCall's, and King's Divisions, and was commanded by Major-General McDowell.
The Second Corps was composed of Richardson's, Blenker's, and Sedgwick's Divisions, and was commanded by Major-General Sumner.
The Third Corps was commanded by Major-General Heintzelman, and was composed of Fitz-John Porter's, Hooker's, and Hamilton's Divisions.
The Fourth Corps was commanded by Major-General Keyes, and was composed of Couch's, Smith's, and Casey's Divisions.
The Fifth Corps was composed of Shields's and Williams's Divisions, and was commanded by Major-General Banks.
It was a long, dull winter to the soldiers. They waited impatiently for action. Camp-life was not all song-singing and dancing. There were days and weeks of stormy weather, when there could be no drills. The mud was deep, and the soldiers had little to do but doze by the camp-fires through the long winter days and nights. Thousands who had led correct lives at home fell into habits of dissipation and vice. Their wives and children haunted their dreams at night. A sorrow settled upon them,—a longing for home, which became a disease, and sent thousands to the hospital, and finally to the grave. The army early in the winter began to suffer for want of something to do.
Some of the colonels and chaplains saw that it was of the utmost importance that something should be done to take up the minds of the men and turn their thoughts from the scenes of home. Lyceums, debating-societies, schools, in which Latin, German, arithmetic, reading, and writing were taught, were established. The chaplains,—those who were true, earnest men, established Sunday schools, and organized churches, and held prayer-meetings. God blessed their efforts, and hundreds of soldiers became sincere Christians, attesting their faith in Jesus Christ asthe Saviour of men by living correct lives and breaking off their evil habits. Under the influence of the religious teachings there was a great reform in the army. The men became sober. They no longer gambled away their money. They became quiet and orderly, obeyed the commands of their officers in doing unpleasant duties with alacrity. Some who had been drunkards for years signed the temperance pledge. They became cheerful. They took new views of their duties and obligations to their country and their God, and looked through the gloom and darkness to the better life beyond the grave. Several of the chaplains organized churches. One noble chaplain says of the church in his regiment:—
"I received into its communion one hundred and seventy members, about sixty of whom for the first time confessed Christ. At the commencement of the services I baptized six young soldiers. They kneeled before me, and I consecrated them to God for life and for death,—the majority of them baptized, as it proved, for death. I then read the form of covenant, the system of faith, to which all gave their assent. I then read the names of those who wished to enter this fold in the Wilderness; those who had made a profession of religion at home, and came to us as members of Christian churches, and those who now came as disciples of the Redeemer.
"Then followed the communion service. This was one of the most affecting and impressive seasons of my life. The powers of the world to come rested on all minds. The shadow of the great events so soon to follow was creeping over us, giving earnestness and impressive solemnityto all hearts. It was a day never to be forgotten as a commencement of a new era in the life of many. It was a scene on which angels might look down with unmingled pleasure, for here the weary found rest, the burdened the peace of forgiveness, the broken in heart, beauty for ashes.
"Our position increased in a high degree the interest of the occasion. We were far from our churches and homes. Yet we found here the sacred emblems of our religion, and looking into the future, which we knew was full of danger, sickness, and death to many, we have girded ourselves for the conflict. It much resembled the solemn communion of Christians in the time of persecution. Our friends who were present from a distance, of whom there were several, rejoiced greatly that there was such a scene in the army. General Jameson was deeply moved and afterwards said it was the most solemn and interesting scene of his life.
"Again, on Sabbath, March 9th, the religious interest continuing, we held another communion. At this time twenty-eight were received into the church. Seven young men were baptized. The interest was greater than at the former communion, and it gives me the greatest satisfaction to know that this season, which gave to many the highest enjoyment ever known on earth, when the cup of thanksgiving was mingled with tears of gratitude, prepared for the sacrifice that was to follow. Many who were there never again partook of the wine of promise until they drank it new in the kingdom of God, and sat down at the marriage supper of the Lamb."5
TheRebel army suddenly evacuated Centreville, Manassas, and the line of the Potomac, carrying off everything of value. The Army of the Potomac moved on the 9th of March to Manassas, beheld the deserted encampments, returned to Alexandria, and sailed for Fortress Monroe. General McClellan decided to advance upon Richmond by the Peninsula, between the York and James Rivers. General McDowell, with McCall's and King's divisions, was stationed at Fredericksburg, to cover Washington. Blenker's division was detached from Sumner's Corps, and sent to the Shenandoah Valley. All the other divisions sailed down the Chesapeake. The troops landed at Newport News and went into camp.
