the loss of a large portion of his corps, and, in any event, the abandonment of his position at that time would have placed our right flank and rear at the mercy of the enemy. It was necessary to fight him where we stood, to hold our position, at any cost, until night, and in the meantime to perfect the arrangements for the change of base to the James river. In the report of General Porter will be found a detailed description of the field of battle at Gaines' Mill, and the circumstances of that eventful contest, creditable alike to the energy of the enemy and the desperate valor of the comparatively small band that repelled the attacks of his enormous masses. It will suffice, for the purposes of this report to state that the action commenced abeut 2 P. M., and that during the afternoon I ordered up the division of Slocum to the support of Porter, and soon after the brigades of French and Meagher, of Richardson's division. The latter were not engaged. At a later period two brigades of Peck's division were ordered forward, but, as their services were not needed, they did not cross the Chickahominy. The contest continued with varying fortunes, until dark, when the enemy discontinued his attack. During the night the final withdrawal of the right wing across the Chickahominy was completed, without difficulty and without confusion, a portion of the regulars remaining on the left bank until the morning of the 28th. Early on that morning the bridges were burned, and the whole army was thus concentrated on the right bank of the Chickahominy. During the battle of Gaines' Mill the position of General Smith was warmly attacked, but the enemy was at once repulsed with loss. across the swamp, The trains were set in motion at an early hour, and continued passing across the swamp, night and day, without interruption, until all had crossed. On the 28th, Porter's corps was also moved across the White Oak Swamp, and on the morning of the 29th took up a position covering the roads leading from Richmond towards White Oak Swamp and Long Bridges. During the night of the 28th and 29th the divisions of Slocum and McCall were ordered across the White Oak Swamp, and were placed in position to cover the passage of the remaining divisions and trains. În the course of the same night the corps of Sumner and Heintzelman and the division of Smith were ordered to fall back from their original positions to an interior line resting upon Keyes' old intrenchments on the left, and so arranged as to cover Savage Station. They were ordered to hold this position until dark, then to fall back aeross the swamps and rejoin the rest of the army. This order was not fully carried out, nor was the exact position I designated occupied by the different divisions concerned. Nevertheless, the result was that two attacks of the enemy-one a very determined onset-were signally repulsed by Sumner's corps, assisted in the last by Smith's division of the 6th corps. These are the two actions known as the affair of Allen's Field, and the battle of Savage Station. The 3d corps crossed the swamp before dark, having left its position before the hour assigned, and was not in action during the day (the 29th). The 2d corps and Smith's division safely crossed the swamp during the night with all their guns and material, and brought up the rear of the wagon train. "In the night of the 29th and 30th In the course of the night of the 27th, the 4th and 5th corps were ordered to General Keyes was ordered to cross the move to James river, to rest on that White Oak Swamp with the 4th corps, river at or near Turkey Bend, and occuand take up a position to cover the pas-py a position perpendicular to the river, sage of the trains. Measures were also thus covering the Charles city road to taken to increase the number of bridges Richmond, opening conmunication with BATTLE OF MALVERN HILL. 499 the gunboats, and covering the wagon river, and bending back through the train, which was pushed as rapidly as woods nearly to the James river on our possible upon Haxall's and Harrison's right. On our left we relied upon the plantations. The remaining corps were natural advantages of the position; on moved in the same direction, and posted the right, where the natural strength was so as to cover the main roads leading less, some little cutting of timber was from Richmond, as well as the crossing done, and the roads blocked. Although by which the army had passed the White our force was small for so extensive a Oak Swamp, and to guard the passage position, it was necessary to hold it at of our large trains to the James river. any cost. When the battle commenced When the troops were in position in in the afternoon, I saw that in the faces the afternoon, before the enemy attack- and bearing of the men which satisfied ed, they were posted about as follows: me we were sure of victory. The attack Porter, with two divisions (Morell's and was made upon our left and centre, and Sykes), and the mass of the reserve ar- the brunt of it was borne by Porter's tillery on Malvern Hill (the left of the corps (including Hunt's reserve artillery position); next Couch, with one brigade and Tyler's heavy guns) and Couch's of Peck's division in reserve; next Sedg- division, reinforced by the brigades of wick, then McCall, Hooker, Kearney, Sickles and Meagher. It was desperate, Slocum, Naglee's brigade, Richardson, brave, and determined, but