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by John Beauchamp Jones

JUNE 30TH.—Once more all men are execrating Gen. Huger. It is alleged that he again failed to obey an order, and kept his division away from the position assigned it, which would have prevented the escape of McClellan. If this be so, who is responsible, after his alleged misconduct at the battle of the Seven Pines?

June 30, 1862, The New York Herald

The news we publish today from before Richmond, although somewhat ambiguous, and evidently curtailed under the censorship of the War Department, is indicative of some important movements on the peninsula. A grand military triumph is announced, and the fall of Richmond is confidently predicted. All details are shut off from us, for some good reason no doubt. Generals Jackson, Price and Beauregard were said to be in Richmond, and a rumor prevailed in the camp of the rebels on Thursday that Jackson had turned the right wing of Gen. McClellan’s army, but there is no confirmation of any such story. The rumors circulated yesterday that General McClellan’s army had met with a reverse are entirely untrue. Everything in his command goes on steadily and favorably. The publication of the details of operations going on in front of Richmond is not considered by the War Department consistent with the public interest, and, therefore, they are withheld for the present. That important events have transpired within the past few days on the peninsula is not improbable, and in addition to these there are other movements on foot which indicate that the crisis of the rebellion has arrived, and that the government is determined to inaugurate vigorous measures to carry out certain new plans of the President, and with this view consultations of the leading men of the country are about to be held in this city immediately - probably today or tomorrow - which, no doubt, will result in the adoption of measures that will bring this rebellion to a speedy close.

The remarkable military events which have lately characterized the progress of our arms are not only of themselves highly important as tending to settle our domestic difficulties, but they are calculated to strengthen in a permanent manner the military and naval power of the country, and to inspire confidence in the public mind as to the ability of the government, not alone to sustain itself, but to meet successfully the machinations of European Powers should they be rash enough to assail us.

The clergy of Tennessee are obstinately rebellious, with the exception of the priesthood of the Catholic Church, who are devotedly loyal to the Union. The leading clergymen of the Methodist and Baptist persuasion refused to take the oath of allegiance at the conference in Nashville, and many of them were sent to the Penitentiary as impenitent rebels.

June 30, 1862, The Charleston Mercury

From our Richmond exchanges of Friday and Saturday we complete an account of the great battle, as it had progressed up to Friday evening. our extracts are taken chiefly from the news columns of the Examiner:

OPENING OF THE GREAT BATTLE - HEAVY ENGAGEMENT ON THE LEFT OF OUR LINES.

The result of the movement across the Chickahominy, on Thursday afternoon, of several divisions of the Confederate army, was first made known in Richmond by heavy discharges of cannon off to the right of the Mechanicsville turnpike, which gradually moved up towards Mechanicsville, the sound of the artillery growing in intensity and rapidity of discharges. About four o’clock the sound hung stationary over the village until after 8 o’clock in the evening, when it apparently bore off to the left as though one column was pushing the other.

During the evening hundreds of the citizens of Richmond, whose kindred were mingling in the fray, flocked to the hills east of the city, and listened to the dull [….] of the guns filling every second of time, some loud and full, from the siege pieces, and others, light and quick, from the field pieces. The smoke of the battle could be seen rising behind the woods, behind which the conflict was going on - not more than four miles distant. Occasionally the shells could be seen ascending and bursting over the woods, above which hung a balloon; but, about five o’clock, the smoke and haze increased so that everything of the field of conflict was shut out from view, and the sound of the conflict alone was heard. What was remarkable, the smoke from the field, borne on the wind, floated down the valley, and last evening the eastern portion of the city was sensibly impregnated with the smell of gunpowder. At nine o’clock the firing in the direction of Mechanicsville had dwindled to the occasional explosion of a shell gun.

THE ATTACK AT MECHANICSVILLE - ADVANCE OF OUR FORCES ACROSS THE CHICKAHOMINY.

It appears that our forces attacked then enemy with unparalleled fury at Mechanicsville, and from the suddenness of the attack, the enemy were totally non-plussed and driven from three large redoubts in rapid succession, seizing the guns and turning them with terrific effect upon the foe. This accomplished, our forces advanced and captured two lines of entrenchments and field work, taking everything before them in gallant style. Co-operating with the movements on the extreme right and rear of the enemy, our Generals crossed the Chickahominy at two points, viz; by the Mechanicsville bridge and the Meadow bridge, attacking the enemy with great dash and ardor, driving in their outposts, and ascending the opposite hills, seized the batteries erected theron, and fully commanding the future movements of our forces in crossing the stream. In doing this, the rapidity of movement was such that the enemy was unprepared, and lost a monster [……], which has long annoyed our troops to the right and left of the York River Railroad. This achievement in itself is of incalculable value, and is equivalent to the saving of five thousand lives. General Branch, we understand, led the advance down the Meadow Bridge road with a brigade of North Carolinians, and on crossing, were instantly reinforced by other troops of General Hilldivision. The numerous field works and batteries opposed to their advance were assailed by our men in the coolest and most nonchalant style imaginable, and while driving the heavy masses of Federal infantry before them, were ably seconded by our heavy guns, which, thundering with terrific noise, threw large shells thick and fast upon the enemy’s chosen positions and camps, thus preventing our first forces from being overpowered by the swarming hordes of McClellan hirelings. While these brilliant movements were progressing in the neighborhood of Meadow Bridge, our troops beyond the Mechanicsville Bridge formed a junction with them, thus forming a perfect cordon with others operating from the village of Mechanicsville itself. Our line being perfect, a general advance took place, but the brave Confederates had not progressed far ere they were encountered by the Federals in great force, and a terrific fight ensued, but onward pressed our infantry and artillery, until at 9 p.m., when the heavy cannonading ceased, it was generally known that the enemy had been driven fully three miles, having experienced great loss in every shape, but particularly in artillery. At Mechanicsville, the heaviest fighting is said to have taken place on Watt’s farm, but resulted magnificently to us. All the heights beyond the Chickahominy are in our possession, thus ensuring the safe and speedy transportation of troops and munitions to the other side.

THE ENEMY FALLING BACK - SPLENDID COUP - DE- MAIN OF GEN. STONEWALL JACKSON.

The splendid contest of Thursday afternoon, which resulted in the wrestling, by General A.P. Hill’s division, of Mechanicsville, though without decisive results, except the possessing of the place served to attract the attention of McClellan from a movement in his rear which overwhelmed him. There Hill’s division of 12,000 men stood successfully, opposed to a least four times their number, behind earthworks, which they, one after another, evacuated, carrying off their guns, which, mounted on wheel carriages, were not captured, as some of our contemporaries announced yesterday, though their positions were gained and held. Many valuable lives were lost at Mechanicsville, but they received immortality there.

At 3 o’clock on Friday morning the grand coup de main of General T.J. Jackson was accomplished. With his army, which failed to get into position the previous evening, he, fresh from the field of exploits in the Valley, came down the Chickahominy on the right flank of McClellan’s army, to Coal Harbor, in the enemy’s rear and put his front upon it at Old Church. The enemy had fallen back still further during the night, and Hill’s and Longstreet’s divisions pressed him in front and left flank early yesterday morning. Thus, by a strategy unparalleled for its brilliancy, was McClellan circumvented. Up to this writing we have no accounts of the battle that has been progressing that would justify particulars, but McClellan and his main army was reported retreating down the Chickahominy, bearing off from ‘Stonewall’s’ guns in the direction of West Point, where the gunboats were lying ready to cover him.

It was six o’clock when the enemy gave way, after leaving their last breast work battery of thirteen guns, which was their best, mounting heavy siege guns. McClellan retired, burning up his stores at the depots of his lines. From the top of the Capitol, in the square, shafts of white smoke could be seen rising in the direction of Old Church and the White House. At first this was thought to originate from the firing of cannon, that could not be heard from the distance, the wind also being contrary; but later in the day it was ascertained to have been caused by the destruction, by the enemy, of his immense stores off to the right of the Mechanicsville pike, on the farm of Dr. Gaines.

The mutterings of the fight could be occasionally heard through the report of heavy guns, but it died entirely away as the scene of the conflict was removed by the retreat of the enemy and the advance of the Confederate forces.

The retreat of McClellan’s army, and the pursuit of the Confederate army, has moved our base of information concerning the fight, which, we learn, was kept up a intervals with great severity; but, through the kindness of an officer from our lines, we have been supplied with a very intelligent pencil diagram, furnishing the positions of the retreating and pursuing forces.

Jackson’s army was represented as moving down considerably this side of the Pamunkey for a trestle bridge spanning it at the railroad, with the intention of outstripping McClellan, whose forces were making for the same bridge to secure it as a crossing before it was seized or burned by Jackson. Gens. Longstreet, A.P. Hill’s and D.H. Hill’s divisions were pressing hard upon McClellan’s rear, while Magruder and Huger, on the Chickahominy, held our right wing in the direction of New Bridge, with a portion of the enemy in front of them. This was the supposed situation of the armies up to yesterday afternoon. It appears to be conceded that the enemy successfully withdrew their forces from the position held by them on Thursday night, after the capture of Mechanicsville, leaving behind, as a blind, some skirmishers and a battery, which, when charged upon by the advance yesterday morning at daylight, was found to be empty of men and guns. A pursuit of three hours brought our forces upon a formidable battery of thirteen guns at Gaines’ Mill, near the New Kent road. Here occurred our heaviest loss. The breastworks were situated on a bluff, across a mill dam, canal and swamp, with rifle pits in front. Our troops charged through and over all with a valor and determination that kept everything, clearing rifle pits and battery at the point of the bayonet. The troops that did this splendid set of gallantry were from North Carolina - the brigade of General Pender. This was accomplished through terrific volleys of musketry, shell, round shot, grape and canister, that piled the ground with the valorous dead and wounded.

THE ACTION WELCOMES GENERAL - THE SITUATION OF THE TWO ARMIES AT NIGHT.

We learn from Major John M. Daniel, of the General’s staff, serving with Gen. Hill in these battles, and who about 4 o’clock last evening, was obliged to leave the field in consequence of having had his right arm shattered by a Minie ball, that at the time he left the field Hill’s division, which had been engaged the whole day, and victorious throughout was engaged in a terrific battle with the enemy near New Coal Harbor and were overmatched by large masses of the enemy. Just as the Major was wounded, several large bodies of troops were departing on the field, which were troops of Gen Longstreet’s division. Gen. Jackson was engaged on Gen. Hill’s left during the day, but was also in time to join in the general engagement which ensued about five o’clock in the evening.

At this hour the action became general for the first time on the Richmond Lines. No such collision of numbers has yet occurred in the history of the war. It is estimated that seventy-five thousand Confederate troops were engaged with an equal, if not superior, force of the enemy. The scenery of the battle field is described as awfully sublime, and its sights of carnage as exceeding in ghastliness the worst imaginations of the horrors of war.

Nightfall has cause an intermission of the terrible conflict. From the best and most reliable information we can obtain, the field was undecided, when the action was intermitted to be resumed this morning. The field of the imposing battle, on which the grandest fortunes ever contested awaits decision, is about twelve miles from the city of Richmond.

The enemy’s retreat was certainly not a rout, as it has been described on the street corners. He left his ground at leisure, carrying off all his dead and wounded, leaving no marks of disorder on the route of his retreat but such as are incidental, of course, to the movements of large masses.

There is occasion to apprehend that McClellan, in falling back on his present line of defence, has unproved his position. The advantages of his present position are mainly artificial, but they are considered important and serious although he gave up yesterday several positions of great natural advantage, especially that at Merchanicsville, upon which he had expended every resource to make it impregnable.

