It was not until three weeks after the fight between the ironclads that
the great army under General McClellan arrived off Fortress Monroe, the
greater portion of the troops coming down the Potomac in steam
transports. Vast quantities of stores had been accumulated in and around
the fortress. Guns of a size never before used in war were lying on the
wharfs in readiness to be placed in batteries, while Hampton Roads were
crowded with transports and store vessels watched over by the Monitor
and the other war ships. McClellan's army was a large one, but not so
strong a force as he had intended to have taken with him, and as soon as
he arrived at Fortress Monroe he learned that he would not be able to
expect much assistance from the fleet. The Merrimac completely closed
the James River; and were the more powerful vessels of the fleet to move
up the York River, she would be able to sally out and destroy the rest
of the fleet and the transports.
As it was most important to clear the peninsula between the two rivers
before Magruder should receive strong reinforcements, a portion of the
troops were at once landed, and on the 4th of April 56,000 men and 100
guns disembarked and started on their march against Yorktown. As soon as
the news of the arrival of the Northern army at Fortress Monroe reached
Richmond fresh steps were taken for the defense of the city. Magruder
soon found that it would be impossible with the force at his command to
hold the line he had proposed, and a large body of negroes and troops
were set to work to throw up defenses between Yorktown and a point on
the Warwick River thirteen and a half miles away.
A portion of this line was covered by the Warwick Creek, which he dammed
up to make it unfordable, and erected batteries to guard the dams.
Across the intervening ground a weak earthwork with trenches was
constructed, there being no time to raise stronger works; but Magruder
relied chiefly upon the swampy and difficult nature of the country, and
the concealment afforded by the forest, which rendered it difficult for
the enemy to discover the weakness of the defenders.
He posted 6,000 men at Yorktown and Gloucester Point, and the remaining
5,000 troops under his command were scattered along the line of works to
the Warwick River. He knew that if McClellan pushed forward with all his
force he must be successful; but he knew also that if the enemy could
but be held in check for a few days assistance would reach him from
General Johnston's army.
Fortunately for the Confederates, the weather, which had been fine and
clear during the previous week, changed on the very day that McClellan
started. The rain came down in torrents, and the roads became almost
impassable. The columns struggled on along the deep and muddy tracks all
day, and bivouacked for the night in the forests. The next morning they
resumed their march, and on reaching the first line of intrenchments
formed by the Confederates found them deserted, and it was not until
they approached the Warwick Creek that they encountered serious
opposition. Had they pushed forward at once they would have
unquestionably captured Richmond. But McClellan's fault was
over-caution, and he believed himself opposed by a very much larger
force than that under the command of Magruder; consequently, instead of
making an attack at once he began regular siege operations against the
works on Warwick Creek and those at Yorktown.
The delay saved Richmond. Every day reinforcements arrived, and by the
time that McClellan's army, over 100,000 strong, had erected their
batteries and got their heavy guns into position, Magruder had been
reinforced by some 10,000 men under General Johnston, who now assumed
the command, while other divisions were hurrying up from Northern and
Western Virginia. Upon the very night before the batteries were ready to
open, the Confederates evacuated their positions and fell back, carrying
with them all their guns and stores to the Chickahominy River, which ran
almost across the peninsula at a distance of six miles only from
Richmond.
The Confederates crossed and broke down the bridges, and prepared to
make another stand. The disappointment of the Federals was great. After
ten days of incessant labor and hardship they had only gained possession
of the village of Yorktown and a tract of low swampy country. The
divisions in front pressed forward rapidly after the Confederates; but
these had managed their plan so well that all were safely across the
stream before they were overtaken.
The dismay in Richmond had for a few days been great. Many people left
the town for the interior, taking their valuables with them, and all was
prepared for the removal of the state papers and documents. But as the
Federals went on with their fortifications, and the reinforcements began
to arrive, confidence was restored, and all went on as before.
The great Federal army was so scattered through the forests, and the
discipline of some of the divisions was so lax that it was some days
before McClellan had them ranged in order on the Chickahominy. Another
week elapsed before he was in a position to undertake fresh operations;
but General Johnston had now four divisions on the spot, and he was too
enterprising a general to await the attack. Consequently he crossed the
Chickahominy, fell upon one of the Federal divisions and almost
destroyed it, and drove back the whole of their left wing. The next
morning the battle was renewed, and lasted for five hours.
