CHAP. XVI. THE NATIONALS ON THE VIRGINIA PENINSULA.

1581

navigating the James River; and McClellan prepared to transfer the Army of the Potomac to Fortress Monroe, which place he designed to make a base of supplies for his army while marching on Richmond. To secure Washington city, it was necessary to hold the Confederates in check in the Shenandoah Valley, where they were led by the zealous and gallant "Stonewall Jackson." He had been defeated by the dashing General Lander, at Blooming Gap, on the 14th of February; and when Johnston and his Confederates evacuated Manassas, Jackson had taken post at Winchester. General N. P. Banks was then in command of National troops near Harper's Ferry, destined for operations in the Shenandoah Valley; and when Jackson went further up that valley, he sent General Shields in pursuit. Shields soon turned back, and with a considerable body of troops encamped at Winchester. Jackson, reinforced, came down the Valley in force, infantry and cavalry, and attacked Shields at Kernstown just west of Winchester. Shields had only about seven thousand men, and twenty-four heavy guns. The battle that ensued (March 22, 1862) was short and severe. Shields was badly wounded. The Confederates were defeated, and fled up the valley closely pursued by Banks, who remained in that region to watch the insurgents while McClellan should move upon Richmond.

It was not until April when the Army of the Potomac began its campaign on the Virginia Peninsula. General McClellan had transferred a larger part of that army to Fortress Monroe, leaving about seventythree thousand troops for the defence of Washington. At the beginning of April there were one hundred and twenty-one thousand men at Fortress Monroe (exclusive of the forces of General Wool), and a large portion of these now moved, in two columns, up the Peninsula; one column under General Heintzelman marching near the York River, and another under General Keyes, near the James River. A comparatively small Confederate force, under General J. B. Magruder, had formed a fortified line across the Peninsula, in the pathway of the Nationals; and by skillful tricks, Magruder so deceived McClellan as to the number of the Confederates, that the invaders were kept at bay, below Yorktown, nearly a month, while their leader was calling for reinforcements to enable him to break through the opposing line. Yorktown was regularly besieged under the direction of General Fitz John Porter, though the number of the Nationals was ten times as large as that of the Confederates. An attempt to carry the intrenchments on the Warwick River, by a division under General Smith of Keyes's column, caused a sharp engagement. It failed; and finally Magruder fell back to a line of strong intrenchments

in front of Williamsburg, where, on the 3d of May, he wrote, after describing his strategy: "Thus, with five thousand men, exclusive of the garrison, we stopped and held in check over one hundred thousand of the enemy. I was amused when I saw McClellan, with his magnificent army, begin to break ground before miserable earthworks [at Yorktown] defended by only eight thousand men." General Sumner, with the main body of the Nationals, had pursued the Confederates to Williamsburg, while McClellan remained at Yorktown to forward troops under General Franklin up the York River, to strike the left flank of the insurgents.

General Joseph E. Johnston, who had hastened to the Peninsula after the evacuation of Manassas, was now in chief command in front of McClellan. Leaving a strong guard at Williamsburg to check the pursuers, Johnston fell back with his main army toward Richmond, with the intention of fighting the Nationals when they should approach that city. But he was compelled to fight sooner than he expected, for gallant and energetic men-Generals Hooker, Kearney and Hancock-attacked that rear-guard n the 5th of May. Hard-pressed, Johnston sent back a large portion of his army to help them. A sanguinary battle followed. Hooker began the assault, knowing a large 'ɔody of troops were within supporting distance, and for full nine hours he bore the brunt of the battle. Then Kearney came to his aid, and Hancock having turned the flank of the Confederates, the latter precipitately retreated. In this perilous movement they were led by General James Longstreet, the ablest and best of the Confederate leaders in the war.

On the morning after the conflict, McClellan came upon the battle-field, just as the victors were about to press on in pursuit of the fugitives, who had left about eight hundred of their wounded behind them in their flight. He had kept Franklin so long at Yorktown, that the latter could not flank the Confederates; and now, when the latter were flying evidently in a panic, the Commander-in-Chief would not allow a pursuit, but moved leisurely forward during the next ten or twelve days, reaching the Chickahominy River when Johnston was safely encamped beyond it. Experts on both sides declared, that had a vigorous pursuit followed the events at Williamsburg, the Confederate army might have been captured or dispersed. Franklin had secured a firm foothold at near the head of the York River, which was made the base of supplies for the Army of the Potomac in its earlier operations against Richmond. In the battle at Williamsburg, the Nationals lost twenty-two hundred men, of whom four hundred and fifty-six were killed. The Confederate loss was about one thousand.

