temporarily at Manassas, was now moved back to the Potomac and concentrated in the neighborhood of Alexandria, awaiting transportation, which did not arrive so rapidly as was anticipated. Heintzelman's Corps got off first, followed by those of Keyes and Sumner, and on April 1st, McClellan left with his head-quarters. McDowell's Corps, to which was assigned the advance of the expedition, owing to a difficulty in embarking its divisions at once, remained in its encampment after the departure of the rest of the army. Just previous to leaving, the General sent the following communication to the adjutantgeneral :

GENERAL M'CLELLAN'S ORDERS TO ADJUTANT-GENERAL THOMAS. HEAD-QUARTERS, ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, STEAMER COMMODORE, April 1, 1862.

"To Brigadier-General L. THOMAS, Adjutant-General U. S. A.:

"GENERAL:-I have to request that you will lay the following eommunication before the Honorable Secretary of War. The approximate numbers and positions of the troops left near and in rear of the Potomac are about as follows.

"General Dix has, after guarding the railroads under his charge, sufficient troops to give him five thousand men for the defence of Baltimore, and nineteen hundred and eighty-eight available for the Eastern Shore, Annapolis, &c. Fort Delaware is very well garrisoned by about four hundred men. The garrisons of the forts around Washington amount to ten thousand men, other disposable troops now with General Wadsworth being about eleven thousand four hundred men. The troops employed in guarding the various railroads in Maryland amount to some three thousand three hundred and fifty-nine men. These it is designed to relieve, being old regiments, by dismounted cavalry, and to send them forward to Manassas. General Abercrombie occupies Warrenton with a force which, including General Geary's at White Plains, and the cavalry to be at their disposal, will amount to some seven thousand seven hundred and eighty men, with twelve pieces of artillery.

"I have the honor to request that all the troops organized for service in Pennsylvania and New York, and in any of the Eastern States, may be ordered to Washington. This force I should be glad to have sent at once to Manassas-four thousand men from General Wadsworth to be ordered to Manassas. These troops, with the railroad guards above alluded to, will make up a force under the command of General Abercrombie to something like eighteen thousand six hundred and thirty-nine men. It is my design to push General Blenker from Warrenton upon Strasburg. He should remain at Strasburg long enough to allow matters to assume a definite form in that region before proceeding to his ultimate destination. The troops in the Valley of the Shenandoah will thus-including Blenker's Division, ten thousand and twenty-eight strong, with twenty-four pieces of artillery, Banks's Fifth Corps, which embraces the command of General Shields, nineteen thousand six hundred and eighty-seven strong, with forty-one guns, some three thousand six hundred and fifty-three disposable cavalry, and the railroad guard, about two thousand one hundred men-amount to about thirty-five thousand four hundred and sixty-seven men.

"It is designed to relieve General Hooker by one regiment-say eight hundred and fifty men-being, with five hundred cavalry, thirteen hundred and fifty men on the Lower Potomac. To recapitulate: At Warrenton there are to be seven thousands even hundred and eighty; at Manassas, say ten thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine; in the Shenandoah Valley, thirty-five thousand four hundred and sixty-seven; on the Lower Potomac, thirteen hundred and fifty-in all, fifty-five thousand four hundred and fifty-six. There would then be left for the garrisons in front of Washington and under General Wadsworth, some eighteen thousand men, exclusive of the batteries under instructions. The troops organizing or ready for service in New York, I learn, will probably number more than four thousand. These should be assembled at Washington, subject to disposition where their services may be most needed. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, GEO. B. MCCLELLAN,

"Major-General Commanding."

Upon learning the dispositions of troops proposed by General McClellan, General Wadsworth, who, on March 15th, had assumed command of the defences of Washington, sent the following communication to the War Department :

"HEAD-QUARTERS MILITARY DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON, WASHINGTON, D. C., April 2, 1862.

SIR: I have the honor to submit the following condensed statements of the forces left under my command for the defence of Washington::

"I have no mounted light artillery under my command. "Several companies of the reserve artillery of the Army of the Potomac are still here, but not under my command or fit for service.

"From this force I am ordered by General McClellan to detail two regiments (good ones) to join Richardson's Division (Sumper's Corps) as it passes through Alexandria; one regiment to replace the Thirty-seventh New York Volunteers in Heintzelman's old division; one regiment to relieve a regiment of Hooker's Division at Budd's Ferry-total, four regiments.

"I am further ordered this morning by telegraph to send four thousand men to relieve General Sumner at Manassas and Warrenton, that he may embark forthwith.

"In regard to the character and efficiency of the troops under my command, I have to state that nearly all the force is new, and imperfectly disciplined; that several of the regiments are in a very disorganized condition from various causes which it is not necessary to state here; several regiments having been relieved from my brigades which have gone into the field, in consequence of their unfitness for service-the best regiments remaining having been selected to take their place.

