nearly the whole of his army for an attack on the Union troops on the Richmond side of the Chickahominy, McClellan should have placed his larger force to meet the greater danger.1

Johnston, knowing of the anticipated forward movement of McDowell, had determined to fall upon the Union army. on both sides of the river before the junction could be effected; but when he learned that McDowell had abandoned the march southward, he resolved to strike at the two Union corps nearest to Richmond.2 May 31 was the appointed day. The afternoon and night before, a tropical storm had raged. Sheets of fire, lightnings sharp, and dreadful thunder-claps were fit precursors of the strife waged by the artillery of man." Water poured down from the clouds, and the treacherous Chickahominy, which had already risen from the spring rains, became a torrent, increasing the danger of the divided Union army and the eagerness of Johnston to give battle. Roads deep with mud and difficult for his batteries could not induce delay. Saturday, May 31, at some time after twelve o'clock, he attacked with vigor the corps of Keyes and Heintzelman, drove them back, and came near inflicting on them a crushing defeat.

General Sumner saved the day at Fair Oaks. For two days McClellan had been ill at his headquarters, at Gaines's Mill, on the north side of the river, but was not incapacitated for business. This Saturday morning he should have feared for his bridges which maintained communication between the two wings of his army and which the flood in the river threatened to carry away. Common prudence, suggesting the possibility of attack, should have urged him to send at once

1 Walker's Hist. of the Second Army Corps, p. 20; General F. W. Palfrey, Papers of the Mil. Hist. Soc. of Mass., vol. i. p. 176; Comte de Paris, vol. ii. p. 53; Swinton's Army of the Potomac, p. 131.

2 From Johnston's report one would gather that he supposed only Keyes's corps had crossed the river. He did not alter his plan until after the morning of the 28th. O. R., vol. xi. part iii. p. 555.

3 "All night long, Zeus, the lord of counsel, devised them ill with terrible thunderings. Then pale fear gat hold upon them." The Iliad, vii. 477.

Sumner's corps to the other side of the Chickahominy; but he delayed until he heard the sound of Johnston's guns, and then sent word to Sumner to be ready to move at a moment's warning. Sumner, every inch a soldier, knew the battle was on and thirsted to have his part in it. Comprehending the danger better than his chief, he at once marched his two divisions to his two bridges, halted, and anxiously awaited further commands. The order at last came to cross the river. Sumner's corps went over the swaying and tossing bridges, and preserved McClellan's left wing from rout. By the close of day the Confederates had driven the Federals on the left of their line back a mile or two, while those on the right, reinforced by Sumner, had held their own. But the Southern army had suffered a grievous loss in the severe wounding of General Johnston, who, knocked from his horse by the fragment of a shell near the end of the fight, was borne unconscious from the field.1 McClellan was at no time during the day on the side of the river where the fighting took place; the orders that he gave are dated from his headquarters north of the Chickahominy.

The result of the battle, Johnston's only partial defeat of the Federal left wing, instead of a rout, as had seemed probable, gave McClellan a great chance, which he seemed to appreciate. You ought to be able now to "hold your own," he sent word at five o'clock to Heintzelman.2 "I will post everything during the night so as to be able to cross at New Bridge to-morrow." 3 The bridges by which Sumner had gone over had become impassable, and orders were given

1 Davis wrote his wife June 3: "The poor fellow [Johnstou] bore his suffering most heroically. When he was about to be put into the ambulance to be removed from the field, I dismounted to speak to him; he opened his eyes, smiled, and gave me his hand, said he did not know how seriously he was hurt, but reared a fragment of shell had injured his spine.” — Mrs. Davis's Memoir, vol. ii. p. 292.

2 Heintzelman commanded the third corps and outranked Keyes, who had the fourth corps. Sumner commanded the second corps and outranked

Heintzelman.

3 O. R., vol. xi. part iii. p. 203.

from headquarters to throw others across the river. At 8.15 Sunday. morning, June 1, New Bridge was finished and fit for the use of infantry, artillery, and cavalry. Meanwhile the battle had been renewed, the Confederates were driven back, losing the ground which they had gained, and a great victory seemed within the grasp of the Union army. An able and energetic commander would have been with his fighting troops at daylight; he would have ordered several brigades to take the heights from which the Confederates commanded New Bridge; the approaches to this bridge uncovered, he would have brought across the river the major part of his two corps who had not been in the engagement of Saturday; and, encouraged by the unimpaired morale of his troops,1 the chances are more than even that he would have beaten the Confederate army and taken Richmond. McClellan did nothing of the sort. After his despatch to Heintzelman and the order for building the bridge, his native irresolution laid fast hold of him. He did not reach the field of battle Sunday until the firing had ceased, but his soldiers, highly gratified at his appearance, received him with "unbounded enthusiasm." 2 "Our faith in our commander was then absolute," writes General Palfrey, "and our admiration for him unlimited." The Union troops had pushed forward to within four miles of Richmond. Sumner, the ranking corps commander, asked McClellan if he had any orders to give. The answer was: No, I have no changes to make. I am satisfied with what has been done. The left wing of his army fell back to the lines it had occupied before the battle. The action of

