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rebels had constructed several bridges across the Chickahominy, above Mechanicsville, and commenced crossing the stream in great force. About forty thousand passed over on Thursday, the 26th; twenty thousand the next day; and by noon of Saturday, the 28th, full seventy thousand rebels were on the left banks of the Chickahominy.*

Jackson, Longstreet, A. P. Hill, and G. W. Smith led this strong array. From an eminence in the vicinity of Mechanicsville these dense columns could be seen as they crossed by the various bridges they had reared. It was one of the most sultry of summer days. Not a leaf moved in the breathless wind.

The whole rebel force was under the command of General Robert E. Lee, who had succeeded Johnston. In the afternoon

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of Thursday, the 26th, the first of the famous sevven days' battles commenced. General Hill threw himself, with the impetuosity of assured success, upon the patriot troops under General M'Call, who held the advance of General Porter at Mechanicsville, upon the left banks of the Chickahominy. The conflict was very severe. But General M'Call had posted himself on the banks of a ravine called Beaver Dam. Here he had made an abattis and thrown up some light intrenchments, and the outnumbering enemy, notwithstanding the most desperate efforts, was unable to dislodge him. The battle raged with Siege of Richmond, by Joel Cook, p. 307. VOL. XXX.-No. 180.-3 B

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great fury till half past nine at night. The attacking rebels were about 60,000. The patriots numbered but 35,000. Thus terminated the first day's fight, with a decided repulse to the rebels. The exhausted soldiers, friend and foe, slept upon their arms. The most distinguished honor is due the patriot soldiers, who thus successfully repelled their greatly outnumbering as sailants in this hard-fought battle of Mechanicsville.

All the night both parties were busy in collecting the wounded, and burying the dead. Each army was watchful to guard against a night attack. General M'Call and his staff

ROBERT E. LEE.

bivouacked sleeplessly in the open air. During the night the whole of General Porter's baggage was sent across the Chickahominy in preparation for the retreat, and united with the immense train which was to struggle along, mainly by a single road, assailed at every point, to the banks of the James River. At the same time orders were given to evacuate White House, to destroy all the immense stores there which could not be removed, and also to burn all the magazines along the railway between the Pamunky and the Chickahominy. General Stoneman, with his flying artillery, was charged with the execution of this order.

A little after midnight, on Friday morning, General M'Call was ordered to fall back on the bridges which had been thrown across the Chickahominy about a mile in his rear. Here he was to make another desperate stand with the troops of Generals Porter, Morrell, and Sykes, and beat

back the foe, while the main body of the army attempted the humiliating movement to which it was doomed. The soldiers now awoke for the first time to the consciousness that the siege of Richmond was abandoned, that the whole army was on the retreat, and that the divisions under General Porter were merely operating as a rear-guard, to beat back the exultant onrushing rebels.

At three o'clock in the morning the patriot troops, under General M'Call, commenced slowly retiring. The rebels were on the alert, and immediately pressed forward in pursuit, yet very cautiously, lest they should be drawn into a snare. With great precision and firmness the patriots, crowded by their assailants, fell back, not a man proving recreant to duty. General Porter formed them in line, with the other troops composing the rear-guard, in ranks of battle extending over two miles from the Chickahominy to Coal Harbor. The extreme left was held by General Meade. Then followed success

ively Generals Butterfield, Martindale, Griffin, and Sykes. General Reynolds, of the reserve, held the right of the line at Coal Harbor. Generals Cook and Seymour were slightly in the rear to support any portion of the line which might be broken. General Fitz John Porter was in command of the whole corps. He had in all about 30,000 troops. Sixty pieces of cannon were advantageously stationed upon the eminences around. The enemy were advancing with forces now swelled to between sixty and ninety thousand.*

Cautiously, yet resolutely, the rebels advanced in three columns. The second day of the bloody fight, Friday, June 27, was to be ushered in, with its clouds of terror and its flow of blood. One rebel column advanced along the banks of the river. One marched by a parallel path about a mile inland. The third column moved See Report of Congressional Committee, p. 11.

directly upon Coal Harbor. It was not until near noon that the battle, in all its fury, commenced. It has been called the battle of Gaines's Mill, since a mill by that name was near the central point of attack. One hundred and twenty pieces of artillery, on the two sides, opened their tremendous fire. The hills shook with the concussion, and the two armies were soon enveloped in clouds of smoke. Under cover of this fire the rebels made several charges, with a disregard of death never surpassed. But the National troops were well posted; they fought with all the bravery which mortal men could

show, and repulsed their overwhelming foes with prodigious slaughter.

During the action, which, as we have mentioned, extended along a line over two miles in length, the Rev. Wm. Dickson, Chaplain of the Twelfth Pennsylvania Reserves, was in a hospital attending to the wounded men. The hospital was in the shelter of a ravine, up which the rebels commenced marching several colunns that they might outflank us. Soon the alarm reached the hospital that the rebels were upon them. Mr. Dickson ran up the side of the ravine and saw close at hand, in rapid march,

the columns of the foe. At the same moment he heard a shout from a patriot battery in his rear, "Lie down; you are right in our way!" He threw himself upon his face, and there was a thunder roar, and a shell went shrieking over his head. Knowing that the guns were fired in line, and that the line extended along the only route for his retreat, he instantly sprang up, ran a few steps, and again threw himself upon the ground. There was another lightning flash, thunder roar, and shrieking shell, when he was again upon his feet. Thus he ran the perilous gauntlet of two batteries in full play; springing from the ground at every flash as the charge passed over him, and nicely calculating the time when to throw himself upon his face to avoid another discharge. The men working the guns often caught a glimpse of him, and shouted, "Out of the way, or you'll be shot!" He coolly shouted back, "Fire away. I'll take care of myself!" A man must not only have

were thundering on every side. The polished weapons of over one hundred thousand combatants were gleaming over the hills and through the valleys in the rays of a brilliant June sun. Squadrons of cavalry were sweeping through the dells; columns of infantry, in dense black masses, with their bristling bayonets, were climbing the hills, or, defiling in long lines, were rushing upon the foe in impetuous charges. Flying artillery were moving with almost supernatural velocity from ridge to ridge, bellowing forth their deadly thunders. Thousands of lancers finely

mounted, and with their floating pennons, were stationed along the banks of the ravine awaiting the summons to plunge into the maelstrom of death. Many of the reserves were concealed in the hollows or behind the dense foliage of the woods, and as the exigencies of the battle called them forth, they rose from their concealment, and, with loud cheers, rushed to meet the foe. Indeed, at one time it seemed as though the National troops, even against such fearful odds, would surely gain the victory.

General Butterfield signalized himself greatly on this day by his almost superhuman efforts

to beat back the foe. His horse was shot under him. A fragment of a shell struck his hat. His sword was indented by a musket ball. Several of his aids fell at his side. Still, reckless of danger and death, he rallied his heroic men to the most desperate resistance, sharing with them every peril.

The fury of the cannonade was such that clouds of dust plowed up by the balls hung smotheringly over the battle-field. Thus hour after hour the desperate struggle was continued. Every man of the National reserves was at length in action. There was not another