CHAP. XVI.

A TARDY ADVANCE.

1583

More than a month, after General McClellan arrived at Fortress Monroe, had been consumed in moving only thirty-six miles toward Richmond, and the army had suffered fearful losses by sickness. Very few perished by the weapons of the enemy during the month's siege of Yorktown, "but disease," said General J. G. Barnard, McClellan's chief engineer, in his report at the close of the campaign, "took a fearful hold of the army; and toil and hardships, unredeemed by the excitement of combat, impaired their morale. We did not carry with us from Yorktown so good an army as we took there. Of the bitter fruits of that month gained by the enemy, we have tasted to our heart's content." Twenty of the thirty days that the army lay before Yorktown were marked by heavy thundershowers, following in quick succession. The troops, wearied and overheated by labor, lay on the damp ground at night, and were chilled. "In a short time," wrote Dr. Marks, a participant, "the sick in our hospitals were numbered by thousands, and many died so suddenly that the disease had all the aspects of a plague."

One cause of McClellan's tardy advance was his constant fear of not having troops enough to meet the energetic Johnston. Before his army left Washington, Blenker's division of ten thousand men were taken from it to strengthen Fremont, who was in command of the Mountain Department beyond the Blue Ridge; and soon afterward McDowell's army corps were detached from McClellan's immediate command, and its leader instructed to report directly to the Secretary of War. McDowell was ordered to a position where he might assist in the defence of the Capital, or in an attack upon Richmond, as circumstances might require. General Wool, with his ten thousand men at Fortress Monroe, was also made independent of McClellan's orders, although, like McDowell, he was directed to co-operate with the Army of the Potomac as far as possible. General McClellan, perceiving these indications of a lack of implicit confidence in his judgment, and feeling that he might be denied support at any time, startled the President on the 7th of April by telegraphing to the Secretary of War that he had only eighty-five thousand effective men, and might be called upon to confront one hundred thousand Confederates. He had just reported that he had over one hundred thousand effective troops. The President asked him to explain, and urged him to strike the foe before they should gather in greater strength on his front. Instead of that, McClellan continued to halt and complain of a want of troops. The President urged him to act. "The country will note-it is now noting," Mr. Lincoln said, "that the present hesitation to move upon an intrenched enemy is but the story of Manassas repeated." The Presi

dent expressed the kindest feelings toward the general, and closed his letter with the remark, "But you must act." Still he hesitated and complained; and although, at the close of April, just before the Confederates evacuated Yorktown, he reported one hundred and twelve thousand soldiers on the Peninsula fit for duty, he complained that the lack of McDowell's force prevented Franklin striking the fugitives from Williamsburg on the flank. It is asserted that the chief cause of the failure was McClellan's hesitancy in deciding whether he should smite the Confederates on their front, or flank them, until it was too late to attempt either.

The veteran General John E. Wool had now been in command at Fortress Monroe for some time. He felt certain that the Confederate soldiers might easily be driven out of Norfolk; and after the affair at Williamsburg he obtained leave to make an effort to dislodge them. Having made a personal reconnoissance, he crossed Hampton Roads and landed a few regiments in the rear of Confederate works below that city. General Huger, in command at Norfolk, had already perceived his peril, with Burnside in his rear and McClellan on his flank, and he retreated. So Wool gained a bloodless victory on the 9th of May. The Confederate vessels in the James River hastened toward Richmond. The Confederates set fire to the battered Merrimac, and the troops fled from the city of Norfolk. A flotilla of National gun-boats, commanded by Commodore Rodgers, chased the Confederate vessels as far as Drewry's Bluff, eight miles below Richmond, where a strong fort and river obstructions checked the pursuers.

The wisdom of detaching McDowell's corps from the Army of the Potomac was soon made apparent. After the departure of Johnston, with his troops, from Manassas, which relieved Washington from immediate danger, McDowell advanced to Fredericksburg, with thirty thousand men, to assist McClellan or cover the Capital, as he might be ordered. Fremont among the mountains and Banks in the Shenandoah Valley had, in the aggregate, about the same number of troops; and at the beginning of May, Stonewall Jackson had been joined by the skillful General Ewell, near Harrisonburg, in the upper part of the Valley. Ewell was ordered to hold Banks, while General Robert E. Lee, who had been recalled from Georgia, should push across the Rappahannock with a strong column and cut off all communication between Winchester and Alexandria.

While Jackson was watching Banks he was startled by the approach of one of Fremont's brigades under General Milroy, evidently for the purpose of joining the Nationals in the Valley. Jackson immediately