we remained on the river he carefully avoided getting within our range.

On the 4th of August, General Hooker had a very spirited engagement with the enemy at Malvern Hill, and succeeded in occupying that position and in driving the Confederate forces four miles on the New Market road towards Richmond, capturing more than one hundred prisoners. In the afternoon, General Hooker received the following communication from General McClellan:

"Under advices I have received from Washington, I think it necessary for you to abandon the position to-night, getting everything away before daylight."

This order was sent after the receipt of the following from General Halleck, dated August 3, 1862, 7.45 P.M.:—

"It is determined to withdraw your army from the Peninsula to Aquia Creek. You will take immediate measures to effect this, covering the movement the best you can. Its real object and withdrawal should be concealed even from your own officers."

On the 6th of August, the regiment was paid; the few articles brought down by the sutler were held at such a high price, that the money left by the paymaster went a very short way in supplying the officers and men with the necessaries and luxuries they earnestly desired. On the 9th of August, under the provisions of General Orders No. 91, War Department, July 29, 1862, our regimental band was mustered out of service. An act of Congress directed the mustering out of all regimental bands, and thereafter only brigade bands were allowed.

Following the orders of the 3rd of August to withdraw the army from the Peninsula, the transportation facilities

had been greatly increased, and 12,500 sick and slightly wounded men were sent to Northern hospitals, the last departing the evening of the 17th. Five days before this I had been sent, with a number of other fever cases, to a newly established hospital at Point Lookout, Maryland.

The report of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War,1 gives the testimony of General Halleck, showing the source of the influence under which the President acted in ordering the withdrawal of the Army of the Potomac from the James River:

"In accordance with the direction of the President, I left here on the afternoon of the 24th (July) and reached the camp of General McClellan on the afternoon of the 25th. I stated to the general that the object of my visit was to ascertain from him his views and wishes in regard to future operations. He said that he proposed to cross the James River at that point, attack Petersburg, and cut off the enemy's communication by that route south, making no further demonstration for the present against Richmond. I stated to him frankly my views in regard to the danger and impracticability of the plan, to most of which he frankly agreed."

General Halleck's views, as to the impracticability of operating from the James River as a base, were accepted by the President, and the orders of the 3rd of August were issued, withdrawing the Army of the Potomac from the James River. It may be well to recall some of the losses sustained by this noble army in the principal battles, fought after its departure from the James River, till its return under General Grant, twenty-two months later, to the base from which its final triumph was won. In Major-General

'Pt. 1, p. 454.

Pope's campaign, including the battles of Cedar Mountain and those fought between August 16, and September 2, 1862; the Maryland campaign; the surrender of Maryland Heights, Harper's Ferry, and Bolivar Heights, September 12–15, 1862; Fredericksburg; Chancellorsville; the Gettysburg campaign; and Rapidan to the James River, there were 18,683 killed, 95,223 wounded, and 46,244 missing, a total of 160,150 men, more than ten army corps, and twice the average number of men taken into the battles fought by the Army of the Potomac. This number was lost in action, and in addition large numbers by death from disease and exposure. These facts may well be considered in passing judgment on the generalship of one who opposed the plans of General McClellan, and the plan pursued by General Grant, operating from the true base on the James River in destroying the Army of Northern Virginia. It is stated that the battles of Cedar Mountain and the Second Bull Run should be counted with the unfruitful losses of the battles fought by the Army of the Potomac. This is done on the common-sense theory that General Pope's army should have been called back to the defences of Washington, when the Army of the Potomac was recalled from the Peninsula, so that they might have been united near the base of operation and been suitably supplied for an active campaign, instead of having been pushed forward to be overwhelmed by the superior force of the enemy, released from guarding its base on the retirement of the Army of the Potomac from the James River. There was not sufficient water transportation to carry the Army of the Potomac to Pope's support, operating where it was at the time the recall of the Army of the Potomac was ordered. General Halleck was promptly advised of this want of transportation, and the delay in bringing the Army of the Potomac to Pope's field of operations, with its complete equipments to engage in battle, should be charged to the

The

general-in-chief, Major-General H. W. Halleck. armies of the Potomac and of Virginia, united on the James River, or at the defences of Washington, would have been in a condition to repel General Lee's advance, or to engage him in offensive operations.

CHAPTER XIV

LEAVING THE PENINSULA

N Saturday, the 16th of August, at 4 o'clock P.M., the

Ο Sixteenth New York left its camp at Harrison's

Landing, and marched to Charles City Court House, where it bivouacked for the night; on Sunday it crossed the Chickahominy, near its mouth, over the longest pontoon bridge which at that time had been laid for the passage of troops and army trains, and slept on the north side. On Monday, the 18th, the regiment marched through the City of Williamsburg, and encamped near the battle-field of May 5, 1862.

Williamsburg, Virginia! What memories were awakened by its sight! This ancient city, incorporated in 1632, with a population which has never exceeded that of many of our modern villages, had been the scene of more important events in Colonial and Revolutionary times than any other town or city in the colonies. Here was founded, in 1692, by royal charter, the second college in America, the College of William and Mary. On its rolls were to be placed the names of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, John Marshall, in fact, all of the leading men of the South, who rendered conspicuous services in winning our National Independence and in establishing a government which has proved the most permanent and the best yet devised for the welfare and happiness of its citizens. Its students founded here the most important of all college societies, that of Phi Beta Kappa; the authority to organize a chapter of this society is considered proof of worth and creditable standing