# Confederate Military History/Volume 4/Chapter 5

CHAPTER V.
THE series of battles known as the Seven Days battles around Richmond resulted in McClellan’s, forced "change of base," in the relief of Richmond, in the Confederate capture of 52 pieces of artillery, 10,000 prisoners and 27,000 stand of small-arms, and stores great in amount and value. To effect these results, 174 Confederate regiments of infantry were engaged. Of this number, North Carolina contributed 36 regiments. The total number of Confederate dead left by these bloody combats in the swamps of the Chickahominy was 3,279; the total number of wounded, 15,851. To this ghastly list North Carolina contributed in killed, 650; in wounded, 3,279.
To turn these numerical abstractions into the concrete, this means that, in this array of 174 regiments, every fifth regimental color swept by the storm of these battles floated over North Carolina bayonets. Every fifth man who dropped a weapon from hand palsied by death, left a desolate home in North Carolina. Nearly every fourth wounded man who was litter-borne from the field, or who limped to the crude hospitals in the rear, wore a North Carolina uniform. Every fifth bullet that helped to raise the Union casualties to 15,849 was from a North Carolina musket.
The first of these desperate encounters was at Mechan​ icsville and Beaver Dam. In spite of a constantly erroneous statement of numbers, this engagement was be tween four brigades (not counting brigades present, but not materially engaged) of Fitz John Porter, and five brigades of A. P. Hill, assisted just before dusk by Ripley’s brigade of D. H. Hill’s division. Gregg’s and Branch’s brigades, of A. P. Hill’s, took no part in the assault on the fortified lines, being otherwise engaged. The plan of the battle was for Jackson to strike the right flank of the Federal intrenchments, while A. P. Hill attacked in front. Jackson was, however, unavoidably delayed, and A. P. Hill, not waiting for his co-operation, attacked impetuously in front. Later in the war the troops on both sides learned to have great respect for intrenched positions; but, as has been said, "we were lavish of blood in those early days, and an attack on a battery or a strongly-fortified line was deemed especially glorious. Pender’s North Carolina brigade, made up of the Sixteenth, Twenty-second, Thirty-fourth and Thirty-eighth and two battalions of other troops, advanced, as the division commander says, "gallantly in the face of a murderous fire" to the right of Field s advanced brigade. Under Pender s personal direction, Col. W. J. Hoke, of the Thirty-eighth, and Col. R. H. Riddick, of the Thirty-fourth North Carolina, joined in a desperate but "abortive effort to force a crossing. In this daring advance the Thirty-fourth was outstripped by the Thirty-eighth, and that regiment alone tenaciously fought its way close up to the Federal rifle-pits, furnishing a magnificent yet fruitless exhibition of bravery. Of this attack Judge Montgomery says: "Pender and his brave Carolinians swept over the plain and down the bottom, under a murderous fire of artillery and musketry, to the brink of the creek; nothing could live under that fire. President Davis, who was on the field, seeing the charge and the terrible repulse, ordered Gen. D. H. Hill to send one of his brigades to Pender’s assistance, and Ripley’s was ​ sent." Meantime, the Twenty-second North Carolina had come "suddenly upon a regiment of the enemy just across the run, and after some little parley, opened fire, driving the enemy quickly away, but found it impossible to cross. The loss of this regiment here was very heavy; among others, its brave colonel (Conner) received a severe wound in the leg."
Ripley’s arrival brought two more North Carolina regiments into the battle—the First, Colonel Stokes, and the Third, Colonel Meares. These, with the Forty-fourth and Forty-eighth Georgia, formed Ripley’s brigade. Two of Ripley s regiments, the First North Carolina and the Forty-fourth Georgia, united with Fender on the right, and the Third North Carolina and Forty-eighth Georgia moved to a position in front of the enemy. All moved forward. The two regiments directly in front suffered little, comparatively, but Fender and the two regiments on the right went indeed into a storm of lead. The Georgians lost 335 men in a very short while. Colonel Brown thus describes the action of the First: "It advanced to the attack in front of the splendid artillery of the enemy, posted across the pond at Ellison’s mill. The slaughter was terrific, yet the regiment pressed for ward in the face of this fire for more than half a mile, advancing steadily to what seemed inevitable destruction, till it reached the pond and took shelter in a skirt of woods." In this movement Colonel Stokes was mortally wounded, Lieu tenant- Colonel McDowell badly wounded, and Major Skinner killed. Capts. J. A. Wright and R. W. Rives and four lieutenants were also among the slain. The loss among the men was 140. The Sixteenth regiment, through an error of its guide, became ​ separated from its brigade and was called upon to support another brigade. Always ready for a fight. Colonel McElroy did his part with skill and courage, and the regiment suffered a loss of about 200 men. No better example of the hotness of the fire to which these regiments were exposed can be found than in the losses of one of the companies. Captain Flowers, of the Thirty-eighth regiment, lost 27 men out of 32 taken into action.
