USA > Indiana > The soldier of Indiana in the war for the union, Vol. I > Part 44
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Through the month of June, on the Chickahominy, bloody skirmishes were of daily occurrence, but, as in April and May, digging and ditching were the regular employment of the army, until the last week of the month. For bridges, roads and batteries, the men dragged all the timber, the ground being too soft for the employment of horses to any extent. Night as well as day was spent in labor, the workmen stand- ing in water, which often reached to their knees, and some- times to their armpits. "I belong to Uncle Sam," writes young Kemper, "and I am just like a slave. When I am ordered to do anything I know it's no use talking, for I have to toe the mark. You must excuse all mistakes, for it is nearly forty-eight hours since I had any sleep. It will soon be one year since I left home to defend my country, and in that time I have slept in a bed but one night. I hope the war will be over before many days; then I want father to kill the fatted calf."
No food but hard bread, salt meat and coffee reached the army; and the faint laborer, loathing his stale dinner, often threw it into the swamp, and, without sustenance, plied the spade or the axe. The sun was hot; rain was frequent; the air was heavy and motionless; the upturned, watery earth exhaled poison and pestilence. Dysentery and miasmatic fevers preyed upon the army. Every day squads went from the camps to the hospitals, and in almost equal numbers from the hospitals into the burial places. Twelve thousand were on the sick list: twenty thousand furloughed men were at home, and not more than a hundred thousand, perhaps not so many, were on the ground and fit for duty.
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
The soldiers met danger and death with courage, and bore toil and disease with patience, considering them evils insep- arable from war. They gave a full and voluntary faith to the administration. Even when they knew that in their daily toil they were pitted against the slaves of the South, all the trenching and intrenching in the Southern army being the labor of negroes, while the services of an army of blacks who would gladly spade. up the whole State of Virginia were denied them; even when they saw on high, airy, healthy ground, above their wretched, crowded, low hospitals, the white house of General Lee, empty, locked and guarded in obedience to a request of the owner's wife posted on the door, their faith and resignation remained unshaken. They were especially devoted to General McClellan, at first as the imme- diate representative of the Government, but, in time, like Papists accepting saints in lieu of loftier powers, many looked no higher than the leader who always took off his cap to them and gave them a friendly smile.
On the 21st of June the satisfied eye of McClellan surveyed his finished works. They seemed to render impregnable any point between the Virginia Central Railroad, which runs north from Richmond, and the western edge of White Oak Swamp, a few miles from the James. If his line had reached the James full half the city would have been invested. Be- tween ten and twenty bridges over the Chickahominy were included in the arc, and five or six public highways, with two railroads, were intersected by it. Both extremities of the army curled towards the rear, the northern resting on the left of the Chickahominy and Beaver Dam creek, the southern lying along the north edge of White Oak Swamp.
On the north side of the river McCall's division at Beaver Dam creek began the long line. Sykes and Morrell were next, bending out from McCall to Coal Harbor, and back to New bridge, commanding which, on an eminence on the south side, was Smith. In order followed Slocum, Sedgwick, Rich- ardson, Hooker, Kearney and Couch. Hooker and Kearney had the most advanced part of the line, Couch sweeping back from Kearney's left to the river. The railroad on the left bank of the river was guarded by Casey's division. The
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"A STRONG DILEMMA IN A DESPERATE CASE."
White House on the Pamunkey was the depot of supplies. There were four stations on the York river railroad, between the White House and the front. At each station were hos- pitals. General McClellan's headquarters were on the left bank, in the rear of Porter.
In one respect the position of the Union army was singular. Though cut in two by the most uncertain of rivers, it could not be united without drawing the attention of the whole Confederate force, which, large as it was, could be concen- trated in a few hours. General McClellan was in the condi-' tion of a timid Alpine traveler, who is described as becoming transfixed with trepidation at the unfortunate moment when he has set one foot over a chasm of little breadth but of fath- omless depth. He desired above all things to be across the river, but he was afraid to move. He entreated the Secretary of War and the President for reinforcements, but his entreaties were only scantily complied with, or were absolutely refused. There was now nothing for him to do but to lie patiently behind his finished works and await an attack, or move beyond them and make an attack. He did not form a decision, but was drifting into the first alternative, when a change in affairs thrust him upon the second.
