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RUSH'S LANCERS-THE 6TH PENNSYLVANIA CAVALRY. FROM A 8KETCH MADE IN 1862.

HANOVER COURT HOUSE AND GAINES’S MILL.

BY FITZ JOHN PORTER, MAJOR-GENERAL , U. S. Y.

U NDER the direction of General McClellan certain measures for the protec-tion of the right flank of the army in its advance upon Richmond wereput in my hands, beginning simultaneously with the march of the army fromthe Pamunkey. J Among these were the clearing of the enemy from theupper Peninsula as far as Hanover Court House or beyond, and, in case Gen-eral McDowell’s large forces, then at Fredericksburg , were not to join us,the destruction of railroad and other bridges over the South and Pamunkeyrivers, in order to prevent the enemy in large force from getting into ourrear from that direction, and in order, further, to cut the Virginia CentralRailroad, the one great line of the enemy’s communications between Rich-mond and Northern Virginia.

A portion of this duty had been accomplished along the Pamunkey as faras was deemed prudent by Colonel G. K.Warren ’s forces, posted at Old Church,when on the 26th of May, preparatory to an immediate advance upon Rich-mond, General McClellan directed me to complete the duty above specified,so that the enemy in Northern Virginia, then occupying the attention ofMcDowell, Banks , and Fremont, could not be suddenly thrown upon ourflank and rear nor otherwise strengthen the enemy in Richmond . I wasallowed to adopt my own plans, and to select such additional forces as Ideemed necessary.

i The army left its eamp at White House Land- and 24th Davidson’s brigade of Smith’s divisioning, on the Pamunkey, May 17th to 20th. The occupied Mechanicsville after a brief encounter6th Corps, under Franklin, advanced along the with a Confederate column of Magruder’s corn-north bank of the Chickahomiuy, and on the 23d mand, under General Paul J. Semmes.— Editors.

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