The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1862-05-22
The Battle at williamsburg.
Correspondent of The N. Y. Tribune.
WJIIIAMSpTrpc Va Nav IN 1852


!, vast lunette of forest-tree cheranr de: trelSe,
which over $4,000 Of the rebels, in ambush, al
under the pro,ection of rear line of forts,
, Vast strength, with heavy cannon i'll position
awaited the advance of the Union troops. F.
no description with the pen, no painting vii
4 words, no use by artist of pencil or brush, ca
} possibly convey even an approximately accu
ate idea of the nature Of the ground, which tt
( rebels first picked out, and then ingenious
= prepared with axes, welded by slaves and
4 rected by West Point engineers No imagin
] ton of the densely thcketed and wooded pei
/ ia which Braddock was defeated and st. Cha
lost his army and his reputation, can prepal
! the mind for the realization of the difficulties
| the rebel defenses before Williamsburg. StanC
4 ing upon the parapets of Fort Magruder-a ba
I toned work as large as Fortress Monroe, wit
! a wide meat, filled with water, and having
sweep of the plains at every point of the con
1 pass and, looking towards Yorktown, you Sc
/ a horse shOe-shaped sweep of forest, mile an
! more around-you see i: fringed on the insid
with a gigantic abatts of fallen timber, az aims
which the eyes fairly ache, in their sweep OF
mile and more of look-you see for part OF tn
way, beginning at the end nearest to WilliamG
burg deep, wide ravine. obstructed but httl
by stumps, and having hard bottom, and yo
say instantly ''there reserves, could be held sc
cure from the fire of a million rifles you lool
/ to the left aud you see upon the plain one fort
two forts, three forts-forts away to a damned
up body of wafer, bounded next an impassabl'
ravineswamp by high and narrow mil. dam
commanded by battery overlooking it, anC
the passage of which would be a labor that the
warriors that crossed the bridge of Lodi woul(
have been swept from like chaff Sumner, whC
ranks Heintzelman in the date of his commits
sion, had in his pocket an order from Mcclellan
which in its substance and effect was to halt o.
the left. Heintzelman carried written order
to go straight up the Yorktown road to VIII
hamsburg-which would have brought him OF
the right Nightfall carried our troops up &c
the rear of the enemy, and brought Sumner pass
his proper position, the left and on to the right
and into dense, wet wood, that not man in
the army had ever entered, or knew anything
about. Where were the enemy? Ho" many
were they -? Beyond there, in the dark were
their entertainments What was there that a
corps of 30, coo troops might run disastrously
against? Military questions all A close-com-
ing storm wholly obscured the sky. On my
night ride to the front so dark was 1t that the
better sight of my horse only saved me from
trampIng the fallen soldiers who lined the road
for miles. Diverted into the woods by artillery
trains and ammunition wagons, | was, repeated
ly, almost swept from the saddle by the unseen
branches of trees. Yet in such darkness, and
in such ignorance OF his foe, Sumner was stunb-
ling around in the forest where his $4,000 men
were waiting for daylight to enable them to find
the rebel rear, which they had been ordered to
attack the evening before stumbling around to
find his way hack to the Adams's house, his
Notwithstanding till nearly daylight
while one of his divisions. 10000 strong, lay
down among the trees, cursing the miscarriage.
l., IL a. Al
a mouthful of food in their haversacks, and an
other division, alse 10000 strong, wrathfully
thought of their knapsscks, which they had been
ordered to leave behind in their camp, and ex-
iausted ingenuity In avoiding the moisture of
the swampy ground. Before daylight heavy
down pour of cold rain set in from the north
east.
