Mechanicsville to Harrison's Bar, at 1,582 killed, 7,709 wounded, and 5,958 missing; total, 15,249." This may or may not include those abandoned to the enemy in hospitals, most of whom are probably numbered among the wounded. Lee's report does not state the amount of his losses, but says it is contained in "the accompanying tables;" which the Confederate authorities did not see fit to print with his report. He sums up his trophies as follows: "The siege of Richmond was raised; and the object of a campaign which had been prosecuted, after months of preparation, at an enormous expenditure of men and money, completely frustrated. More than 10,000 prisoners, including officers of rank, 52 pieces of artillery, and upwards of 35,000. stand of small arms, were captured. The stores and supplies of every description, which fell into our hands, were great in amount and value, but small in comparison with those destroyed by the enemy. His losses in battle exceeded our own, as attested by the thousands of dead and wounded left on every field; while his subsequent inaction shows in what condition the survivors reached the protection to which they fled." The "inaction" thus vaunted was mutual. Lee did not see fit to repeat at Harrison's Bar his costly experiment at Malvern; but, after scrutinizing our hastily constructed defenses, and guessing at the numbers and spirit of the men behind them, withdrew " to Richmond, leaving but a brigade of cavalry to watch and report any fresh evidences of activity on our side. None being afforded, he sent Gen. French, with 43 guns, to approach Harrison's Bar stealthily on the south side of the 45 List of killed, wounded and missing in the Army of the Potomac, from the 26th of June to the 1st of July, 1862, inclusive. 1. Metall's division.. 2. Sumner's corps. POSITION AT HARRISON'S LANDING. Even if we raise our actual losses of men in the Seven Days' to 20,000, it is doubtful that they much, if at all, exceeded those of the Rebels, whose 5. Porter's 6. Franklin's Engineers... Cavalry.. 8,074 Killed, Woun'd. Miss'g. Total. 258 1.240 1,581 848 2,111. 187 1.076 3. Heintzelman's" 4. Keyes' Total.. 2.078 777 46 July 8. OUR ARMY AT HARRISON'S BAR. 50 169 reckless attacks on our strong posi- | there were, in all, east of the Alletions at Mechanicsville, Gaines's Mill, ghanies, less than 75,000 men not Glendale, and Malvern, being stoutly already on the James, including resisted, must have cost them very those under Gen. Wool at Fortress dearly. The official reports of two Monroe; so that to send him even corps commanders show an aggre- 50,000 was impossible. gate of 9,336 killed, wounded, and missing;" while other" subordinate reports indicate heavy losses in other divisions. On the whole, it is fair to estimate our total loss at 15,000 killed and wounded, and 5,000 unwounded prisoners; and the Rebel as at least equal to ours, minus the prisoners and the guns. 51 The President went down so to the Army at Harrison's Bar, and found 86,000 men there. As 160,000 had gone into that Army on the Peninsula, he wrote for an account of the residue. Gen. M. replied that his force then "present for duty" numbered 88,665; absent by authority, 34,472; absent without authority, 3,778; sick, 16,619; present and abGen. McClellan had telegraphed sent, 144,407. Of those absent by the President from Haxall's, on the authority, he says that one-half were morning of this battle, that: "My probably fit for duty; but, having got men are completely exhausted, and I away on sick leave or otherwise, had dread the result if we are attacked failed to return. The Adjutantto-day by fresh troops." Next day General's office reported (July 20th) (2d), he telegraphed from Harrison's Gen. McClellan's army as numbering Bar that, "As usual, we had a severe-Present for duty, 101,691; on spebattle yesterday, and beat the enemy cial duty, sick, or in arrest, 17,828; badly; the men fighting even better absent, 38,795; total, 158,314. This than before." Next day (3d), he does not include Gen. Wool's nor telegraphed again to the Secretary Gen. Burnside's force, then at or of War that he presumed he had not near Fortress Monroe. over 50,000 men left with their colors;" and that, "To accomplish the great task of capturing Richmond and putting an end to this Rebellion, rëenforcements should be sent to me rather much over than less than 100,000 men.' The President had advised him, the day before, that 66 Killed. Woun'd. Miss'g. Total. Brig.-Gen. R. S. Ripley, Rebel chief of artillery, reports that his brigade entered into these fights 2,366 strong, including pioneers and ambulance corps, of whom 889 fell at Malvern, and 3 out of 4 Colonels were killed. Brig.-Gen. Garland reports his loss in all the battles at 192 killed, 637 wounded, 15 missing; total, 844. Upon a suggestion" from Gen. Halleck at Washington that deserters had reported the Rebels moving southward of the James, leaving but a small force in Richmond, Gen. McClellan ordered Gen. Hooker, with his own division and Pleasan Howell Cobb reports that his brigade, of Magruder's division, went into battle at Savage's Station 2,700 strong; whereof but 1,500 appeared on the battle-field of Malvern, where nearly 500 of them were killed and wounded. Among the Rebel officers killed during the Seven Days were Gen. Griffith, Miss; Cols. C. C. Pegues, 5th Ala., Allen, 2d Va., Fulkerson, commanding Texas brigade, and Lt.