Lieutenant Cathey, of the Sixteenth regiment, describes the situation of the soldiers the night of the battle. He says: "Our surroundings were deserts of solitary horror. The owls, night-hawks and foxes had fled in dismay; not even a snake or a frog could be heard to plunge into the lagoons which, crimsoned with the blood of men, lay motionless in our front. Nothing could be heard in the blackness of that night but the ghastly moans of the wounded and dying."
On retiring from Beaver Dam creek General Porter, having, as he says, 30,000 men, fortified in a naturally strong position on the east bank of Po white creek, six miles from Beaver Dam. Crowning every available prominence with batteries to sweep the roads, and also posting batteries or sections of batteries between his brigades, he, with Sykes division of regulars, Morell s and McCall’s divisions, and later with Slocum’s division sent to rein force him, awaited the attack of the divisions of Jackson, A. P. Hill, Longstreet, Whiting and D. H. Hill. The battle that followed the meeting of these forces, known as Games Mill, or Cold Harbor, was one of the hottest of the war.
As at Mechanicsville, A. P. Hill was the first to send his troops into action, almost in the center of the field. As a part of his force went nine North Carolina regiments the Seventh, Eighteenth, Twenty-eighth, Thirty​ third and Thirty-seventh, of Branch’s brigade; and the Sixteenth, Twenty-second, Thirty-fourth and Thirty-eighth, of Fender’s brigade. The work before them was enough to appal any but the stoutest hearts. General Porter himself has put on record testimony to the grimness of their attack. He says: "Dashing across the intervening plains, floundering in the swamps, struggling against the tangled brushwood, brigade after brigade seemed almost to melt away before the concentrated fire of our artillery and infantry; yet others pressed on, followed by supports as dashing and as brave as their predecessors." In the repeated assaults of the afternoon, the Sixteenth North Carolina, Colonel McElroy, and the Twenty-second, Lieut.-Col. R. H. Gray, won enviable reputation, as Gen. A. P. Hill reports, by carrying "the crest of a hill, and were in the camp of the enemy, but were driven back by overwhelming numbers. Toward night, Longstreet, A. P. Hill and Whiting united in a final charge on Porter s left, and in spite of the fact that he had been reinforced by Slocum, broke through his strong lines. Then, writes General Law, "We had our innings. As the blue mass surged up the hill in our front, the Confederate fire was poured in with terrible effect. The target was a large one, the range short, and scarcely a shot fired into that living mass could fail of its errand. The debt of blood contracted but a few moments before was paid back with interest.’ In addition to the North Carolina troops in A. P. Hill s division, Whiting’s charge brought into the battle the Sixth North Carolina, under Col. I. E. Avery. They joined in the general charge, of which Whiting says: "Spite of these terrible obstacles, over ditch and breastworks, hill, batteries and infantry, the division swept, routing the enemy from his stronghold. Many pieces of artillery were taken (14 in all), and nearly a whole regiment of the enemy. . . . Lieutenant-Colonel Avery was wounded, ​ the command devolving upon Maj. R. F. Webb, who ably sustained his part."
Meanwhile, on Porter s right stubborn work was doing. There Porter had placed Sykes regulars, the flower of his corps, and they were commanded by a persistent fighter. D. H. Hill, on the extreme Confederate left, and General Jackson, between him and A. P. Hill, moved their divisions against these lines. In Jackson’s division, the only Carolinians were the Twenty-first, Colonel Kirkland, and Wharton s sharpshooters. Of their part in the battle General Trimble says: "The charge of the Sixteenth Mississippi and Twenty-first North Carolina (with sharpshooters attached), sustained from the first movement without a falter, could not be surpassed for intrepid bravery and high resolve."
