I have here to call the attention of my superior Chiefs to this most heroic action on the part of Colonel HAYS and his regiment. The Sixty-third has won for Pennsylvania the laurels of fame. That which grape and canister failed in effecting was now accomplished by the determined charge and rapid volleys of this foot. The enemy, at the muzzles of our guns, for the first time, sulkily retired, fighting. Subsequently, ground having been gained, the Sixty-third Pennsylvania was ordered to “lie low," and the battery once more reopened its ceaseless work of destruction.

This battle saw renewed three ontsets as above, with similar vicissitudes, when finally the enemy betokened his efforts as passed, by converting his charges into an ordinary line fight of musketry, embracing the whole front of the brigade, for, by this period, he was enabled to do so, from THOMPSON's pieces having left the field after expending their grape and becoming tired of the futility of round shot.

!

It may have been then half-past seven P. M., full day-light remained, and anticipating that the enemy, foiled in the attempt to carry the New Market road and adjacent open ground, would next hazard an attack toward the Charles City road, or intermediate woods, that my attention was called there. I therefore left everything progressing steadily on the left, and visited the entire line to the right, notwithstanding that the line was long, and that no reserves (excepting the weak Third Michigan) existed. The cheerful manner and solid look of BIRNEY's brigade gave assurance of their readiness to be measured with the foe, and they met my warning of the coming storm with loud cheers of exultation. Half an hour or forty minutes may have been thus passed. I then returned to the extreme left of my line. Arriving there, I found that Colonel HAYS had been relieved by Colonel BARLOW, of the Sixty-first New York Volunteers, the head of General CALDWELL'S brigade, sent to me from SUMNER'S Corps, and which had reported to General ROBINSON. Almost in the commencement of the action, within the first half hour, as I had plainly foreseen and warned my superior, General HEINTZELMAN, and General HUMPHREYS, Engineers, who most kindly had gone over my position with me, every man was engaged, or in position or in close support. The Eighty-seventh New York Volunteers had been ordered by General HEINTZELMAN to Brackett's Ford, and the First New York Volunteers was diverted from me by a misapprehension of Colonel DYCKMAN. This fact I announced to General HEINTZELMAN, without asking reinforcements, since I did not conceive them necessary, nor would they have been but for the diverting of my First New York Volunteers, a very strong regiment, to General MCCALL.

The Sixty-first New York Volunteers, under its most intrepid leader, Colonel BARLOW, had vied with the brave regiment he had relieved, and charging the enemy, borne off as a trophy one of his colors. It had subsequently taken up its position to the left of the One Hundred and Fifth Pennsylvania, and itself been subsequently retired, but none appointed to take its place, that breastwork being unoccupied. It was at this conjuncture that I arrived from my right. I found MCCALL's position abandoned, although not occupied by the enemy. I placed in it the First New Jersey Brigade, General TAYLOR. I then knew it to be in true hands. I observed that whilst the enemy were amusing my entire front with an ordinary musket fire, that strong parties of rebel skirmishers, in the gloom of the evening, rendered denser by the murky fogs of the smoke, were feeling their way slowly and distrustfully to the unoccupied parapet. Galloping back to find the nearest troops, I met General CALDWELL, who, under General MCCALL's supervision, was putting two or more of his regiments into line to the right of the road (a quarter of a mile in rear of the breastworks) to move up in order. Circumstances denied this delay; accordingly I directed General CALDWELL to lead a wing of a regiment at double [quick] up the road to open on these rebel skirmishers. This was done promptly, but, from their being foreigners, not with a full comprehension, and darkness embarrassed them, they fired at the rebels, but in direction of others of my line, and thus, while the enemy were swept off the arena, it left, for some little time, our troops firing at each other. To increase this confusion, the residue of the Brigade, who had not filed into the woods and formed on the road,

the contest. The enemy could not stand the heavy stroke of the moment, but broke and fled: rallying three several times with fresh reinforcements, they ventured out into the open ground, and each time they were repelled with even greater slaughter than before, until great heaps of their dead were lying like mounds on the field.--Chaplain MARKS “Peninsula Campaign,” page 284.

opened on us all who were in the front. It is my impression that General MCCALL (taken prisoner) must have been killed by this fire.

The errors of cross-firing having at last subsided, my Fifth Michigan gallantly crossed the parapets and pursued the retiring enemy. The Eighty-first Pennsylvania then nobly responding to my orders, gallently led by Lieutenant-Colonel CONNER, and Captain MILES, of General CALDWELL'S staff, dashed over the parapet, pursued, charged, and with a few vigorous volleys finished the battle at half-past nine at night.

