The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1862-06-28
THE BATTLE OF THE SEVEN PINES

The battle on the Chickahominy before
Richmond, May 31st and June ist, is call
ed the battle of the Seven Pines. 1t was
most bloody affair. Our loss, we gather
by the dispatches of the. 7th, are 5000.
killed, wounded, and missing; that OF the
rebels, between 10000 and $4,000. Ca
sey's division of raw troops is thus referred
to by one of the letter-writers from the
field of action:
The important place OF danger, the 'front.'
was committed to general whose division,
composed of raw troops, marched down
Fourteenth street, in Washington. in the
last week of February, Is 900 strong-and
has been so neglected and so allowed TO go
undisciplined, that Z 900 of them could not
by any possibility have been gathered uogeth
er this mornings division that has lost TOO
since it left Williamsburg. Upon this d.
vision, out of place in the front, the shock
of battle fell-and knocked it into disorder
and ruin faster than conceived it possible
for Anglo-Saxon troops to be moved by any
power less than heavens thunderbolts.
They broke and fed On the first firing of
the enemy. Down the road they ran-over
the fields on either side of the road they
struggled fast-through the safer woods
they skulked away, and sought the rear.
Most were muddy, showing that they had
lain down TO avoid the shell and shot
very many were without arms and accouter-
nents. The crowd grew thicker. The Pro-
vost Guard formed across the road to stem
its deadly flow. Before three o'clock, Gen.
Keys found that Casey's entire division was
gone! He sent to Heintzelman for instant
help. The brave Pennsylvania was a.
ready on his way to the place where he was
wanted. He came on the ground about
quarter after three, and gathering as rapidly
as he could all the elements of the situation
in the strange woods and unknown swamps,
took command, and infused his indomitable
spirit into the failing fight. He sent back
for Kearney, and Jameson, and Birney, and
Berry-he vino so timely brought salvation
| upon his bayonet points to US at Williams
burg. While they were coming up, went
| ahead once more to see the 18Th go into fire.
Their movement in response to the order
"ForwardP' was not impulsive from front
to rear. It hitched, in sections, like the draw
ing out of the joints of field glass.
About four O'Clock, Couch and Peck
came from the left, and passed through the
line of fire and went at right angles over TO
the railroad, to repel a movement In sim
liar direction made by the rebels away be-
yond the scene of Casey's disappearance.
The conflict they sustained in the woods
was bloody and unequal. Peck S horse was
shot through the neck, shot again in the
flank, and soon had both his hind legs cut
off by cannon bali. Reinforcements were
called for, and Heiutzelman intercepted 3
regiment moving to the front, and ordered
! IL. l. Il.
dered Birney's Brigade to march right up
the track and save the fight. The brigade did
not get into action, and Birney is under ar
rest. Mcclellan, before this, at his head
quarters, twelve miles off, reused by the
cannonade and by the telegraph. got out of
his sick and put portion of Summers
corps into motion up the railroad. Kear-
ney, too, had come up the Williamsburg
road, and Jameson had gone eagerly for
ward into the vortex of shell and shot and
smoke, as did Berry at the head of his
Michigan men. A ball tore off his hat, and
his manly fight was fought bareheaded The
line of battle at this time was nearly mile
wide, and almost&holly in the woods. The
enemy in overwhelming numbers. had forced
US back at least mile, and were piling
up troops on our right toward the railroad
The firing at this point at about five O'Clock
was a marvel to me. 1t is claimed that at
Williamsburg was heavier twice or thrice
during the day. but that is not my judg-
ment. / can compare this to nothing but
the roar of Niagara. It had no spaces-no
I cracks. 1t was solid, continuous, deafening
Over it the incessant bursting of shells and
screaming of solid conical shot, ribbed the
racket with great seams of noise, which com
PEELED men touching each other in opposite
saddles to shout when they talked. The
struggling set in briskly from before this
fire. Superhuman efforts, headed by Helm
tzelman, and aided by his Surgeon Milhau,
and Colonel Adams, and others, stopped a
full regiment for while. and rallied them
around their colors, but could not long hold
them against the storm of whistling bullets
and case-shot The crowd rolled off the
field, carrying away some who meant to stay.
To my dying day / shall have in my ears
the wailing shrek of private of the First
| Long Island. shot dead beside my horse with
within Its wound distinctly heard, and
which must have overwhelmed him moral
ly more than it did physically. Not run
ming, nor terri6ed-only unwilling to stay
this crowd struggled partly in the road.
mostly in the woods-back. back, TO the line
of the rifle pits Couch had made week ago.
On the way Hooker's Brigade was met, and
met with the hurrahs of applause due to
brave men.
The second days fight terminated more
favorably for our forces. Richardson toek
the rebels in flank and Heintzelman and
Hooker in front, and the route was complete.
All the lost ground was regained, and the