It is impossible to estimate the loss in yesterday’s engagement. The only statements we can get of the causalities at the terrific battle of the evening are vague and ghastly messages that the ground is covered with dead. The spirits of our troops are undiminished. There was no straggling but from excessive fatigue.

The regiments which seem to have suffered the most, in the three days’ engagements, were the 14th and 44th North Carolina, the 4th and 19th Georgia and the 1st Louisiana. The Virginia troops suffered severely. The light batteries suffered a severely. Purcell’s battery, of Richmond, Colonel Lindsay Walker, went into the action of Thursday evening with above ninety men, and brought out only thirty or forty. Seventeen of their horses were killed. The Maryland battery, Captain Snowden Andrews, in the same battle lost five men killed and wounded, and several horses. Doctor Hunter, of Maryland, the surgeon, was killed. The Chesapeake Artillery was ordered to join General Longstreet’s division on the right, and was not engaged.

An interesting incident occurred in the Pamunkey, on Thursday. A raft battery, protected with iron sides, was annoying our troops in that direction, when a regiment of sharpshooters was detailed to capture it. They proceeded to the brow of a hill immediately commanding the battery, and opened fire down into it. About a dozen Yankees were killed and wounded by the volley, a shock which took them so much by surprise that they concluded to give up; so, hoisting a shirt out upon a pole, the survivors sung out ‘We surrender!’ Our sharpshooters immediately went down, took possession, and sent the craft to the bottom of the river.

June 30, 1862, The Charleston Mercury

Our distressing dull city was thrown into quite an excitement yesterday by the glorious news from Virginia and the arrival of the English sloop of war, the Racer, within our harbor. The streets, which for weeks past have looked lorn and dreary, became almost lively about noon, when the released church- goers gathered about the bulletin-boards, or stood in groups on the battery or at the corners, discussing the passing events and the future probabilities. Of course the usual amount of idle rumors were soon afloat, all of them wearing the rosy hue which the victory at Richmond had thrown over them, and the heartsickness of hope long deferred has given way to bright anticipations, which we trust may soon be realized.

June 30, 1862, The Charleston Mercury

(FROM AN OCCASIONAL CORRESPONDENT.)

RICHMOND, Thursday, June 26.

Yesterday heavy skirmishing occurred on the centre of our line, which was generally regarded as the beginning of the great struggle for Richmond. A large body of our force marched down from Hanover Junction and threatened McCLELLAN on his right flank. This caused him to turn his attention that way and oppose another front, to prevent being flanked. While this movement was going on, heavy firing with artillery began along the line - the enemy throwing shell promiscuously into the woods on our side.

At an early hour the enemy advanced and drove in our pickets at point near the battle field of ‘Seven Pines,’ and then made an attack upon the picket reserve, which was obliged to fall back before the superior opposing force. As soon as possible the 1st Louisiana was sent forward to hold the position until Gen. A.K. Wright’s brigade could be brought up. The 1st Louisiana advanced and ran into an ambuscade, from which murderous fire was opened on them by three brigades - two of them being Sickles’ ‘Brigand Brigade.’and the Irish Brigade, commanded by Meagher. Receiving the volley and returning it, the 1st then made a bold dash, and, with the rallying cry of ‘Butler! Butler !’ Remember the women of New Orleans !’ charged forward and cleared the woods. The firing was still kept up from the forces on either flank, and the 1st suffered heavily; but, nevertheless, it maintained its position bravely until Wright’s brigade, consisting of the 3d, 4th, and 22d Georgia came up. Meanwhile, the 48th and 25th North Carolina regiments came up on the right. The whole force was then formed in line in the woods, from which the 1st Louisiana had driven the advance of the Yankees, and a general battle began, which lasted nearly all day, although there were frequent intermissions in the firing.

It is impossible for me to give you an account of the fight in detail in one short letter, and I can only jot down the result in general terms. The 4th Georgia acted gallantly, and charged three times. It fought three regiments in the morning, and six in the evening, driving them back. The 1st Louisiana gallantly charged a superior force of the enemy, and lost quite one half its numbers. It engaged six regiments, flanked by skirmishers. The 25th North Carolina and the 48th North Carolina acted gallantly. Our losses may be summed up as follows:

GEN. A.R. WRIGHT’S BRIGADE.

1st LOUISIANA - Killed -3 officers: 17 men.

Wounded -12 officers; 108 men. Missing - privates 4.

Among the wounded officers may be mentioned Col. Shivers, Major

Nelligan, Adjutant Cumming and Sergt. Major Entzoninger.

4th Georgia - Killed - Officers, 1; non-commissioned officers, 1; privates, 3. Wounded - Officers, 2; non-commissioned officers, 2; privates, 31. Missing - Privates, 4.

22d Georgia - Killed - Privates, 8. Wounded - Officers, 5; privates, 72. Missing - Privates, 4.

48th North Carolina, Ransom’s Division, had 100 killed, wounded and missing. The 3d Georgia got into the hottest of the fight. Its loss was one killed and four wounded.

June 30, 1862, The Charleston Mercury

The great Western hero, we are glad to learn, was everywhere enthusiastically received in his recent passage across our State. At Orangesburg he was welcomed by a large assemblage of ladies, who turned out en masse on hearing of his approach. The hardy soldier is, it seems, also a preux chevalier, and we hear of some pleasant incidents connected with his reception. Among other things he said that he had been suddenly summoned to the West by General BRAGG, who telegraphed to him that he expected a battle in five or six days.

It is hoped that the great victory near Richmond will be speedily followed up by decisive blows elsewhere.

June 30, 1862, The Charleston Mercury

The victory of the Confederate forces on Friday does not seem to have been followed up with much vigor or success, if we may judge by the meagre and unsatisfactory accounts by telegraph. Two brigades only engaging the enemy on Saturday, and none on Sunday, up to eleven o’clock. It appears that McCLELLAN, with a large portion of his command, is on the southwest side of the Chickahominy, facing Richmond, that he burned the bridges to keep off our troops in his rear, and may reach the James River and his gunboats, our forces on this side being too weak to stop him, and the others being unable to cross over. - As yet the final result of the fighting has not been heard, and, of course, no judgment can be formed. We hope for the best, and that his whole army may yet be captured or destroyed. We trust that what is done will be done quickly, and before reinforcements can reach MCLELLAN from the army of the Virginia Valley, Frederickburg, or Washington. Time is important to us. With the destruction of MCCLELLAN’S army, the Northern idea of subjugating the South will collapse, and the new Confederacy rise into power and respectability inherently belonging to its great resources and sterling character.

June 30, 1862, The Charleston Mercury

We learn from the Wilmington Journal that on Thursday morning a Federal steamer ran up to the bar at Little River Inlet, and sent in six boats loaded with men, and piloted by a number of negros who had made their way to the steamer on Sunday or Monday, having stolen for that purpose a fishing boat belonging to Mr. G. Berry. Among the negros one is named Tony, belonging to Mr. John Charles, at Shallotte, fully acquainted with the coast, and a good pilot for all our little inlets.

The Yankee boats containing about one hundred men, piloted by Tony & Co., came up to the landing known as the Shipyard, where most of the shipping business of the place is done, where they set fire to the schooners Ellen Randall and Senora Isabel, and also to two warehouses belonging to T.W. Gore, and one warehouse belonging to James Easters. Among other things the warehouses contained about sixty bales of cotton, and about thirty barrels of spirits of turpentine, intended for the schooner Ellen Randall, the vessel and cargo being owned by messrs. Kidder & Martin. There was also an hundred bushels of salt stored. In fact everything at the landing was burned.

The residence of Mr. J.R. Byrne was also burned, having caught from the warehouse. Mr. Byrne lost everything - he and his wife escaping with only the clothes they had on. They cut off his calf’s head and carried off the body, shot a hog and left it, killed a sow and carried her off, leaving eight little ones to mourn. After performing these feats they went to Captain Randall’s house, took a compass, seine, twine, fish hooks, and a number of other small articles, and wanted money. The negro woman in charge of the house told them there was none. One man, whom she took to be the Captain, said he would not hurt her nor anything she had. He wanted cotton or money. He did not want negro women or old negros. He wanted young men. Only two went with them. One belonging to Kidder & Martin, and one to S. Frink, Sr. The negros who had left on Sunday were in company, trying to induce others to go, but to the credit of the negros of that neighborhood, they refused. The Yankees told the woman they would return, but appointed no time for doing so.

No doubt the blockaders were told by the negros who escaped to them on Sunday that the Ellen Randall was loading, and it was expected that she would be loaded and ready for sea by the middle of the week. They, perhaps, thought to hook right on to her, take her cargo being in demand. But they were disappointed. She was not either loaded or ready for sea. So they missed their calculation, and took to burning what they could not carry off. The negros appear to be as indignant as the whites. Many could have gone off, but did not.

by John Beauchamp Jones

JUNE 29TH.—The battle still rages. But the scene has shifted farther to the east. The enemy’s army is now entirely on this side of the Chickahominy. McClellan is doggedly retiring toward the James River.

June 29, 1862, The New York Herald

General Fremont, at his own request, has been relieved of his command in the valley of Virginia. His reasons for this step, though very broadly intimated by himself, are more distinctly set forth by his special organ, the New York Tribune. It thus appears that, Gen. Pope having been a subordinate officer under General Fremont in Missouri, the latter regards the present appointment of the former as anything but a compliment to the senior officer, who is thus reduced to a subordinate position. In other words, General Fremont considers these new military arrangements as involving not the approval, but the displeasure, of the government in reference to his late military operations in the Shenandoah valley, and consequently he retires from his command, under the pressure of what he deems an insupportable act of injustice.

We apprehend, however, that General Fremont, in this matter, has not performed so much the character of the patriotic soldier as that of the restless and ambitious politician. If we are not mistaken, he was instructed, in moving across from the Western mountains of Virginia to the Shenandoah valley, to strike into that valley at Harrisonburg or in that neighborhood, so as to head off the upward flight of Jackson; but instead of doing this General Fremont struck into the valley some fifty miles lower down, at Strasburg, and only to find that Jackson was ahead of him. We grant that General Fremont commenced a vigorous pursuit, and, overhauling Jackson near Harrisonburg, damaged him considerably in two bloody battles; but still the rebel general, with the bulk of his army, contrived to make good his escape. And so, whatever blunders may be chargeable to his co-operating generals from the east, or elsewhere, General Fremont could hardly expect to escape the responsibility of the violation of his orders, when this violation resulted in the failure of his expedition.

The government, upon this offence of disobedience, would have been justified in turning him at once out of his command and out of the service; but he was retained, in consideration of the fact that, although guilty of disregarding his orders, he had earnestly labored to achieve success, and, perhaps, from that other consideration, that the escape of Jackson was due as much to the blunders of the War Office itself as to the disobedience of Fremont. The President has displayed his characteristic magnanimity in permitting General Fremont to retire from his command in Virginia without retiring from his pay and perquisites as a major general of the regular army. It is to be hoped, however, that he will not long consent to eat the bread of idleness, even though he may not be able to find an opening in the active field of war equal to his own valuation of his claims, merits and capabilities.

