covered. Here was, indeed, as the President had dreaded, "the story of Manassas repeated"-if that opinion may be hazarded in the face of Gen. McClellan's positive claim of a "brilliant success. His first announcement of the evacuation was in the following dispatch:

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,

May 4, 9 A. M.

To the Hon. EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War: We have the ramparts. Have guns, ammunition, camp equipage, etc. We hold the entire line of his works, which the engineers report as being very strong. I have thrown all my cavalry and horse-artillery in pursuit, supported by infantry. I move Franklin's division, and as much more as I can transport by water, up to West Point to-day. No time shall be lost. The gunboats have gone up York river. I omitted to state that Gloucester is also in our possession. I shall push the enemy

to the wall.

G. B. MCCLELLAN,
Major General.

At 1 o'clock, on the same day, McClellan telegraphed as follows:

Our cavalry and horse-artillery came up with the enemy's rear guard in their intrenchments about two miles this side of Williamsburg. A brisk fight ensued. Just as my aid left, Gen. Smith's division of infantry arrived on the ground, and I presume he carried his works, though I have not yet heard.

The enemy's rear is strong, but I have force enough up there to answer all purposes.

We have thus far seventy-one heavy guns, large amounts of tents, ammunition, etc. All along the lines their works prove to have been most formidable, and I am now fully satisfied of the correctness of the course I have pursued.

The success is brilliant, and you may rest assured its effects will be of the greatest importance. There shall be no delay in following up the enemy. The rebels have been guilty of the most murderous and barbarous conduct in placing torpedoes within the abandoned works, near Mill Springs, near the flag-staffs, magazines, telegraph-offices, in carpet-bags, barrels. of flour, etc.

Fortunately we have not lost many men in this manner. Some four or five have been killed and a dozen wounded. I shall make the prisoners remove them at their own peril.

His dispatches of the next day are less joyous in their tone. It is "raining hard," and he pronounces the "roads infamous” and "horrible." An important engagement was fought this day, of which he had apparently gained imperfect knowledge when sending the following dispatch, late in the evening:

BIVOUAC IN FRONT OF WILLIAMSBURG,

}

May 5, 1862, 10 o'clock P. M. Hon. E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War: After arranging for movements up York river, I was urgently sent for here. I find Gen. Joe Johnston in front of me in strong force, probably greater a good deal than my own.

Gen. Hancock has taken two redoubts and repulsed Early's Rebel brigade, by a real charge with the bayonet, taking one Colonel and a hundred and fifty other prisoners, and killing at least two Colonels and many privates. His conduct was brilliant in the extreme.

I do not know our exact loss, but fear that Gen. Hooker has lost considerably on our left.

I learn from the prisoners taken that the Rebels intend to dispute every step to Richmond.

I shall run the risk of at least holding them in check here, while I resume the original plan.

My entire force is undoubtedly inferior to that of the Rebels, who will fight well; but I will do all I can with the force at my disposal. G. B. MCCLELLAN, Major-General Commanding.

Gen. Stoneman had promptly moved his cavalry and horseartillery, on receiving the order for pursuit, on the morning of the 4th. He first found the enemy within his works, two miles east of Williamsburg, and being unsustained by infantry, was forced to retreat, with some loss, on being attacked by the guns of Fort Magruder. During the afternoon and night, the divisions of Gens. Smith and Hooker arrived on the ground-twelve or fourteen miles distant from Yorktown-as well as the corps commanders, Sumner, Heintzelman and Keyes. No portion of General Sumner's force was yet present, but, as the senior officer, he assumed command, and ordered an attack on the Rebel works, in the evening, by Smith's division. Night, however, came on before the order could be executed. During the night, Sumner posted Hancock's brigade, of that division, in a strong

position on the left. Hooker's division, by order of Gen. Heintzelman, had taken position on the Lee's Mill road, coming near Fort Magruder quite early in the morning. At half past 7 o'clock, Hooker began an attack on the works in his front. The enemy gathered in superior force at this point, and the contest continued for hours, Gen. Heintzelman anxiously awaiting the appearance of Kearney's division, which he had sent for in the morning. A heavy rain had commenced the night before, which continued until the following morning, impeding the movement of troops, but not interrupting the determined purpose to carry the enemy's works. Hooker had suffered serious loss, his ammunition was giving out, and his troops were becoming exhausted, when at length, after 3 o'clock, Gen Kearney arrived with his men, and was ordered by Heintzelman at once to attack, which he did so vigorously as to drive the enemy back at all points, and to relieve Hooker, whose left flank was in imminent danger.