It was fortunate indeed for the Confederates that the right wing of the
Northern army did not, while the action was going on, cross the river
and march straight upon Richmond; but communication was difficult from
one part of the army to another, owing to the thick forests and the
swampy state of the ground, and being without orders they remained
inactive all day. The loss on their side had been 7,000 men, while the
Confederates had lost 4,500; and General Johnston being seriously
wounded, the chief command was given to General Lee, by far the ablest
soldier the war produced. Satisfied with the success they had gained,
the Confederates fell back across the river again.
On the 4th of June, General Stuart--for he had now been
promoted--started with 1,200 cavalry and two guns, and in forty-eight
hours made one of the most adventurous reconnaissances ever undertaken.
First the force rode out to Hanover Courthouse, where they encountered
and defeated, first, a small body of cavalry, and afterward a whole
regiment. Then, after destroying the stores there they rode round to the
Pamunkey, burned two vessels and a large quantity of stores, captured a
train of forty wagons, and burned a railway bridge.
Then they passed right round the Federal rear, crossed the river, and
re-entered the city with 165 prisoners and 200 horses, having effected
the destruction of vast quantities of stores, besides breaking up the
railways and burning bridges.
Toward the end of June McClellan learned that Stonewall Jackson, having
struck heavy blows at the two greatly superior armies which were
operating against him in the valley of the Shenandoah, had succeeded in
evading them, and was marching toward Richmond.
He had just completed several bridges across the river, and was about to
move forward to fight a great battle when the news reached him.
Believing that he should be opposed by an army of 200,000 men, although,
in fact, the Confederate army, after Jackson and all the available
reinforcements came up, was still somewhat inferior in strength to his
own, he determined to abandon for the present the attempt upon Richmond,
and to fall back upon the James River.
Here his ships had already landed stores for his supply, for the river
was now open as far as the Confederate defenses at Fort Darling. Norfolk
Navy Yard had been captured by the 10,000 men who formed the garrison of
Fortress Monroe. No resistance had been offered, as all the Confederate
troops had been concentrated for the defense of Richmond. When Norfolk
was captured the Merrimac steamed out to make her way out of the river;
but the water was low, and the pilot declared that she could not be
taken up. Consequently she was set on fire and burned to the water's
edge, and thus the main obstacle to the advance of the Federal fleet was
removed.
They had advanced as far as Fort Darling and the ironclad gunboats had
engaged the batteries there. Their shot, however, did little damage to
the defenders upon the lofty bluffs, while the shot from the batteries
so injured the gunboats that the attempt to force the passage was
abandoned. While falling back to a place called Harrison's Landing on
the James River, the Federals were attacked by the Confederates, but
after desperate fighting on both sides, lasting for five days, they
succeeded in drawing off from the Chickahominy with a loss of fifty
guns, thousands of small arms, and the loss of the greater part of their
stores.
All idea of a further advance against Richmond was for the present
abandoned. President Lincoln had always been opposed to the plan, and a
considerable portion of the army was moved round to join the force under
General Pope, which was now to march upon Richmond from the north.
From the commencement of the Federal advance to the time when, beaten
and dispirited, they regained the James River, Vincent Wingfield had
seen little of his family. The Federal lines had at one time been within
a mile of the Orangery. The slaves had some days before been all sent
into the interior, and Mrs. Wingfield and her daughters had moved into
Richmond, where they joined in the work, to which the whole of the
ladies of the town and neighborhood devoted themselves, of attending to
the wounded, of whom, while the fighting was going on, long trains
arrived every day at the city.
Vincent himself had taken no active part in the fighting. Magruder's
division had not been engaged in the first attack upon McClellan's
force; and although it had taken a share in the subsequent severe
fighting, Vincent had been occupied in carrying messages from the
general to the leaders of the other divisions, and had only once or
twice come under the storm of fire to which the Confederates were
exposed as they plunged through the morasses to attack the enemy. As
soon as it was certain that the attack was finally abandoned, and that
McClellan's troops were being withdrawn to strengthen Pope's army,
Vincent resigned his appointment as aide-de-camp, and was appointed to
the 7th Virginian Cavalry, stationed at Orange, where it was facing the
Federal cavalry. Major Ashley had fallen while protecting the passage of
Jackson's division when hard pressed by one of the Federal armies in
Western Virginia.