Meantime he requested of the President permission to write an article on the state of military affairs throughout the country. Mr. Lincoln discouraged the effort, not from want of respect for General McClellan's literary abilities, so much as from fear that such a work would divert his time and attention from the army under his immediate command. The General modestly accepted the suggestion, and employed himself in preparing both for an advance and a retreat. For the latter by sending transports laden with provisions and forage from White House to Fortress Monroe; for the former by giving increased attention to the ground in front of his lines.
While delay was wasting the Union army, it was building up the Confederate force. A stringent conscript law brought daily accessions of troops to General Lee. On the evacua- tion of Corinth nearly all of Beauregard's army was removed to the Confederate capital. General Jackson's movements
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
after the battle of Port Republic were hidden in the mystery which he loved, and which he now had good reason to value; but the administration at Washington had no doubt that he was joining the army at Richmond. The Federal General, however, was incredulous, until on the 24th he received a direct intimation that Jackson was not far from Ashland, and would attack his right on the 28th. Conviction was followed by prompt action. He moved his headquarters across the river to a bluff in the rear of his centre, and ordered Heintzel- 'man's corps to move towards Richmond. That this move- ment was a stroke of policy to avert the national condem- nation which would be sure to follow a defeat behind his intrenchments can scarcely be doubted; nor can it be doubted that McClellan was convinced that the bright sun of Wednes- day, June 25th, ushered in the life and death struggle for which both he and General Lee had long made ready, but from which they both had cautiously held back.
After the movement commenced, the following telegram was sent to the Secretary of War:
" The Rebel force is stated at two hundred thousand, in- cluding Jackson and Beauregard. I will do all I can with the splendid army I have the honor to command, and if it is destroyed by overwhelming numbers, can at least die with it, and share its fate. But if the result of the action which will occur to-morrow, or shortly after, is a disaster, the responsi- bility cannot be thrown on my shoulders. It must rest where it belongs. I feel that there is no use in again asking for reinforcements."
The President replied :
"Your dispatch yesterday, suggesting the probability of being overwhelmed by two hundred thousand men, and talk- ing of whom the responsibility will belong to, pains me very much. I give you all I can, and act on the presumption that you will do the best you can with what you have; while you. continue, ungenerously, I think, to assume that I could give you more if I would. I have omitted, shall omit, no oppor- tunity to send reinforcements."
The 25th was one of the fairest of June days. The six succeeding days were also bright and rainless. The Army
525
BATTLE OF THE ORCHARDS.
of the Potomac would have been lost had not this eventful week been so singularly dry.
Immediately in front of Heintzelman's most advanced redoubt on the Williamsburg road was a large open field, beyond that a swampy belt of timber, and further in advance another open field, commanded by the works of the enemy. The pickets of both armies had stood in the respective edges of the belt of trees, since the last advance, quite near together. In the left of the wood many of the trees were felled to form an abatis. Kearney was behind the abatis, Hooker behind the standing trees in possession of a redoubt. Robinson's brigade had Kearney's left. In Robinson's brigade was the Twentieth Indiana, called now for the first time into action, and the only Indiana regiment on the Peninsula.
Between eight and nine in the morning, the hum of the camp was broken by rolling drum and heavy tramp. The joyful bearing of men proud to lay down the spade and the axe and to take up again the musket; the length and steadi- ness of the line; the rapidity of the march, and that the movement was an attack, marked the first of the Seven Days' Battles before Richmond. In every conflict which followed, the Union army stood on the defensive. General Hooker remained in front of the redoubt, where his eye could com- mand the movements of his two brigades. General Kearney, a man of iron and fire, scorning fear, and loving danger, rode before and round his division, his armless left sleeve telling his soldiers that he was no stranger to battle.
Hooker's column entered the wood and disappeared. The Confederate pickets did not fall back until General Magruder liad time to form a line of battle behind them.