Anderson’s and Garland’s brigades of D. H. Hill’s division were made up entirely of North Carolinians, Anderson having the Second, Fourth, Fourteenth and Thirtieth; Garland, the Fifth, Twelfth, Thirteenth, Twentieth and Twenty-third. To these two brigades, stubborn fighters all, belongs the honor of breaking the Federal right, and, as they think, thus making the first opening in the Federal lines that bloody day. General Hill says in his article in "Battles and Leaders:" "Brig.-Gens. Samuel Garland and George B. Anderson, commanding North Carolina brigades in my division, asked permission to move forward to attack the right flank and rear of the division of regulars. The only difficulty in the way was a Federal battery with its infantry supports, which could enfilade them in their advance. Two of Elzey’s regiments, which had got separated in crossing the swamp, were sent by me, by way of my left flank, to the rear of the battery to attack the infantry supports, while Col. Alfred Iverson, of the Twentieth North Carolina, charged it in front. The battery was captured and held long enough for the two brigades (Garland’s and Anderson’s) to advance across the plain. The effect of ​our appearance, says General Garland, at this opportune moment, cheering and charging, decided the fate of the day. The enemy broke and retreated. Major Ratchford, of General Hill s staff, writes: "A short time before sunset, Generals Rodes, Anderson and Garland came to the writer and asked for General Hill, he being on some other part of the line. One of them said to me: Find General Hill, and say that unless we get orders to the contrary, we will throw our whole strength against one part of the line for the purpose of breaking it. I at once hunted him up, and he approved the plan. In a few minutes a small gap was made, and the Federals gave way on each side, as a sand dam will do when a small break is made in it. As the yell of victory moved along the lines, we could tell that the enemy were giving way. This, I claim, was the first breach made in the Federal line at Cold Harbor." General Jackson had this to say of the attack of these brigades: "In advancing to the attack, Gen. D. H. Hill had to cross the swamp densely covered with undergrowth and young timber. On the further edge he encountered the enemy. The contest was fierce and bloody. The Federals fell back from the wood under protection of a fence, ditch and hill. . . . Again pressing forward, the Federals fell back, but only to select a position for more obstinate defense, when at dark, under pressure of our batteries, ... of the other concurring events of the field, and of the bold and dashing charge of General Hill s infantry, in which the troops of Brigadier-General Winder joined, the enemy yielded the field and fled in disorder."
Reilly’s battery, now attached to Whiting’s division, was of much service to its commander during this engagement.
On June 29th, General Lee directed Col. L. S. Baker, of the First North Carolina cavalry, to move down the Charles City road, and, by a bold reconnoissance, find ​ whether the enemy had formed a connecting line with the Federal gunboats on the river. Colonel Baker moved promptly, but found that the enemy had a heavy cavalry force in front of his infantry. "Close action" seemed the only way to get the desired information, and he determined to charge the cavalry, and, if possible, drive it in far enough to see what troops were in front of him. This he did effectively, and found all of Hooker’s corps before him. General McClellan appeared on the field a few moments after Baker had retired, and said to Captain Ruffin, who had been captured, that the bold charge had won his admiration.
By June 30th, McClellan’s retreating forces had reached the intersection of the Long Bridge and Charles City roads, just north of Malvern hill. There Longstreet, supported only by the division of A. P. Hill, attacked the position held by the divisions of McCall and Kearny, reinforced by the divisions of Sedgwick and Hooker and a brigade of Slocum. This was a square stand-up fight, with no intrenchments of any sort on either side. It had been expected that General Huger would engage Slocum, and that General Jackson would attack the Federal right, while Longstreet pressed the front. However, both Jackson and Huger found it impracticable to reach the ground in time. Hence Longstreet alone struck the blow in which all were expected to participate. On opening the battle, General Longstreet sent Branch’s North Carolina brigade of A. P. Hill’s division to his right, to keep Hooker from falling on his flank. General Branch said of the action of his men: "On Monday, at Frayser’s Farm, you were again in the heat of the engagement from, its opening to its close, driving the enemy before you for a great distance, and capturing a battery." Lieut.-Col. R. F. Hoke, of the Thirty-third North Carolina, reported: "You then halted, formed line of battle, and charged, by the double​quick and with a yell, the enemy s batteries, which were strongly supported by infantry across this field, a distance of 500 yards. We, at the same time, were enfiladed by grapeshot; neither fire upon the flank or front at all stopped the men, but on they pressed, and soon silenced the fire." In this charge, Col. C. C. Lee was killed and Colonel Lane wounded. The rest of A. P. Hill’s division did not go into action until very late in the afternoon. Then Field, followed by Fender with his North Carolinians, pressed eagerly forward. A. P. Hill says: "General Pender, moving up to support Field, found that he had penetrated so far in advance that the enemy were between himself and Field. A regiment of Federals, moving across his front and exposing a flank, was scattered by a volley. Pender continued to move forward, driving off a battery of rifled pieces." It was the charge of Field and Pender that finally broke the obstinate line of McCall, to whose hard fighting that day Longstreet pays this tribute: "He was more tenacious of his battle than any one who came within my experience during the war, if I except D. H. Hill at Sharpsburg."