The Rebel General Magruder occupied Yorktown. He was fortifying it and the Peninsula, erecting batteries to command York River, and to cover the approaches by land. The iron-clad Merrimack, with the Teazer and Jamestown gunboats, were in the James River. Admiral Goldsborough, with the Monitor, the Minnesota, and several gunboats, was watching them, and guarding the shipping at Fortress Monroe.
General McClellan submitted his plans to the President. He had two methods of operation in view;—one, to attack Magruder's works, between the York and the James, which might requiresiege operations, and a delay of many weeks; the other, to obtain aid from the navy, attack the water-batteries at Yorktown, silence them, and then go up the York River with his army, sailing to West Point, within twenty-five miles of Richmond. Admiral Goldsborough could not spare gunboats enough to attack the batteries, and therefore General McClellan adopted the other plan.6
On the evening of April 3d the army received orders to march the next morning.
It was a beautiful night. The sky was cloudless. A new moon shed its silver light upon the vast encampment. The soldiers had been waiting two weeks. They were one hundred thousand strong, while the Rebel force did not number more than ten or twelve thousand.7
They expected to move to victory. They sang songs, wrote letters to their friends, burnished their guns, heaped the fires with fresh fuel, and rejoiced that after so many months of waiting they were to be active.
There were some who had a true appreciation of the work before them, and realized that they might fall in the hour of battle.
One who had fought at Bull Run, whose heart was in the great cause, prepared his last will and testament. At the close of it he wrote:—
"And now, having arranged for the disposition of my worldly estate, I will say that, possessing a full confidence in the Christian religion, and believing in the righteousness of the cause in which I am engaged, I am ready to offer mypoor life in vindication of that cause, and in sustaining a government the mildest and most beneficent the world has ever known."8
At three o'clock in the morning the soldiers were astir, roused by the drum-beat and the bugle. The fading fires were rekindled. Their coffee was soon bubbling on the coals. Before daylight they had their knapsacks packed, their tents taken down, and all things ready for the march. By sunrise they were on the road, General Heintzelman's corps leading the column. The roads were deep with mud, and the marching was heavy, but so enthusiastic were the soldiers that by ten o'clock the head of the column encountered the enemy's pickets in front of Yorktown.
Both armies were upon historic ground. It was at Yorktown that the British army under Lord Cornwallis laid down its arms in 1781. It was a flourishing village then. There were fine mansions, surrounded with shrubbery, shaded by old oaks and lindens. Virginia in those days had many wealthy families. The Peninsula was the first settled territory in America, and many of the planters had immense estates. One of the signers of the Declaration of Independence resided at Yorktown,—Governor Nelson. His house is yet standing,—a large two-story brick building, which General Magruder occupied for his head-quarters. It bears the marks of shot which were fired by the Americans during the siege in 1781. Governor Nelson commanded the Virginia militia then. He was a noble patriot, and aimedthe cannon himself at his own house to drive out the British who had possession of it.
Cornwallis had a line of earthworks around Yorktown, and those which Magruder erected were on pretty much the same line, only Magruder's, besides encircling the town, also reached across the Peninsula. The English general had between seven and eight thousand men. General Washington and Count Rochambeau had about fifteen thousand. They were large armies for those days, but very small when compared with that commanded by General McClellan.
It was a long march which the French and American troops made to reach Yorktown. They marched from New York, in July, through Philadelphia, Baltimore, Annapolis, Mount Vernon, and Williamsburg. They had no transports to take them down the Chesapeake, besides, there was an English fleet in the bay which might have captured the entire army had it moved by water.