Our philosophers of the Tribune, who seem to regard him, soldier, anti-slavery statesman, philanthropist and philosopher, as something considerably above the ordinary standard of human wisdom, are constrained to confess that General Fremont has made a grave mistake in giving up, at this crisis, the command of his army corps in the important field of Virginia. We think the probabilities are that this mistake will shelve him as a military leader and as the favorite Presidential champion of his political abolition faction. After the expulsion or dispersion of the armed rebel forces of Virginia, we believe there will be very little more to do to bring this rebellion to an end, and that General Fremont must seek to be reinstated in active service somewhere in Virginia, and that very soon, or his chances will be lost for repairing the damages which his military reputation has lately suffered.

To his emancipation heresies and his political ambition, and his abolition supporters, he may attribute his present unfortunate position. If he would recover from it he must come down, and without delay, from his lofty pretensions as a politician, and consent to serve in this war with unquestioning fidelity the cause of the Union, whether in a superior or subordinate command. An offer such as this will atone for his demoralizing example of resigning his command, as we may say, in the face of the enemy, upon a question of rank and precedence. Let him make this offer, and he may perhaps still recover the ground he has lost; but let him stand out upon his dignity, and his military and political prospects are at an end.

June 29, 1862, The New York Herald

Our Special Army Correspondence.

Today is intensely hot and sultry, and, as if in sympathy with the debilitating and enervating influence of the weather, everything is perfectly quiet along the lines of the army. All day yesterday, however, the rebels were actively at work throwing shot and shell at the different camps, and in one instance with a fatal result. One shot struck a servant of the colonel of the Eleventh United States infantry (regulars), cutting him in two as he was reclining under a tree. Another shot passed through a division hospital, but without injuring any person. A third shot struck the ground in front of General Morell and staff, who were out riding. The firing at times was very rapid, and the manner in which the shot and shell flew around reminded the soldiers of their previous experience at Yorktown. The only man who appeared to be badly frightened was Dr. Gaines, a rebel sympathizer, whose house stands within range of the enemy’s guns. He was disposed to exclaim, as did Cardinal Wolsey, […..] me from my friends.”

The Berdan Sharpshooters continue to furnish the romance of the war and render material and indispensable service. Scattered all along the advance of the army, they are continually called upon to silence guns and remove troublesome rebels who are disposed to render themselves disagreeable by too persistent efforts to pick off others and men.

In addition to the corps of Colonel Berdan proper, there is a company of sharpshooters here from Massachusetts, known as the “Andrew Sharpshooters”. They are a fine body of men, and all claim to have been tested before they were enlisted by the test established by Colonel Berdan; in fact they were raised for Colonel Berdan’s first regiment on his application to Governor Andrew to furnish a company from Massachusetts for his corps; but when the company was about to leave the State to join the regiment the Governor informed them that they could not join an organization out of the State without the loss of the State bounty to volunteers. In consequence of this they took the name of “Andrew Sharpshooters,” and entered the service as an independent company. Although for the above reason not in Colonel Berdan’s corps, they are equal in every respect to any other company raised by him or for his corps.

There was a brigade review yesterday afternoon, which was very creditable to both the men and officers. The proficiency and excellence of this brigade as displayed at the review was highly spoken of by many officers who witnessed it. It may be relied upon for a repetition of former gallant services when the great battle takes place.

A rebel corporal came over from Secessia to-day, and is now enjoying the extra civilizing, to say nothing of the extra culinary, advantages vouchsafed to those in the Union service. His name is Arthur Woodman, and until two years ago he lived in New Hampshire, where he was born. Being in New Orleans at the outbreak of the rebellion, he was impressed into the service, and has been with the rebel army ever since. His term of enlistment expired four months ago; but this made no difference, he being compelled to continue carrying his musket. At the time of his desertion he was attached to an artillery section as corporal. This section is now located directly opposite New Bridge, across the Chickahominy. Among the pieces they have is that thirty-two pounder gun known by the sobriquet “Long Tom,” which was captured at Bull run. It is this gun that has done most of the shooting on the other side. He says that the officers are in the habit of taking drinks between shots, and pay more attention to gauging their drinks than ranging their guns, to which fact he attributes the ineffectiveness of their shots. According to his story, our shots yesterday killed one man and mortally wounded five others. Mr. Woodman, whose sharp seeing intelligence gives ample proof of his Yankee birth, was in Richmond a week ago, and remained there three days. He confirms the statements of former deserters as to the consternation prevailing in Richmond on the near approach of the army, the growing dissatisfaction of the men and increasing sickness and destitution. Notwithstanding all this, he is satisfied the army will make a desperate stand to retain their capital. Prices of provisions are going up daily. Beef is now sold at one dollar a pound, and smallest specimens of spring chickens at a dollar and a half a piece, and other things in proportion.

The Hanover Court House battle is getting to be rather a stale item, and I must ask pardon for making it the subject of even a winding up paragraph. It is a known fact, however, that nearly every regiment in the division still claims to have won the day. The most singular claim to this honor was put in to-day by an officer of the Fourth Michigan regiment, which regiment, as is well known, did not fire a shot — although this, of course, was no fault of theirs.

“Other regiments are boasting of what they did,” said the officer referred to, […..] Hanover Court House; but the Fourth Michigan won the day after all.”

“You did not discharge a musket,” replied the person addressed.

“I know that.”

“How, then, you win the day?”

“The enemy heard that the Fourth Michigan was on the field, and, knowing how this regiment thrashed a whole brigade at New Bridge, they knew the day was up with them, and they skeddadled at once.”

June 29, 1862, The New York Herald

Our Port Royal Correspondence.

PORT ROYAL, June 23, 1862.

The attack on Charleston was intended to be a coup de main, and if the views of General Benham could have been carried out it would have been a success before this. The idea of a sudden concentration of our available troops upon James Island, and then a rapid dash upon Fort Johnson and a point commanding Charleston, originated by him, and adopted after careful consideration by General Hunter, was entirely feasible, as it had been ascertained that the Stono was open and the rebel force on the island was very small. The plans of the generals were well laid; but when they came to be carried out the Quartermasterdepartment was found entirely inefficient and destitute of the proper facilities, a large part of the water transportation of the department having been detained and diverted at New York, and portions of it breaking down when most needed. Hence there arose unavoidable delays, and instead of the troops being all concentrated on James Island on the 3d of June, as was contemplated, ordered and agreed, a portion only reached there at that time, the rest not arriving till the 8th and 9th.

Meantime the rebels had brought in a considerable force, and had commenced the erection of a fort which commanded our camps, and threw its shells even into the river. A reconnoissance in force was therefore ordered by General Benham, with the approval of General Hunter, for the morning of the 11th, with the object of attacking this fort, which was erected at or near a place called Secessionville. The rebels having attacked our lines, however, on the afternoon of the 10th (they were repulsed with severe loss to them, but small to us), and troops being represented as a good deal exhausted, the reconnoissance was postponed, and the effect of erecting a battery for the purpose of silencing this fort was tried, with General Hunter’s approval. On the 12th General Hunter left the Stono, leaving General Benham in command, and ordering him, with his entire concurrence, “not to advance on Charleston nor to attack Fort Johnson, unless reinforced,” but to provide a secure intrenched camp on the river.

The battery erected by us produced no effect, and it therefore became evident to General Benham that he must return to the original plan of the reconnoissance — which had had General Hunter’s approval — moving with additional force, inasmuch as the enemy had had a week nearly for strengthening their works.

On the 14th we learned from some deserters who came in that the whole number of the rebel forces on the island was fourteen regiments and two battalions, mostly concentrated on the direct route to Charleston; that behind the fort in question and in Secessionville there were only two battalions; that six guns were mounted and seven more were on the wharf. It was deemed a comparatively easy matter to reduce this work, and, this reduced, to secure our position on the only firm land route to Charleston.

The reconnoissance was therefore ordered for the morning of the 16th, not one of the officers objecting. Gen. Stevens with six regiments was to advance at early dawn, and by a rush, if possible, seize the fort which was a plain earthwork; while Gen. Wright and Col. Williams were to come up in readiness to support him on the left.

Somehow there was a delay. The supports in Gen. Stevens’ command did not follow the assaulting companies close enough. Only two regiments — the Eighth Michigan and Seventy-ninth New York Highlanders, the two fighting regiments of the command — reached the enemy’s works, and they were a good deal cut up with a galling fire of grape and canister and riflemen. These two stood the brunt for some time. Some of them mounted the parpet and penetrated the fort. They virtually held the place for a while, and there was a period of half an hour that not a shot was fired from it; but as the other regiments did not come up they were forced to retire. The Twenty-eighth Massachusetts (Irish) and the Forty-sixth New York (Dutch) failed entirely. Meantime Colonel Williams had been ordered to the support of General Stevens with his brigade; but instead of going round to the right, as was expected, he led his men to the extreme left, and to the opposite side of the fort, from which they were separated by a creek and marsh, and where they were exposed to a severe fire from a field battery in the woods to their left. The Third New Hampshire and Third Rhode Island fought here splendidly, and drove everything before them; but, as it was not deemed desirable to expose the men by a second assault in broad daylight, they were recalled, and finally all the troops were drawn off in perfect order, bringing away their dead and wounded. Our loss in killed proved to be about 100; wounded and missing about 500. The enemy’s loss we cannot ascertain. A contraband who ran away from them says they had over 300 wounded. Their papers claim a victory, at the same time saying they have no reason to exult, as they lost very many of their most estimable citizens. In the skirmish of the 10th we lost only four killed and about twelve wounded. The rebels lost in killed and wounded from 100 to 200. In the reconnoisance of the 16th we lost about one hundred killed and five hundred wounded and missing. The loss of the enemy must have been in killed and wounded four hundred or more.

The fort should have been ours. We failed of it only by one of those fortuitous vicissitudes that occur in war. It would be hard to say if blame should be attached to any one. If the programme as ordered could have been closely followed up, success would have been certain. Some of the regiments certainly were not in drill, and some of them were certainly not used to that sort of thing.

It has been said that General Benham disobeyed the orders of General Hunter; but that would never have been said had the fort been taken. He certainly intended to carry out what he supposed to be General Hunter’s own wishes, and to follow his orders to the very letter. General Hunter left the Stono and the command at a critical moment, when he knew that our camps were being shelled by the guns of the fort, after he had once approved of an assault on the fort, after he had approved the erection of a battery to attempt to silence it, and with the entire knowledge of the necessity of reducing it in order to hold the positions taken under his own supervision; and, moreover, with the direct order to General Benham to secure the camp, while he was not to advance on Charleston nor attack Fort Johnson. There was but one course left to General Benham, and that course, under his responsibilities, and, as he supposed, in direct obedience to his orders, he pursued. That we did not succeed on the 16th was no fault of his, although it may be deemed necessary, to sustain a certain policy, that he should be sacrificed.

June 29, 1862, The New York Herald

There is nothing new from General McClellan’s command today. General Rufus King and his staff left Fredericksburg yesterday, to assume command of General Fremont’s corps d in Western Virginia. The latter officer started for the East yesterday morning, after turning over his command to Brigadier General Schenck, next in rank. He visited Generals Banks and Sigel before his departure to say farewell.

General Pope had not taken up his headquarters at Fredericksburg yesterday, but he was momentarily expected. He has notified the army, however, that he assumed command yesterday.

We publish today the rebel accounts of the battle of Fair Oaks — or Oak Grove, as they call it — from the Richmond papers. Their story of the affair differs somewhat from the facts, in the essential particular that they omit the sequel of the fight, which resulted in the defeat of the rebel army and our occupation of the field of battle.

We have received by the steamer Marion a very interesting correspondence from New Orleans, which we give today, showing the more recent state of affairs there. We also give an account, from an eye witness, of the late battle of James Island, before Charleston, which will be read with great interest.