No action in the war had been more brilliant than the manner in which
Stonewall Jackson had baffled the two armies--each greatly superior in
force to his own--that had been specially appointed to destroy him if
possible, or at any rate to prevent his withdrawing from the Shenandoah
Valley and marching to aid in the defense of the Confederate capital.
His troops had marched almost day and night, without food, and depending
entirely upon such supplies as they could obtain from the scattered
farmhouses they passed.
Although Richmond was for the present safe, the prospect of the
Confederates was by no means bright. New Orleans had been captured; the
blockade of the other ports was now so strict that it was difficult in
the extreme for a vessel to make her way in or out; and the Northerners
had placed flotillas of gunboats on the rivers, and by the aid of these
were gradually making their way into the heart of several of the States.
"Are you thinking of going out to the Orangery again soon, mother?"
Vincent asked on the evening before setting out on the march north.
"I think not, Vincent. There is so much to do in the hospitals here that
I cannot leave. I should be ashamed to be living in luxury at the
Orangery with the girls while other women are giving up their whole time
nursing the wounded. Besides, although I do not anticipate that after
the way they have been hurled back the Northerners will try again for
some time, now they are in possession of Harrison's Landing they can at
any moment advance. Besides, it is not pleasant being obliged to turn
out of one's house and leave everything to their mercy. I wrote
yesterday to Pearson to bring the slaves back at once and take up the
work, and I shall go over occasionally to see that everything is in
order; but at any rate for a time we will stop here."
"I think that is best, mother. Certainly I should feel more comfortable
knowing that you are all at Richmond than alone out there."
"We should be no worse off than thousands of ladies all over the State,
Vincent. There are whole districts where every white capable of using a
gun has gone to the war, leaving nothing but women and slaves behind,
and we have not heard of a single case in which there has been trouble."
"Certainly there is no chance of trouble with your slaves, mother; but
in some of the other plantations it may not be so. At any rate the quiet
conduct of the slaves everywhere is the very best answer that could be
given to the accusations that have been made as to their cruel
treatment. At present the whole of the property of the slave-owners
throughout the Southern States is at their mercy, and they might burn,
kill, and destroy; and yet in no single instance have they risen against
what are called their oppressors, even when the Federals have been close
at hand.
"Please keep your eye on Dinah, mother. I distrust that fellow Jackson
so thoroughly that I believe him capable of having her carried off and
smuggled away somewhere down south, and sold there if he saw a chance. I
wish, instead of sending her to the Orangery, you would keep her as one
of your servants here."
"I will if you wish it, Vincent; but I cannot believe for a moment that
this Jackson or any one else would venture to meddle with any of my
slaves."
"Perhaps not, mother; but it is best to be on the safe side. Anyhow, I
shall be glad to know that she is with you. Young Jackson will be away,
for I know he is in one of Stuart's troops of horse, though I have never
happened to run against him since the war began."
The firing had hardly ceased before Harrison's Landing, when General
Jackson, with a force of about 15,000 men, composed of his own division,
now commanded by General Winder, General Ewell's division, and a portion
of that of General Hill, started for the Rapidan to check General Pope,
who, plundering and wasting the country as he advanced, was marching
south, his object being to reach Gordonsville, where he would cut the
line of railway connecting Richmond with Western Virginia. Vincent was
glad that the regiment to which he had been appointed would be under
Jackson's command, and that he would be campaigning again with his old
division, which consisted largely of Virginian troops and contained so
many of his old friends.
With Jackson, too, he was certain to be engaged in stirring service, for
that general ever kept his troops upon the march, striking blows where
least expected, and traversing such an extent of country by rapid
marches that he and his division seemed to the enemy to be almost
ubiquitous.
