386 MCCLELLAN’S CHANGE OF BASE AND MALHERN HILL.

from which he had started, a few months before, for the capture of the Con-federate capital, with his splendid army and magnificent outfit. J It is aproof of Lee ’s sagacity that he predicated his orders for an advance upon thebelief that General McClellan was too proud a man to fall back by the sameroute by which the triumphal advance had been made. A great commandermust study the mental and moral characteristics of the opposing leader, andLee was specially endowed with an aptitude in that direction. At the battle ofSalzbach, Montecuculi, the Austrian commander, noticed the French troopsmaking a movement so different from the cautious style of his famous rivalthat he exclaimed, “ Either Turenne is dead or mortally wounded.” So itproved to be; the French marshal had been killed by a cannon-ball beforethe movement began.

In pursuance of General Lee ’s plan, Huger was directed (on the 29th) totake the Charles City road to strike the retreating column below White OakSwamp. Holmes was to take possession of Malvern Hill, and Magruder tofollow the line of retreat, as soon as the works were abandoned. Theabandonment became known about sunrise on Sunday morning, but Grape-vine Bridge was not completed till sunset. Jackson then crossed his corpsat that point, my division leading. We bivouacked that night near Savage’sStation, where McLaws ’s division had had a severe fight a few hours before.Just at dawn on Monday, the 30th, we were in motion, when I discoveredwhat appeared to be a line of battle drawn up at the station, but whichproved to be a line of sick and of hospital attendants, 2500 in number.About half a mile from the station we saw what seemed to be an entireregiment of Federals cold in death, and learned that a Vermont regiment [the5th] had been in the desperate charge upon the division of McLaws , and hadsuffered great loss [killed, 31; wounded, 143]. From the time of crossing theriver, we had evidence everywhere of the precipitate nature of the Federalretreat. % Dabney, in his life of Jackson, says:

“ The whole country was full of deserted plunder, army wagons, and pontoon-trains partiallyburned or crippled; mounds of grain and rice and hillocks of mess beef smoldering ■, tens ofthousands of axes, picks, and shovels; camp kettles gashed with hatchets; medicine chestswith their drugs stirred into a foul medley, and all the apparatus of a vast and lavish host;while the mire under foot was mixed with blankets lately new, and with overcoats torn from thewaist up. For weeks afterward agents of our army were busy in gathering in the spoils.Great stores of fixed ammunition were saved, while more were destroyed.”

In our march from Savage’s Station my division picked up a thousandprisoners, stragglers from the retreating army, and gathered a large numberof abandoned rifles. I detached two regiments (the Fourth and Fifth North

J The capture of Petersburg would have beenalmost as disastrous to the South as the captureof Richmond , and for many days Petersburg rvasat the mercy of the Federal army. There were notroops and no fortifications there when McClellan reached the James. Some two weeks after thebattle of Malvern Hill the first earth-works werebegun at Petersburg, by my order.— D. H. H.

& The Union reports do 2 iot indicate precip-itancy. The greater part of McClellan ’s army was

within three miles of the original lines at the closeof the second day after the battle of Gaines’s Mill,that is, on the evening of June 20th. The thirdday after that battle, the Army of the Potomacfought on three separate fields (White Oak Bridge,Charles City road, and Glendale), at distances offrom 7 to 10 miles from the old positions in frontof Richmond . General Wm. B. Franklin was withthe rear columns of the army during the movementto the James River. [See p. 306.] —Editors.