An attack was made by a body of rebel cavalry on Wednesday upon a train bound for Corinth, on the Charleston and Memphis Railroad, twelve miles from the latter city, containing a company of the Fifty-sixth Ohio regiment, a number of officers and several teams and wagons. The rebels destroyed the locomotive, burned the cars, killed ten of our men, and captured several officers, including Colonel Kenny, Majors Pride and Sharp.

June 29, 1862, The New York Herald

Our Special Army Correspondence.

CAMP NEAR THE CHICKAHOMINY, June 26, 1862.

The number of desertions from the rebel camp amounts to a regiment per week. These deserters are of all conceivable nativities and classes. A large proportion consists of Louisianians, who believe that by entering our lines and taking the oath of allegiance they may return to New Orleans and enjoy federal protection. North Carolinians desert in great numbers. The troops from this State are the butt of rebel malevolence and satire, as they are reported to be very poor soldiers, scarcely a skirmish ensuing whereat they are not routed. North Carolina has lost more troops than any State in the confederacy except Virginia. The fewest deserters are from Mississippi and Texas, as the troops from those States are generally bona fide Southerners, who have no hope of friendship or sympathy from the North, and would be at a loss to look anywhere for protection out of their own States. The characters of these respective troops were exemplified after the battle of Fair Oaks, when, according to the statements of deserters, the wounded went from the battle field to the hospitals in Richmond. A Texan, with his head shot partly off, an arm splintered, or lame from a wound in the leg, would walk into Richmond shrieking and huzzaing, despising the aid of an ambulance, and as reckless of death as before the fight, when full of health, spirit and hatred. A Georgian or a North Carolinian, on the other hand, would crawl, pallid and nervous, to an ambulance on the receipt of a mere scratch; and so awkward were these troops that they were in the habit of shooting their own comrades by sheer negligence and ignorance in the use of arms.

I have talked to-day with several intelligent deserters, all of them Northern men, and, with one exception, deserters from Louisiana regiments. They had been employed upon Mississippi steamboats, and enlisted to avoid drafting or to obtain employment and bread. They state that numbers of their comrades are daily whipped and shot to prevent their escape into the federal lines. Notwithstanding these admonitions, such is their horror of the Confederate service, with its tyranny, hopelessness and starvation, that they dare anything to secure the friendly shelter of the national arms.

They depict the terrible condition of things in Richmond subsequent to the fight at Fair Oaks, when every large dwelling or public house was crowded with gashed, bleeding and dying men. Street fights are matters of hourly occurrence, and the boisterous ruffians from the Gulf states frequently stab and murder in sheer wantonness. Property of any description is not safe from seizure by government or by plunderers. The military tyranny stays its rapacty for neither age nor sickness, and the civilians are so enraged at the Provost Marshals that they would murder them if they dared. All are anxious for a return to the old allegiance. The romance of secession and independence is gone by. Desolate homes, ruined farms, murdered neighbors and children, are the sad realities of disunion; and the success of the Union arms in the next battle is the fond wish of half the people, who hold any government to be better than the anarchy that prevails.

One of the men to whom I was introduced had been with General Anderson’s division at Fredericksburg. He states that Anderson’s command was composed of only twelve thousand men, in the brigades of Generals Field, Gregg and Anderson. These were confronted by McDowell, with his forty thousand soldiers, who might at any time have compelled them to fight or surrender.

Anderson’s division is now reported to be located in the neighborhood of Mechanicsville, and is adjoined by Howell Cobb. Lee’s cavalry accompanied General Stewart in his dashing raid to White House, appropos of which, Stewart has issued a flaming order in the Richmond papers, congratulating his command upon their courage, promptitude and skill. I enclose the document. It reads as follows: —

GENERAL ORDERS — NO. 11.

HEADQUARTERS, CAVALRY BRIGADE, June 16, 1862.

The General of Cavalry, profoundly grateful to Divine Providence for the signal success attending the late expedition to the enemy’s rear, takes pleasure in announcing in orders his appreciation of the bravery and cheerful endurance of the command.

History will record in imperishable characters, and a grateful country remember with gratitude, that a portion of the First, Fourth and Ninth Virginia cavalry, the Jeff. Davis Legion, and the section of the Stewart Horse Artillery, engaged in the expedition.

What was accomplished is known to you, to the public and to the enemy; but the passage of the Chickahominy under existing difficulties furnishes a separate chapter of praise for the whole command.

The General will despair of no enterprise when he can hold such guarantees of success as Colonels Fitz Hugh Lee, Wm. H. Lee and Martin, with their brave and devoted commands.

The loss of the gallant and heroic Capt. Latane, leading his squadron on a brilliant and successful charge, was a severe blow to us; but the enemy, routed and flying before him, will bear witness to a heart intrepid and a spirit invincible, whose influence will not be lost after death, while his regiment will want no better battle cry for victory than “Avenge Latane.”

Proud of his command, the General trusts that it will never lose sight of what is at stake in this struggle, and the reputation now its province to maintain, By command of

Brigadier General J. E. B. STEWART.

J. T. W. HAIRSTON, A. A. A. G.

Among the late arrests in Richmond is that of sergeant of the Seventh Alabama regiment, but whose offence consists of remarking, after reading a Richmond paper describing the battle of Fair Oaks, wherein the loss of the rebels was given at twelve hundred: — “By God! I have seen buried more than that.”

Skirmishes and cannonading are now of daily occurrence, and each day is ushered in and closed by a display of shell pyrotechnics. The rebel loss in the skirmish of Wednesday was nearly two hundred in killed and wounded. This disproportioned loss may be ascribed to the skill with which Captain Hazard threw grape and canister. The Sixty-ninth Pennsylvania regiment fought well during the skirmish. Their loss is as follows: —

Hugh McClernan, Company D. wounded.

Asher Asher, Company I, died of wounds received.

Edward J. Ormsby, Company I, died of wounds received.

Martin Delahide, wounded in arm.

The attack was caused by cheering that followed the appearance of General McClellan along the lines. The rebels, desirous of seeing what the uproar meant, came out in force and opened fire. They paid dearly for their curiosity.

The indications of a fight are various, and we expect each night to be awakened in the morning by the rattle of musketry. The noise of shelling is no longer regarded here, as it signifies, at most, harmless practice between rival batteries across the Chickahominy.

June 28, 1862, The Charleston Mercury

From the intelligence before us, the great struggle between the grand armies of the East has been going on for a day and a half with signal success to the Confederate arms, and in different quarters of the field. Of course, the news is very general and imperfect. But its tenor leads to the supposition that little probably can await Gen. McCLELLAN but rout, with slaughter and capture of his forces. His army, said to be on the southwest of Chickahominy, appears to be now enveloped in front and rear by our forces, portions on his right wing driven over towards York river, and the railroad, passing through the centre of his line, taken, with its batteries. The work of today will, we suppose, finish, the business. We trust that the Almighty Giver of victories will crown our efforts with complete success.

We await the final result with confidence in our sacred cause, and in the devoted troops who have gone forth to fight for political freedom, property, institutions, the purity of their homes, and for religion itself. Suffering under a thousand wrongs, and feeling the cruel iron in their souls, they go forth to conquer or die. We trust the long coveted opportunity is at last fully afforded, and that a series of overwhelming blows will now be struck in rapid succession against the bloodthirsty invaders of an unoffending people.

by John Beauchamp Jones

JUNE 28TH.—The President publishes a dispatch from Lee, announcing a victory! The enemy has been driven from all his intrenchments, losing many batteries.
Yesterday the President’s life was saved by Lee. Every day he rides out near the battle-field, in citizen’s dress, marking the fluctuations of the conflict, but assuming no direction of affairs in the field. Gen. Lee, however, is ever apprised of his position; and once, when the enemy were about to point one of their most powerful batteries in the direction of a certain farm-house occupied by the President, Lee sent a courier in haste to inform him of it. No sooner had the President escaped than a storm of shot and shell riddled the house.
Some of the people still think that their military President is on the field directing every important movement in person. A gentleman told me to-day, that he met the President yesterday, and the day before, alone, in the lanes and orchards, near the battle-field. He issued no orders; but awaited results like the rest of us, praying fervently for abundant success.
To-day some of our streets are crammed with thousands of bluejackets—Yankee prisoners. There are many field officers, and among them several generals.
General Reynolds, who surrendered with his brigade, was thus accosted by one of our functionaries, who knew him before the war began:
“General, this is in accordance with McClellan’s prediction; you are in Richmond.”
“Yes, sir,” responded the general, in bitterness; ” and d—n me, if it is not precisely in the manner I anticipated.”
“Where is McClellan, general ?”
“I know not exactly; his movements have been so frequent of late. But I think it probable he too may be here before night!”
“I doubt that,” said his fellow-prisoner, Gen. McCall; “beware of your left wing! Who commands there?”
“Gen. Jackson.”
“Stonewall Jackson? Is he in this fight? Was it really Jackson making mince-meat of our right? Then your left wing is safe!”
Four or five thousand prisoners have arrived.

June 28, 1862, The Charleston Mercury

The Hilton Head correspondent of the N.Y. Evening Post, writing on the 5th instant, gives an interesting account of the operations of the Yankee forces against this city. We republish his letter:

Before this reaches you, you will have received intimations of an intended attack upon Charleston. As the crisis of that movement is now over, I hasten to give you such particulars as I have been able to collect of the projected undertaking and of its probable result.

It is understood that the whole movement originated here; and that it is due to the energy and determination of the commanders of our land forces. Our resources have from the first been inadequate to any extended military operations in this department, of which the abandonment of Jacksonville is a proof. Charleston is defended by the forts from attack by sea, and a double line of land defence would, it was believed by the Confederates, suffice to protect them, with but a small force, against us.

THE PLAN OF ATTACK.

It was not long before the somewhat defenceless condition of Charleston and Savannah attracted the notice of our officers. Though pains were taken to prevent exact information of the state of affairs, intimations were received from various quarters which agreed in representing Charleston as occupied by very few troops. I am informed that a plan was formed to capture it by a sudden and unexpected attack. Among the sources of information was a boatcrew of deserters from the immediate service of the Confederate Commanding General Ripley, from whom much exact information was obtained. This was early in May. About the middle of the month came the successful escape of the Planter, with precise details, from Robert Small and the others with him, of the fortifications and troops around the harbor. This gave an impetus to the movement and engaged the attention of our commanders, Maj. Gen. Hunter and Brig. Gens. Benham, Wright and Stevens, together with the commander of the fleet, Commodore DuPont. So satisfactory was the information obtained, and so complete and judicious were the proposed arrangements of Gen. Benham, to whom the details had been committed, that the plan was entirely acceptable to the officers who were to execute it; and the enterprise was at once entered upon with hearty good will.

Munitions and stores were got in readiness, artillery was shipped for the scene of the contemplated attack; troops were brought up to headquarters and arrangements made for shipping them to the vicinity of Charleston. It was known that Stono River, opening into the sea some twelve miles only from Charleston, affords a passage for gunboats to a point much nearer to the city. The island which is cut off between it and Charleston harbor - James Island - was known to be defended by numerous batteries; but these were ascertained to be inadequately manned, and not to be well provided with heavy artillery. It was thought, therefore, that a rapid dash up the Stono, a landing of all our disposable forces on the island, and an assault - perhaps bloody - on the batteries, would, if successfully made, open our way to the shore of Ashley River, above Forts Sumter and Moultrie, from which point the city would be at the mercy of our guns. The movement was felt to be a hazardous one, but the information was too exact to be doubted, and it assured us that there were no forces in or around Charleston to contend with ours if the latter could be rapidly concentrated on the city.