It was but a few hours after he received his appointment that Vincent
took train from Richmond to Gordonsville, Dan being in the horse-box
with Wildfire in the rear of the train. His regiment was encamped a mile
or two away, and he at once rode on and reported himself to Colonel
Jones, who commanded it.
"I am glad to have you with me, sir," the colonel said. "I had the
pleasure of knowing your father, and am an old friend of your mother's
family. As you were in Ashley's horse and have been serving on
Magruder's staff, you are well up in your duties; and it is a comfort to
me that the vacancy has been filled up by one who knows his work instead
of a raw hand. We have had a brush or two already with the enemy; but at
present we are watching each other, waiting on both sides till the
generals have got their infantry to the front in readiness for an
advance. Jackson is waiting for Hill's division to come up, and I
believe Pope is expecting great reinforcements from McClellan."
A few days later Colonel Jones was ordered to take charge of the pickets
posted on the Rapidan, but before reaching Orange a gentleman rode up at
full speed and informed them that the enemy were in possession of that
town. Colonel Jones divided his regiment into two parts, and with one
charged the Federal cavalry in the main street of Orange, while the
other portion of the regiment, under Major Marshall, attacked them on
the flank. After a sharp fight the enemy were driven from the place; but
they brought up large reinforcements, and, pouring in a heavy fire,
attacked the town on both sides, and the Confederates had to fall back.
But they made another stand a little way out of the town, and drove back
the Federal cavalry who were pressing them.
Although the fight had been but a short one the losses in the cavalry
ranks had been serious. Colonel Jones, while charging at the head of his
men, had received a saber-wound, and Major Marshall was taken prisoner.
Five days later, on the 7th of August, Jackson received certain
intelligence that General Burnside, with a considerable portion of
McClellan's force, had embarked, and was on the way to join Pope. He
determined to strike a blow at once, and marched with his entire force
from Gordonsville for Barnett Ford on the Rapidan.
At daybreak next morning the cavalry crossed the river and attacked and
routed a body of Federal cavalry on the road to Culpepper Courthouse. On
the following day Jackson came up with his infantry to a point about
eight miles from Culpepper, where Pope's army, 32,000 strong, were
stationed upon the crest of a hill. General Ewell's division, which was
the only one then up, at once advanced, and, after a severe artillery
fight, gained a point on a hill where his guns could command the enemy's
position.
Jackson's division now came up, and as it was moving into position
General Winder was killed by a shell. For some hours Jackson did not
attempt to advance, as Hill's division had not come up. Encouraged by
this delay, the enemy at five o'clock in the afternoon took the
offensive and advanced through some cornfields lying between the two
armies and attacked Ewell's division on the Confederate right; while
shortly afterward they fell with overwhelming strength on Jackson's
left, and, attacking it in front, flank, and rear, drove it back, and
pressed upon it with such force that the day appeared lost.
At this moment Jackson himself rode down among the confused and wavering
troops, and by his voice and example rallied them. At the same moment
the old Stonewall Brigade came up at a run and poured their fire into
the advancing enemy. Jackson led the troops he had rallied forward. The
Stonewall Brigade fell upon the enemy's flank and drove them back with
terrible slaughter. Other brigades came up, and there was a general
charge along the whole Confederate line, and the Federals were driven
back a mile beyond the position they had occupied at the commencement of
the fight to the shelter of some thick woods. Four hundred prisoners
were taken and over 5,000 small-arms.
The battle was known as Cedar Run, and it completely checked Pope's
advance upon Richmond. The troops were too much exhausted to follow up
their victory, but Jackson urged them to press forward. They moved a
mile and a half in advance, and then found themselves so strongly
opposed that Jackson, believing that the enemy must have received
reinforcements, halted his men. Colonel Jones was sent forward to
reconnoiter, and discovered that a large force had joined the enemy.
For two days Jackson remained on the field he had won; his troops had
been busy in burying the dead, in collecting the wounded and sending
them to the rear, and in gathering the arms thrown away by the enemy in
their flight. Being assured that the enemy were now too strong to be
attacked by the force under his command, Jackson fell back to Orange
Courthouse. There was now a few days' delay, while masses of troops were
on both sides moving toward the new field of action. McClellan marched
his troops across the James Peninsula from Harrison's Landing to
Yorktown, and there the greater portion were embarked in transports and
taken up the Rappahannock to Aquia Creek, landed there, and marched to
Fredericksburg.