1 O. R., vol. xi. part i. p. 749.

2 General Peck's report of June 2.

3 In addition to authorities specifically cited, see Correspondence, O. R., vol. xi. part i. and iii.; Reports of Johnston, G. W. Smith, Longstreet, D. H. Hill, McClellan, Sumner, Heintzelman, Keyes, Richardson, Hooker, Sickles, part i.; Testimony of McClellan, Sumner, Heintzelman, Keyes, C. W., part i.; as to the bridges, Barnard's report, O. R., vol. xi. part i. p. 112; his pamphlet on the Peninsular Campaign, p. 9; Walker, Palfrey, and Webb in works hitherto referred to; Johnston, Narrative, and Article in Century War Book, vol. ii.; G. W. Smith's article, ibid.; Life of Johnston, Hughes;

the two days may be summed up as a partial success of Johnston, and in the end a repulse of the Confederates.1

Longstreet, From Manassas to Appomattox; G. W. Smith, Confederate War Papers; McClellan's Own Story. In the criticism of McClellan I have followed Walker, Hist. of the Second Army Corps, p. 21, and Palfrey, Papers of the Mil. Hist. Soc. of Mass., vol. i. p. 199. Both were present at the battle. I have not stated the chance of going into Richmond, June 1, as strongly as have some writers, for the reason that I do not believe the Confederates were badly demoralized. Barnard speaks, Jan. 26, 1863, of "the state of disorganization and dismay in which the rebel army retreated" (O. R., vol. xi. part i. p. 131). Feb. 18, 1863, General Sumner testified: "When Johnston was knocked from his horse and taken in a litter to Richmond, the rebel army became a confused mob" (C. W., part i. p. 366); also Heintzelman (p. 352). Webb (p. 117) writes the Confederates were “in a panic" June 1. I do not think the contemporary evidence supports these statements. Generals Sickles and Hooker, in their reports of June 7 and 8, speak of "the hurried retreat" and "wild confusion" of the enemy, June 1 (O. R., vol. xi. part i. pp. 819, 824; see comment of G. W. Smith, Century War Book, vol. ii. p. 259 et seq.; Longstreet, From Manassas to Appomattox, chap. viii.), and the Confederate General D. H. Hill says in his report, undated, "Armistead's men fled early in the action" (O. R., vol. xi. part i. p. 945; see comment of Walker, Hist. 2d Corps, p. 49). I hardly think such a condition in two parts of the field warrants the general statement that the whole army was demoralized.

66

The N. Y. Herald correspondent telegraphed from McClellan's headquarters, June 6, that the "greatest consternation" had prevailed in Richmond, June 1. Barnard, in his political pamphlet published in 1864, quotes William Henry Hurlbut as to the disorderly retreat of the Confederates (p. 9). In Richmond, if we may consider the Richmond Dispatch, Examiner, and Jones's Diary sufficient authority, there was no panic; "anxiety" and painful suspense prevailed, but nothing more. The newspapers and Jones maintained that on both the days the Confederates had been successful. This belief grew with the inaction of the Union army, and allowed full course to the rejoicing over Stonewall Jackson's victories in the Shenandoah valley, which had begun before the battle of Fair Oaks or Seven Pines. I suppose that by the morning of June 1 the Confederate soldiers generally knew that Johnston was wounded, and were much depressed by the mishap. General McClellan was not aware of it June 1; his despatch to Stanton at noon of that day makes no mention of it. Nor did he apparently know of this misfortune to the Confederates until June 6, when he speaks of it as a matter of news in a letter to his wife (Own Story, p. 399). General Richardson, writing June 4, does not refer to it (Moore, Reb. Rec., vol. v. Docs., p. 87). The fact that Johnston had been wounded was published in the Richmond Dispatch of June 2, and entered by Jones in his Diary as of that date (vol. i. p. 132).

1 Hamley, Operations of War, p. 173. The total Union loss was 5031, the Confederate 6134.-Century War Book, vol. ii. p. 219.

1

June 1 Robert E. Lee was placed in command of the Confederate army, but did not assume the direction of affairs until the fighting of that day was over.1 While Davis had unbounded confidence in Lee, and Stonewall Jackson thought that he had military talents of a high order,2 no one could at that time have dreamed of his latent genius. The Army of Northern Virginia (by this name it became known shortly afterwards) regarded him as the most distinguished of engineers, but they retained a vivid impression of his failure the previous autumn in western Virginia, and neither officers nor men were hopeful that he would direct with energy and ability operations in the field. Johnston had won their confidence and respect; all looked upon his hurt as a calamity, and few, if any, believed that his loss had been repaired. Lee at once summoned his general officers in council. Longstreet, the commander of a division, did not regard this as reassuring; he thought secrecy in war was necessary, and that a discussion of plans with brigadiers was either harmful or useless. Lee listened intently to their accounts of the late battle and to their present opinions; he disclosed nothing, but, when the tone of the conversation became despondent at the progress of the siege which the invaders were conducting, he endeavored to cheer up his officers, and in this was assisted by Davis, who joined the council before its members separated. Afterwards Lee made a careful survey of the position of his army, and directed that it be at once strongly fortified. He had some difficulty in overcoming the aversion to manual labor which obtained

1 O. R., vol. xi. part iii. p. 568; Smith, Century War Book; Longstreet, From Manassas to Appomattox. In the interim between Johnston and Lee, G. W. Smith had command.

Davis's Confederate Government; Life of Jackson, Mrs. Jackson, p. 234. When Jackson, who had been very desirous for reinforcements, heard of the appointment of Lee as military adviser to the President, he said to a friend: "Well, madam, I am reinforced at last." Dabney, p. 335.

3 Longstreet, From Manassas to Appomattox, p. 112; Life of Lee, Long,

p. 163; Richmond Dispatch, July 9, 1862.

4 Longstreet, p. 112; Davis, p. 130; Long, p. 162.