On the right, also, the enemy massed troops against Hancock, who kept up a gallant fight to maintain his position, without the reënforcement which Gen. Sumner was unwilling to hazard his center by sending him, until after the arrival of part of Couch's division, at 1 o'clock, which was followed by the remainder during the afternoon, and by Casey's division, so that the entire corps of Gen. Keyes was finally present, on the right and center. Hancock was on the point of being overwhelmed by greatly superior numbers, when the remainder of Smith's division, and Naglee's brigade from Hooker's division, were sent to his support, under the orders of McClellan, who arrived on the ground, as he states in his report, "between 4 and 5 o'clock in the afternoon. Meanwhile, Gen. Hancock, feigning to retreat slowly, drew out the enemy from their position, then turning suddenly, staggered them by volleys of musketry, and completed their rout by a brilliant bayonet charge, with a loss to the enemy of more than five hundred, his own loss being but thirty-one men.

The brunt of the battle had been sustained by the divisions of Hooker and Kearney, under Gen. Heintzelman. The former sustained the principal losses of the day, which were

officially stated at 456 killed, 1,400 wounded, and 372 missing. This earnest and gallant battle, fought almost entirely without the knowledge of the commanding General, illustrates what was reasonably expected at the very outset at Yorktown. It seems hardly too much to say that it may have saved another month's siege at Williamsburg, where the position was perhaps even more favorable for defense than that at Yorktown, and where the enemy had a very much greater force than was originally at the latter place. As a result of this battle, the enemy retired from Williamsburg that night, and continued his retreat up the Peninsula. No immediate pursuit was attempted.

Gen. McClellan was exceedingly dissatisfied with Sumner and the other corps commanders for venturing this engagement in his absence. In his first dispatch he notices only the movement of Hancock as a success. He names only Hooker besides, and him merely to refer to his losses. He afterward made some imperfect amends to Gen. Heintzelman and others, under remonstrance, but apparently with grudging reluctance, and even in his final report, after his resentment had ample time to cool, he stops short with the praise of Hancock, giving little credit to those who had done the chief work. On occupying Williamsburg, the next day he announced: "The victory is complete," stating that the enemy lost heavily in killed.

The division under Gen. Franklin had been pushed forward by water to the right bank of the Pamunkey river, opposite West Point, and this movement was sustained by the divisions of Gens. Sedgwick, Porter and Richardson, also transported in steamers. Franklin landed his troops on the morning of the 7th, and Dana's brigade (of Sedgwick's division) arrived soon after. These forces were attacked at 9 o'clock in the morning by a formidable Rebel force, and the battle lasted until 3 o'clock in the afternoon, when the enemy was finally repulsed. Meanwhile, time had been gained for the main Rebel force to retreat unmolested, and with security to its trains. Franklin made a successful defense, only, instead of accomplishing any aggressive results. His total loss is reported as 194, including a large proportion of officers.

Communication between Williamsburg and West Point was

fully opened on the 10th. "Movements were difficult and slow." In the mean time, Norfolk had been taken by Gen. Wool, and the Merrimac finally "neutralized." At this period, the President and Secretary of War--as well as the Secretary of the Treasury, who had accompanied Gen. Wool in his advance on Norfolk-were on a visit at Fortress Monroe. It was while here that the Secretary of War received the following dispatch from Gen. McClellan, dated May 9:

To Hon. E. M. STANTON, Secretary of War: I respectfully ask permission to reorganize the Army Corps. I am not willing to be held responsible for the present arrangement, experience having proved it to be very bad, and it having nearly resulted in a most disastrous defeat. I wish rather to return to the organization by divisions, or else to be authorized to relieve incompetent commanders of Army Corps. Had I been one-half hour later on the field on the 5th, we would have been routed and would have lost every thing. Notwithstanding my positive orders, I was informed of nothing that had occurred, and I went to the field of battle myself upon unofficial information that my presence was needed to avoid defeat. I found there the utmost confusion and incompetency, the utmost discouragement on the part of the men. At least a thousand lives were really sacrificed by the organization into corps. I have too much regard for the lives of my comrades, and too deep an interest in the success of our cause, to hesitate for a moment. I learn that you are equally in earnest, and I therefore again request full and complete authority to relieve from duty with this army, commanders of corps or divisions who find themselves incompetent. G. B. MCCLELLAN,

Major-General Commanding.

Secretary Stanton replied, in substance: The President directs me to say that you "may temporarily suspend that organization in the army now under your immediate command, and adopt any you see fit until further orders. He also writes you privately." The President's letter, thus referred to, is as follows:

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF VIRGINIA, FORT MONROE, VA., May 9, 1862. Maj.-Gen. MCCLELLAN-My Dear Sir: I have just assisted the Secretary of War in framing the part of a dispatch to you