UNION FIELD-HOSPITAL AT SAVAGE’S STATION, AFTER THE BATTLE OF GAINES’S MILL. From a !)holograph taken before the army withdrew, early on the morning oi June 30tli.
back our assailants with immense loss, or holding them beyond our lines, except in one instance, near the center of Morell’s line, where by force of numbers and under cover of the smoke of battle our line was penetrated and broken; this at a point where I least expected it. This was naturally the weakest point of our line, owing to the closer proximity of the woods held by the enemy. Under his cover they could form, and with less exposure in time and ground than elsewhere, and launch their battalions in quick succession upon our men. I believed I had guarded against the danger by strongly and often reinforcing the troops holding this part of the line. Here the greater part of McCall’s and Slocum’s forces were used. Just preceding this break, to my great surprise, I saw cavalry, Bush’s Lancers, which I recognized as ours, rushing in numbers through our lines on the left, and carrying off with sudden fright the limbers of our artillery, then prepared to pour their irresistible fire into a pursuing foe. With no infantry to support, and with apparent disaster before them, such of the remainder of these guns as could be moved were carried from the field; some deliberately, others in haste, but not in confusion.
In no other place was our line penetrated or shaken. The right, seeing our disaster, fell back
and sent where most needed. Newton’s brigade, being in advance, was led to the right of Griffin, there to drive back the enemy and retake ground only held by the enemy for an instant. Taylor’s brigade filled vacant spaces in Morell’s division, and Bartlett’s was sent to Sykes, just in time to render invaluable service, both in resisting and attacking. . . .
About 6:30, preceded by a silence of half an hour, the attack was renewed all along the line with the same apparent determination to sweep us by the force of numbers from the field, if not from existence. The result was evidently a matter of life or death to our opponent’s cause. This attack, like its predecessors, was successfully repulsed throughout its length. . . .
As if for a final effort, as the shades of evening were coming upon us, and the woods were filled with smoke, limiting the view therein to a few yards, the enemy again massed his fresher and reformed regiments, and threw them in rapid succession against our thinned and wearied battalions, now almost without ammunition, and with guns so foul that they eould not be loaded rapidly. . . . The attacks, though coming like a series of apparently irresistible avalanches, had thus far made no inroads upon our firm and disciplined ranks. Even in this last attack we successfully resisted, driving
RUINS OF GAINES’S MILL, LOOKING EAST.
From a photograph made in the spring of 1885.
At the time of the battle, this building was of five stories, and was, it is said, one of the finest grist-mills in Virginia. The wooden structure, dovetailed into the ruins, now covers but one pair of burrs. The mill was not injured in the fight, but was burned by Sheridan’s cavalry in May, 1864, the fire extending to a dwelling-house which stood just beyond the mill. The main conflict was a mile farther to the south-east, but the ridge shown in the picture was the scene of a most gallant resistance to the Confederate advance by the 9th Massachusetts regiment, acting as a rear-guard to Porter’s corps. The road to New Cold Harbor and the battle-ground runs to the right.
manding general, but did not arrive till near dark. ... All available means were used by which I could be kept informed so that I could provide, in the best possible manner, for the many rapid changes and wants suddenly springing up. The Prince de Joinville and his two nephews — the Comte de Paris and Due de Chartres — and Colonels Gantt, Radowitz, and Hammerstein, from the commanding general’s staff, joined me as volunteer aides. . . .
During the greater part of the afternoon, D. H. Hill’s troops, in detachments, were more or less aggressive on the right. The silence which followed the repulse, already referred to, lasted but a short time. The renewed attacks raged with great fierceness and fury, with slight intermission, along the most of our front, till after 5 o’clock. Large and numerous bodies of infantry from the direction of Old Cold Harbor, under cover of artillery, directed their attacks upon Sykes’s division and Martin’s battery; others, from the west side of Powhite Creek, were hurled in rapid succession against Martindale and Butterfield. These furious attacks were successfully repelled, but were immediately renewed by fresh troops. . . . At 4 o’clock, when Slocum arrived, all our reserves were exhausted. His brigades were necessarily separated
disabled and dead, and to meet their surviving comrades rushing back in great disorder from the deadly contest. For nearly two hours the battle raged, extending more or-less along the ״whole line to our extreme right. The fierce firing of artillery and infantry, the crash of the shot, the bursting of shells, and the whizzing of bullets, heard above the roar of artillery and the volleys of musketry, all combined was something fearful.
Regiments quickly replenished their exhausted ammunition by borrowing from their more bountifully supplied and generous companions. Some withdrew, temporarily, for ammunition, and fresh regiments took their places ready to repulse, sometimes to pursue, their desperate enemy, for the purpose of retaking ground from which we had been pressed and which it was necessary to occupy in order to hold our position.
The enemy were repulsed in every direction. An ominous silenee reigned. It caused the inference that their troops were being gathered and massed for a desperate and overwhelming attack. To meet it, our front line was concentrated, reinforced, and arranged to breast the avalanche, should it come. I again asked for additional reinforcements. French’s and Meagher’s brigades, of Sumner’s corps, were sent forward by the com-
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