In the American army were officers whose names are inseparably connected with the history of our country,—General Knox, Baron Steuben, Lafayette, General Clinton, General Lincoln, Colonel Scammell, the brave New Hampshire officer who was shot by a Hessian soldier. In the French army were Count Rochambeau, Marquis St. Simon, and Baron Viomeil. In the bay floated the English ships of war, and outside, near Cape Henry, was the Count de Grasse, with his formidable fleet.
On Sunday morning, the 13th of October, the place was completely invested. The Americans of the allied army moved down the road leading to Hampton, and swung round by Wormley Creek.General Lincoln commanded the right wing, and had his head-quarters near the creek. Lafayette, with his light infantry, and Governor Nelson, with the Virginia militia, were on the north side of the Hampton road, while south of it were the New England and New Jersey and New York troops, under General Clinton. They held the center of the American line. The left wing of the Americans, on Warwick River, was composed of Maryland and Pennsylvania troops, under Baron Steuben. On the west side of the Warwick were Washington's and Rochambeau's head-quarters, on the south side of the road. The French troops held the ground from this point to York River west of the town.
Lord Cornwallis capitulated on the 16th of October. On the 17th his fine army marched out from the town along the Hampton road about a mile to a field, where the soldiers laid down their arms. The American army was drawn up on the north side of the road and the French on the south side,—two long lines of troops. The British army marched between them, the drums beating a slow march, and the colors which had waved proudly on so many battle-fields closely encased. It was a sorrowful march to the British soldiers. Some of them cried with vexation, and drew their caps over their faces to hide their tears. Lord Cornwallis felt the humiliation so deeply that he delegated General O'Hara to surrender up his sword.
It was an imposing scene. Washington and all the generals of the army, with their suits, in rich uniforms and on fine horses, the long lines of soldiers, the colors waving in the breeze, theBritish army in its scarlet uniforms, the crowd of spectators from the country who had heard of the news, and had hastened to see the surrender, made it one of the grandest sights ever seen in America.
On such ground, hallowed by noble deeds, the troops of the Union, as their fathers had done before them, were to carry on the siege of Yorktown.
The Rebels also undoubtedly felt the influence of those stirring times of the Revolution. They believed that they were fighting for their liberty, and were engaged in a just war. But sincerity is not certain proof of the righteousness of a cause. Chaplain Davis, of the Fourth Texas regiment, has this vindication of the rebellion, written by the camp-fires at Yorktown:—
"How many pleasing recollections crowd upon the mind of each soldier as he walks over these grounds, or sitting thoughtfully by his fagots, recalls the history of the past, and compares it with the scenes of the present. The patriots of the Revolution were struggling for liberty, and so are we. They had been oppressed with burdensome taxation,—so were we. They remonstrated,—so did we. They submitted till submission ceased to be a virtue,—and so have we. They appealed to Parliament, but were unheard. Our Representatives in Congress pointed to the maelstrom to which they were driving the ship, but they refused to see it. Our fathers asked for equalities of rights and privileges, but it was refused. The South asked that their claim to territory won by the common blood and treasure of the country be recognized, and that our domestic institutions, as guaranteed by the Constitution, be respected. These petitions were answered by professed ministers of the Church of Jesus Christ in raising contributions from the sacred pulpit on the holy Sabbath of Sharpe's Rifles, to shed Southern blood on common territory. Their Representatives declared, upon the floors of Congress, that they were in favor of 'An Antislavery Constitution, an Antislavery Bible, and an Antislavery God!' What is now left us? Naught but the refuge our fathers had,—the God of Justice and the God of Battles. To him have we appealed, and by his aid and our good right arms we will pass through the ordeal of blood and come out conquerors in the end."9
Many thousands of the Union soldiers were thinking, reflecting men. There were ministers, professors in colleges, school-teachers, and learned and scientific men. Few there were who could not read and write. Thousands of them had been teachers and scholars in the Sunday schools. They had thought the war all over, and discussed the causes which led to it. They were familiar with the history of events,—of the struggle between Slavery and Freedom; for the possession of Kansas, where men and women were driven out, their buildings burned, or themselves thrown into rivers, or deliberately murdered, for preferring freedom to slavery. They recalled the attempt to compel the people of the North to return the slaves who were escaping to Canada,—also the kidnapping of free citizens of the North; the imprisonment of men and women for teaching a slave to read the Bible. They remembered that a Northern man could not travel with safety in the South before the war, that Slavery was opposed always to Freedom, that the system crushed the poor laboring men without distinction of color, race, or clime or country; that it was overbearing, imperious, aristocratic, arrogant, and cruel; that it kept the people from obtaining knowledge; that it was the foe of industry, the enemy of science, art, and religion.
