OPENING OF THE BATTLE OF FRAYSER’S FARM.
Slocum’s artillery engaged ־with that of Huger, at Brackett’s, on the Charles City Road. (From a sketch made at the time.)
up and taken part in Magruder’s affair of the 29th near Savage’s Station.
I cannot close this sketch without referring to the Confederate commander when he came upon the scene for the first time. General Lee was an unusually handsome man, even in his advanced life. He seemed fresh from West Point, so trim was his figure and so elastic his step. Out of battle he was as gentle as a woman, but when the clash of arms came he loved fight, and urged his battle with wonderful determination. As a usual thing he was remarkably well-balanced — always so, except on one or two occasions of severe trial when he failed to maintain his exact equipoise. Lee’s orders were always wellconsidered and well chosen. He depended almost too much on his officers for their execution.
Jackson was a very skilful man against sueh men as Shields,
Banks, and Frémont, but when pitted against the best of the Federal commanders he did not appearsowell. Without doubt the greatest man of rebellion times, the one matchless amongf or-ty millions for the
peculiar difficulties 6״IN,L L0NGSTEEET׳S BOdy-of the period, was sauvant, sah, endu’in’ Abraham Lincoln.	de wait ! ”
Federal position we put out our skirmish-lines, and I ordered an advance, intending to make another attack, but revoked it on Jackson urging me to wait until the arrival of General Lee. Very soon General Lee came, and, after carefully considering the position of the enemy and of their gunboats on the James, decided that it would be better to forego any further operations. Our skirmishlines were withdrawn, and we ordered our troops back to their old lines around Richmond ....
The Seven Days’ Fighting, although a decided Confederate victory, was a succession of mishaps. If Jackson had arrived on the 26th,—the day of his own selection,—the Federals would have been driven back from Meehanicsville without a battle. His delay there, caused by obstructions placed in his road by the enemy, was the first mishap. He was too late in entering the fight at Gaines’s Mill, and the destruction of Grapevine Bridge kept him from reaching Frayser’s farm until the day after that battle. If he had been there, we might have destroyed or captured McClellan’s army. Huger was in position for the battle of Frayser’s farm, and after his batteries had misled me into opening the fight he subsided. . . .
General McClellan was a very accomplished soldier and a very able engineer, but hardly equal to the position of field-marshal as a military chieftain. He organized the Army of the Potomac cleverly, but did not handle it skilfully when in actual battle. Still I doubt if his retreat could have been better handled, though the rear of his army should have been more positively either in his own hands or in the hands of Sumner. Heint-zelman crossed the White Oak Swamp prematurely and left the rear of McClellan’s army exposed, which would have been fatal had Jackson come
The Federals withdrew after the battle, and the next day I moved on around by the route which it was proposed we should take the day before. I followed the enemy to Harrison’s Landing, and Jackson went down by another route in advance of Lee. As soon as we reached the front of the
the Federal right. I issued my orders accordingly for the two divisions to go around and turn the Federal right, when in some way unknown to me the battle was drawn on. We were repulsed at all points with fearful slaughter, losing six thousand men and accomplishing nothing.