"Two heavy artillery regiments and one infantry regiment, which had been drilled for some months in artillery service, have been withdrawn from the forts on the south side of the Potomac, and I have only been able to fill their places with very new infantry regiments, entirely unacquainted with the duties of that arm, and of little or no value in their present position.

"I am not informed as to the position which Major-General Banks is directed to take; but at this time he is, as I understand, on the other side of the Bull Run Mountains, leaving my command to cover the front, from the Manassas Gap (about 20 miles beyond Manassas) to Aquia Creek.

"I deem it my duty to state that, looking at the numerical strength and character of the force under my command, it is in my judgment entirely inadequate to, and unfit for, the important duty to which it is assigned. I regard it very improbable that the enemy will assail us at this point, but this belief is based upon the hope that they may be promptly engaged elsewhere, and may not learn the number and the character of the force left here. I have the honor to be your obedient servant,

"Hon. SECRETARY OF WAR."

"JAMES S. WADSWORTH, "Brig.-Gen. and Military Governor.

This was referred by the President to the Adjutant-General of the Army and Major-General E. A. Hitchcock, with instructions to report whether the orders of the President, requiring the safety of the capital to be guaranteed, had been complied with. These officers, though declining to express an opinion whether the corps of General Banks, operating in the Shenandoah Valley, should be regarded as a part of

the force available for the protection of the immediate front of Washington, decided "that the requirements of the President, that the city shall be left entirely secure, not only in the opinion of the Generalin-Chief, but that of the 'commanders of the army corps' also, had not fully been complied with." This report was made on April 2d, and on the succeeding day orders were sent to General McDowell, whose corps had not yet embarked, to remain in front of Washington until further orders.

Meanwhile, on the 2d, McClellan arrived at Fortress Monroe, where were now concentrated the corps of Heintzelman and Keyes, and part of that of Sumner. Owing to insufficient transportation, the troops arrived slowly, but a sufficient number having arrived on the 4th to enable General McClellan to commence his movement, on that day an advance towards Richmond was ordered. A week previous General Heintzelman had made a reconnoissance towards Yorktown, which, he was informed, was defended by less than ten thousand men. But McClellan, upon hearing of the movement, ordered the troops to remain in the vicinity of Fortress Monroe.

the

At daylight of the 4th, the army struck its tents and took up march for Richmond, Heintzelman having the advance, and Keyes keeping along the James River road. At noon the advance, being about twelve miles from Yorktown, surprised a Confederate camp, called "Camp Misery," occupied by cavalry, where the Union troops encamped for the night. Resuming the march at dawn of the 5th, they reached the enemy's works at Yorktown at ten o'clock, from which the guns immediately opened fire. As the troops arrived they took ground, General Porter in the centre, General Sedgwick the extreme right, Generals Hamilton and Smith the extreme left. The batteries of Griffin, Third and Fourth Rhode Island, and Fifth Massachusetts were got into position to reply to the enemy, and the cannonading continued until dark, with little loss on either side.

On the following day much time was employed in reconnoitring the position of the enemy, and it was found to be one of considerable strength. Yorktown has been famous in American history as the scene of the crowning exploit of Washington in the war of the Revolution. It was there that the British commander, Lord Cornwallis, with seven thousand troops, surrendered to Washington, and it was now once more about to sustain a siege unfortunate to the besieged party. The peninsula of Yorktown projects into Chesapeake Bay, and is washed on either side by the two great rivers of Virginia, the York on the nothern side and the James on the south. It runs in a northwesterly direction, is of irregular shape, and is indented with numerous bays. The York River is formed of the Pamunkey and Mattapony Rivers, which unite at West Point, about fifty miles above Yorktown. It flows in a broad, deep stream, until, opposite Yorktown, it narrows suddenly, bringing Gloucester on the northern shore within one-fourth of a mile of Yorktown, directly opposite on the southern shore. The river then spreads out into Chesapeake Bay. Gloucester being strongly fortified, any vessels that should attempt to pass would have to encounter the powerful

batteries of rifled guns on both shores, at little more than one-fourth of a mile distant. The batteries at Yorktown and Gloucester Point were erected on the very lines held by the opposing armies in the Revolution. At this time, as appears from the report of the rebel commander, General Magruder, the combined garrisons of Yorktown and Gloucester did not exceed eleven thousand men, although, before the close of the siege, it was very largely re-enforced.

It had formed part of the plan of the campaign for General McDowell, with his thirty-five thousand men, to follow McClellan down the Potomac, and, landing on Severn, north of Gloucester, to storm that place. He was then to ascend the river, cross the Pamunkey near West Point, and coming in between the enemy and Richmond, shut them up in the Peninsula. At this point in the operations the President, acting on the report of Generals Thomas and Hitchcock, above referred to, withdrew the corps of McDowell from his command, and also detached from it the command of General Wool, which had been promised to McClellan. The latter, though fully aware of the decision of the council of corps commanders, and of the duty devolving upon him of leaving a sufficient force to garrison and cover Washington, professed to be much surprised at this action of the President; and the urgency with which he now telegraphed for re-enforcements, drew from Mr. Lincoln the following letter:

“To Major-General MCCLELLAN :

“WASHINGTON, April 9, 1862.

