SEQUELAE OF SEVEN PINES.
The Forces under Command of G. W. Smith after Johnston was
wounded--The Battle of the 1st--Longstreet requests Reinforcements and
a Diversion--Council held--McLaws alone sustains Longstreet's
Opposition to retiring--Severe Fighting--Pickett's Brave
Stand--General Lee assigned to Command--He orders the withdrawal of
the Army--Criticism of General Smith--Confederates should not have
lost the Battle--Keyes's Corroboration.
Major-General G. W. Smith was of the highest standing of the West Point
classes, and, like others of the Engineers, had a big name to help him in
the position to which he had been suddenly called by the incapacitation of
the Confederate commander.
I found his head-quarters at one o'clock in the morning, reported the work
of the commands on the Williamsburg road on the 31st, and asked for part
of the troops ordered up by General Johnston, that we might resume battle
at daylight. He was disturbed by reports of pontoon bridges, said to be
under construction for the use of other reinforcements to join the enemy
from the east side, and was anxious lest the enemy might march his two
corps on the east side by the upper river and occupy Richmond. But after a
time these notions gave way, and he suggested that we could renew the
battle on the Williamsburg road, provided we would send him one of our
brigades to help hold his position and make the battle by a wheel on his
right as a pivot.
As the commands stood, Smith's division on our left was at right angles to
the York River Railroad, facing east, his right near Fair Oaks Station.
Besides his division of ten thousand, he had Magruder's and other commands
of fresh troops near him,--twenty thousand. My left lay near Smith's
right, the line extending parallel to the railroad for a mile, facing
north; thence it broke to the rear, and covered the ground from that point
to the swamp, the return front facing the enemy's third intrenched line.
Smith's part of the field was open and fine for artillery practice. The
field fronting on the railroad was so shut in by heavy pine forest and
tangled swamp that we had no place for a single gun. D. H. Hill's division
was in reserve near the Casey encampment.
The enemy stood: Sedgwick's division in front of Smith; Richardson's
division in column of three brigades parallel to the railroad and behind
it, prepared to attack my left; on Richardson's left was Birney's brigade
behind the railroad, and under the enemy's third intrenched line were the
balance of the Third and all of the Fourth Corps. So the plan to wheel on
Smith's right as a pivot, my right stepping out on the wheel, would have
left the Third and Fourth Corps to attack our rear as soon as we moved.
Besides, it was evident that our new commander would do nothing, and we
must look to accident for such aid as might be drawn to us during the
battle.
The plan proposed could only be considered under the hypothesis that
Magruder would come in as the pivotal point, and, upon having the enemy's
line fully exposed, would find the field fine for his batteries, and put
them in practice without orders from his commander, and, breaking the
enemy's line by an enfilade fire from his artillery, would come into
battle and give it cohesive power.
I left head-quarters at three o'clock, and after an hour's repose rode to
the front to find General Hill. Wilcox's brigade was on my right on the
return front, Pryor's brigade on his left, and R. H. Anderson, Kemper,
Colston, Armistead, and Mahone occupied the line between the Williamsburg
road and the railroad. Pickett's brigade was ordered to be with General
Hill at daylight, and Maurin's, Stribling's, and Watson's batteries, of
Pickett's brigade, to take position on the right of Armistead's.
I found General Hill before he had his breakfast, enjoying the comforts of
Casey's camp. Pickett had passed and was in search of his position, which
was soon disclosed by a fusillade from the front of Richardson's division.
A party of "bummers" from Richmond had found their way into the camp at
Fair Oaks, and were getting such things as they could put their hands on.
They were taken in the gray of the morning for Confederate troops and
fired upon. This made some confusion with our new troops, and part of them
opened fire in the wrong direction, putting two or three bullets through
General Hill's tent before he got out of it. Hood's brigade of Smith's
division, the pivotal point, came under this fire, and was immediately
withdrawn. Hood reported his position good, but his orders were to retire.
Our cavalry had established communication with head-quarters, and gave
prompt notice of movements as they occurred. The pivot was moving to the
rear, but battle on the Williamsburg road steadily advanced, with orders
to develop the enemy's battle front through its extent along the railroad;
not to make the fancied wheel, but to expose his line to the practice of
our batteries on the Nine Miles road.
