138 BATTLE OF GAINES'S MILL [1862 to be 180,000, of whom 70,000 were attacking Porter, while 110,000 lay behind intrenchments between him and Richmond. As matter of fact, 57,000 were assailing Porter, while about 30,000 held the earthworks protecting Richmond : these last led McClellan and his corps commanders into a gross exaggeration of their number by attacking their pickets from time to time and by frequently opening fire on their works with artillery. McClellan's timid tactics are revealed in his hesitation in reënforcing Porter. He loved Porter and would have rejoiced without a spark of envy to see him win a glorious victory. His despatches show how anxious he was to give him efficient support; and purely military considerations should have induced him to send large reënforcements to Porter's aid. His telegram to the Secretary of War at the close of the day that he was "attacked by greatly superior numbers in all directions on this side "1 (the Richmond side of the Chickahominy) remains an ineffaceable record of his misapprehension. 1 Skilful though the leader, brave though the men, 34,000 without intrenchments, with barriers only erected along a small portion of their front, could not finally prevail against 57,000 equally brave and as skilfully led. The end came at about seven o'clock. Lee and Jackson ordered a general assault; the Confederates broke the Union line, captured many cannon and forced Porter's troops back to the woods on the bank of the Chickahominy. Two brigades of Sumner's corps, who had been tardily sent to the support of their comrades, efficiently covered the retreat of the exhausted and shattered regiments who withdrew dejectedly to the south side of the river. In his despatches during the battle, McClellan does not betray panic. At five o'clock he thought Porter might hold 18 P.M. O. R., XI, Pt. III, 266. Сн. ІІІ] MCCLELLAN'S DEMORALIZATION 139 his own until dark and three hours later his confidence was The I have lost I feel too The news was a terrible blow to the President. His finely equipped army costing such a tale of treasure and labor, had gone forth with high hope of conquest and bearing, so it seemed, the fate of the Union, on its shoulders; now it was defeated and in serious danger of destruction or capture. This calamity the head of the nation must face, and he failed not. Overlooking the spirit of insubordination in his general's despatch, he sent him a reply as wise as it was gentle. With equal forbearance and circumspection he offered the most charitable explanation possible of the disaster. "Save your army at all events," he wrote. "Will send reinforcements as fast as we can. I feel any misfortune to 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 140 MCCLELLAN AND LEE [1862 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. . . . It is the nature of the case and neither you nor the government are to blame." 1 As the battle of Gaines's Mill ended the offensive attitude of the Army of the Potomac, some general considerations will here be in place. Nearly all writers agree that McClellan should have strongly reënforced Porter, who in that event could have held his own until night when he could have made an orderly retreat; he might even have won the battle. If McClellan had known of Lee's division of the Confederate force, he would of course have followed the plan of the military critics. Nevertheless there is no doubt that his judgment was bad on the basis of such information as he possessed; this may be affirmed after conceding that by no possible means could he have gained the correct knowledge of the enemy' which Lee had of the Union forces. "If I were mindful only of my own glory," wrote Frederick the Great, "I would choose always to make war in my own country, for there every man is a spy and the enemy can make no movement of which I am not informed." 2 This advantage was Lee's but in addition he understood McClellan. Only in dealing with a timid commander would he have so divided his force. When Lee was planning the campaign Davis said, “If McClellan is the man I take him for . . . as soon as he finds that the bulk of our army is on the north side of the Chickahominy, he will not stop to try conclusions with it there but will immediately move upon his objective point, the city of Richmond." Lee replied, "If you will hold him as long as you can at the intrenchment and then fall back on the detached works around the city I will be upon the enemy's heels before he gets 1 IV, 43, 44 with authorities cited. 2 Lieut.-Col. Henderson, I, 497. CH. III] LEE AND JACKSON 141 there."1 No doubt Lee would have been as good as his word, but McClellan neither reënforced Porter properly, nor did he take advantage of his general's gallant fight to advance on Richmond. The despatches between McClellan and his officers on the south side of the river during the day of the battle show that they were paralyzed, so far as an offensive movement was concerned, by vigorous demonstrations of the troops guarding the Confederate capital. Some writers have thought that while Porter was engaged with the larger Confederate force, McClellan could easily have gone into Richmond; but as Lee's entire army was now fully equal in number to McClellan's, it is difficult to regard such a movement as other than extremely hazardous. The reënforcement of Porter was more prudent; moreover, to take toll from the Army of Northern Virginia, was, as Lincoln perceived, quite as effective offensive work as the capture of Richmond. No speculation is necessary to explain why the Confederates were successful. Their victory was due to the greater ability of Lee and Jackson. Lieutenant-Colonel Henderson, in his enthusiasm over Jackson's Valley campaign, wrote, The brains of Lee and Jackson did more for the Confederacy than 200,000 soldiers for the Union. Although this remark need not be taken literally, the germ of the truth is in it. They greatly excelled their adversary both in strategy and tactics. McClellan was never on the battle-field, not through a lack of physical courage, since, in making reconnaissances, he was cool under fire, but because he could not endure the sight of blood. "Jackson," wrote Lieutenant-Colonel Henderson, rode “along the line of battle with as much composure as if the hail of bullets was no more than summer rain.” 3 Lee loved the fight and yearned to be in it. His own son, as well i IV, 36. 2 Lieut.-Col. Henderson, I, 502. 3 Ibid., 539. 142 LEE AND MCCLELLAN [1862 as President Davis and other friends, remonstrated with him for exposing himself to danger, and once, when he was for leading a charge himself, his men cried out, "General Lee to the rear!" "It is well war is so terrible," he once said; "we should grow too fond of it." 1 The match between Lee and Jackson on one side and McClellan on the other was unequal, and McClellan of course went down. Into the dispute between him and Lincoln's friends touching the withdrawal of troops from his command and the alleged failure properly to reënforce him we need not go further than to refer to one point which the General made. But for an unwise order of the Secretary of War, there would have been troops enough for all. Emboldened by the Union successes, he stopped recruiting on April 3, at a time when it was not difficult to get men and when the impulse to volunteer should not have been checked.2 But no matter how many troops had been given to McClellan, he could not have handled them in such a manner as to get the better of Lee and Jackson. It is certain that Lincoln and Stanton desired his success as ardently as he did himself. Although McClellan could not manage 100,000 men on the offensive, he made a masterly retreat.3 He was able to carry out Lincoln's injunction, "Save your army," when a lesser man might have lost it. Lee expected to capture or destroy the Union force, but failed to divine McClellan's plan until too late to frustrate it. Convinced as he was that the retreat would be down the Peninsula, he neglected to interfere immediately with the movement for a change of base to the James river, which McClellan had determined on making 1 Fitzhugh Lee, 260, 294; Long, 338; O. R., XI, Pt. III, 632. 2 III, 636; see General Meade, I, 268. 366 'A retreat is the most exhausting of military movements. It is costly in men, 'more so,' says Napoleon, 'than two battles."" Lieut-Col. Henderson, I, 534. |
