AFTER THE BATTLE OF SEVEN PINES—PUTTING THE WOUNDED ON CARS.
AFTER THE BATTLE OF SEVEN PINES.
Pettit’s battery in Fort Richardson, in iront of Fair Oaks Station, between the Nine-mile road and the railroad.
to the front. The Federals stubbornly held their ground, and Hill now detached General Rains to make a wide flank movement through the woods to the right in order to turn the left of Casey’s earthworks. From the edge of the wood, south of the Williamsburg road, Bains’s brigade commenced firing on the flank and rear of the troops posted in Casey’s rifle-pits. General Hill says:
“I now noticed commotion in the camps and redoubt, and indications of evacuating the position. Rodes took skilful advantage of this commotion, and moved up his brigade in beautiful order and took possession of the redoubt and rifle-pits.”
Pending this contest for Casey’s earthworks, General Keyes had sent two regiments from the second line direct to Casey’s assistance, and a short time before those works were carried he sent General Couch, with two regiments, to attack the Confederate left, and thus relieve the pressure on Casey’s front. Before Couch could get into position Casey’s line was carried, and General Keyes made immediate preparations for the defense of the line at Seven Pines, held by Couch’s division. Peck’s brigade was on the left, Devens’s in the center, and the regiments of Abercrombie’s brigade, that had not been detached, were on the right. Casey’s troops, in falling back from their earthworks, endeavored to make a stand at the abatis in front of Couch’s line, and General Keyes sent forward one regiment of Devens’s brigade to assist in checking the advance of the Confederates. Casey’s men were driven through the abatis, and the regiment of Devens’s brigade was hurled back in disorder, and could not be rallied until they had retreated beyond the earthworks from which they had advanced. A large proportion of the men of Palmer’s and Wessells’s brigades having been thrown into great disorder whilst retiring through the second abatis, and finding the earthworks of
TWO DAYS OF BATTLE AT SEVEN PINES (FAIR OAKS).
BY GUSTAVUS W. SMITH, MAJOR-GENERAL, C. S. A.
Commander of the left wing at the battle of Seven Pines, and during a portion of the second day acting commander of the Army.
supporting the picket-line, as already stated. About one-half of this division was placed in the rifle-pits on the right and left of the redoubt; the others were put in front, with orders to contest the advance of the Confederates against the first abatis, and Spratt’s battery was placed four hundred yards in advance of the earthworks, on the north side of the road, closely supported by three regiments of Naglee’s brigade and one of Palmer’s.
In moving to attack, Bodes’s brigade was on the south side of the road, supported by Bains; Garland’s brigade, on the north side of the road, was supported by G. B. Anderson. All were in the dense and marshy woods, wading through water occasionally from two to three feet deep, the whole way obstructed by undergrowth, which often prevented commanders from seeing more than one company of their men at a time. General Hill had taken the precaution to order every man to wear in action a white strip of cloth around his hat as a battle-badge. Garland moved a few minutes before Bodes was ready. His skirmishers soon struck the Federal picket-line, and the shock of Garland’s brigade fell upon the small regiment of raw troops that had been ordered into the woods to support the Federal pickets. That regiment fell back to the abatis just in time to prevent being enveloped and destroyed. And it was soon driven through the abatis in great disorder. . . .
In the mean time the contest around the battery at the abatis was close and desperate. Bodes’s brigade was hotly engaged on the south side of the road and General Hill had ordered Carter’s battery
HEBE the Williamsburg “ old stage ” road is intersected by the Nine-mile road, at a point seven miles east of Bichmond was fought the first great contest between the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia and the Federal Army of the Potomac. The junction of these two roads is called Seven Pines. About one mile from Seven Pines, where the Nine-mile road crosses the Bichmond and the York Biver Bailroad, there is a station called Fair Oaks. Before the action ended there was a good deal of fighting near the latter place. The Federals called the action of May 31st and June 1st the battle of Fair Oaks. . . .
When the signal for attack was given, only two regiments of Bodes’s brigade had reached Hill’s position on the Williamsburg road, about one thousand yards in front of the Federal picket-line. But the other regiments of this brigade came up soon after. At 1 o’clock the signal-guns were fired, and Hill’s division at once moved forward. . . .
Whilst Hill’s troops were coming into position, their movements had been reported to General Silas Casey, who commanded the Federal fiftet line of defense. He at once ordered one regiment to go forward about eight hundred yards on the Williamsburg road, and support the picket-line; the working parties were called in, batteries harnessed up, and the troops formed, ready to take their assigned places. In a short time the Confederate signal-guns were heard, and the division was ordered into position to resist attack. The camps of these troops were immediately in rear of the earthworks. Palmer’s brigade on the left, Wessells’s in the center, and Naglee’s brigade were detached,
breast. I was borne from the field—first to a house on the roadside, thence to Bichmond. The firing ceased before I had been carried a mile from it. The conflict at Fair Oaks was terminated by darkness only. . . .
The operations of the Confederate troops in this battle were very much retarded by the broad ponds of rain-water,— in many places more than knee-deep,— by the deep mud, and by the dense woods and thickets that covered the ground.
Brigadier-General Hatton was among the killed, and Brigadier-Generals Pettigrew and Hampton were severely wounded. The latter kept his saddle, and served to the end of the action. Among the killed on the Williamsburg road were Colonels Moore, of Alabama, Jones, and Lomax.
The troops on the ground at nightfall were : on the Confederate side, 22 brigades, more than half of which had not been in action; and on the Federal side 6 divisions in 3 corps, two-thirds of which had fought, and half of which had been totally defeated.
Two Federal divisions were at Fair Oaks, and three and a half at Savage’s, three miles off, and half an one two miles nearer Bottom’s Bridge. The Southern troops were united, and in a position to overwhelm either fraction of the Northern army, while holding the other in cheek.
Officers of the Federal army have claimed a victory at Seven Pines. The Confederates had such evidences of victory as cannon, captured intrench-ments, and not only sleeping on the field, but passing the following day there, so little disturbed by the Federal troops as to gather, in woods, thickets, mud, and water, 6700 muskets and rifles. Besides, the Federal army had been advancing steadily until the day of this battle; after it they made not another step forward, but employed themselves industriously in intrenching. . . .