'MY DEAR SIR:-Your dispatches complaining that you are not properly sustained, while they do not offend me, pain me very much. Blenker's Division was withdrawn before you left here, and you know the pressure under which I did it, and, as I thought, acquiesced in it, certainly not without reluctance. After you left, I ascertained that less than twenty thousand unorganized men, without a field-battery, were all you designed to be left for the defence of Washington and Manassas Junction, and part of this even was to go to General Hooker's old position. General Banks's Corps, once designed for Manassas Junction, was divided and tied up on the line of the Winchester and Strasburg, and could not leave it without again exposing the Upper Potomac and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. This presented, or would present, when McDowell and Sumner should be gone, a great temptation for the enemy to turn back from the Rappahannock and sack Washington. My explicit directions, that Washington should, by the judgment of all the commanders of corps, be left secure, had been entirely neglected. It was precisely this that drove me to detain McDowell. I do not forget that I was satisfied with his arrangements to leave Banks at Manassas Junction. But when that arrangement was broken up, and nothing was substituted for it, of course I was not satisfied. I was constrained to substitute something for it myself. And now allow me to ask you, do you really think I could permit the line from Richmond vid Manasass Junction to this city to be entirely open, except what resistance could be presented by less than twenty thousand unorganized troops? This is a question which the country will not allow me to evade. There is a curious mystery about the number of troops now with you.

"I telegraphed you on the 6th, saying that you had over one hundred thousand men with you. I had just obtained from the Secretary of War a statement, taken, as he said, from your own returns, making ɔne hundred and eight thousand then with you and en route to you. You now say you will have but eighty-five thousand when all those en route to you shall have reached you. How can this discrepancy of thirtyfive thousand be accounted for? As to General Wool's command, I understand that it is doing precisely what a like number of your own would have to do if that command was away. I suppose the whole force which has gone forward to you is with you by this time, and if so, I think it is the precise time for you to strike a blow. By

delay the enemy will readily gain on you; that is, he will gain faster by fortifications and re enforcements than you can by re-enforcements alone. And once more, let me tell you, it is indispensable to you that you strike a blow. I am powerless to help.

"This you will do me the justice to remember: I always insisted that going down the bay in search of a field, instead of fighting at or near Manassas, was only shifting and not surmounting a difficulty; that we would find the same enemy and the same or equal intrenchments at either place. The country will not fail to note-is noting now that the present hesitation to move upon an intrenched enemy is but the story of Manassas repeated.

"I beg to assure you that I have never written or spoken to you in greater kindness of feeling than now, nor with a fuller purpose to sustain you so far as in my most anxious judgment I consistently can. But you must act. "Yours, very truly,

ABRAHAM LINCOLN."

Franklin's Division of eleven thousand men, belonging to MeDowell's Corps, was, however, sent him, but was nearly fourteen days in reaching him.

The distance between the York and James Rivers at Yorktown is about six miles, and the country is of a soft, marshy character, impassable for artillery in rainy weather, and in the hot season very unhealthy from the malaria of the swamps. The land is very fertile, and the people most wealthy. The city of Yorktown itself is composed of about thirty old-fashioned wood and brick houses, and the remains of the ancient fortifications are visible around it. After the battle of Big Bethel the Confederates set themselves to strengthen this position. The passage of the York River was regarded as very difficult, and such advantage was taken of the nature of the ground as to make the advance by land up the Peninsula a hazardous operation. General J. B. Magruder had been in command nearly a year, and some two thousand blacks had been employed at Yorktown and Gloucester, with a force of about seven thousand men. An immense connected fortification, with numerous salient angles, mounted with heavy guns, with a lofty parapet difficult to scale, and a deep, dry ditch commanded the river, where was also a formidable waterbattery. Running towards the right of the lines there was a long breast work, not pierced for guns, but having in front a ditch of the same depth as that before the fort. This breast work connected a redoubt of considerable magnitude, and another breast work of the same description connected another redoubt beyond, still further to the left. On this redoubt there had been mounted a number of columbiads and Dahlgren naval guns, with one siege howitzer. In front of these works there is an immense area of open ground, which was completely commanded by the rebel guns. Trees which were of large growth had been cut down by the Confederates to give free range to their artillery. Deep gorges and ravines were inside and about these fortifications, furnishing good cover for the besieged against artillery fire, and rendering the position difficult to assault. To the left of the Yorktown road-the enemy's right-as the town is approached, other fortifications had been constructed.

The position was deemed impregnable by its commander, and after reconnoitring, General McClellan set down before it to besiege it in form.

There were crossing the Peninsula three main lines of defensive