Our infantry moved steadily, engaging French's brigade of Richardson's
division, which was led by one of Howard's regiments. French was supported
by Howard's brigade, and Howard by Meagher's, and the firing extended
along my line as far as the return front of my right. But Magruder was not
on the field to seize the opportunity for his artillery. He was nowhere
near the battle,--had not been called. General Whiting, however, saw the
opportunity so inviting, and reported to his commander at half after six
o'clock,--
"I am going to try a diversion for Longstreet, and have found, as
reported, a position for artillery. The enemy are in full view and in
heavy masses. I have ordered up Lee with four pieces. The musketry
firing in advance is tremendous."[21]
General Smith had parties posted along the heights of the Chickahominy in
close observation of the movements of the enemy's forces on the east bank.
These parties reported from time to time that the enemy was moving his
forces down the east bank and crossing them over to take part in the
fight. The accounts proved false, but they continued to come to
head-quarters, and were forwarded to my command on the Williamsburg road
and gave us some concern. Failing to receive approval of his chief,
General Whiting reported at nine o'clock,--
"If I don't receive an answer in half an hour, I shall commence
withdrawing my forces."[22]
The answer he received was to throw back his right and take position a
_little_ nearer to the New Bridge fork of the Nine Miles road,[23] thus
swinging the pivot farther back. General Smith complained that the enemy
was getting into the interval between our lines, but position between two
fires was not the place the enemy wanted; he could not know that Smith
wouldn't shoot. Under this long and severe infantry fight there was no
point on my part of the field upon which we could post a single gun. Part
of Armistead's new troops gave way, but the gallant brigadier maintained
his ground and soon collected his other regiments. Before this I had
reported ready, and awaiting a guide, the brigade that was to be sent over
to the Nine Miles road. At half after ten o'clock, General Smith sent word
that he had heard nothing of the brigade expected to come to his support,
and renewed his reports of the enemy crossing over and concentrating
against us on the Williamsburg road. He repeated, too, his wish to have
his cavalry keep close communication between the wings of the army. This
close communication had been established early in the morning and was
maintained through the day, and the reports of the enemy's crossing were
all false, but our new commander seemed to forget. At the same time he
wrote me,--
"I have directed Whiting to take close defensive relations with
Magruder. At any rate, that was absolutely necessary to enable a good
defence to be made whilst you are pivoting on Whiting's position."[24]
Whiting's position, instead of being pivotal, began its rearward move at
the opening fire at daybreak, and continued in that line of conduct until
it reached a point of quiet. General Smith was informed that the brigade
called for by him would not be sent over; that his troops were doing
nothing, while all of mine were in severe battle, except a single brigade,
and the enemy was massing his fighting force against me; that the grounds
were so flooded that it was difficult to keep up our supply of ammunition;
that with the aid of his troops the battle would be ours.
But just then he held a council with Generals McLaws and Whiting and Chief
Engineer Stevens, and submitted the question, "Must the troops be
withdrawn, or the attack continued?"
All voted in favor of the former except McLaws. In a letter, since
written, he has said,--
"I alone urged that you be reinforced and the attack continued, and
the question was reconsidered, and I was sent to learn your
views."[25]
Before General McLaws found me, I wrote General Smith,--
"Can you reinforce me? The entire enemy seems to be opposed to me. We
cannot hold out unless we get help. If we can fight together, we can
finish the work to-day, and Mac's time will be up. If I cannot get
help, I fear that I must fall back."
General McLaws reported of his ride to my lines,--
"I went and found you with J. E. B. Stuart. You were in favor of
resuming the assault, and wanted five thousand men."[26]
Nothing was sent in reply to McLaws's report, but we soon learned that the
left wing of the army was quiet and serene in defensive positions about
the New Bridge fork of the Nine Miles road.
At the first quiet of our battle, after the left wing quit the field, I
ordered the brigades withdrawn to defensive position about the trenches at
Seven Pines, but before the order reached the front the fight was renewed
by Hooker's division upon Wilcox and Pryor, and reached out to our left
near Fair Oaks. In the heat of this, General Wilcox received the order to
retire, and in undue haste pulled his command out, assumed authority over
Pryor, and ordered him off. Pickett, the true soldier, knowing that the
order was not intended for such emergency, stood and resisted the attack.
Colston was sent to his aid, and the attack was repulsed. Immediately
after this repulse was a quiet advance upon Pickett's right. The commander
asked, "What troops are these?" "Virginians!" "Don't fire!" he ordered;
"we will capture the last one of these Virginians." Just then the
Virginians rose and opened a fearful fire that drove him back to his bushy
cover, which ended the battle of Seven Pines. Pickett was withdrawn to
position assigned for his brigade, our line of skirmishers remaining near
the enemy's during the day and night. General Wilcox reported of his
battle, when he pulled off from it, that he was doing as well as he could
wish, but General Hooker reported, "Pursuit was hopeless."