They remembered the words of Mr. Stephens, of Georgia, the Vice-President of the Confederacy, who in the beginning opposed secession; who said to his associates in the convention which carried his State out of the Union:—
"It is the best and freest government, the most equal in its rights, the most just in its decisions, the most lenient in its measures, and the most inspiring in its principles to elevate the race of man that the sun of heaven ever shone upon. Now for you to attempt to overthrow such a government as this, unassailed, is the height of madness, folly, and wickedness."10
They remembered that Mr. Stephens asked those who were plotting treason these questions: "What reasons can you give to the nations of the earth to justify it? They will be calm and deliberate judges in the case; and to what law, to what one overt act, can you point on which to rest the plea of justification? What right has the North assailed? What interest of the South has been invaded? What justice has been denied, or what claim founded in justice and right hasbeen withheld? Can any of you name one governmental act of wrong deliberately and purposely done by the government at Washington of which the South had a right to complain? I challenge the answer."
They remembered that the Secretary of War under President Buchanan, Mr. Floyd of Virginia, had removed all the arms from the Northern arsenals to the South, that the slaveholders might be well prepared for war, and ready to seize the city of Washington.
They remembered that Mr. Toucey of Connecticut, who was President Buchanan's Secretary of the Navy, had sent nearly all the ships of war into foreign seas, that they might not be at hand in the hour of rebellion, when the government should pass into new hands, and that the Secretary of the Treasury stole millions of dollars of public funds intrusted to his care. They reflected that all of these men had forsworn themselves, that they were traitors and robbers, that they had deliberately, through years of power, planned to rebel, to destroy the government, and bring ruin upon the people if they could not have their way. They believed that without cause the Rebels had fired upon the flag, and inaugurated the war, and that to defend the flag and restore the Union, by crushing out the rebellion, was a duty they owed to their country and to God. They recalled the words of Thomas Jefferson, uttered long ago, in his notes on Virginia, who said, in view of the complicity of the South with slavery:—
"I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, and that his justice cannot sleepforever. The Almighty has no attribute that can take side with us in such a contest."11
Those thinking men remembered the words of the great man who wrote the Declaration of Independence, and they also remembered that the oppressed and down-trodden of all lands were looking to America,—to the principles of the government of the United States,—as their hope for the future. They did not forget their homes on the breezy hills of the North and in the sunny valleys, nor the church-bell, nor the school-house, and other things dearer to them than life. They must fight to maintain them. Their liberties were assailed. They could not falter in such a contest.
So they reflected as they sat by their camp-fires in the starry night, or lay upon the ground where their fathers achieved the last great victory which secured their independence.
The corps commanded by General Heintzelman, when it came into position before Yorktown, stood upon the ground which General Lincoln had occupied in the siege of 1781. General Sumner's corps had the center, and occupied the ground which Baron Steuben and General Clinton held in that siege. General Keyes's corps came to the Warwick River, at Lee's Mills, almost opposite the spot where General Washington had his head-quarters, while General Franklin was held in reserve to move up York River on transports when the enemy was driven from Yorktown.
General Heintzelman arrived in front of the works, and was greeted with shells from Magruder's batteries. While the cannon were booming on that afternoon of the 4th, the following brief telegram was sent over the wires from Washington to Fortress Monroe:—
"By direction of the President, General McDowell's army corps has been detached from the force under your immediate command, and the General is ordered to report to the Secretary of War."
