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HANOVER COURT HOUSE AND GAINES’S MILL.
confidence, I might add incaution, if not imprudence and rashness inexposure and attack, confirmed my belief that at first they deemed the taskan easy one.
I, however, determined to hold my position at least long enough to makethe army secure. Though in a desperate situation, I was not without stronghope of some timely assistance from the main body of the army, withwhich I might repulse the attack and so cripple our opponents as to makethe capture of Richmond by the main body of the army,under McClellan, the result of any sacrifice or suffering onthe part of my troops or of myself. I felt that the life ordeath of the army depended upon our conduct in the con-test of that day, and that on the issue of that contestdepended an early peace or a prolonged, devastating war—for the Union cause could never be yielded. Our brave andintelligent men of all grades and ranks fully realized this,and thousands of them freely offered up their lives that dayto maintain the sacred cause which they had voluntarilytaken up arms to defend to the last extremity.
The Confederates, under Longstreet and A. P. Hill , fol-lowing us from Mechanicsville, moved cautiously by theroads leading by Dr. Gaines’s house to New Cold Harbor,and by 2 p. m. had formed lines of battle behind the crestof the hills east of Powhite Creek. These lines were par-allel to ours, and extended from the valley of the Chicka-hominy through New Cold Harbor around Morell’s front, soas nearly to reach Warren’s brigade—the left of Sykes’s division. AtGaines’s Mill, Colonel Thomas Cass’s gallant 9th Massachusetts Volunteersof Griffin’s brigade obstinately resisted A. P. Hill ’s crossing, and were sosuccessful in delaying his advance, after crossing, as to compel him to employlarge bodies to force the regiment back to the main line. This brought on acontest which extended to Morell’s center and over Martin’s front — on hisright—and lasted from 12:30 to near 2 o’clock—Cass and his immediatesupports falling back south of the swamps. This persistent and prolongedresistance gave to this battle one of its well-known names. %
Another column of the enemy, D. H. Hill ’s, from Beaver Dam Creek, andJackson’s column, from Northern Virginia, with which it had united, cameopposite my right front from the direction of Old Cold Harbor and deployed,connecting with A. P. Hill ’s on the left and extending to our right beyondMcGehee’s. The advance column of these troops came a little earlier thanthose under Longstreet and A. P. Hill , but were more cautious and for somehours not so aggressive. Believing that they were passing on down theriver to intercept our communications, and thinking that I might strikethem to good advantage while in motion, I asked permission to follow,
All the severe "battles in this campaign began after noon : Seven Pines, 1 o’clock ; Mechanicsville,3 to 4; Gaines’s Mill at 12:30; Savage’s Station at 4 ; White Oak Swamp, 12 to 1; Glendale, 3 to 4,Malvern Hill after 1.—Editors.