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fusion. It was then evident, however, from the obstinacy of our adversariesat Fair Oaks, that the battle would not be decided that day. I said so to thestaff-officers near me, and told them that each regiment must sleep where itmight be standing when the firing ceased for the night, to be ready to renewit at dawn next morning.
About half-past 7 o’clock I received a musket-shot in the shoulder, and wasunhorsed soon after by a heavy fragment of shell which struck my breast.I was borne from the field — first to a house on the roadside, thence toRichmond . The firing ceased before I had been carried a mile from it. Theconflict at Fair Oaks was terminated by darkness only.
Mr. Davis’s account of what he saw and did at Fair Oaks (II., 123)indicates singular ignorance of the topography of the vicinity, as well as ofwhat was occurring. He says that the enemy’s line was on the bank of theriver. It was at right angles to and some three miles from it. He says thatsoon after his arrival I was brought from the right wounded. This provesthat his “ arrival ” was near sunset. He also describes the moving of reen-forcements from the left to the right. This was not being done. The rightwas abundantly strong. He says that he made a reconnoissance — then sentthree couriers one after the other, with an order to Magruder “to send aforce ” by the wooded path under the bluff, to attack the enemy in flank andreverse. If the first courier had been dispatched before the reconnoissance,and delivered the order to Magruder promptly, his “ force,” marching littlemore than a mile by the straight Nine-mile road, could scarcely have comeup before dark. The route described would have been (if found) five or sixmiles long.
The only thing he ought to have done, or had time to do, was postponedalmost twenty hours — the putting G-eneral Lee, who was near, in commandof the army.
The operations of the Confederate troops in this battle were very muchretarded by the broad ponds of rain-water, — in many places more than knee-deep,— by the deep mud, and by the dense woods and thickets that coveredthe ground.
Brigadier-General Hatton was among the killed, and Brigadier-GeneralsPettigrew and Hampton were severely wounded. The latter kept his saddle,and served to the end of the action. Among the killed on the Williamsburgroad were Colonels Moore, of Alabama , Jones, and Lomax. In the two days’battle, the Confederate loss, so far as the reports indicate, was 6134 (includ-ing the loss in G. W. Smith’s division, which was 1283); and the Federal loss,according to the revised returns, was 5031.
Prisoners to the number of 350, 10 pieces of artillery, 6700 muskets andrifles in excellent condition, a garrison flag and 4 regimental colors, medical,commissary, quartermaster and ordnance stores, tents and sutler’s property,were captured and secured.
The troops on the ground at nightfall were: on the Confederate side, 22brigades, more than half of which had not been in action; and on the Federalside 6 divisions in 3 corps, two-thirds of which had fought, and half of which