The failure of all his officers to join Longstreet in this battle, in which it had been hoped to deliver a crushing blow to McClellan, was a great disappointment to General Lee. A united attack at Frayser s Farm would have saved the costly effusion of blood at Malvern Hill.
The last battle of the "Great Retreat," Malvern Hill, was, like later Gettysburg, one of those terrific shocks of conflict in which, without apparent strategy, without apparent remembrance of man s vulnerability, dauntless soldiers were continuously hurled into the muzzles of as splendidly served artillery as ever unlimbered on field of battle. Presumably, such battles are at times military necessities, yet in view of their destructiveness, it is not surprising that a Confederate general recalling the French officer’s sarcastic comment on the English charge at Balaklava, "It is magnificent, but it is not war," ​should have declared, "Malvern Hill was magnificent; but it was not war, it was murder. The simple record of the destruction wrought in one hour sickens and depresses the mind.
The necessity for further retreat after Frayser’s Farm caused General McClellan to send General Porter "to select and hold a position behind which the army and all its trains could be withdrawn in safety. One glance at the natural amphitheater formed by Malvern Hill, with its plateau terminating in streams, ravines and tangled woods, revealed to Porter s trained eye that there was an ideal place for a defensive battle. The hill commanded nearly all the roads. Porter says: "The hill was flanked with ravines, enfiladed by our fire. The ground in front was sloping, and over it our artillery and infantry, themselves protected by the crest and ridges, had clear sweep for their fire. In all directions, for several hundred yards, the land over which an attacking force must advance was almost entirely clear of forest, and was generally cultivated. "
All day long on June 20th, and far into the night, regiments, brigades, divisions were, as they arrived, posted under Porter s personal direction to take full advantage of the crests and depressions. For the first time in the Seven Days battles, all of McClellan s army was concentrated on one field. Artillery, to do more effective service here and at Gettysburg than in any other battles of the four years, rumbled heavily into position in nature s own emplacements. As far as the eye could see, battery after battery rose tier upon tier around the curvature of the hill, the whole surmounted by Tyler’s long-range siege guns. Both armies were worn by constant fighting by day and marching by night, but both nerved themselves for the coming ordeal. With a confidence born of previous successes against that same ​army, General Lee ordered an assault, and the Confederates prepared for the "red wrath of the fray."
The Federals, with calm reliance upon their impregnable position, waited their adversaries; none knows better than the American soldier when he is, to use his own vernacular, "fixed for fighting." Draper says: "There were crouching cannon waiting for them (Confederates), and ready to defend all the approaches. Sheltered by ditches, fences, ravines, were swarms of infantry. There were horsemen picturesquely careening over the noontide sun-seared field. Tier after tier of batteries were grimly visible upon the slope, which rose in the form of an amphitheater. With a fan-shaped sheet of fire they could sweep the incline, a sort of natural glacis up which the assailants must advance. A crown of cannon was on the brow of the hill. The first line of batteries could only be reached by traversing an open space of from 300 to 400 yards, exposed to grape and canister from the artillery and musketry from the infantry. If that were carried, another and still more difficult remained in the rear.
In the strained, tense hush that precedes a battle, when the heart-throbs of even battle-tried soldiers communicate a restless quiver to their bayonet tips, many a North Carolina soldier of only a few months experience felt that in vain would he throw himself against that hill grim with the engines of death, and many a lad fresh from the family hearth-stone and there were many such there that July day knew that if he could acquit him self nobly when all those guns opened, battle would thereafter have few terrors for him. Yet all were ready to follow their colors.