-Col. Faison, upon one or the other, as he may elect; neither can rëenforce the other in case of such an attack. ton's cavalry, to advance upon and ments from the South. Gen. Pope's army, seize Malvern Hill. Through the now covering Washington, is only about 40,000. Your effective force is only about incompetency of his guides, Hooker's 90,000. You are about thirty miles from first attempt miscarried; but it was Richmond, and Gen. Pope eighty or ninety, with the enemy directly between you, renewed the next night," and, not-ready to fall with his superior numbers withstanding the ample notice of it given to the enemy, proved an easy success; Hooker driving the Rebels from Malvern with a loss of barely 14, and taking 100 prisoners; Col. Averill, with part of Pleasanton's cavalry, pushing north to White Oak Swamp Bridge, driving thence the 10th Virginia cavalry and capturing 28 men and horses. This advance, promptly and vigorously followed up in force, would doubtless have placed McClellan in Richmond forthwith. But Gen. M. had already received an order" directing a withdrawal of his army by water to Acquia creek, to support a fresh demonstration on Richmond from the Rappahannock; which order he began " most reluctantly to obey; of course, recalling Gen. Hooker from Malvern. He was now eager to resume the offensive with far smaller rëenforcements than he had recently pronounced indispensable, and suggested that, in addition to Burnside's men, they might be spared him from Pope's army on the Rappahannock and from the West. Gen. Halleck-assuming the correctness of McClellan's own mistaken assumption as to the strength of the Rebel Army of Virginia-replied' 5 with crushing cogency as fol lows: "If Gen. Pope's army be diminished to reenforce you, Washington, Maryland, and exposed. If your force be reduced to Pennsylvania would be left uncovered and strengthen Pope, you would be too weak to even hold the position you now occupy, should the enemy turn around and attack you in full force. In other words, the old Army of the Potomac is split into two parts, with the entire force of the enemy directly between them. They cannot be united by land without exposing both to destruction; and yet they must be united. To send Pope's forces by water to the Peninsula, is, under present circumstances, a military impossibility. The only alternative is to send the forces on the Peninsula to some point by water-say Fredericksburg-where the two armies can be united. ** * "But, you will reply, why not rëenforce me here, so that I can strike Richmond from my present position? To do this, you said at our interview, that you required it was impossible to give you so many. 30,000 additional troops. I told you that You finally thought that you would have some chance of success with 20,000. But would require 35,000, as the enemy was you afterward telegraphed me that you being largely reenforced. 66 If your estimate of the enemy's strength was correct, your requisition was perfectly reasonable; but it was utterly impossible to fill it until new troops could be enlisted and organized; which would require several weeks. "To keep your army in its present position until it could be so reenforced, would almost destroy it in that climate. The months of August and September are almost fatal to whites who live on that part of James river; and, even after you receive the reenforcements asked for, you admitted that you must reduce Fort Darling and the river batteries before you could advance on RETREAT FROM THE PENINSULA. time Gen. Pope's forces would be exposed to the heavy blows of the enemy, without the slightest hope of assistance from you. "In regard to the demoralizing effect of a withdrawal from the Peninsula to the Rappahannock, I must remark that a large number of your highest officers-indeed, a majority of those whose opinions have been reported to me-are decidedly in favor of the movement. Even several of those who originally advocated the line of the Peninsula, now advise its abandonment." Gen. McClellan forthwith commenced embarking his sick and five of his batteries, which had been assigned to Burnside; who, having been ordered on the 1st to Acquia creek, had immediately rëembarked his men, reaching his destination on the 3d, and promptly sending back his vessels to McClellan, who had been invested with complete control over the immense fleet of transports then in the Potomac, Hampton Roads, and the James. The latter commenced as if expecting to embark his entire force, including even the cavalry, at Harrison's Bar; but repeated and urgent messages from Washington, announcing that the Rebels were crossing the Rapidan in force, and pressing Pope, soon impelled him to move the bulk of his troops by land to Fortress Monroe; the two leading corps (Porter's and Heintzelman's), preceded by Averill's 57 Gen. Victor Le Duc, who entered the service