I remained much longer on the field, and reported in person to General HEINTZELMAN at his quarters.*

In concluding my report of this battle, one of the most desperate of the war, the one most fatal, if lost, I am proud to give my thanks, and to include in the glory of my own Division the first New Jersey Brigade, General TAYLOR, who held MCCALL'S deserted ground, and General CALDWELL whose personal gallantry and the bravery of whose regiments not only entitle them to share in the credit of our victory, but also ever after engender full sympathies between the two corps.

In this engagement the coolness and judicious arrangements of General BIRNEY influenced his whole command to feel invincible in a very weak position. General BERRY, as usual, was active. The fearful losses which his noble regiments have sustained, reducing them to scarce two hundred to a regiment, oblige me to preserve such heroes for the decisive moments. Still, they will not be repressed, and the Fifth Michigan, under Major FAIRBANKS, was the first to pursue the enemy. I regret, for ourselves, that he, almost the last of our noble distinguished at Williamsburg and Fair Oaks. and the forced advance of the 25th of June (second battle of Fair Oaks or of Oak Grove), is dangerously wounded. I have to state that this Division has been extremely used. This has prematurely reduced to nothing regiments of the highest mark.

ม

I have reserved General ROBINSON for the last. To him this day is due - above all others in this Division—the honors of this battle. The attack was on his wing. Everywhere present, by personal supervision and noble example, he secured for us the honor of the victory.

For the names of officers distinguished in their regiments, I, for the present, refer you to the brigade and regimental reports.

As to the action of my artillery (Battery G, Second United States Artillery), it has never been equaled for rapidity and precision of fire, and coolness amidst great loss of men and horses. The gallantry of its commander, Captain THOMPSON, identifies him with its distinction.

Our loss has been severe, and when it is remembered that this occurs to mere skeletons of regiments, there is but one observation to be made-that previous military history presents no such parallel

* Under a tree at the junction of the Quaker and Charles City Roads.

(Signed)

S. P. H. (SAMUEL P. HEINTZELMAN.)

CHAPTER XXVI.

COMPANION AND SUPPLEMENTARY.

A PARTIAL REVIEW OF THE PENINSULA OPERATIONS ON THE LEFT- POPULAR PRONENESS TO EXAGGERATION KEARNY'S PRACTICAL FORESIGHT AND ABILITY THE KEARNY PATCH, DIAMOND AND CROSS, AND BADGE OR MEDAL.

I saw the ground on which * * the opposing armies had gazed on each other: the Confederates on the ridge of the valley to the south, guarding Richmond, the Federals on that to the north. The valley is nearly a mile wide. Muddy and sluggish was the stream (Chickahominy) in August (1862), winding through reedy meadows and swamps. * * Rev. WM. WYNDHAM MALET'S "Errand to the South in the Summer of 1862," pages 165-'6. "The (battle) ground (of Seven Pines) was very unfavorable for operations on either side a broad wooded flat, intersected with morasses and open spaces; and the roads wero bad and marshy beyond description, owing to the late violent rains."-31st May, 1862, VON BORCKE'S" Memoirs," chap. ii, page 17.

"A general should understand his opponents' character."-PRINCE EUGENE; Maj.Gen. MITCHELL's “Biographies of Eminent Soldiers,” page 253.

"The Commonwealth is sick of her own choice:
Her over greedy Love is surfeited.”

SHAKESPEARE'S

""Tis drilling that makes him (a soldier), skill and SENSE-
Perception-thought — INTELLIGENCE."

Henry IV."

SCHILLER'S "Wallenstein's Lager."

It is one of the fine, high-sounding axioms of the moral throng: "Man shall do what is good only because it is good." The philosopher, however, likewise the close observer of human nature, knows that there is another motive which influences men in a higher degree: "Honorable recognition by his fellow-men." ** Under these considerations, is there a more sensible recognition, a more disinterested reward than by means of a simple ribbon, a cross, a star, in short, some badge of honor, whose entire value is its moral effect? And yet, the whole history of the world demonstrates what wonderful effects have been produced by such ribbons, crosses, stars and badges * in developing grand conceptions, lofty ideas; in causing valorous and glorious actions; in reaching the loftiest attaining aims, believed to be beyond the reach of man. So it has been throughout all times. The mural crown and the laurel wreath had the same effect upon the ancient Romans as the Golden Fleece upon the knights of the middle ages, and as the cross or badge of honor exercises among soldiers at the present day. —“ Das Buch der Ritterorden und Ehrenzeichen, Vorwort."

*

"The history of WAR MEDALS is not well known. Many are believed to exist, that were struck by order of QUEEN ELIZABETH and JAMES I; but the first of which there is any authentic account was worn as a military decoration, and was granted by CHARLES I, în 1642, for such as distinguished themselves in forlorn hopes. The name of ROBERT WALSH IS recorded as the first recipient. He gained it at Edge Hill."-General CUST's "Lives of the Warriors," 1611–1675. Vol. 11, 572, OLIVER CROMWELL.

