A Youth's History of the Great Civil War
Van Evrie, Horton & Co., ©1866
Revised edition, ©2006 www.ronie-mooney-encs.us
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CHAPTER XXVI, BATTLE OF "FAIR OAKS," OR "THE SEVEN PINES," AND "GAINES' MILLS"
GENERAL McClellan's situation on the banks of the Chickahominy was a critical, if not a painful one. Whether from necessity or over-caution, he was certainly painfully inactive. The disappointment in not receiving the co-operation of McDowell's army might well paralyze him, for he would never have been caught in the situation he found himself placed in, had it not been a part of the plan of the attack upon Richmond from that point, that McDowell should be sent to co-operate with him.
General Johnston having succeeded in his skillfully devised trick to prevent the union of McDowell's with McClellan's forces, determined at once to strike a decisive blow by an attack upon McClellan in his situation at Seven Pines and Fair Oaks Station, on the banks of the Chickahominy River. The attack was to commence on the morning of the 31st of May. To General D.H.Hill and General Longstreet was entrusted the attack upon McClellan's front, while General Huger was to assail his left flank, and General G.W.Smith his right. Smith, Longstreet, and Hill were all promptly in position at eight o'clock, but they had been ordered to wait and not begin the attack until they heard Huger's forces firing on the left. They waited impatiently for two hours for the signal gun of Huger. The cause of his delay was a difficulty in crossing the river, a fact which was at the time unknown to Generals Longstreet and Hill.
At ten o'clock General Hill advanced and opened the battle by attacking McClellan's front, which was pretty well entrenched, and therefore the assailing Confederates met, not only a determined resistance, but a most murderous fire. Soon, however, a brigade of Johnston's army succeeded in gaining a position partially in the rear of McClellan's redoubts or breastworks, and commenced a furious flank-fire upon them, which in a short time drove the Federals out, leaving their guns in the possession of the Confederates.
But all this time nothing was heard of Magruder; and General Gustavus W.Smith, who was to attack McClellan's right flank, in consequence of the course of the wind, heard nothing of the musketry of Hill and Longstreet, and did not learn until four o'clock in the afternoon that a battle had been going on all day. He had been all the time nervously waiting for Magruder's signal gun to begin the battle. But when he learned the facts, he immediately threw his men forward with such force and fury as to drive everything before them.
The most desperate courage was displayed by both armies; but the results of that day's terrible battle were in favor of the Confederates. But General Johnston, the commander-in-chief of their forces, was so severely wounded that it was a long time before he was able to take the field again.
As English officer in the Confederate service, from whom I have before quoted, says of this battle: "As I rode through the enemy's camp, viewing the destruction on every side, I met Frank, one of Longstreet's aids, looking as blue as indigo. 'What's the matter, Frank? Not satisfied with the day's work?' I inquired. "Satisfied be hanged,' he replied. 'I saw old Jeff. Davis, Mallory, Longstreet, Whiting, and all of them, a little while ago, looking as mad as thunder. Just to think that Huger's slowness has spoiled everything! It is true, Longstreet and Hill fought magnificently, as they always do, and have gained a brilliant victory; but had Huger obeyed orders we should have demolished the enemy. As it is, their right is routed and demoralized, and we have gained nothing more than a brilliant victory."
In General Johnston's report of this battle, he says; "We took ten pieces of cannon, six thousand stand of arms, one garrison flag, four stand of regimental colors, a large number of tents, besides much camp equipage and stores. Our loss killed, wounded, and missing; that of the enemy is stated in their journals to have been ten thousand, although no doubt that figure is far below the truth."
President Davis issued a short congratulatory address to the army which had so gallantly won this victory, closing with these words: "You are fighting for all that is dearest to man; and though opposed to a foe who disregards many of the usages of civilized warfare, your humanity to the wounded and the prisoners was the fit and crowning glory of your valor. Defenders of a just cause, may God have you in his keeping."
On the 12th of June, just twelve days after this battle, which was followed by the retreat of McClellan's army, General Ben.Butler issued the following impudent and lying bulletin in New Orleans: "On May 31st, Richmond was evacuated, and General McClellan took possession of the city! General Banks had driven Stonewall Jackson headlong to the foot of General McDowell, who before this has probably kicked him over the border. So ends the drama!-it is enough."
I am ashamed to confess that this is only a specimen of the misrepresentation and falsehood with which the people were insulted by certain of the Northern press and Northern generals during the whole progress of the war.
After the wound of General Johnston, General Robert E.Lee, who was then acting as chief of the war department in Richmond, was appointed to Johnston's place as commander-in-chief of the Army of Northern Virginia, though the immediate command of the forces in the field fell upon General Longstreet when Johnston was disabled.
The battle-field of "Fair Oaks" or "Seven Pines" is only six miles from Richmond, and so after the Confederate General had delivered his severe blow he retired his army within the lines of the defences of that city, and McClellan's troops at once reoccupied the ground from which they had been driven by the day's battle.