At first the battle was sustained by one Federal brigade, Hooker's right having become entangled in logs and thickets, and the Confederate force not stretching out to Kearney, but massed on the center. The wings pushed up, however, with- out much loss of time, and the Confederates fell back through the woods and the field to their rifle-pits. At this moment McClellan, who had just arrived at Fair Oaks, and who mis- understood the position, ordered a retreat. As soon as it was obeyed, the order was countermanded, woods and fields were
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
retaken, and the enemy's rifle-pits were won and occupied by our troops before the middle of the aftornoon. The struggle then seemed to be over; but when the sun was about an hour high it was violently resumed by an attack upon Robinson's brigade, which was resting behind a meadow, an orchard and a wheat field. The attack was through the wheat upon a New York regiment, which had Robinson's left. It was repulsed, and the repulse was followed up by a bayonet charge, before which the enemy retreated. "Cheer!" cried the Colonel of the Twentieth Indiana, to his men. "Charge!" they understood him to shout. Some distance in their front was a strong Confederate force; obeying the order as they understood it, they rushed towards this force, which held its position and its fire until joined by the troops retreating before the New Yorkers, when it poured in a tremendous volley, and dividing marched to the right and left to flank the Indiana regiment. "Back men!" shouted Colonel Brown. Back they came as wildly as they had rushed out. If the order had been delayed five minutes, the regiment would have been destroyed. As it was one hundred and ninety-two men fell in twenty minutes.
Through the night several slight attacks were made, but no serious attempt to drive Heintzelman back. The Confed- erate pickets kept control over the battle-ground by firing upon every detail which was sent to bring in the wounded. Consequently no relief could be given to the sufferers, though their moans could be heard the whole night. Harvey Bassett, whose letters have given thus far the larger part of the his- tory of the 'Twentieth, fell here, wounded in the side. He died in Richmond. Sick and in prison, none visited him; but he had that within him which was better even than friendly cheer, a "still and quiet conscience." Captain Meikel, of his company, wrote a tender letter of condolence to his widowed mother. After two years more of war, such a letter was written to Captain Meikel's widowed mother. Captain Lyon also fell here, but he was rescued, and died in Washington.
On the day of the first battle, June 25th, General Lee, who, on the 3d of June, had been appointed to the command in chief of the Confederate army, held a council of war in Richmond. There were present Longstreet, Huger, Baldwin, Branch,
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CONFEDERATE COUNCIL.
Anderson, Whiting, Ripley, Magruder, the two Hills, Stone- wall Jackson and General Lee, Commander-in-Chief. It is said that on the majestic face of Lee an expression of satis- faction rested as he surveyed the chieftains of his army. He saw them as they were, without greatness, almost without individuality, yet sharp, bright, fit for bold purposes, most ser- viceable as tools. Even in the stubborn Longstreet, and in Wise, whose irrepressible animosities were constantly tossing him across ways which had been carefully smoothed out, the master mind acknowledged ready instruments for the master hand. Only in the calm, intense eye of Jackson could he read personal, individual force, and Jackson was malleable metal too. He was more than malleable metal; he was the loyal vassal who gave his heart's allegiance to his suzerain. "I would follow Lee blindfolded," was his earnest declaration. He stood leaning against the wall. His restless fingers play- ing with his sabre betrayed impatience. He had left his men but a few miles from the enemy's pickets, and every hour of delay threatened the discovery of their position.
General Lee, though the master mind in that council, or perhaps because he was the master mind, was the falsest traitor there. While the President of the United States reposed entire confidence in him, he resigned his high position in the army, and in less than three days after his resignation was occepted, before Virginia's act of secession had been ratified by the popular voice, he assumed command of the Rebel troops in Virginia, and used all his might to force his native State out of the Union.
All the members of the council, except three, were grad- uates of the national academy at West Point.