Lee, instead of attacking McClellan on his march across the peninsula,
determined to take his army north at once to join Jackson and attack
Pope before he was joined by McClellan's army. But Pope, although
already largely reinforced, retired hastily and took up a new position
so strongly fortified that he could not be attacked. General Stuart had
come up with Lee, and was in command of all the cavalry.
"We shall see some work now," was the remark round the fires of the 7th
Virginian Cavalry. Hitherto, although they had been several times
engaged with the Federals, they had been forced to remain for the most
part inactive owing to the vast superiority in force of the enemy's
cavalry; but now that Stuart had come up they felt certain that,
whatever the disparity of numbers, there would soon be some dashing work
to be done.
Except when upon actual duty the strict lines of military discipline
were much relaxed among the cavalry, the troopers being almost all the
sons of farmers and planters and of equal social rank with their
officers, many of whom were their personal friends or relatives. Several
of Vincent's schoolfellows were in the ranks; two or three of them were
fellow officers, and these often gathered together round a camp fire and
chatted over old schooldays and mutual friends.
Many of these had already fallen, for the Virginian regiments of
Stonewall Jackson's brigade had been terribly thinned; but the loss of
so many friends and the knowledge that their own turn might come next
did not suffice to lessen the high spirits of the young fellows. The
hard work, the rough life, the exposure and hardship, had braced and
invigorated them all, and they were attaining a far more vigorous
manhood than they would ever have possessed had they grown up in the
somewhat sluggish and enervating life led by young planters.
Many of these young men had, until the campaign began, never done half
an hour's hard work in their lives. They had been waited upon by slaves,
and their only exercise had been riding. For months now they had almost
lived in the saddle, had slept in the open air, and had thought
themselves lucky if they could obtain a sufficient meal of the roughest
food to satisfy their hunger once a day. In this respect, however, the
cavalry were better off than their comrades of the infantry, for
scouting as they did in small parties over a wide extent of country,
they were sure of a meal and a hearty welcome whenever they could spare
time to stop for half an hour at the house of a farmer.
"It's a glorious life, Wingfield! When we chatted over the future at
school we never dreamed of such a life as this, though some of us did
talk of entering the army; but even then an occasional skirmish with
Indians was the limit of our ideas."
"Yes, it is a glorious life!" Vincent agreed. "I cannot imagine anything
more exciting. Of course, there is the risk of being shot, but somehow
one never seems to think of that. There is always something to do and to
think about; from the time one starts on a scout at daybreak to that
when one lies down at night one's senses are on the stretch. Besides, we
are fighting in defense of our country and not merely as a profession,
though I don't suppose, after all, that makes much difference when one
is once in for it. As far as I have read all soldiers enjoy campaigning,
and it does not seem to make any difference to them who are the foe or
what they are fighting about. But I should like to feel a little more
sure that we shall win in the long run."
There was a chorus of indignant protests against there being any
possible doubts as to the issue.
"Why, we have thrashed them every time we have met them, Wingfield."
"That is all very well," Vincent said. "Here in Virginia we have held
our own, and more than held it. We have beat back Scott and McClellan,
and now we have thrashed Pope; and Stonewall Jackson has won a dozen
battles in Western Virginia. But you must remember that in other parts
they are gradually closing in; all the ports not already taken are
closely blockaded; they are pushing all along the lines of the great
rivers; and worst of all, they can fill up their vacancies with Irishmen
and Germans, and as fast as one army disappears another takes its place.
I believe we shall beat them again and again, and shall prove, as we
have proved before, that one Southerner fighting for home and liberty is
more than a match for two hired Germans or Irishmen, even with a good
large sprinkling of Yankees among them. But in the long run I am not
sure that we shall win, for they can go on putting big armies into the
field, while some day we must get used up.
"Of course it is possible that we may some day capture Washington, and
that the North may get weary of the tremendous drain of money and men
caused by their attempt to conquer us. I hope it may be so, for I should
like to think that we should win in the long run. I never feel any doubt
about our winning a battle when we begin. My only fear is that we may
get used up before the North are tired of it."
