376 REAR-GUARD FIGHTING DURING THE CHANGE OF BASE.
son’s division was unhitched, its captain not supposing there was to he anyfurther movement that night, and the men and horses went to sleep, as usualwhen there was opportunity, which was not often in those days. The division,as has been told, moved off, and by accident no notice of the movement wassent to Captain Hazzard. On the next morning he heard reveille sounded bydrums and trumpets from positions that he knew our troops did not hold theevening before. Everything in his vicinity was quiet. He took in the situa-tion at once. He had been left behind, and the enemy might be upon him atany moment. He had the battery quietly hitched up, sent the caissons off inadvance, and, bringing up the rear with two guns ready to open on a pursuingforce, started off at a walk. When he was clear of the field he ordered thebattery to trot. He arrived without harm at the White Oak Bridge at thatpace just as Gleneral Richardson was on the point of destroying it. Hefound on the road many stragglers who were coolly wandering along withno suspicion that they were behind everybody, and by his warning was themeans of saving many soldiers from a Richmond prison. The pluck andcoolness shown in this exploit of Captain Hazzard were admirable. He waskilled the next day while doing excellent work with his battery.
As the result of the dispositions made by the commanding general of thetroops (a part of whose operations has just been described) a whoie day wasgained in getting a large part of the army to the James River withoutserious opposition, and into a proper defensive position; the enormous trainsand heavy artillery had been given a start of twenty-four hours, insuringtheir safe arrival at the river. The rear of the army also had crossed WhiteOak Swamp, leaving the way clear to the James River, while at the sametime a strong force was ready to protect the movement during its completion.
On the enemy’s side, the slowness of Jackson in getting his force to the southside of the Chickaliominy (he only arrived at Savage’s Station at 3 o’clock onthe morning of June 30th) had prevented us from being defeated in the fightof June 29th. The 28th and 29th had been occupied by Jackson in disposingof the dead and wounded at Oaines’s Mill and in repairing Gfrapevine Bridge.
On the north (the enemy’s) side of White Oak Swamp, the road for morethan a quarter of a mile approaches the White Oak Bridge through lowground, open to artillery fire from the south side. [See map, p. 384.] On theright of the enemy, looking to the rear, there were hills covered with thickwoods approaching the road, forming good cover for artillery, and making itpossible for a large force to gather in the wood unseen from our side. Thesame range of hills continues up the stream, and approaches quite near it atBrackett’s Ford, about one mile above White Oak Bridge. Both of thesecrossings were passable for artillery, but the bridges had been destroyed byour troops in the morning, after everything had crossed and before theappearance of the enemy.
On our side of the swamp, the ground rises from the bridge, and the roadpasses along the right, or east, of a ravine and joins the Long Bridge roadabout one and a quarter miles from the swamp. On the left of the ravinewas a cleared space about a half-mile long in the direction of the swamp and