General Lee made known his plans. His army was now larger than it had ever been, and larger than it could be again. It was not probable that McClellan's would be reduced lower, it was possible that it might be removed from the vicinity of Richmond, refreshed, restored to health, and returned for another and better directed effort. The wisdom of preceding delay, proved as it now was by the crowded hospitals and graveyards of the enemy, was not more certain than the wis- dom of present immediate, concentrated action. He directed
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that a vigorous attack should be made upon the Federal right by a force thrown across the Chickahominy at Meadow bridge. On the falling back of the Federal right, a second Confeder- ate force, crossing from Old Tavern, should unite with the first, and with Jackson, who was to advance from Ashland between the Pamunkey and Chickahominy, attack flank and rear, and cut off retreat by the White House. During these operations on McClellan's right and rear, Magruder was to keep the attention of the left and center. In spite of Magru- der's demonstrations, McClellan would, no doubt, throw his whole army together on the left bank to prevent being cut off from his base of supplies. A terrible battle would then virtually terminate the siege of Richmond, although there might be some severe conflicts while the Confederate army drew round the Pamunkey to the Chickahominy encircling the Union army. It was barely possible that McClellan might strike through White Oak Swamp, though he was known not to have reconnoitred it with care, and try to reach the James river by the Quaker road; but as this road is intersected by several turnpikes running from Richmond towards the south- east, it would be no difficult matter to head a retreat in this direction.
Such was General Lee's plan of action. Well satisfied, the council separated to commence immediate preparation.
On the morning of the 26th Heintzelman's corps fell back over the mile it had just gained to its old position. With the exception of this movement, a singular quiet prevailed in the Federal army. It was like the stillness of nature between the first clash of the tempest and the continuous peals of the long enduring storm. Nature itself partook of the silence. The very leaves did not rustle.
At noon a powerful corps under A. P. Hill crossed the Chickahominy at Meadow bridge, and at several fords, and attacked McCall's brigade of Pennsylvania reserves near Mechanicsville, but after continued and repeated assaults through the afternoon, it was repulsed at night.
On the 27th firing commenced, with the rising of the sun, from one extremity of the line to the other. The left and center, from Couch round to Smith, were especially engaged,
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GAINES' MILL.
and were kept in momentary expectation of an attack in force.
During the night General Porter had begun to send his bag- gage and heavy siege guns towards Savage's Station; he now concentrated McCall and all his other outposts near the approaches to the bridges which connected the right wing with the center. He arranged his force in a semi-circular line on the crests of several irregular hills which break the ground to the left of Powhite creek, a small tributary of the Chickahominy. The position was defended in front and on the right by deep gullies, and on the left by the swampy, woody shores of the Powhite, but on account of the height and number of the trees, it was not adapted to the use of artillery, in which lay Porter's main strength. He had thirty- five thousand men.
General Longstreet, accompanied by General Lee, crossed the Chickahominy as soon as McCall's retreat uncovered Mechanicsville bridge, and presented himself at noon before Porter's left and center. Shortly after, General Jackson, with his mountain warriors, appeared in Porter's front and on his right. The Confederate force was about sixty thousand.
The battle began on Porter's left, and gradually extended round his whole front. The enemy pressed first upon one point, then unexpectedly upon another, constantly thrusting forward fresh troops in place of the exhausted. The presence of Jackson, who had gained more victories than any other General had fought battles, and of his high-spirited, hardy troops who had won the name, and who wore the' bold front of veterans, fired the army with the spirit of emulation. A North Carolina regiment, not distinguished above others for the fierceness of its assaults, lost eight standard-bearers. Such was the courage, such the stubbornness and the overmaster- ing numbers of the enemy, that in two hours after the battle began Porter had not a disengaged man, and his thinned though yet unswerving ranks, assured him he could not hold his ground. He would have been routed before three o'clock had not McClellan sent reinforcements from the other side of the river. At seven all seemed lost; the line on the left was pierced; thestrip of wood and swamp on the Powhite
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
was given up; the defence was unsteady; broken, haggard, dispirited men were turning their faces to the rear, were actually flying from the field; General Lee's army was press- ing intrepidly on from every side, and already crying “ Vic- tory!" when again reinforcements came gaily thundering and shouting over the bridges, along the banks, and up on the bloody crests of the hills. Unaware of the strength of the new force, and fearful that, in the darkness which was now gathering, he might lose all he had gained, Lee checked and recalled his troops.
In the battle of Powhite creek, or Gaines' Mill, as it is called from a mill on the little stream, Lee recognized the terrible conflict of his prediction. But the stubborn spirit, which enabled the Union soldiers to hold out until they had reinforcements, still to hold out until reinforcements came again, and to prolong the contest until the coming on of night, saved the beaten right wing from a rout, the left from being shut between the Chickahominy and Richmond, gave McClellan time to begin a change of base, and confused the Confederate General's careful calculations. This battle was the hinge on which turned the fate of the following desperate days. While the fight was going on, Porter's train was moving over the river, and the fight did not cease until the train had crossed. The highway and the railroad from the White House were also covered with loaded wagons and cars. All night long the bridges groaned under the weight of wagons, of bellowing cattle, and of masses of men hasten- ing from threatened destruction.