General McClellan received it on the 5th. He remarks:—
"To me the blow was most discouraging. It frustrated all my plans for impending operations. It fell when I was too deeply committed to withdraw. It left me incapable of continuing operations which had been begun. It compelled the adoption of another, a different, and a less effective plan of campaign. It made rapid and brilliant operations impossible. It was a fatal error. It was now of course out of my power to turn Yorktown by West Point. I had therefore no choice left but to attack it directly in front as I best could with the force at my command."12
This brief despatch will demand the patient consideration of historians in the future, who, when the passions and prejudices of men have passed away, calmly and dispassionately review the causes of the failure of the Peninsular campaign. On one hand, it is alleged to have been the fatal error; that it was an unwarrantable interference, which made it impossible for General McClellan to conduct the campaign to a successful issue.
On the other hand, it is asked how the presenceof McDowell would have enabled him to go to West Point without the aid of the navy, which he could not have.13
How did it compel the adoption of another plan, inasmuch as the order for the troops to advance and attack the works at Yorktown was issued on the 3d, and they marched on the 4th, and were engaged with the enemy before General McClellan received the orders? It is claimed, therefore, that the issuing of the order was not a fatal error; that it did not compel the adoption of another plan; that no other plan was adopted; that it did not leave General McClellan incapable of continuing operations already begun; that it did not deprive him of the power of taking West Point, inasmuch as he never had had the power; neither did it compel an attack directly in front, for that had already begun; and that the President in making the change was only enforcing the conditions on which he accepted the plan of a movement to the Peninsula,—the retention of a force sufficient to cover Washington,—which General McClellan had not complied with.
In the correspondence which passed between the President and General McClellan, the President has this explanation and vindication of his course:—
"My explicit directions that Washington should, by the judgment of all commanders of corps, be left entirely secure, had been entirely neglected. It was precisely this that drove me to detain McDowell. I do not forget that I was satisfied with your arrangement to leave Banks at Manassas Junction, but when that arrangement was broken up, and nothing was substituted for it, of course I was not satisfied. I was constrained to substitute something for it.
"And now allow me to ask you: Do you really think I should permit the line from RichmondviaManassas Junction to this city to be entirely open, except what resistance could be presented by less than twenty thousand unorganized troops? This is a question which the country will not allow me to evade."14
It will be interesting to see how the situation was viewed by the commanders of the two armies on the Peninsula. General McClellan's troops in front of the enemy, present and fit for duty, numbered one hundred thousand strong.15He asked for reinforcements. He wrote thus to the Secretary of War:—
"It seems clear that I shall have the whole force of the enemy on my hands, probably not less than one hundred thousand men, and probably more. In consequence of the loss of Blenker's division and the First Corps (McDowell's), my force is possibly less than that of the enemy, while they have the advantage of position."16
"I was compelled," says General Magruder, "to place in Gloucester Point, Yorktown, and Mulberry Island, fixed garrisons, amounting to six thousand men, my whole force being eleven thousand; so that it will be seen that the balance of the line, embracing a length of thirteen miles, was defended by about five thousand men. On the 5th of April the enemy's columns appearedalong the whole front of my line. I have no accurate data upon which to base an exact statement of his force; but, from various sources of information, I was satisfied that I had before me the enemy's Army of the Potomac, with the exception of the twocorps d'arméeof Banks and McDowell, forming an aggregate number certainly of not less than one hundred thousand, since ascertained to have been one hundred and twenty thousand.... Thus with five thousand men, exclusive of the garrisons, we stopped and held in check over one hundred thousand of the enemy. Every preparation was made in anticipation of another attack. The men slept in the trenches and under arms, but to my utter surprise he permitted day after day to elapse without an assault."17
Siege operations commenced,—spades, picks, and shovels were given to the troops, and they began to throw up the breastworks. It was a slow, tedious, laborious undertaking. The mud was very deep, the ground soft, and it rained nearly every day. The woods were very dense. There were new roads made. The brooks were bridged. Some of the soldiers made gabions, or baskets of wicker-work, for the batteries. The teams floundered through the mud axle-deep. Thousands of horses gave out from sheer exhaustion. When the breastworks were ready, the heavy guns, their carriages, and the ammunition had to be hauled.