After this battle some time elapsed without any active operations on either side worth mentioning. But in this pause General Lee was busy in preparing to deal a decisive blow to the invaders. He decided to concentrate all the available force of the Confederate armies at Richmond. This plan involved the withdrawal of Jackson from the Shenandoah. To put McClellan and the authorities at Washington off their guard he made a feint of reinforcing Jackson in the Shenandoah valley at the very time he was bringing his whole force to Richmond. This movement he cunningly masked by detaching a division, under General Whiting, and sending it off to join Jackson. At once the rumor flew over the North that Lee was preparing to invest Washington. Lincoln, McClellan, Congress, and everybody in the North were deceived; for all this time Jackson with a force now increased to twenty-five thousand men was secretly and rapidly marching to reinforce Lee at Richmond. So skilfully did Jackson conceal his march that neither Banks, Fremont, nor McDowell had any idea that he had left the valley of the Shenandoah, and were all the time making prodigious preparations to keep him off of Washington.
In the meantime Lee sent that bold cavalryman, General J.E.B.Stuart, with fifteen hundred troops, to make a raid round the whole circuit of McClellan's army. This bold undertaking was a perfect success. The whole North was startled with a report that Lee was in McClellan's rear. And Lee was put in possession of a perfect knowledge of the position of the invading army, and at once ordered a general forward movement.
General Jackson had already arrived at a point where he could sustain the attack commenced by the rest of the Confederate forces. On the afternoon of the 26th June, General A.P.Hill crossed the Chickahominy River at a place called Meadow Bridge, while the divisions of Longstreet crossed at Mechanicsville Bridge, with the intention of marching down the north bank of the river together for a general attack upon McClellan's lines.
But they had no sooner crossed the river than they were confronted by General Fitz John Porter's corps which held a strongly intrenched position. A short but bloody conflict took place at this point, in which the Confederates were repulsed with fearful loss, for the number of men engaged. The engagement did not cease till nine o'clock at night, when each side occupied the same position that it did at the opening of the engagement.
The next morning at day break the Confederates renewed the attack upon McClellan's forces, then posted at Gaines' Mills. This position was admirably chosen and heroically defended. All day the waves of battle surged to and fro, and thousands of brave men on both sides bit the dust. The sun was just sinking down in the West as if to hide its face from the ghastly scene. The Confederates greatly exhausted had sought the cover of a piece of woods, and McClellan apparently mistaking their silence for defeat moved a heavy mass of infantry to their attack. The advance was beautiful. The long lines of splendid infantry, sent up cheer upon cheer as they advanced, The Confederates crouched closely to the ground, and when the Federals arrived within a hundred yards, they poured a deadly volley in their close ranks, then rising with unearthly yells, and dashing through the smoke of battle fell upon them with the bayonet, the pistol and the bowie knife. The Federal columns fled in confusion.
The battle, however, was not ended. McClellan's artillery still occupied a commanding hill and was sweeping the field with canister and grape. The wise forethought of Lee had provided for this emergency. The gallant Texas brigade of General Hood had been held in reserve. All at once a wild shout arose! It was the Texans with their gallant commander on foot, leading them in the final charge. On they came like an avalanche. Nothing could resist them. They charged among the redoubts and guns, and soon McClellan's line was broken beyond recovery. Hand to hand conflict ensued. Clouds of dust, smoking woods, long lines of musketry, the deafening roar of artillery, were mingled in the wildest confusion, but the Confederates were victorious. Slowly, and sullenly the long dense lines of McClellan retired under the cover of the darkness.
Scarcely had the roar of the cannon ceased at this point before the sound of Stonewall Jackson's guns broke upon the ear. He had fallen upon McClellan's rear almost while that officer had been dreaming that he was in the Shenandoah. His line of retreat was cut off! Thus ended the battle of Gaines' Mills.
The same English officer whom I have often quoted in this history has made the following remarks upon the results of that terrible battle: "The field was a rich booty. I myself counted fifteen magnificent brass and bronze field-pieces, with caissons and horses and dozens of cannoneers exactly as they were left by their vanquished owners. Camps,clothing,thousands of prisoners, and; immense quantities of small arms, banners, drums. Many of our troops lay fast asleep where they had halted, some of them using a dead Federal for a pillow! The destruction was awful; and if many guns fell into our hands, the heaps of blue-jackets around them told that they had been bravely defended. Many horses were shot; and the enemy finding themselves unable to carry off the pieces, had deliberately cut the throats of the uninjured animals to prevent them from falling into their hands. The ground around the cannons was dyed purple. Judging from the placid countenances of many, I thought they were only sleeping; but on closer inspection invariably discovered a small hole in the side of the head, made by the unerring bullet of our sharp-shooters!"
But if Lee had won a great victory, it had been at an immense sacrifice of life, and the loss of some of his bravest officers. Among them, Major Robert Wheat fell while gloriously charging at the head of his Louisiana Battalion. With tones of anguish it was whispered around by his comrades: "Poor Wheat is gone." His dying words were: "The field is ours, as usual, my boys. Bury me on the battle-field."
Alas, how many such brave and patriotic men have fallen in this cruel and wicked abolition war? How many happy homes made desolate? How many kind hearts broken? Will the just Maker of men ever forgive the fanatic wretches who brought about this unnatural, this terrible conflict?
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