This information was confirmed and increased by the arrival of deserters from the South Carolina troops, by whom the precise situation of affairs within the defences was fully disclosed to us. No more full information was needed, and General Hunter at once made up his mind for the boldest and most daring stroke of the war.

UNFORESEEN DIFFICULTIES.

Unfortunately at this moment unforeseen circumstances threw serious and most unhappy delays in our way. The steamers which had been at our disposal all the winter, and which were now plying between Port Royal and New York, were relied upon for the rapid transportation of the troops to James Island; and in a plan which depended for its whole possibility of success upon the rapidity of its execution, this was a most essential circumstance. Just at this moment, however, the steamers, instead of returning to this place, were stopped by the Government in New York, and employed upon other service. This was a stunning blow to us, but the officers worked up, confident in the possibility of their undertaking, till a large body of the troops had been transported by small and slow sailing vessels to Edisto Island, from which point they were to make their way by land, while a larger body moved up by water to join them. So great, however, was the delay involved, that, it is believed, at the close of May the order was countermanded, and the resolve taken to relinquish the undertaking. Additional information, however, showed the Confederates still unsuspicious. General Ripley, with two regiments, left Charleston on the 31st for Richmond, and the enterprise was resumed with good prospects about the first of June. So energetically had the preparations been carried on in the interval, that the first body of troops was landed on the James Island about the 3d of June, and our reconnoitering parties were thrown out to feel for the batteries of the enemy on the following day.

In the midst of these preparations, news reached us of the escape of large portions of the Confederate army of Corinth from the grasp of Gen. Halleck; and this fact has at once suggested a new source of danger. Should the enemy be able to throw into the batteries any considerable body of fresh troops before our assault can be made, the hazard of our movement must become too great.

STRENGTH OF THE CONFEDERATE FORCES AT CHARLESTON.

June 9. Rumors of large reinforcements to the enemy forces reach us; and some do not hesitate to say that from twenty thousand to thirty thousand of the late army of the West have been transferred to this vicinity, and will give our little force a terrible reception if an assault is ventured. I do not believe any such stories, though it is possible that a few regiments from Corinth may have reached Charleston. Our troops have, however, met with unexpected resistance in their first attempts. Still they have, we hear, captured some of the batteries on James Island, and are advancing upon the city.

The army in South Carolina, though small, is fortunate in its officers. The commanders are all men of military education, and of approved character as soldiers.

One movement which was important to our success, has not proved practicable. The troops left at this point received orders to seize the Charleston and Savannah Railroad, in order to prevent troops from being sent up from the latter place to reinforce Charleston. They succeeded in reaching the road and effected a partial destruction of it at Pocotaligo; but their work was not so effectually done as to preclude the immediate repair and use of the road. The delay which has since intervened has enabled the enemy to bring it into use again, and with this speedy communication large reinforcements have been thrown into Charleston.

On their forces we have no exact information, but there can be no doubt; that large numbers of men have been gathered to meet us. Balloon reconnoissances are now going on, which will give pretty accurate information of the state of the Confederate defences and the number of their men. It is impossible to doubt that they have thrown up batteries within a few days, and accumulated additional obstacles in our way.

June 28, 1862, The Charleston Mercury

 

The Memphis Appeal gives an interesting account of affairs in New Orleans, from which we make some extracts:

The rumor that the yellow fever is in New Orleans is not true. We get this information not through the Yankee organ of that city. Butler, assuming that the disease is of foreign origin, is taking great pains to provide against it by quarantine regulations. The enemy’s blockade of our ports last summer is assumed to be conclusive of their value. It is forgotten that that year was unusually free of that disease in places where it is of annual growth. In Havana, Vera Cruz and Rio there was comparatively little of it.

Our informants represent the soldiery which garrison New Orleans as the most ignorant, degraded and miserable set they have ever seen. While the officers live in the most luxuriant style and spend their time in revelling and licentious enjoyment the men are half fed, badly clothed, sick, filthy and disaffected. Some regiments which have been more than a year in the service have never made the acquaintance of a paymaster, and it is not an uncommon thing to see them begging for bread tickets of passers-by in the streets. They have even been known to beg of negros, by whom they are regarded as objects of pity rather than hatred.

Butler and his officers live in a state of complete isolation. They occupy the St. Charles Hotel, from which they never venture forth, except under escort of a strong guard. Since the first the threshold of this once popular establishment was profaned by the tread of the brutal Butler, no Southern guest has entered the St. Charles. The drawing rooms no longer ring with the merry laughter of gay Southern belles, and the long, empty corridors who echo only the measured tread of the sentinel who guards the troubled slumbers of the tyrant. The portals of decent society in New Orleans are closed and hermetically sealed against the entrance of Yankee ill-breeding, and, as if to avenge themselves upon the community, the officers indulge in every kind of licentious excess without the least regard to the proprieties of life or the usages of society. Drunken officers may be seen thronging the sidewalks in front of the St. Charles, daily. As ladies no longer frequent that street, it is given up to quadroons and courtezans, who are the only female associates of the Lincoln officers. Our informant has himself seen high officials in the Yankee army seize and embrace negro women on the street in front of General Butler’s headquarters.

No better illustration of the animus of the North in prosecuting a war of conquest is to be found, than the fact that along with every Yankee army goes a mercantile corps, whose province and duty it seems to be to stand back till the military have shaken the trees well, then step in and gather the fruit. For example: Butler issued a proclamation, forbidding the circulation of Confederate money; whereupon the merchant corps, of whom Picayune’s brother is said to be a prominent member, set about buying up the notes at a heavy discount. These notes were then sent off by agents, representing themselves to be friends of the South, to points in the country, and invested in sugar, molasses and cotton.

A gentleman lately managed to regain possession of a slave of his, who had been stolen by a Yankee officer to act as his body servant. For this offence he was tried by the Provost Marshal for […..]. The judge, after mature consideration, sentenced him to the minimum punishment prescribed by the statute against inveigling slaves from their masters, which is two years in the parish prison.

June 28, 1862, The New York Herald

Our James Island Correspondence.

HEADQUARTERS, STEVEN’S DIVISION.

JAMES ISLAND, S.C., June 17, 1862.

You will recollect that in my previous despatches from this point I predicted a stubborn resistance on the part of the enemy, and stern, hard fighting on our own, before a further progress towards Charleston could be affected; but I did not think so cruel and useless a sacrifice as that inflicted upon our army yesterday morning would be permitted by the general in command.

The Tower Battery at Secessionville, to which I alluded in my last letter, had for some days thrown its shells in unpleasant proximity to our camps, and a […..] in force was ordered with a view, if possible, to gain possession of the work, shorten our line of pickets, secure safety to our camps, and complete a second step in our advance across the island. Three slender brigades, consisting of not more than six thousand men, were thrown forward at daylight. They were repulsed, after a gallant and heroic fight of four hours’ duration. They came back to camp with companies and regiments frightfully decimated. In my best judgment over one hundred and fifty of our men were killed, nearly five hundred lie wounded in our hospitals, and there is besides a long list of missing, whose fate is yet conjectural. Of these many are known to have been killed out right, while scores of others were wounded and left upon the fatal field, to the tender mercies of the enemy - to languish in Southern jails, to die in rebel hospitals and to receive a coffinless burial from rebel hands.

The forces of General Stevens were formed in perfect quiet at his outer pickets at half-past two o’clock yesterday morning. The men fell promptly into line, having been at this hour first apprised of the movement they were to undertake. The morning was cool, and the entire sky was over cast with black, heavy clouds, so that in the darkness the task of maintaining silence and avoiding confusion was one of no little difficulty. We moved on that position, no accident occurring to interrupt our progress. Colonel Fenton’s brigade - consisting of the Eighth Michigan Volunteers, under Lieutenant Colonel Graves; the Seventh Connecticut, under Lieutenant Colonel Hawley and the Twenty-eighth Massachusetts, under Lieutenant Colonel Moore - was in the advance. Colonel Leasure’s brigade - comprising the Seventy-ninth Highlanders, under Lieutenant Colonel Morrison; the One Hundredth Pennsylvania, under Major Leckey, and the Forty-sixth New York, Colonel Rosa, - was in support , together with Rockwell’s Connecticut Batter, Captain Sears’ company of Volunteer Engineers, and Captain Sargeant’s company of Massachusetts cavalry. A storming party, consisting of two companies of the Eighth Michigan, led by Lieutenant Lyons, Aid-de-Camp to General Stevens, with a negro guide, was in the extreme advance.

Our route lay over an extensive cotton field, or rather an succession of cotton fields, separated from each other by hedges and ditches. The ground was broken by the ridges peculiar to the plantations in this vicinity, and the passage over the uneven, billowly surface, marching as we were upon the quick, was excessively fatiguing; yet we moved forward very rapidly. Although our line was formed within rifle shot of the enemy’s pickets, so quietly were the troops manoeuvred that they were ignorant of it, and a rebel lieutenant and four privates were surprised and captured. Orders had been given to move forward by the flank regiment following regiment. In no event were we to fire, but to press on and forward into line by regiments. When the enemy should open on us, we were to use the bayonet on him, and endeavor if possible to gain possession of the work.

These orders were faithfully executed. Reaching the open field about a mile from the rebel fortifications, Fenton’s brigade was directed against the right, and Leasure’s against the left of the work. Those two brigades now pushed forward with great rapidity, the regiments keeping within supporting distance of each other, and the Michigan regiment keeping close to the storming party.

When within about four hundred yards of the fort, a terrific fire of grape and canister was opened on our columns from the work and from the woods, abbattis and rifle pits on our right. Four heavy guns on the enemy’s parapet sent their murderous charges through the files of our brave men; masked batteries, of whose existence we had no previous knowledge, poured their terrible missiles against us; sharpshooters, stationed all along the rebel line, selected our officers for targets, and many a gallant leader fell at their first volley, while the men dropped in the ranks by scores. Still the Eighth Michigan, the Seventy-ninth Highlanders, the One hundredth Pennsylvania, the Twenty-eighth Massachusetts (shouting their wild cry of “Faugh a Ballagh” as they advanced) and portions of the Seventh Connecticut and Forty-sixth New York, succeeded in reaching the very edge of the abattis, and a portion of the storming party of the Eighth Michigan, led by Captains Ely and Doyle, together with a party from the Highlanders, led in person by their brave Lieut. Col. Morrison, whose horse was shot early in the action, led up his men on foot, shouting, “Come on, Highlanders!” and, with Lieutenant Lyons, of General Stevens’ staff, was the first to scale the walls and mount the parapet of the fort. Both were wounded - Colonel Morrison in the head, the bullet entering at the temple and coming out behind the right ear, and Lieutenant Lyons severely in the arm. Captain Doyle, of the storming party, was severely wounded, and Captains Guild, Pratt and Church were killed. It was while endeavoring to scale these works that Captain Hitchcock, of the Seventh Connecticut, was also shot down. Nevertheless, the men went up, walking unflinchingly into the jaws of death. But very few escaped, and those only with garments riddled with balls. Colonel Morrison, even after he was wounded, discharged the entire contents of his revolver at the force within, and had the satisfaction of killing one rebel as he was endeavoring to screen himself in one of the numerous […..] with which the interior of the work abounded.

