238

TWO DAYS OF BATTLE AT SFWEN PINES.

were again received, and this time to countermarch to the Williamsburg road and follow on inrear of the troops then advancing. The brigades had retraced their steps near one mile, andorders were again given to face about and march down the Charles City road. . . . Again

orders were received in writing to move across to the Williamsburg road, following countryroads and paths through woods and fields ... in many places covered with water, and atone point waist-deep. ... It was about 5 p. m. when the head of the column reached theWilliamsburg road.”

The plain words of General Wilcox, written at the time and addressed tohis immediate commander, are more significant of the real truth than anyskillfully formed sentences, framed now, could possibly be. With Wilcox’sreport before him, General Longstreet says:

“ I was obliged to send three of my small brigades on the Charles City road to support theone of Major-General Huger’s which had been ordered to protect my right flank.”

Three brigades of Huger’s division were then on that road.

In order to form a proper conception of the folly exhibited by the marchingand countermarching of five Confederate brigades up and down the CharlesCity road between 3 and 5 p. m., it is necessary to glance at the movementsthen being made by the Federals from the north side of the Chickaliominy.At 1 p. m., when the firing of Hill’s attack was first heard, General McClellan ordered General Sumner to form the two divisions of his corps, and be readyto move across the Chickaliominy, at a moment’s notice, to aid Keyes.Sumner at once put his two divisions under arms, marched them to theirrespective bridges, and, with the heads of the columns on the bridges, awaitedfurther orders. General Sumner says: “At 2:30 o’clock p. m. I received theorder to cross the river.” And he adds: “ The columns immediately movedover the river and marched rapidly to the field of battle by two roads.” It isnot proposed, just now, to describe the earnest haste with which Sumner’stroops pressed forward, through the deep mud, to the assistance of theirfriends. The head of Sumner’s leading column reached the immediatevicinity of Fair Oaks before the head of the column of five brigades of Long-street’s command, from the Charles City road, reached the Williamsburg road,far in rear of the fighting.

The leading brigade of Wilcox’s command arrived at Casey’s capturedredoubt a little before the firing of Kearny’s rear-guard in the wood, south ofthe Williamsburg road, ceased. Three companies of the leading regiment ofWilcox’s troops were sent to dislodge a party of the enemy — Kearny’sdetached rear-guard — whose fire was still annoying the Confederates in theopen between Casey’s earth-works and the second abatis. In this contest thesethree companies lost 66 men in a few minutes. The five brigades withWilcox went into bivouac between the first and the second abatis. Hill’sdivision A was afterward withdrawn and bivouacked in the woods west ofCasey’s redoubt and rifle-pits.

■&On the Confederate side the losses, May 31st, action. The losses in this brigade may fairly bein D. H. Hill’s division were 2915, being more estimated to have been more than 600, and thethan one-third of his effective strength. The losses total losses in Longstreet’s division that day mayin R. H. Anderson’s brigade (of Longstreet’s divis- be placed at 700. These figures, whilst showingion) are not reported ; but it is known that the 6th that the losses in the six brigades of Longstreet’sSouth Carolina Regiment lost 269 out of 521 in division were not one-fourth as great as the losses