"I did not expect to hear you talk so, Wingfield, for you always seem to
be in capital spirits."
"I am in capital spirits," Vincent replied, "and ready to fight again
and again, and always confident we shall lick the Yankees; the fact that
I have a doubt whether in the long run we shall outlast them does not
interfere in the slightest degree with my comfort at present. I am very
sorry though that this fellow Pope is carrying on the war so brutally
instead of in the manner in which General McClellan and the other
commanders have waged it. His proclamation that the army must subsist
upon the country it passes through gives a direct invitation to the
soldiers to pillage, and his order that all farmers who refuse to take
the oath to the Union are to be driven from their homes and sent down
south means ruin to all the peaceful inhabitants, for there is scarcely
a man in this part of Virginia who is not heartily with us."
"I hear," one of the other officers said, "that a prisoner who was
captured this morning says that Pope already sees that he has made a
mistake, and that he yesterday issued a fresh order saying that the
proclamation was not meant to authorize pillage. He finds that the
inhabitants who before, whatever their private sentiments were,
maintained a sort of neutrality, are now hostile, that they drive off
their cattle into the woods, and even set fire to their stacks, to
prevent anything from being carried off by the Yanks; and his troops
find the roads broken up and bridges destroyed and all sorts of
difficulties thrown in their way."
"It does not always pay--even in war--to be brutal. I am glad to see he
has found out his mistake so soon," another officer said. "McClellan
waged war like a gentleman; and if blackguards are to be allowed to
carry fire and sword through the land they will soon find it is a game
that two can play at, and matters will become horribly embittered."
"We shall never do that," Vincent said. "Our generals are all gentlemen,
and Lee and Jackson and many others are true Christians as well as true
soldiers, and I am sure they will never countenance that on our side
whatever the Northerners may do. We are ready to fight the hordes of
Yankees and Germans and Irishmen as often as they advance against us,
but I am sure that none of us would fire a homestead or ill-treat
defenseless men and women. It is a scandal that such brutalities are
committed by the ruffians who call themselves Southerners. The
guerrillas in Missouri and Tennessee are equally bad whether on our side
or the other, and if I were the president I would send down a couple of
regiments, and hunt down the fellows who bring dishonor on our cause. If
the South cannot free herself without the aid of ruffians of this kind
she had better lay down her arms at once."
"Bravo, Wingfield! spoken like a knight of chivalry!" one of the others
laughed. "But many of these bands have done good nevertheless. They have
kept the enemy busy there, and occupied the attention of a very large
force who might otherwise have been in the woods yonder with Pope. I
agree with you, it would be better if the whole thing were fought out
with large armies, but there is a good deal to be said for these bands
you are so severe upon. They are composed of men who have been made
desperate by seeing their farms harried and their buildings burned by
the enemy. They have been denounced as traitors by their neighbors on
the other side, and if they retaliate I don't know that they are to be
altogether blamed. I know that if my place at home were burned down and
my people insulted and ill-treated I should be inclined to set off to
avenge it."
"So would I," Vincent agreed, "but it should be upon those who did the
wrong, not upon innocent people."
"That is all very well, but if the other side destroy your people's
farms, it is only by showing them that two can play at the game that you
can make them observe the laws of war. I grant it would be very much
better that no such thing should take place; but if the Northerners
begin this sort of work they may be sure that there will be retaliation.
Anyhow, I am glad that I am an officer in the 7th Virginians and not a
guerrilla leader in Missouri. Well, all this talking is dry work. Has no
one got a full canteen?"
"I have," Vincent said. "Dan managed to buy a gallon of rum at a
farmhouse yesterday. I think the farmer was afraid that the enemy might
be paying him a visit before many days, and thought it best to get rid
of his spirits. Anyhow, Dan got the keg at ordinary city prices, as well
as that couple of fine turkeys he is just bringing along for our supper.
So you had better each get your ration of bread and fall to."
There was a cheer as Dan placed the turkeys down in the center of the
group, and soon the whole party, using their bread as plates, fell to
upon them, and afterward joined in many a merry song, while Dan handed
round the jar of spirits.