There was but one narrow opening in the line of abbattis. So difficult of passage was this, and so galling was the storm of fire to which our men were exposed, that the order was reluctantly given to fall back and reform. The men were led with colors flying to the cover of a hedge about five hundred yards from the fort, where the remaining forces of the division were disposed. Two of Captain Rockwell’s pieces, which had occupied a position in the rear, were now pushed forward to this hedge and opened upon the enemy, and his rifles - a little to the rear - maintained over the heads of our men a well directed fire upon the enemy’s left flank. Both these sections were gallantly and efficiently served, and produced a marked impression on the rebels.

In the meantime, through the causalities had been frightful both in nature and in number, the troops of the division were in good order. Their confidence was still unshaken. Their courage was unbroken. Like veterans they waited for the word to charge. But at this juncture Colonel Williams’ command, which had occupied a position on the left, from which they threw a galling fire across the march into the position of the enemy, were compelled, in consequence of the falling of shells from our gunboats, to fall back and thus the main attention of the enemy was given to the front. Under these circumstances it was deemed a useless waste of life further to protract the contest, and the order was given to withdraw the troops. This was done in the most admirable manner, Rockwell’s battery taking the lead, and the various regiments following in line of battle, with flags displayed.

The losses in Gen. Stevens’ divisions have been very heavy. Nearly 200 of the eighth Michigan (which also suffered severely at Port Royal Ferry and Wilmington Island) were cut down and of ten company commanders who went in the field only two returned with their commands. The Seventy-ninth, whose gallantry at Bull run, we all remember, sustained a frightful list of causalities, as they accompanied the Michigan boys in the assault. The losses in the Twenty-eight Massachusetts are also heavy, Captain Lawler being among the killed. Capt. E. S. Hitchcock, of the Seventh Connecticut, was struck by a grapeshot in the head, and another in the thigh, and instantly killed, and Lieut. Horton, of the same regiment, was mortally wounded. Lieut. Setrol, of the Forty-sixth was also killed. Many other officers in the second division were mowed down by the hellish storm, whose fury and whose terrible effect, during the thickest of the fight, no feeble rhetoric of mine can aid me to portray.

I have written, thus far, of the part which only two of the brigades played in the attack. The command of Brigadier General Wright, comprising two brigades under Colonels Williams and Chatfield, also participated in the movement, and suffered severely. Williams’ brigade consisting of the Third New Hampshire Volunteers, under Lieutenant Colonel Jackson; a battalion of the Third Rhode Island artillery, (acting as infantry,) the New York Volunteers Engineers and the first Massachusetts cavalry, marched from Grimball’s plantation at early dawn, and were pushed forward toward the southerly face of the work, while General Stevens was directing his forces against the side which fronted toward the east. These regiments were separated from General Stevens’ line of attack by an impassable swamp and stream. The Third New Hampshire was in the advance, followed by the Third Rhode Island, and supported by Captain Ransom’s battery of regular artillery and Day’s battery, the two latter under the direction of Captain John Hamilton, Chief of Artillery.

As the infantry above mentioned marched up with the evident purpose of turning the right of the fort, they found themselves cut off from the work by the marsh and exposed to the grape and canister on their right, together with a galling fire from the rebel riflemen concealed in the woods on their left. Under this shower of deadly missiles, both the Third New Hampshire and the Third Rhode Island were badly cut up; yet they continued to fight in good order until the sharpshooters had been silenced. This was effected by a spirited dash of the Rhode Island boys, who charged into the woods and used the bayonet so effectually that the foe retired, leaving three of their number in our hands. I cannot at this moment speak advisedly of the operations of this brigade, further than that they fought with great valor, and maintained their ground against terrible odds till the order to withdraw the troops was given. Among the killed of the Third New Hampshire was Captain Ralph Cariton, who was struck in the hip by a shell. He was brought into the hospital living, and survived an amputation, for which he earnestly plead, against the protest of the surgeons, a little more than an hour. Lieutenants Cody, Henderson, Nealy and Scranton, of this regiment, were also badly wounded. Lieutenant Bartholomew, whose promotion from the position of sergeant major of the Third Rhode Island was made but a few days since, was shot through the abdomen and cannot live, and Lieutenant Arnold, of the same regiment, is dangerously wounded.

Troops never fought with more steadiness and determined bravery than our men did yesterday. Their pluck and their obedience to orders are worthy of the highest commendation. Captain Lusk, Aid-de-Camp to General Stevens, led and placed in position the Twenty-eighth Massachusetts at the edge of the abattis, and had a horse shot under him. Captain Hazard Stevens, a son of the General, and Assistant Adjutant General of the division, led the Seventh Connecticut, after it was reformed, to its position, at the hedge under a dreadful fire of grape and canister. He inherits all his paternal grit, and was everywhere in the field conspicuous throughout the action for his coolness and his bravery.

Colonel Fenton, who commanded the first brigade, left a sick bed to lead his troops, and well sustained the reputation won at Coosaw and Wilmington Island. Lieut. Belcher, of his staff, though wounded severely, at the enemy’s first volley, remained in the saddle til his horse was shot. He then procured another, and was the last man to leave the field, setting fire, as he did so, to a building which the rebel pickets had for some nights occupied. Lieut. Brackett, of the Twenty-eighth Massachusetts, acted as an aid-de-camp, and had no less than three horses shot under him. Col. Leasure, who led the second brigade, showed from first to last great intrepidity and energy. Other officers were conspicuous for their bravery; but their names belong more properly in the official reports than in this hastily written narrative.

The forces under Colonel Chatfield, consisting of the Sixth Connecticut Forty-seventh New York, and Ninety-seventh and Forty-fifth Pennsylvania regiments, acted as the supporting column. Though they were for a time under a brisk fire, they were not directed against the work, and sustained no casualties. Hamilton’s artillery did excellent service, and though exposed at one time to the fire of our own gunboats, several of whose shells fell and exploded in their midst, neither men nor horses were injured. Rockwell’s battery sustained no losses beyond four horses killed.

During the action Colonel Benham was on the field, and directed in person the movements of our forces. General Wright, who commanded the division on the left, and General Stevens, were also in positions of peril throughout the action, but were uninjured.

I do not think the fort, if taken, could have been held. It was entirely swept by the woods and defences in the rear, and, with our slender force, we would have been hurried out of it right speedily. The position is naturally one of great strength, and the enemy’s labors have made it absolutely impassable except by work. To undertake to carry it by […..] before our batteries had silenced or dismounted its guns, was a military mistake of sufficient magnitude to merit the keenest censure. In its results the movement was a lamentable failure. We know, in fact, no more than we did before concerning the enemy’s position; for deserters and captured pickets had a few days previous told us how strong were their fortifications, how impassable their abbattis, how numerous their force, and how resolute the majority of their men. The enemy resisted us with all the advantages of position, numerical strength and superior knowledge of the approaches to their works. We fought gallantly and nobly, it is true, but yet hopelessly, on soil we never had trod before, against a foe we could not see, and with weapons which in opposition to the grape and canister of the enemy, were powerless as toys.

I am told today that the movement was made on the sole responsibility of General Benham, who ventured upon the undertaking regardless of the advice of his associates. I am told further - and I consider the information to come from good authority - that when, only five days ago, General Hunter left here for Hilton Head, he instructed General Benham positively to make no advance until further orders, but only to hold our position against attack. Be that as it may, we have met a reverse the serious effect of which cannot be ignored, and which demands for its author a strict and searching investigation.

I do not know when this account will reach you. Departures from this point are unfrequent, and undoubtedly the Northern pulse will have been quickened by rebel accounts long before a correct and unmagnified report can appear in the HERALD: but of one thing your readers may be assured: we shall maintain our footing here. Our hold is not of so tender a nature as easily to be wrested from us. Eventually not only the tower battery, but the works behind it, and Charleston itself, with Sumter and Moultrie and Johnson will be ours, to , possess and occupy. These events are only postponed for a time. Give us military capacity in place of reckless zeal, give us an earnest, thoughtfulness for the lives of our men, instead of blind ambition, and they will yet be undertaken and accomplished.

June 28, 1862, The Charleston Mercury

DEFEAT OF McCLELLAN’S ARMY.

STONEWALL JACKSON IN THE VAN.

THE PURSUIT OF THE ENEMY. LATEST PARTICULARS.

RICHMOND, Friday, June 27 - The Dispatch, newspaper, in its issue of today says that General BRANCH led the advance yesterday afternoon down the Meadow Bridge Road, with his brigade of North Carolinians, and, on crossing, was reinforced by other troops from General HILL’S division. The numerous fieldworks and batteries opposed to our advance were assailed in the coolest manner imaginable and captured with great rapidity. Our loss was much less than could have been expected. All the heights in the vicinity of Mechanicsville are in our possession. General LONGSTREET’S division crossed the Chickahominy on the Mechanicsville Road last night.

The battle was resumed this morning at daylight, and progressed fiercely until 8 o’clock, when the firing slackened, or became less audible in the city. The enemy have no doubt been driven back several miles in the direction of the White House.

Our forces beyond the Chickahominy are led by STONEWALL JACKSON, LONGSTREET, and A. P. HILL. On this side, we are, as yet, acting on the defensive.

(Second Despatch)

FRIDAY AFTERNOON - Six o’clock, p.m. - The firing has not been heard in the city, except at intervals, for several hours, the enemy having been driven for miles in the direction of the White House, on the Pamunkey River.

Columns of smoke have been seen ascending from the enemy encampment, indicating the destruction of stores to prevent them from falling into the hands of our advancing forces. It is reported, however, that large quantities have been captured.

One of the batteries taken by our troops, this morning, is said to have been the most formidable in the Yankee army. It consisted of thirteen splendid pieces.

The community here continues composed, but is buoyant with the conviction that the God of Battles has vouchsafed to us a complete victory over the insolent foe who has so long threatened this city.

The wounded are constantly arriving, and are receiving every attention from the ladies at the various hospitals. The fortitude exhibited by our wounded soldiers excites universal admiration.

(The Latest.)

Ten o’clock, p.m. All reports from the battlefield confirm the prevailing belief that McCLELLAN’S army has been thoroughly defeated, if not routed. The York River Railroad, with the batteries commanding it, has been taken by the Confederate troops.

Note. The Columbia Guardian of yesterday, in alluding to the news of the battle, says: The brigade of General GREGG is near the angle described, and opposite to the headquarters of Gen. McCLELLAN, distant about l l/2 miles. Gen. GREGG’S position is 5 1/2 miles from the capitol building in a direction a little north of east, and not far from New Bridge.

June 28, 1862, The Charleston Mercury

 

ALL IS QUIET upon James’ Island. A report has been current to a certain extent in the city (and has, we see, been ventilated in the Columbia Guardian) that the enemy’s troops are evacuating James’ Island. We do not doubt that the result of the Secessionville fight has had a most disheartening effect upon the troops of Gen. BENHAM’S ‘Expeditionary Corps;’ but the story of their having evacuated the Island is unfounded. The rumor probably had its origin in the fact that, on Tuesday night there was a great commotion in the Yankee camps on James’ Island, caused by the arrival of a steamer from New York with whisky and money for the troops. Whether it was the liquor or the shinplasters that especially delighted the hearts of the marauders, we cannot say; but certain it is, that they were making merry to an unusual extent, and that all night long the sounds of revelry resounded through their camps.

June 28, 1862, The New York Herald

WAR GAZETTE.

Official.

ORDER RELIEVING GENERAL FREMONT FROM COMMAND.

WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, June 27, 1862.

I. - Major General John C. Fremont having requested to be relieved from the command of the first army corps of the Army of Virginia, because, as he says, the position assigned him by the appointment of Major General Pope as Commander-in-Chief of the Army of Virginia is subordinate and inferior to that heretofore held by him, and to remain in the subordinate command now assigned would, as he says, largely reduce his rank and consideration in the service, it is ordered that Major General John C. Fremont be relieved from command.