so destrucand Smith. During the actions which tive was the fire of our numerous artilensued at Turkey Bridge, on the Newlery, so heroic the conduct of our infanMarket road (Glendale), and at the try, and so admirable the dispositions of White Oak Swamp, changes were made Porter, that no troops could have carried in this disposition. The result of the the position. Late in the evening the various actions of the 30th, during which enemy fell back, thoroughly beaten, with our whole line was attacked, was that the dreadful slaughter. So completely was enemy was everywhere repulsed, except he crushed, and so great were his losses, in his attack upon McCall's division, that he has not since ventured to attack which, hard pressed by greatly superior us. numbers. and having lost three of its general officers, broke and lost most of its artillery. The gallant conduct of their comrades near by, especially Hooker's division, retrieved that mishap, and rendered it impossible for the enemy to reap any advantages from it. "By this time the last of the trains had reached Haxall's Landing, and during the night the troops fell back to the vicinity of that place, all arriving in safety and unmolested at an early hour of the morning. They were promptly placed in position to offer battle to the enemy should he again attack the left of the line, resting on the admirable position of Malvern Hill, with a brigade in the 'low ground to the left, watching the road to Richmond, the line then following a line of heights nearly parallel to the "Previous to the battle of Malvern I had fully consulted with Commodore Rodgers, and with him made a hasty reconnoissance of the positions of the river. The difficulty of passing our transports above City Point was so great that I determined to fall back upon the position now occupied by the army-a position, too, much less extensive than that of Malvern, and, therefore, permitting me to give the men the rest they so much needed. Accordingly the army fell back during the night of the 1st and 2d of July, reaching the place at an early hour on the 2d. On the 3d, the troops were placed essentially in their present positions at Harrison's Landing. "To the calm judgment of history and the future, I leave the task of pronouncing upon this movement, confident that its verdict will be that no such difficult movement was ever more successfully executed; that no army ever fought more repeatedly, heroically and successfully against such great odds; that no men of any race displayed greater discipline, endurance, patience, and cheerfulness under such hardships. My mind cannot coin expression of thanks and admiration warm enough, or intense enough, to do justice to my feelings toward the army I am so proud to command. To my countrymen I commit them, convinced they will ever honor every brave man who served during those seven historic days with the army of the Potomac. Upon whatever field it may hereafter be called upon to act, I ask that it may never lose its name, but may ever be known as the army of the Potomac--a name which it has never or ever will disgrace."* ter; fully to recount the labors of the severer struggle with nature and the elements, as the toil-worn, sickening, fastdying regiments, sought to secure an uncertain footing, laying roads of corduroy in the swamps, bridging the treacherous Chickahominy at places numerous enough for the full coöperation, or safe withdrawal of the great army; and when all this was done, engaging in an unequal contest with the foe; overpowered by superior numbers, with no hope of vic-. tory; fighting by day to retreat by night along a line of seventeen miles through the perilous region of the White Oak Swamp, an exultant enemy on their rear and on their flank-fully to present the details of languishing illness and gory death would drive the reader from the page in horror. The population of a city was swept away-prisoners, the dying, the dead-the sick and wounded Such is the account of General Mc- abandoned, of necessity, to the tender Clellan of the tangled web of battles from mercies of the foe, an enormous amount which, baffling the plans of the enemy of property destroyed in the week of laid for the capture or destruction of the this lamentable retreat, which, yet, was whole, the army of the Potomac emerged rejoiced over by the army as a deliverin safety, though not without heavy ance from greater immediate perils. The losses, on the banks of the James. official report of General McClellan sums Judged by itself, the retreat, a succes-up a grand total of 15,224 killed, woundsion of well-fought battles, was one of the most heroic in history; it is only in its connection with a campaign which fairly promised, at its outset, the capture of Richmond, that a sense of disappointment momentarily dulls the achievements of the valiant divisions, which, in the midst of harassing and continuous labors, fought the Seven Days' Battles. To do justice to the heroic incidents of that prolonged struggle would require volumes. To exhaust its annals of hardship and suffering continued through that long unintermitted contest with the enemy-for every day from the beginning had its petty skirmishes, swelling the enormous aggregate of death and disas *General McClellan to Adjutant-General Thomas. Headquarters Army of the Potomac, Camp at Berkely, Va, July 15, 1862. ed and missing in these Seven Days' Gen |