It was almost impossible to accomplish the work. The horses could not do it, and regimentsof men were detailed to drag the cannon through the mud.
The soldiers worked faithfully and enthusiastically day and night, through drenching rains, lying down to sleep in their wet garments, upon the water-soaked ground. Fever made its appearance, and thousands were sent to the hospitals, worn down by their hard labor and exposure. The bullets of the enemy killed very few of those noble men, but thousands sickened and died.
While the batteries were getting ready, there was a spirited affair at Lee's Mills on the 16th of April. General McClellan decided to make a reconnaissance at that point, and, if everything was favorable, to throw a portion of his force across the Warwick River, and gain a foothold upon the western shore. There was an old field on the east side of the stream, which was overgrown with young pines and oaks. A line of skirmishers, under cover of a heavy artillery fire, crept down through the pines to the edge of the stream. The Rebel battery upon the other side answered the Union artillery with solid shot and shells.
Colonel Hyde of the Third Vermont was ordered to cover the stream with two companies. The crossing was just below the dam, over which the water poured in a silver sheet. The creek was swollen with rains, but the sons of Vermont were not the men to falter. They plunged in up to their necks. Their ammunition was soaked, but they pushed on up the other bank, with a cheer. They were met by the Fifteenth North Carolina. They did not stop an instant, butrushed upon the Carolinians, who fled to the rear in great confusion, and the Vermonters took possession of their rifle-pits. The commander of the Carolinians, Colonel McVining, fell mortally wounded, also many of his men, before the impetuous charge of the Green Mountaineers. But Rebel reinforcements were at hand. Anderson's brigade advanced, and the handful of men was obliged to recross the stream. The golden moment for throwing a division across and breaking the enemy's line was lost. Later in the day a second attempt was made by the Fourth and Fifth Vermont regiments to cross upon the dam, but the Rebel batteries swept it, and the attempt was not successful. The losses during the day were about one hundred on each side.
The month of April passed before the first siege guns were ready to open fire. Meanwhile Magruder was reinforced. On the first day of May a heavy battery near York River began to throw shells and solid shot into Yorktown. That night negroes came into General McClellan's lines and reported that the Rebels were leaving Yorktown, but their story was not believed by the General. Preparations were made to open a fire from all the guns and mortars on the 4th of May.
General Magruder kept close watch of the operations, and when General McClellan was ready, quietly retreated towards Williamsburg. He ordered his artillerymen to keep up a heavy fire through the night, to spike the guns just before daybreak, and leave the place. So through the night there was a grand uproar of artillery along the Rebel lines. The gunners seemed to vie with each other to see which could fire most rapidlyand throw away the most shot and shells. They took no aim, but fired at random towards the Union lines.
At daybreak it was discovered that there was no sign of life or motion in the Rebel camp. The guns still looked frowningly from the fortifications, tents were standing; but the troops were all gone, and Yorktown was deserted.
They carried off all their light artillery, nearly all their provisions and supplies, but left fifty-two heavy guns in the intrenchments. They planted torpedoes, and connected them with wires and cords. A Union soldier hit his foot against a wire and an explosion followed, which blew off his legs.
General Magruder, by showing a bold front, with eleven thousand men at first, had held an army of a hundred thousand in check, and gained a month of valuable time for preparations for the defense of Richmond.
Thefirst battle in the Peninsular campaign of the Army of the Potomac was fought at Williamsburg, one of the oldest towns in Virginia. It was settled in 1632, and was capital of the Colony for many years before the Revolution. William and Mary's College is there, which was endowed by the king and queen of England with twenty thousand acres of land, and a penny on every pound of tobacco sent out of the Colony, and duties onall the furs and skins. The college buildings were designed by Sir Christopher Wren, architect of St. Paul's in London.