II. - That Brigadier General Rufus King be and he is hereby assigned to the command of the first army corps of the Army of Virginia, in place of General Fremont, relieved. By order of the

PRESIDENT.
EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War.

SKETCH OF GENERAL RUFUS KING.

Brigadier General And Acting Major General Rufus King is a native of New York from which State he was originally appointed to the Army of the United States. He entered the Military Academy as a cadet in the year 1829, and graduated on the 30th of June, 1833, standing No. 4 in his class. On the 1st of July, 1838, he was appointed a brevet Second Lieutenant of the Corps of Engineers, and resigned the service Sept. 30, 1836. From 1836 to 1838 he was Assistant Engineer of the New York and Erie Railroad, and from 1839 to 1843 occupied the position of Adjutant General of the State of New York. From 1841 to 1845 he was the associate editor of the Albany Journal, after which he became the editor of the Milwaukee Sentinel. He was a member of the convention to form the constitution of Wisconsin in 1847-8 after which he filled the position of Regent of the University of Wisconsin. He was a member of the board of Visitors to the Military Academy at West Point during the year 1849. General Rufus King, at the commencement of the present administration, was appointed Minister to Rome, but resigned this lucrative office to take up the sword to defend his native country from the grasp of rebels. On the 17th of May, 1861, he was commissioned a Brigadier General of Volunteers. When the Army of the Potomac was fully organized, General King was appointed to the command of a division under General McDowell. It was a portion of his command that made a dash and occupied Falmouth, thereby taking Fredricksburg, and General King has been in charge of the troops in that vicinity since the capture. He has been spoken of as a good soldier, and the opportunity is now given him to make his mark if ever. General McClellan appears to have thought well of him by giving him the command he has but recently held so long.

June 28, 1862, The New York Herald

Secessionville is a small village, the summer retreat of a few of the James Island planters. It is on the eastern side of the island, on a high plot of land, lying on a bold creek, which winds through the marshes between James and Morris (or Folly) islands, and empties into the Stono river near its mouth. The creek runs immediately up to Secessionville. On the west of the village, a short, shallow creek makes its way toward the waters of the Charleston Ray. Thus a tongue of land is formed between the two creeks. It is connected with the body of the island by a narrow neck of thirty yards within some four or five hundred yards south of Secessionville. Here Lamar’s battery was located across the high land, and flanked on each side by marsh and the creeks. It was an earthwork, heavily constructed, having a plain face, with an obtuse angle on each side, and faced south, in the direction of Battery Island, Legare, Reese’s and Gunball’s plantations, on the Stono river, which is about two miles off. From this point the cleared high land stretches out to the Stono river, like the top of a funnel, to the distance of near a mile, interrupted only by the division lines between fields, hedges and ditches. These fields are covered with weeds three feet high. The edges - of high land and marsh - are skirted with brushwood and sea myths. In the background are patches of wood between the fields and the Stono.

June 28, 1862, The New York Herald

General Pope entered upon his duties as Commander of the “Army of Virginia” yesterday, and we may now confidently expect that something important will be done at once in the Shenandoah valley which will tend to the speedy reduction of the rebel capital, for it has been decided upon that General Pope with his new command shall operate against Richmond. General McCall, whose division numbering 10,000 men, had been previously operating with General McDowell, has joined General McClellan, and in addition to this force, reinforcements from other quarters fully equal to the numbers required by General McClellan, have arrived to the support of the Commander-in-Chief in front of Richmond.

The detailed and minute description of the battle at Fair Oaks on Wednesday, written by our special correspondent on the field, which we give today, is worthy of the attention of our readers. The gallant part which the New York regiments of Sickles’ brigade played throughout the fight deserves all praise. Nor were the New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania regiments of General Grover’s brigade behind them in valor. The story is graphically told, and will amply repay perusal.

Reconnoissances made in the Shenandoah valley recently being intelligence that the enemy had not any force there lower than Luray. Contrabands and Union citizens agree that Ewell and probably Jackson were at and around Luray at that time, and some stated that Jackson had sent south for reinforcements. On the other hand it was said that he had crossed the Blue Ridge, but could not assert whether he was to move up or down. It would appear from appear from various sources that the position of Jackson is quite uncertain.

Our news from the vicinity of Charleston is exciting. The troops under command of General Benham made an attack on Secessionville, on James Island, at four o’clock on the morning of the 16th, and after four hours’ hard fighting against the rebel batteries were repulsed, with heavy loss. The Seventy-ninth New York Volunteers (Highland regiment) behaved with the most determined valor, and suffered fearfully. The Eighth Michigan sustained with them the hottest portion of the fight, and suffered equally. The attack was made on the Tower battery, which, for some time past, had been annoying our troops with shells, and General Benham resolved to make a reconnoissance in force to discover the strength of the enemy at that point. The result proved that his command was not large enough for the operation he undertook to accomplish; and, although the troops retreated in good order after a terrific combat, their sacrifice was heavy, and their repulse under the circumstances was rendered inevitable. That General Benham had not force enough to effect what he attempted is unquestionable; and although the blame of failure is put upon him, and he has been sent here to New York under arrest, it remains to be seen whether the cause of this disaster cannot be traced, upon investigation, to parties higher in office than the General who conducted this attack. It may be shown before long that if General Hunter had paid more attention to his military duties, and less to negro schools and negro regiments, and if the Secretary of War had not encouraged him in these puerile and dangerous pursuits, that the disaster at James Island would not have occurred.

We publish today a minutely detailed account from our correspondents of this late affair, which cost us six hundred and sixty-eight brave soldiers killed, wounded and missing, together with a map of the scene of operations. The latest intelligence from that quarter - which comes from the Richmond Enquirer - is dated on Wednesday, and reports everything quiet. The list of the killed and wounded in the late action will be found in our columns today.

An official order from the war Department yesterday, announces that Major General Fremont has requested to be relieved from the command of the first army corps of the Army of Virginia, because, as he says, the position assigned him by the appointment of Major General Pope as Commander-in-Chief of the Army of Virginia is subordinate and inferior to that heretofore held by him, and to remain in the subordinate command now assigned would, as he says, largely reduce his rank and consideration in the service. Mr. Stanton accordingly relieved General Fremont from the command, and has appointed General Rufus King, late of the Milwaukee Sentinel, to the place vacated by General Fremont. We give a sketch in another column of General King, which will be found very interesting at this juncture.

We learn that General Rosencrans, who has hitherto proved himself an able officer in his career in Western Virginia, is to take General Pope’s command.

June 28, 1862, The New York Herald

Our Special Army Correspondence.

IN FRONT OF RICHMOND, June 26, 1862.

Wednesday, June 25, was signalized by another glorious struggle between the rebels and the Union troops, in which the latter were twice victorious. About six thousand of our men on that day encountered two divisions of the rebel army a short distance beyond Fair Oaks, and drove them back a mile. By a remarkable blunder, we relinquished all the ground gained as soon as we had obtained possession of it, and then, when the error was sifted and understood, our gallant lads went at it again, and corrected the mistake. Upon our retirement the enemy had once more swept in over the field like a recurrent tide wave, and for a second time we drove him back step by step over all the ground originally won, and maintained our position there at night.

But little artillery was employed, and the casualties are, therefore, not so numerous as might be supposed from the duration of the fight. As the artillery that was used, was mostly ours, the enemy’s loss is doubtless considerably heavier than our own. Ours will perhaps reach the neighborhood of eighty killed and less than two hundred wounded.

OUR OBJECT.

It should be clearly understood what this particular fight was for. It was not an interruption of our march to Richmond, in which, as might be supposed, the rebels threw themselves in our way and stopped us at a mile from our original line. It was a fight for a position - a determined struggle for a piece of ground which it was deemed necessary that we should and hold. This piece of ground is barely a mile beyond our former line and we have it, and hold it for what purpose it is probably contraband to state.

THE FIELD.

It will be remembered that the field on which the battle of Fair Oaks or Seven Pines was fought is bounded on the side towards Richmond by a line of woods. This wood extends on either side of the Williamsburg road for a mile, and beyond it is a piece of open country. Our outer pickets have been hitherto posted in that edge of the wood which is furthest from the sacred city, and the line of rebel pickets was drawn only a little further in the woods, and so near to our line that the men could talk to one another. It appeared to be well understood that any further advance on our part would bring on a general engagement; and in that view our line was kept stationary. But finally it was deemed necessary that our pickets should be posted at the other edge of the wood.

WHAT THE ORDERS WERE.

Accordingly General Heintzelman was ordered to advance the pickets on his front to the point named, and to advance the pickets on his left in a line with those in front. At seven A. M., therefore, the greater part of his two divisions was in line and ready for action; but the advance was not made by so large a force.

WHO FOUGHT THE BATTLE.

Two brigades of Hooker’s division - Grover’s and Sickles’ - did nearly all the work, though some other brigades were slightly engaged before the day was over. Sickles’ brigade is composed of the five “Excelsior regiments”- the Seventieth, Seventy-first, Seventy-second, Seventy-third and Seventy-fourth New York. This gallant body of men has lost so heavily in previous battles and by illness that it mustered for Wednesday’s fight only fourteen hundred men. Grover’s brigade is composed of the First Massachusetts, Colonel Cowdin; the Second New Hampshire, Colonel Gilman Marston; the Twenty-sixth Pennsylvania, temporarily commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Wells, of the First Massachusetts; the Massachusetts Eleventh, Colonel William Blaisdell, and the Massachusetts Sixteenth, Colonel Wyman. This brigade mustered about four thousand men for duty.

THE ORDER OF OUR ADVANCE.

At a little before eight A. M. the word was given, and these two brigades moved forward. Sickles’ line was formed across the Williamsburg road, and he advanced in the direction of that thoroughfare, his Second regiment on his right, the Fourth next to it, and both these regiments on the right of the Williamsburg road. To the left of the road, in the order in which they are named, the Fifth, First and Third were formed. Sickles’ left stretched about three hundred yards to the left of the road. Grover’s line joined on to Sickles’ left, and was formed off the First Massachusetts on the right and the Eleventh Massachusetts on the left. His other regiments were at hand, ready for use anywhere. Both brigades advanced in line of battle, with skirmishers out in front.

THE WEATHER.

Never was there a day better fitted for a fight. Two or three tempest-like showers in the few days previous seemed to have washed all that was disagreeable out of Virginia. Nature, and the cool fresh air, filled our Northern lungs with life. It was just cloudy enough, too, to temper the sun’s heat without making it a dull day, and there was just breeze enough to lift the smoke. As the line moved out across the field that lay between the point where they had been drawn up and the wood it presented a beautiful spectacle. The light blue of the uniforms contrasted with the brilliant green of the field; the light reflected from the gun barrels in a silvery sheen, and their glorious standards blown out in the breeze, gave the whole scene the gayety and show of a Fourth of July parade.

UNDER FIRE - THE DIFFICULTIES OF THE MARCH.

In a few moments the whole line disappeared in the woods, Sickles’ part of it more slowly than the other; for the left of his line had to move through an abatis that was very difficult, and was thus detained. Through this means, also, the regularity of his line was broken and it did not get into action so soon. Only a few moments had elapsed after the disappearance of Grover when the scattered […..] told that he had reached the enemy’s pickets. This little fire continued for only a few moments - rattled rapidly once, twice, thrice up and down the line, and was over - and Grover went on. The enemy’s outer line was driven in. Slowly and cautiously the advance was continued.