The failure of the enemy to push the opportunity made by the precipitate
retreat of General Wilcox, and Pickett's successful resistance, told that
there was nothing in the reports of troops coming over from the east side
to take part in the battle, and we were convinced that the river was not
passable. I made an appeal for ten thousand men, that we might renew our
battle without regard to General Smith and those about him. It received no
more consideration than the appeal made through General McLaws.
Then General Lee, having been assigned to command, came upon the field
after noon by the Nine Miles road, and, with General Smith, came over to
the Williamsburg road. A similar proposition was made General Lee, but
General Smith protested that the enemy was strongly fortified. At the time
the enemy's main battle front was behind the railroad, fronting against me
but exposed to easy enfilade fire of batteries to be posted on his right
flank on the Nine Miles road, while his front against me was covered by
the railway embankment. It is needless to add that under the fire of
batteries so posted his lines would have been broken to confusion in
twenty minutes. General Holmes marched down the Williamsburg road and
rested in wait for General Lee. Like General Huger, he held rank over me.
General Lee ordered the troops back to their former lines. Those on the
Williamsburg road were drawn back during the night, the rear-guard,
Pickett's brigade, passing the Casey works at sunrise on the 2d
unmolested. Part of Richardson's division mistook the camp at Fair Oaks
for the Casey camp, and claimed to have recovered it on the afternoon of
the 1st, but it was not until the morning of the 2d that the Casey camp
was abandoned.
The Confederate losses in the two days' fight were 6134; the Union losses,
5031.
It seems from Union accounts that all of our dead were not found and
buried on the afternoon of the 1st. It is possible, as our battle was in
the heavy forest and swamp tangles.
General Smith has written a great deal about the battle of Seven Pines
during the past twenty or thirty years, in efforts to show that the
failure of success was due to want of conduct on the part of the forces on
the Williamsburg road. He claims that he was only out as a party of
observation, to prevent reinforcement of the enemy from the east side of
the river, and that he kept Sumner off of us. But he waited three hours
after the enemy's ranks and lines had been broken, instead of moving with
and finishing the battle, thus giving Sumner time to march from the east
of the river, and strike him and beat him to disorder, and change the lost
battle to success. He shows that Hill's and Longstreet's divisions could
have gained the battle unaided,--which may be true enough, but it would
have been a fruitless success, for the enemy got forces over to protect
those of the west side; whereas, the stronger battle, ordered by the four
divisions, could and would have made a complete success of it but for the
balky conduct of the divisions ordered to guard the flanks. Instead of six
hours' hard work to reach the enemy's third line, we could have captured
it in the second hour and had the field cleaned up before Sumner crossed
the river.
General Keyes, the commander of the Fourth Corps, in his "Fifty Years'
Observations," says,--
"The left of my lines were all protected by the White Oak Swamp, but
the right was on ground so favorable to the approach of the enemy, and
so far from the Chickahominy, that if Johnston had attacked them an
hour or two earlier than he did, I could have made but a feeble
defence comparatively, and every man of us would have been killed,
captured, or driven into the swamp or river before assistance could
have reached us."
General Smith lay in wait three hours after the enemy's positions were
broken and carried, giving ample time for the march of the succoring
forces. The hour of the attack was not so important as prompt and vigorous
work. If the battle had opened at sunrise, Smith would have made the same
wait, and Sumner's march would have been in time to beat him. All elements
of success were in the plan, but balky troops will mar the strongest
plans. He tries to persuade himself that he intended to join our battle on
the Williamsburg road, but there was no fight in his heart after his
maladroit encounter with Sedgwick's division on the afternoon of the 31st.
The opportunity for enfilade fire of his artillery along the enemy's
battle front, at the morning opening and all of the forenoon, was waiting
him; while reports of the enemy crossing the river, reinforcing against my
single contest, were demanding relief and aid.
He reported sick on the 2d and left the army. When ready for duty he was
assigned about Richmond and the seaboard of North Carolina. He applied to
be restored to command of his division in the field, but the authorities
thought his services could be used better elsewhere. He resigned his
commission in the Confederate service, went to Georgia, and joined Joe
Brown's militia, where he found congenial service, better suited to his
ideas of vigorous warfare.