HANOVER COURT HOUSE AND GAINES’S MILL.

3 2 3

and. liad buried some 200 killed. By General McClellan ’s directions we returnedto our camp on the 29th of May.

This was the first occasion that the corps had had to show its good qualities,all being in action at once. The behavior of the officers and men showedthe benefit of the good training before Washington, during the fall and winterof 1861, given by their brigade and regimental commanders. The regiments,without exception, behaved most gallantly.

On our return to camp all rejoiced at the success of our mission in secur-ing for a reasonable time our flank from injury and preparing the whole armyfor a rapid advance on Richmond , and also by rendering McDowell’s presenceunnecessary for the defense of Washington, giving the War Department theopportunity of sending his corps by water to join us. If that had been done,none of the enemy could have been detached from Richmond to threatenWashington, and his forces in Northern Virginia would have been called todefend Richmond . But a mightier power interfered, and through years of trialand sufferings delayed the happy victory we then hoped was in our hands. |

After the battle of Fair Oaks, during the greater part of the month of June,1862, the Army of the Potomac, under General McClellan , and the Army ofNorthern Virginia, under General Lee, confronted each other, east of Rich-mond . The two armies were of nearly equal strength. [See foot-note, p. 187.]McClellan ’s forces, divided by the Chickahominy, were extended south of that

4- The Union loss at Hanover Court House was 62 killed; 223 wounded; 70 missing = 355.— Editors.

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UNION ARTILLERY AT MECHANICSVILLE SHELLING THE CONFEDERATE WORKS SOUTH OF THE CHICKAHOMINY'.

Tin 's sketch was made several days before the begin- of the ground occupied by the battery. It was by thisning of the Seven Days’Battles. The road to Richmond road that the troops of D. H. Hill’s and Longstreet’scrosses the stream by the MechanicsvHle Bridge, the division crossed to join Jackson and A. P. Hill in thehalf-dozen houses composing the town being to the left attack upon the right of McClellan ’s army.