The colonial governors resided at Williamsburg. The courts were held there. The government buildings were the noblest in America. The Governor's residence was amagnificent edifice, with a great estate of three hundred acres attached, laid out in lawns, parks, groves, flower-gardens, and peach-orchards. It was intersected by a brook. There were winding graveled walks, shaded by oaks and lindens.
On public occasions, and on birth-nights, there were grand receptions at the palace, as it was called, where all the public officers and gentlemen assembled to pay their respects to the governor. The judges and counselors, in flowing robes and powdered wigs, the gentlemen of the Colony in broidered waistcoats, ruffled shirts, buff breeches, black stockings, and red, yellow, green, blue, or purple coats, with gold and silver shoe-buckles, and ladies in silks and satins, rode up in their carriages, driven by coachmen, and attended by footmen in livery.
During the sessions of the House of Burgesses there were gay times. The town was filled with visitors. The wealth, fashion, and refinement of the Colony gathered there. It was there in the House of Burgesses that Patrick Henry uttered the patriotic sentiment,—"Give me liberty, or give me death." It was from Williamsburg that Sir William Berkeley wrote to the King's commissioners, thanking God that there were no common schools or printing-presses in Virginia. Washington, when but twenty-one years of age,mounted his horse at the palace-gate, for his long journey to the head-waters of the Ohio, chosen by Governor Dinwiddie, out of all the aristocratic families of the Colony, to bear a message to the French commander in that far-off region; and there, at the same gate, he dismounted from his horse on the 22d of January, 1754, having faithfully accomplished what he had undertaken.
East of this old town, a small stream, which rises in the center of the Peninsula, runs southeast and empties into College Creek. Very near the head-waters of this stream another has its rise, which runs north to the York River, and is called Queen's Creek. On both streams there are mills. The main road from Yorktown to Williamsburg runs on the high land between the head-waters of the creeks. About a mile east of the town the road forks. General Magruder had thrown up a strong fortification at that point, which contained thirteen guns, and was called Fort Magruder. There were ten other earthworks which effectually commanded the roads, the ravines, and all the approaches from the east.
In pursuing Magruder, General Stoneman, with the cavalry and Gibson's battery, went up the Yorktown road, and came out of the dense forest in front of Fort Magruder. The guns opened fire, throwing shells, which killed and wounded several of the cavalrymen. Gibson brought his battery into position and replied. The Sixth United States Cavalry moved on towards the fort, but were met by infantry and cavalry, and were compelled to fall back with the loss of thirty men. Gibson was obliged to move his guns, for the batteries in the fort had therange of his position. The mud was deep, and one of the guns sunk to the axle. The horses tugged and pulled, but they also sunk. Other horses were added, but the ground was marshy, and gun and horses went still deeper.
The Rebel gunners saw the confusion, and threw their shells upon the spot. Some burst harmlessly in the air, some fell into the mud, others tore up the ground and covered the artillerymen and teamsters with earth, others burst among the horses and men. The Rebel infantry came down upon the run, and Captain Gibson was obliged to leave.
The night came on dark and dismal. The rain fell in torrents. The troops who had been marching all day were drenched. The roads were narrow and muddy. There was a want of arrangement in the order of marching, and the divisions became confused. Wagons broke down, artillery sunk in the mire; but the troops were eager to get at the enemy, who had eluded their commander, first at Manassas, and now at Yorktown. They marched, some of them, till midnight, and then, without kindling a fire, lay down drenched, upon the dead forest leaves, having had no dinner, and without a supper. The rain-drops dripped from the trees through the night, but the soldiers were in line at daybreak, ready to move again in pursuit of the enemy.
General Hooker being in advance upon the Lee's Mills road, came upon the enemy's pickets posted along a deep ravine above the mill-pond, on the stream which empties into College Creek.
General Smith's division, when the army advanced from Yorktown, was on the Lee's Millsroad, but it moved towards the north and came in front of the enemy on the Yorktown road.