At midnight, in a leafy arbor, which was lighted up by a huge fire before the entrance, General McClellan held a coun- cil of his corps commanders, Keyes, Heintzelman, Sumner, Porter and Franklin. Sumner, who was not far from seventy years old, was no doubt the strongest, as he was the oldest man present. His rugged face was flushed with anxiety, but he had little to say. Heintzelman, a tall, gaunt man, with gray hair, also said little. A deep gloom overspread his usually mild and cheerful countenance. Porter's brave, but arrogant face was worn with the tumult and distress of the day. He was evidently grieved and anxious, but heard his
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FEDERAL COUNCIL.
leader with confidence. Beside the corps commanders, the General of Engineers was present, and the aids of the sev- cral Generals, among them three French princes, a son of old Louis Philippe, and two grandsons, graceful, modest, liberty- loving youths.
General McClellan stated that the army was in a remark- able situation. A great force lay between it and Richmond, another and perhaps a greater was marching to its rear, and aiming to cut it off from its base of supplies. The right wing, after a most brave resistance, was beaten and driven from its ground. In a few hours the Confederates would be in possession of the York river railroad, and in consequence of the depot of supplies. Foreseeing the emergency, how- ever, he had telegraphed to the quartermaster at the White · House to run the cars to the last moment filled with pro- visions and ammunition, to load all the wagons with subsist- ence, and send them to Savage's Station, to abandon the White House if necessary, and to go up the James.
An' advance on Richmond would not be prudent, as, even if the city should fall in a short time, the enemy could easily occupy the supply communications between that place and the gunboats, and if it should not fall directly, the enemy could concentrate all his forces, capture the train before the army could reach the flotilla, and by this means throw the army into great and perhaps irremediable distress and confu- sion. A new base of supplies must be formed upon the James, which was seventeen miles distant, and the army must lose no time in reaching that base. As the movement would be slow, conducted, as it must be a great part of the way, over a single narrow road, through a forest, in the center of which was a treacherous stream, with swampy shores sev- eral hundred yards wide, the danger from pursuit at their heels, and from flanking or heading on entering the open road to the James could be met only by great caution and skill. General Keyes was directed to prolong his line, which now lay on the south side of the swamp, through its center, and General Porter to follow him as he advanced. The other corps were to remain in their present position until further orders.
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THE SOLDIER OF INDIANA.
Saturday, the 28th, rose hot and bright on a commotion which had never been equaled in the two armies on the Penin- sula. General Stoneman, with small bodies of both infantry and cavalry, was trying to decoy the Confederate army towards the Pamunkey. General Casey was destroying the York river railroad. In the White Oak forest engineers were sur- veying, wood-choppers were felling trees, and bridge-makers were corduroying the single road across the swamp. The mass of the army was tending towards an open, sloping plain of several hundred acres, southeast of Savage's Station, between the Williamsburg turnpike and the railroad. Here the train, consisting of many thousand army wagons from the left bank of the river, was encamped, with cannon, ambu- lances and pontoon bridges. Crowded together among the wagons were thousands of wounded, sick and exhausted, who guessed the army was retreating, who feared to be left behind, and who yet could find no room in ambulance or wagon. Hungry, thirsty, often crippled, or with bloody bandages round their heads, they waited and watched for some chance help. Savage's grounds, an area of more than half an acre, were covered with the helpless wounded as thickly as men could be laid. Forty or fifty tents were also full, with several neigh- boring farm houses. The course of the river was marked by burning bridges. Yet Kearney, Hooker, Sedgwick, Richard- son, Slocum and Smith were still quietly holding the long intrenchments of the left and center, ignorant of the intended change of base, of the great commotion in their rear, and, the most of them, of the result of Porter's battle. So late as the middle of the afternoon, two or three Generals were sitting in the shade by a well, talking lazily on indifferent subjects. In default of employment or excitement some were taking an undisturbed sleep.
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