as Captain and A. Q. M., and who acted as Division Quartermaster throughout the retreat from before Richmond, and thence to Fortress Monroe, being promoted for eminent efficiency to be a Corps Quartermaster thereafter, thus sums up, in his private diary, under date of Sept. 1st-8th, 1862, the results of his experience and observation : "I am confident that there has been gross mismanagement in this whole affair. With all the resources that Government places in the hands of officers, the Army of the Potomac should have been transferred from the Peninsula to Acquia creek or Alexandria and landed, and 171 cavalry, taking that road on the 14th, crossing the Chickahominy by a pontoon-bridge at Barrett's Ferry and at Jones's Bridge; and Gen. M., with the rear-guard, breaking camp and following the army on the 16th; crossing and removing the pontoonbridge on the morning of the 18th. The retreat was covered by Gen. Pleasanton with the remaining cavalry. Gen. Porter was under orders to halt the advance at Williamsburg until the crossing was complete; but, intercepting there a letter which apprised him that the enemy were concentrating rapidly on Pope, with intent to crush him before he could be rëenforced, he took the responsibility of pressing on to Newport News, which he reached on the 18th, having marched 60 miles in three days; and on the 20th his corps had embarked and was on its way to Acquia creek. On that day, the last of the army had reached its prescribed points of embarkation at Yorktown, Newport News, and Fortress Monroe." Heintzelman embarked at Yorktown on the 21st; Franklin at Fortress Monroe on the 22d; Keyes had been left at Yorktown to cover the embarkation, should any in as good condition as when they embarked, all within two weeks. Each corps as a unit should have been embarked and landed by itself, and its transportation have accompanied it; and, with the two wharves at Newport News, inconvenient as they are, three days and nights was ample time in which to put the transportation on shipboard; three days more would have been and one day in transitu-seven days. Three occupied in discharging it off and setting it up, corps could have shipped at the same time-one at Fortress Monroe, one at Newport News, and one at Yorktown. It has taken, in fact, nearly one month; and will be an entire month before all have arrived." This view assumes that sufficient transportation was always in readiness exactly where and when it was required; which is unproved. Rebel force be sent down the Penin- | bers, usually contrived to bring the sula on the track of our army; but there was none, and our retreat was entirely unmolested-the attention and forces of the enemy being now absorbingly devoted to Pope. Gen. McClellan and staff embarked at Fortress Monroe on the 23d, and reported at Acquia creek next day; coming up to Alexandria, by Gen. Halleck's request, on the 26th. Thus ended the unfortunate Peninsular campaign of the magnificent Army of the Potomac. Its unsuccess was due to the fact that the enemy nearly always chose the time and place of combat; and, though uniformly inferior in aggregate num larger force into action-fighting twothirds to three-fourths of his entire strength against one-fourth to onehalf of ours. Our commander, incessantly calling urgently for rëenforcements, never brought into action nearly all he already had, save that at Malvern the enemy forced a conflict before our army could again be scattered, and thus incurred a stinging repulse, though a large portion of our men were, even then, not enabled to fire a shot. Never before did an army so constantly, pressingly need to be rëenforced-not by a corps, but by a leader; not by men, but by a man. VIII. GEN. POPE'S VIRGINIA CAMPAIGN. GEN. JOHN POPE, having been | Winchester, of whom 40,000 might summoned from the West for the be considered disposable. To Gen. purpose, was selected by the Presi- Pope was assigned the duty of coverdent, after consultation with Gen. ing Washington and protecting MaScott, for the command of a force to ryland, with its great railroad, while be designated the Army of Virginia, threatening Richmond from the north. and to consist of all the troops then He had at first intended and expected covering Washington or holding the to advance to the neighborhood of lower end of the Shenandoah Valley. Richmond, and there unite in the This army was to be composed of operations of McClellan against that three corps, under Maj.-Gens. Fre- city. But he was appointed on the mont, Banks, and McDowell respec- very day' when Lee's designs against tively; but Gen. Fremont was re- McClellan's right wing were devellieved, at his own request, from serv- oped at Mechanicsville; and, before ing under one whom he regarded as he could concentrate his army, the rehis junior, and the command of his treat through White Oak Swamp to corps assigned to Gen. Sigel. The Harrison's Landing, by exposing his entire strength of this newly organ- meditated advance, unaided, to a ized army was nearly 50,000 men, succession of blows from the entire scattered from Fredericksburg to Rebel Army of Virginia, rendered 1 1 July 26. |