Volume Iv Part 9 (2/2)
Lee boldly took the offensive, and the ”Seven Days' Fight” began. June 26th he attacked McClellan's extreme right under Porter, on the north side of the Chickahominy. He was repulsed, but Porter fell back farther down the river to Gaines's Mill, there fought all the next day against great odds, and was saved from total rout toward night only by the arrival of re-enforcements.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Portrait.]
General Nathaniel P. Banks.
Jackson's army from the north had joined Lee's left, and McClellan's communication with York River was in danger. He decided to change his base to the James, where he would have placed it at first but for his expectation of McDowell and his desire to connect with him. Everything not transportable, including millions of rations and hundreds of tons of ammunition, had to be destroyed. Five thousand loaded wagons, 2,500 head of cattle, and the reserve artillery were then set in motion toward the James, protected by the army in flank and rear.
On discovering this movement Lee hastened to strike. A force was sent to a.s.sail the retreating column in the rear; but the bridgeless Chickahominy, guarded by artillery, held the pursuers at bay. Lee threw other portions of his army against McClellan's right, at Savage's Station on the 29th, at Frazier's Farm on the day following; but the Union troops each time stood their ground till ready and then continued their march.
July 1st found the retreating host concentrated on Malvern Hill, a plateau a mile and a half long and half as broad, with ravines toward the advancing enemy. Here McClellan planted seventy cannon, rising tier upon tier up the slope, seven heavy siege guns crowning the crest. The position was impregnable, but Lee determined to attack. Shortly before sunset his men advanced boldly to the charge, but were mowed down by the terrible concentrated fire of the batteries. The hill swarmed with infantry as well, sheltered by fences and ravines, while sh.e.l.ls from the gunboats in James River could reach every part of the Confederate line.
Yet not till nine in the evening did Lee let the useless carnage cease.
Badly demoralized as the opposing army was, McClellan at midnight withdrew to Harrison's Landing, farther down the James.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Battle.]
General J. E. B. Stuart's Raid upon Pope's Headquarters, August 22, 1862, when Pope's despatch book fell into the hands of the Confederates.
During the Seven Days' Retreat he had lost 15,000 men; the Confederates somewhat more. Military authorities unite in p.r.o.nouncing McClellan's change of base ”brilliantly executed;” but the campaign as a whole was a failure, discouraging the country as much as Bull Run had done.
McClellan prepared and fully expected to move on Richmond again from this new base, but early in August received orders to withdraw from the Peninsula. By the middle of the month the dejected Army of the Potomac was on its way north.
The last of June the Union forces in West Virginia, the Shenandoah Valley, and in front of Was.h.i.+ngton were consolidated into one army, and the same General Pope who had recently won laurels by the conquest of Island Number Ten, put in command. His headquarters, he announced, were to be in the saddle, and those who had criticised McClellan gave out that the Union army's days of retreating were past. McClellan was called from the Peninsula to strengthen this new movement.
Lee started north to crush Pope before McClellan should reach him. Pope had but 50,000 men against Lee's 80,000, and fell back across the Rappahannock. Lee sent Jackson on a far detour, via Thoroughfare Gap, to get into his rear and cut his communications. Jackson moved rapidly around to Mana.s.sas--one of the most brilliant exploits in all the war--and destroyed Pope's immense supply depot there. On August 29th he was attacked by Pope near the old battlefield of Bull Run. The first day's fight was indecisive, but Confederate re-enforcements under Longstreet arrived in time to join in the battle of the next. McClellan was in no hurry to re-enforce his rival, but proposed ”to leave Pope to get out of his sc.r.a.pe as he might.” Toward sunset in the battle of the 30th, Longstreet's column, doubling way around Jackson's right and Pope's left, made a grand charge, taking Pope straight in the flank.
Porter's corps--the Fifth--part of McClellan's army, stood in the ”b.l.o.o.d.y angle” of cross-fire. His loss was dreadful--2,000 out of 9,000.
Pope was compelled to retire to Centreville. An engagement at Chantilly, September 1st, forced a further retreat to Was.h.i.+ngton. Pope resigned, and his army was merged in the Army of the Potomac, McClellan commanding all.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Portrait.]
General Thomas J. (”Stonewall”) Jackson.
Lee now invaded Maryland with 60,000 men. Already the alarmed North heard him knocking at its gates. Hastily re-organizing the army, McClellan gave chase. Leaving a force to hold Turner's Gap in South Mountain, Lee pushed on toward Pennsylvania. By the battle of South Mountain, September 14th, Hooker got possession of the gap, and the Union army poured through. Seeing that he must fight, Lee took up a position on Antietam Creek, a few miles north of Harper's Ferry. Jackson had just received the surrender of the latter place, with 11,000 prisoners, and now hurried to join Lee.
By the night of September 16th, the two armies were in battle array on either side of the creek. To the rear of the Confederate left lay a cultivated area encircled by woods, a cornfield in its centre. At dawn on the 17th, Hooker opened the battle by a furious charge against the Confederate left, and tumbled the enemy out of the woods, across the cornfield, and into the thickets beyond, where he was fronted by Confederate reserves. The carnage was terrific. Re-enforcements under Mansfield were sent to Hooker, but driven back across the cornfield.
Mansfield was killed and Hooker borne from the field wounded, Sumner coming up barely in time to prevent a rout. Once more the Confederates were pushed through the cornfield into the woods. Here, crouching behind natural breastworks--limestone ridges waist-high--the southern ranks delivered so hot a fire as to repulse Sumner's men. Thus, all the morning and into the afternoon the tide of battle surged back and forth through the b.l.o.o.d.y cornfield, strewn with wounded and dead.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Portrait.]
General Edwin V. Sumner.
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