General Lee’s order of battle was that when Armistead, who occupied the highest ground, should see that the artillery made any break in the Federal front, he should charge with a shout, and the other brigades, on hearing his advance, should simultaneously attack. Per​haps, if according to this order, all the Confederates had assaulted Malvern hill in concert, the issue might have been less disastrous to them. However, of the ten divisions present, only those of McLaws, D. R. Jones and Huger, all under Magruder, on the right, and that of D. H. Hill, in the center, dashed against those guns; and these two forces attacked separately.
Three of Armistead’s regiments were ordered by him to drive in the Federal skirmishers in his front. "In their ardor," says General Armistead, "they went too far." Wright’s Georgia brigade advanced to support Armistead, but the gallant little force was soon driven to the shelter of a ravine, not, however, before the noise of their battle and their shout of attack had produced confusion. Gen. D. H. Hill, hearing the noise of this attack, thought it was the preconcerted battle-signal, and obeying his orders, moved his five brigades into action. This division contained eleven North Carolina regiments, but on the day of this battle the Fourth and Fifth were absent on detail duty. In Garland s brigade were the Twelfth, Colonel Wade; the Thirteenth, Colonel Scales; the Twentieth, Maj. W. H. Toon; the Twenty- third, Lieut. I. J. Young. In Anderson’s brigade, commanded at Malvern Hill by Colonel Tew, were the Second, Colonel Tew; the Fourteenth, Colonel Johnston; the Thirtieth, Colonel Parker. In Ripley s were the First and Third North Carolina, the First under Lieut.-Col. W. P. Bynum, of the Second, and the Third under Colonel Meares. As Hill’s men moved in, Magruder also ordered an advance of his troops, but they were delayed and did not get into close action until Hill’s division had been hurled back. The Comte de Paris, who was on General McClellan’s staff and had excellent opportunities for seeing all that was going on, gives this account of the charge of Hill’s Carolinians, Georgians and Alabamians:
Hill advanced alone against the Federal position. . . . He had therefore before him Morell’s right, Couch’s divi​division, reinforced by Caldwell's brigade . . . and finally the left of Kearny. . . . As soon as they [Hill's troops] passed beyond the edge of the forest, they were received by a fire from all the batteries at once, some posted on the hills, others ranged midway, close to the Federal infantry. The latter joined its musketry fire to the cannonade when Hill's first line had come within range, and threw it back in disorder on its reserves. While it was reforming, new battalions marched up to the assault in their turn. The remembrance of Cold Harbor doubles the energies of Hill's soldiers. They try to pierce the line, sometimes at one point, sometimes at another, charging Kearny's left first and Couch's right . . ., and afterward throwing themselves upon the left of Couch s division. But here, also, after nearly reaching the Federal position, they are repulsed. The conflict is carried on with great fierceness on both sides, and for a moment it seems as if the Confederates are at last to penetrate the very center of their adversaries and of the formidable artillery, which was but now dealing destruction in their ranks. But Sumner, who commands on the right, detaches Sickles' and Meagher's brigades successively to Couch's assistance. During this time, Whiting on the left and Huger on the right suffer Hill's soldiers to become exhausted without supporting them. . . . At 7 o'clock, Hill reorganized the debris of his troops in the woods . . . his tenacity and the courage of his soldiers have only had the effect of causing him to sustain heavy loss.
General Webb says of the same advance: "Garland in front (with a North Carolina brigade) attacked the hill with impetuous courage, but soon sent for reinforcements. The Sixth Georgia and the brigade of Toombs of Jones' division went to his assistance. General Hill in person accompanied the column. They approached the crest in handsome order, but discipline was of no avail to hold them there, much less to make them advance further. They soon retreated in disorder. Gordon had made a gallant advance and some progress, as also had Ripley ​ and Colquitt’s and Anderson’s brigades." The task was, however, too great for their unaided strength, and having done all that men dare do, they were driven back with frightful loss—a loss, perhaps, of not less than 2,000 men.