AFTER MALVERN.

Although this work appears late in the autumn of 1869, it was written in the summer of 1868, and the preceding chapters were in print soon after. Had it been prepared at a later date, many of the views presented would have been much modified, but not in favor of the Commander-in-Chief who threw away his chances with as prodigal and reckless a defiance of Foitune as if the goddess had been inextricably chained to his chariot wheels, or as subservient to his will as Ariel to Prospero. When this work was finally passing through the press, May, 1869, the writer visited Richmond for no other purpose than to examine the battle-fields around that city, where the Union leader of 1861-22 seemed desirous of surpassing the "Host Waster" of the Thirty Years' War and elevate the worst miscarriage of the Slaveholders' Rebellion to a par with the failure before St. Jean de Losne in 1636.

One of the party was an officer who served meritoriously in the Peninsular Campaign of 1862, and recognized these battle grounds as familiar scenes. All agreed that however a critic might have condemned MCCLELLAN from official documents, nothing could have made that general's weaknesses so apparent as a visit to his line of positions along the Chickahominy. Or as one said, who had predicted his miscarriage, "he had never been so satisfied of MCCLELLAN's insufficiency* as to-day."

Any one who will start out from Richmond on the Mechanicsville pike, and make a circuit of the positions assumed by the disposer of the Army of the Potomac in May-July, 1862, any one, whether he be tyro or expert, laic or initiate, will return into the Rebel capital overwhelmed with the conviction that the plan of swinging into Richmond with the Union right, was to "take the bull by the horns," while, on the other hand, to "swing on the left was the correct and only course justified by every conclusion, military, sanatory or practical, since

in "

* That this epithet is not applied without authority, the reader is referred to The Times' "Review of MCCLELLAN: His Military Career Reviewed and Exposed," by WILLIAM SWINTON, afterwards author of the "Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac;" MajorGeneral J. G. BARNARD'S (U. S. A.) "Peninsular Campaign;" DENSLOW'S "FREMONT and MCCLELLAN: Their Political and Military Careers Reviewed;" and a number of cotemporary and subsequent publications in regard to the mournful Peninsular failure.

strategy is nothing more than common sense applied to war. HOOKER, grand on any field which he could supervise; KEARNY, tried and true on so many different fields, perfect soldier, admirable commander and excellent general; HEINTZELMAN, honest, loyal, spirited, a capital soldier, brim-full of common sense; and even "worthy" SUMNER, all indicated the left as the point of vantage, and begged to be permitted to push in on that wing. Then, in May, up to the middle of June, there were no defensive works of any consequence, if any, on that front, and the natural disposition of the ground favors an assailant from the southeast and south of Richmond. This was admitted to the writer in that city. After advancing over a flat, certainly as advantageous for an aggressive as a defensive, the country becomes more open and subsides, in rolls, down into the suburbs of the Rebel capital, which lies uncovered at the mercy of batteries on a high hill just south of it. From this hill the Union troops could have shelled the city with ease. Along the Williamsburg road, indeed, there are comparatively fair open fields to fight over, although in some directions, it is true, it is almost a wilderness up to within three miles of the city limits, and, if those limits were correctly indicated by the driver, even nearer on the east-southeast, where the largest of the five National Cemeteries is located (that which contains the victims of LEE's cold, apathetic, and DAVIS' concentrated barbarism, at Belle Isle and the Richmond city prisons), there is sheer fighting ground. This is two miles from the Rebel capital, and near the Turnpike Gate and Oak-Grove-Family-Store (1869). In this direction, and within this circle, the ground is broken, often favorable and never unfavorable to an assailant.

When HEINTZELMAN's Corps, KEARNY'S and HOOKER'S Divisions, advanced on the 25th June and fought the " AFFAIR OF THE PEACH ORCHARD,"* MCCLELLAN† said, these troops "are

*This affair is mis-named by several writers the "Battle of Oak Grove." By the senior General present, HEINTZELMAN, it was entitled the Affair of the "Orchards." He said he applied the name because there were some peach trees hereabouts, but particularly to distinguish it from the battle of Seven Pines and Fair Oaks on the preceding 31st May-1st June, with which it was often confounded. All these "high-for-Newton" titles, however, are humbugs, as much as the god-like attributes of the Rebel and the Napoleonic gifts of the Union Commander. There are plenty of scrub oaks in this locality, but such a thing as a holt of noble oak trees there is not. In fact, there are no FAIR Oaks, no Oak GROVE, no SEVEN Pines!

† MCCLELLAN's "Report," Second Period, June 25, 1862, pages 236-238; particularly 237.