GROVER GOES ON WELL.

When the pickets were driven in, they formed on the picket reserve some distance in their rear, and after some little delay, with difficult ground and necessary caution, Grover skirmishers came upon their second line. They disputed the ground tenaciously. Nearly all their front appeared to be held by North Carolina troops, whom we have found to be by far the best and bravest troops of the Southern confederacy. These gallant fellows stood to their posts and kept up a rapid and accurate fire that galled our line severely, until they were fairly driven back in rout by Grover’s steady advance.

THE ENEMY’S MAIN BODY.

The stout resistance of these pickets gave ample time for the formation of Hill’s division, to which they belonged, and which is made up in great part of North Carolina troops. This division, supported by the division of General Huger, now advanced to meet our line, and in a little while the ball was fairly opened. So rapid was the rattle of the fire at this time that the sound seemed to be without cessation - without pause or interval - one continuous rattle of rifles. This fire was very severe, and wounded men now began to find their way to the rear - some on stretchers, others leaning on the shoulders of a comrade, and others again, with a brave pride, determined to help themselves and […..] it alone.

THE HEADQUARTERS. were established in the open field near to Fair Oaks, and there General Heintzelman, very quietly and with a very business like air […..]

[…..] the doubtful battle where to rage.

The two houses at that point were used as hospitals, and numbers of the wounded were laid on the ground in the oak grove that gives name to the locality. There many wounds were dressed and the soldiers made comfortable, and there also many a gallant fellow breathed his last. More commodious hospitals were established further back, and the ambulances passed hastily between field and camp with such good effect that the wounded men were all cared for with admirable despatch.

ON SICKLES’ FRONT.

General Sickles, for the reasons we have given, did not become engaged as soon as General Grover, and when the very heavy fire was heard on the latter’s front the Excelsior Brigade was still only under the irregular picket fire of the enemy’s outer line. By degrees, as they advanced, this fire became hotter, until it broke into the rattle of several thousands of rifles - a fire fully as intense and severe as that on the left. On Sickles’ front it was straightforward work. He had only to keep his men up to it and push on; and this was well and gallantly done.

HOTTER AND HOTTER ON THE LEFT.

When Grover advanced his line it was understood that Kearney’s line, which joined Hooker’s at that point, was to have been advanced also; but, as it did not keep up, Grover’s position became dangerous just in proportion to his apparent success; for his flank was left exposed to the attack of the rebels, who filled the woods in front of Kearney. To guard against mishaps in that quarter, and to establish the connection with Kearney, he threw out on his left five companies of the Massachusetts Sixteenth, which regiment was held in reserve. At about the same time, as the fire continued terribly severe in front, he placed a battalion of the New Hampshire Second on his extreme right, to strengthen his connection with Sickles’ left, and placed the remainder of the same regiment between the Massachusetts First and Eleventh, where there was some appearance of weakness. Thus strengthened in front, and provided against attack on his flank, he went on.

KEARNEY’S LINE COMES UP.

Berry’s brigade soon began, however, to push forward on Grover’s left, drove the enemy rapidly and easily before it, and advanced until they completed the line from Grover’s left. Robinson’s brigade (late Jameson) was subsequently pushed in between Berry’s and Grover, and continued the movement. But the enemy was not at any time in great force beyond Grover left, so that the fight in that direction was not severe.

AT A STAND STILL.

At half-past nine our line was brought to a stand-still. It was evident that the enemy was in great force along the whole line. Near that hour the Fifth New Jersey was sent out as a reserve to Sickles, the Second New York to reinforce his advance, and a regiment of Sedgwick’s division. The Nineteenth Massachusetts was pushed in on his right, so as to extend his line to the railroad. Still, with occasional intermissions of comparative quiet, the fire raged along the whole front of the two devoted brigades, and seemed even to rage with intenser fury as it approached the road on which the Excelsior Brigade had advanced.

STUBBORN AND STEADY.

During this hard-fought hour our men had not flinched at all. Every one toed the mark resolutely, ready to do what he came for. There was not a straggler to be seen, and those even who helped the wounded off the field helped them only to where they could get better help, and then went back. Gloriously does the conduct of these two brigades speak the praise of those gallant officers who have made them soldiers and filled them with the soldier’s spirit, and especially does their good conduct on this day redound to the honor of that noble old veteran, General Hooker.

THE REBELS CAN’T STAND IT.

Steady purpose prevails. When the rebels found that our boys were not going to give way under any circumstances they concluded to give way themselves. Their disposition to do so first appeared in front of Grover. It was hailed with a hearty cheer by our boys, who pushed ahead, and, now that the machine was fairly started, went on with a rush. In a few minutes they broke out into the open field, and the object was so far gained at that point. A battery was sent down to Kearney to play on the enemy’s flank and shell the masses in retreat.

NOT SATISFIED YET.

Grover was not, however, permitted to hold the ground he had gained in quiet. An attempt was made to dislodge him by a body sent to reinforce those previously driven out. A hard fight ensued, and the attempt was repulsed.

BIRNEY’S BRIGADE REINFORCES SICKLES.

But while the enemy were thus driven on the left the right did not get along so well. There the enemy’s whole available force seemed concentrated in one endeavor to bear down the gallant Excelsior Brigade. Reinforcements were ordered there immediately, and Birney’s brigade went up the Williamsburg road at the double quick. As these regiments filed on, cheered by those they passed, a chorus of responsive cheers arose from Grover’s brave fellows away off on the left, as they drove the enemy before them. Sickles’ boys took it up in turn and made a stouter push at the foe. Everybody seemed exhilarated at the sound. Orderly after orderly rushed in to tell how Grover was driving them, and others to say that Sickles could hold his ground till Birney could reach him.

THE ORDER TO RETIRE - WHAT DID IT MEAN?

Victory sat upon our banners. We had the enemy fairly started, and could have driven him any distance. Just at this exciting juncture the order was received from general headquarters to gradually […..] to the original line. They alone who know how brilliantly the first dawn of victory beams upon the battlefield can appreciate the gloom this order cast on every spirit; but it had to be obeyed, and was disseminated. It was hard to credit the news from the tongues of aids or orderlies; but it was soon verified, and the men were withdrawn. They all believed that we were beaten on some other part of the line, and that we had gone too far ahead for safety, and all retired in good order and took up the line in the edge of the wood nearest to camp. This was at about half past eleven A. M.

GENERAL M’CLELLAN’S ARRIVAL.

General McClellan and staff rode upon the field at one P.M., escorted by Captain McIntyre’s squadron of regular cavalry and the First regiment New York volunteer cavalry, Colonel McReynolds. He made his headquarters at Fair Oaks, where Heintzelman’s had previously been, and there drew around him all the sources of information that such occasions furnish.

HE ORDERS ANOTHER ADVANCE.

All were then in amazement at the recent unaccountable order; but he soon saw how affairs stood, and ordered very shortly after that the same advance should be again made. The order was received with joy on every hand. All was again activity and spirit, and every one prepared to do the thing over again as bravely as if they had never been compelled to relinquish the once almost gotten prize.

HOW THEY MADE THE SECOND ADVANCE.

Once more they went forward in the same order in which they had already done so well. Grover, on the left, got in first again and rattled away; but the resistance there was not so tenacious as it had been, and he pushed through, still finding, however, enough resistance to keep up the interest. Kearney, on the extreme left, found also no great resistance; but on the Williamsburg road, in front of General Sickles, the fighting was harder than ever. There the enemy had evidently gathered a strong force, and he seemed determined to hold that point at every hazard. Steadily and accurately as the battle-trained boys of the Excelsior Brigade delivered their fire, still they made no permanent impression. The places of those who fell on the rebel side were again filled, and the enemy was still there. For nearly three-quarters of an hour the hard fire was continued at this point.

ARRIVAL OF REINFORCEMENTS.

Thus the battle stood at a little after two o’clock, when General J. N. Palmer’s (late Devon’s) brigade, of Couch’s division, was ordered up to support Sickles. The vigilant and ever ready commander of the Fourth corps had put Couch’s division under arms when the firing first became warm on the left, and they had awaited their chance till now. They went up the road handsomely, the Massachusetts Tenth, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Docker, in advance, followed by the Rhode Island Second, Colonel Frank Wheaton; the New York Thirty-sixth, Colonel Innes, and the Massachusetts Seventh, Colonel Russell.

OUR ARTILLERY OPENS, BUT WITH BAD EFFECT.

At the same time Battery D, First New York artillery (four rifled pieces), Captain T. W. Osborn, was ordered up the Williamsburg road to shell the woods beyond our advance, it was expected that they would throw shell directly over our advancing line into the enemy’s line and into his camp beyond. This is always a perilous attempt. Shells either fall false, or the distance is miscalculated, and misfortune ensues. So it did in this case. Several of Captain Osborn’s shells fell false, and exploded in the rear and even right in the ranks of our men. By this means the Massachusetts Seventh, which was deployed in the woods as skirmishers, lost several men, and by one of these shells Lieutenant Bullock, of that regiment, received a wound which will doubtless prove fatal. This fire was immediately stopped. MORE ARTILLERY - THEY HAVE THE FIGHT ALL TO THEMSELVES.

Two guns of Battery K, Fourth United State artillery, Captain De Russey, were then sent up the road and into the wood, and took position right in the midst of Palmer’s brigade, and thence opened fire, which they kept up briskly for some minutes. Meanwhile there was an almost complete cessation of the musketry fire. At the same time General Sumner began to shell the wood on his front, and the artillerymen had it all to themselves. Soon the enemy also got artillery at it, and began to throw shell and shot with considerable accuracy all around De Russey’s guns. So perfectly did he get the range of their pieces that they were withdrawn. But this did not stop the enemy’s fire. Many projectiles - shell and round shot - fell in the woods in that neighborhood, and numbers of men were mutilated by them. Lieutenant Whiting, of General Palmer staff, lost his left arm by a round shot at this time. Colonel A. J. Morrison, Volunteer Aid to General Palmer, had been wounded in the thigh and hand earlier in the day.

NEARLY THROUGH THE WOODS.

The continual push of the Excelsior Brigade and the fire of the artillery finally forced the enemy entirely through the woods, and our line now lay just in the farther edge of it. Thus we had gained our object, and there the battle rested for a time. The fire now fell off into an occasional shot from skirmishers, and in that position matters continued until six P. M.

ANOTHER BURST ON THE LEFT.

At about that hour General Kearney led Birney’s brigade against the enemy. Pushing in on Grover’s left, and between Grover and Robinson, he went at it in gallant style and entirely cleared the woods. The fire there was very fierce for several minutes, when it subsided, and shortly all was quiet again.

DISPOSITIONS FOR THE NIGHT.

Thus had passed altogether a glorious day, in which we had twice beaten the enemy, twice driven him before us over the same ground. Dispositions to hold the ground in case of a night attack were made all along the line, and on the right the weakened and wearied Excelsior Brigade was withdrawn, and relieved by that of Gen. Palmer, which thus held the advance at that part of the line.

NIGHT WORK.

Soon after dark large bodies of the enemy were brought up in front of the position held by Gen. Palmer, and the rebels also pushed forward at that point a battery of field pieces. Arrangements were in progress to strengthen our position there, when, at ten o’clock P. M., a large force was pushed in suddenly and delivered a volley in the line of the Rhode Island Second and Massachusetts Tenth. Some confusion ensued; but the men were soon rallied, and repulsed this threatened advance and drove the enemy back with considerable slaughter.

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