Just as Hill drew off his shattered brigades, Magruder ordered in his forces on Hill s right. The brigades of Armistead, Wright, Mahone, G. T. Anderson, Cobb, Kershaw, Semmes, Ransom, Barksdale and Lawton threw themselves heavily, not all at once, but in succession, against their courageous and impregnably posted foes. Cobb’s command included the Fifteenth North Carolina under Colonel Dowd. Ransom s brigade was solely a North Carolina one—the Twenty-fourth, Colonel Clark; the Twenty-fifth, Colonel Hill; the Twenty-sixth, Colonel Vance; the Thirty- fifth, Colonel Ransom; the Forty-ninth, Colonel Ramseur. General Hill says of General Magruder s assault:
I never saw anything more grandly heroic than the advance after sunset of the nine brigades under Magruder’s orders. Unfortunately, they did not move together and were beaten in detail. As each brigade emerged from the woods, from fifty to one hundred guns opened upon it, tearing great gaps in its ranks; but the heroes reeled on, and were shot down by the reserves at the guns, which a few squads reached. . . . Not only did the fourteen brigades which were engaged suffer, but the inactive troops and those brought up as reserves, too late to be of any use, met many casualties from the frightful artillery fire which reached all parts of the woods,
General Porter, whose activity contributed much to the success of the Federal troops, bears this tribute to the reckless bravery of the whole attacking force:
As if moved by a reckless disregard of life, equal to that displayed at Games Mill, with a determination to ​ capture our army or destroy it by driving it into the river, regiment after regiment rushed at our batteries; but the artillery of both Morell and Couch mowed them down with shrapnel, grape and canister, while our infantry, withholding their fire until they were within short range, scattered the remnants of their columns. The havoc made by the rapidly-bursting shells from our guns, arranged so as to sweep any position far and near, was fearful to behold. Pressed to the extreme as they were, the courage of our men was fully tried. The safety of our army the life of the Union was felt to be at stake.
A portion of Ramseur s regiment slept upon the field with a portion of Lawton s brigade and some other troops, and during the night they heard the movement of troops and wondered what it meant. In the morning, as they surveyed the bloody field of the day before, the enemy was gone. "The volcano was silent. " McClellan had, against the protest of some of his generals, continued his retreat to Harrison s landing.
Both armies were terribly demoralized by this sanguinary conclusion to a protracted and exhausting campaign. On the day of Malvern Hill, General McClellan telegraphed to the adjutant-general, "I need 50,000 men." Draper says: "Not even in the awful night that followed this awful battle was rest allotted to the national army. In less than two hours after the roar of combat had ceased, orders were given to resume the retreat and march to Harrison s landing. At midnight the utterly exhausted soldiers were groping their staggering way along a road described as desperate, in all the confusion of a fleeing and routed army." McClellan seemed not to realize his advantage on that day’s field.
On the Confederate side there was also much confusion. The army was too much paralyzed to make any ​effective pursuit of the Federals, and, after a few days of rest, withdrew to the lines around Richmond.
As already seen, the North Carolina losses in these seven days were: killed, 650; wounded, 3,279. Conspicuous among the slain were the following field officers: Cols. M. S. Stokes, Gaston Meares, R. P. Campbell, C. C. Lee; Lieut.-Cols. Petway and F. J. Faison; Majs. T. N. Grumpier, T. L. Skinner, B. R. Huske. These were among the State s most gifted and gallant sons. The losses among the company officers were also heavy.
* ↑ General Lee’s Official Report.
* ↑ Memorial Address. It should be stated that General Hill, seeing the waste of blood in the front attack, when Jackson’s advance would soon make the position untenable, sent this brigade only upon a second order from General Lee, confirmed by Mr. Davis.
* ↑ Fender’s Report
* ↑ Regimental History.
* ↑ Battles and Leaders, II, p. 337. (Note. General Webb strangely says that "Porter had less than 18,000 infantry at Games Mill." Peninsula Campaign, page 130.)
* ↑ Battles and Leadsrs, II, 363.
* ↑ Manuscript Monograph on General Hill’s Life.
* ↑ Congratulatory address to his soldiers.
* ↑ Battles and Leaders.
* ↑ Peninsula Campaign, p. 160.
* ↑ Battles and Leaders, II, 394.
* ↑ Battles and Leaders, II, 418.
* ↑ Rebellion Records, i, XI, 3, 281.
* ↑ Civil War in America, II, 414.