CH. XXIII. resolved to retire still farther down the James to Harrison's Landing, in order, as he says, to reach a point where his supplies could be brought to him with certainty. Commodore Rodgers, with whom he was in constant consultation, thought this could best be done below City Point. The victorious army, therefore, following the habit of the disastrous week, turned its back once more upon its beaten enemy, and established itself that day at Harrison's Bar, in a situation which Lee, having at last gained some information as to the fighting qualities of the Army of the Potomac, declined to attack, a decision in which Jackson-half of whose men were out of their ranks by death, wounds, or stragglingagreed with him. After several days of reconnaissance he withdrew his army, on the 8th of July, to Richmond, and the Peninsular Campaign was at an end.

Dabney, p. 477.

1862.

G

CHAPTER XXIV

HARRISON'S LANDING

ENERAL MCCLELLAN was greatly agitated cп. XXIV. by the battle of Gaines's Mill,1 and by the emotions incident to his forced departure for the James. Under the influence of this feeling he sent to the Secretary of War, from Savage's Station, on the 28th of June, an extraordinary dispatch, which we here insert in full, as it seems necessary to the comprehension of his attitude towards, and his relations with, the Government:

I now know the full history of the day. On this side of the river (the right bank) we repulsed several strong attacks. On the left bank our men did all that men could

1 Lieutenant-Colonel B. S. Alexander, of the Corps of Engineers, gave the following sworn evidence before the Committee on the Conduct of the War [p. 592]. He said he saw, on the evening of the 28th, at General McClellan's headquarters at Savage's Station, an order directing the destruction of the baggage of the officers and men, and he thought also the camp equipage; appealing to the officers and men to submit to this privation because it would be only for a few days, he thought the order stated. He went to the general at once, and remonstrated with him

1862.

against allowing any such order
to be issued, telling him he
thought it would have a bad
effect upon the army-would de-
moralize the officers and men;
that it would tell them more
plainly than in any other way that
they were a defeated army run-
ning for their lives. This led to
some discussion among the officers
at headquarters, and Colonel
Alexander heard afterward that
the order was never promulgated,
but suppressed. Brevet Brigadier-
General James F. Rusling in-
forms us that he saw and read this
order, and that it was issued and
acted upon to a certain extent. MS. letter.

CH. XXIV. do, all that soldiers could accomplish; but they were overwhelmed by vastly superior numbers, even after I brought my last reserves into action. The loss on both sides is terrible. I believe it will prove to be the most desperate battle of the war. The sad remnants of my men behave as men. Those battalions who fought most bravely, and suffered most, are still in the best order. My regulars were superb, and I count upon what are left to turn another battle, in company with their gallant comrades of the volunteers. Had I 20,000 or even 10,000 fresh troops to use to-morrow, I could take Richmond, but I have not a man in reserve, and shall be glad to cover my retreat, and save the material and personnel of the army. If we have lost the day, we have yet preserved our honor, and no one need blush for the Army of the Potomac. I have lost this battle because my force was too small. I again repeat that I am not responsible for this, and I say it with the earnestness of a general who feels in his heart the loss of every brave man who has been needlessly sacrificed to-day. I still hope to retrieve our fortunes, but to do this the Government must view the matter in the same earnest light that I do. You must send me very large reënforcements, and send them at once. I shall draw back to this side of Chickahominy, and think I can withdraw all our material. Please understand that in this battle we have lost nothing but men, and those the best we have. In addition to what I have already said, I only wish to say to the President that I think he is wrong in regarding me as ungenerous when I said that my force was too weak. I merely intimated a truth which to-day has been too plainly proved. If, at this instant, I could dispose of ten thousand fresh men, I could gain a victory to-morrow. I know that a few thousand more men would have changed this battle from a defeat to a victory. As it is, the Government must not and can not hold me responsible for the result. I feel too earnestly to-night; I have seen too many dead and wounded comrades to feel otherwise than that the Government has not sustained this army. If you do not do so now, the game is lost. If I save this army now, I tell you plainly that I owe no thanks to you or to any other persons in Washington. You have done your best to sacrifice this army.

W. R. Vol. XI., Part I., p. 61.

It is probable that no other general would have CH. XXIV. retained his commission for twenty-four hours after the receipt of such a communication by his superi

reason why he was
The evident panic

ors; but it is easy to see the
never called to account for it.
and mental perturbation which pierced through its
incoherence filled the President with such dismay
that its mutinous insolence was entirely overlooked.
He could only wonder what terrible catastrophe,
already accomplished or to come, could have wrung
such an outcry as this from the general command-
ing. Even the surrender of the army was not an
impossible disaster to expect from a general capable
of writing such a dispatch. Secretary Chase has
left a memorandum showing that some such action
was regarded as indicated by General McClellan's
telegrams, and that even after his arrival at Har-
rison's Landing, General Marcy, his father-in-law
and chief-of-staff, in a visit to Washington, spoke of
it as a possibility. Not knowing the extent of the
mischance which had fallen upon the army, the
President hastened at once to send a kind and en-
couraging answer to McClellan's dispatches:

Save your army at all events. Will send reënforcements as fast as we can. Of course they cannot reach you to-day, to-morrow, or next day. I have not said you were ungenerous for saying you needed reënforcements. I thought you were ungenerous in assuming that I did not send them as fast as I could. I feel any misfortune to

CH. XXIV. you and your army quite as keenly as you feel it yourself. If you have had a drawn battle, or a repulse, it is the price we pay for the enemy not being in Washington. We protected Washington, and the enemy concentrated on you. Had we stripped Washington, he would have been upon us before the troops could have gotten to you. Less than a week ago you notified us that reënforcements were leaving Richmond to come in front of us. It is the nature of the case, and neither you nor the Government are to blame. Please tell at once the present condition and aspect of things.

W. R. Vol. XI., Part III., p. 269.

1862

The President also, with the greatest diligence, sent dispatches on the same day to General Dix, at Fort Monroe, to Admiral Goldsborough, commanding the naval forces in the James, and to General Burnside, in North Carolina, directing all three of them to strain every nerve in order to go to McClellan's assistance. At the same time he ordered1 Halleck to send a large portion of his forces to the

rescue.

As the 29th and 30th of June passed without news of any further catastrophe, the President and the Secretary of War began to think better of the situation, and concluded that it might possibly be improved by a change of base to the James. Mr. Stanton telegraphed to General Wool that it looked "more like taking Richmond than at any time before." But on the 1st of July a dispatch, dated at Turkey Bridge, arrived from General McClellan, who was still under the influence of great agitation, announcing that he is "hard pressed by superior numbers," and fearing that he shall be forced

1 This order was afterwards revoked, on Halleck's representation that the detachment of so large a force would be equivalent

to the abandonment of Tennessee. -W. R. Vol. XI., Part III., pp. 279, 285. See also Chap. XIX., p. 353 et seq.