M0adau "A chill northeast rain storm was
in full sweep over the country. Sumner did not
commence the attack which he had spent the
night before in wandering through the forest to
make, ont he commenced conference. Heintz
Gilman earnestly advised a reconnaissance. 1t
was ordered. While III progress from east to
west the officers conducting it sent back word
that Oh the enemys extreme left were two I'M
occupied forts, part of a chain stretching away
across, below Williamsburg Negroes accident
ally at headquarters, offered to guide us to them
by a road which was in part a mill dam. Sum
ner intmated that he should wait till the recon
noissance was finished before he acted. On
suggestion that in the meantime
the enemy might occupy these forts, Hancock
was ordered to ponr his troops into them. This
laid the foundation of the victory of Williams
burg. Freed now at head quarters, and alarmed
by the heaviness of the battery firing from
Rockers division, Heintzelman instantly went
be the nearest practicable road TO his position,
and about one o'clock found the gallant G. neral
sereiy pressed and in great danger. Hooker in
quired for the reinforcements he had sent for,
b. a path through the woods only mile long
sent 10 Helntzelman for. His written mes
sage was received and read By Sumner soon at
Ter Heintzelman left headquarters. Heintzel-
man instantly sent two orderies with another
to Sumner for a portion of his 81, Otto
seut Two, so that if one was killed the other
could go through. He also began sending to
The rear to hurry up the march of the brigades
through the mud. Officer after off
Ger he sent TO the rear, on this painful anxious
he was frequently wholly alone OF
the field. told yesterday how he encouraged
The troops-how he rallied and led back broken
he gathered the fragments of
two bands of music, aud while awaiting the
coming of the reinforcements from Sumner on
his right or from out of the mud i'll the rear,
animated the dropping courage of lockers out
numbered and almost over-mast cred men, with
Yankee Doodle and the 'Star Spangied Ban
ner." To the repeated messages he sent to sum
neI for aid, he got no reply whatever AT D
clock, and not before, Sumner ordered Han
cock to the front. Before ), Berry had come up
with his brigade, and saved US from the most
imminent ruin that has lowered upon our cause
since Bull Run.
The thousands who unnecessarily wear mourn
ing IN the North and West for our victory q
Williamsburg will now understand the cause OF
the terrible mortality which accompanied the
of our superiority to these bar
baiians. To further elucidate them-regard the
pIan of the field, and see where the Yorktown
road comes upon the corntield, directly in front
of the Fashioned Fort Magruder. That was our
direct line to Williamsburg. The swampy woods
on both sides are mile deep, the abattis OF tall
en- trees about $50 feet deep; beyond that were
rife pits away around the horse-shoe-sEaped
plain beyond them were batteries of flying
tiery then Magruder beyond all, vomiting
shell, canister and grape. In that mile depth
of thick woods, Heinzeman and Hooker, and
their brave comrades, fought the principal part
of the battle. It was principally there, that III
the long struggle from eight clock in the morn
ing till two O'Clock in tn" afternoon, 5000 men
held their own against 25bG0. But the battle
ragged with desperate conrsg- ,'' the edge OF the
woods, in front of the aI,atn-, in the Internal
abattis itself and through 1t, up to the rifle pits
and beyond them and finally with triumph. in
to one of the forts. The only ground on which
we could use artillery was a small angie Of the
corn field, where the road debouches upon the
plain, and which our infantry had cleaned OIL
the rebels to admit of our gnnners wading with
their pieces into position. No sooner were these
unimbered, than men and horses began to iali
the recoil of the guns soop buried them al
most TO the hubs in the soft earth-down went
more men and more horses-the enemy made
dash at the batteries and they were lost The
assistance Heintzelman received from Kearny 5
division. enabled him to do what he had va'nly
tried and hoped to do, all day-to attack III nank'
The SSH and Auth New York charged through
the abattis upon the rife-pits and threw the
rebels out with their bayonets in double quick.
Berry's charge at the same time all along the
front, settled part Of the dispute between the
North and the South. The rebels were whip
ped.
The Williamsburg battle was, indeed, as
have said. an infantry fight. Very much OF II
was hand to hand, bayonet to bayonet, musket