The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-07-04
nrCOILECTIONS OF THE
WAR BETWEEN STATES
Continued from page eleven.)
No PINES.
IMAM The chatham Record, Wednes-
- day, May 81, 1919

1rrano The Chatham Record, Wednes-
- day, May 81, 1919
ro..v 10 the 49th anniversary of
hattLe Of Seven Pines Gas it was
nd nv the Confederates) or Fair
o. CAS- it was called by the Fed
' which was the name OF a rail-
~aod station about seven miles from
n%Damond While there were more
Hnortant and s%anquinary battles
,hdn this. vet Il was the most import
49,. m+ md bloody that had beer fought
nn ~ that time. The most potable in
niident Of this battle was the Wounding
90 cen. Joseph E. Johnson, who was
~ mat time commanding the armie
oround Richmond. 1t was in nse
nn.ncn of hts being that he
VAS i~ncapacitated for active duty for
.nme time. and Gen. r. E.. Lee was
annointeG next day Dune lst) by
presidert Davis to take Gen. John
sans place, and he remained in COM
nari during the remainder of the
nor Thus it was that the Wounding
of one great general resulted in his
belng succeeded by one still greater.
This battle was fought nearer to
pichmond than any other battle dur
ing ,he war and the Federals never
again succeeded in getting so near the
Confederate capital as they, were then.
II was an indecisive battle and the
victory was claimed by both sides
The reason why the C~Onfederates did
not accomplish more in this battle
than they did was because of the de-
Law in General Huger's division get
ting into action. His command was to
have attacked the Federals on the left
flank and rear, while Gen. D. H.
Hill with his division and some other
troops attacked in front. The attack
was to have begun about 8 o'clock in
the morning, but Huger not arriving
with his troops Hill waited until after
2 O'Clock before attacking. During that
long delay the enemy were reinforced
and were in better condition to resist
the attack than if it had been made
as contemplated.
A large body of the Federal troops
had crossed the Chickahominy river
or creek and were cut off from tn
mc'n army by a Hood in that stream,
and would all hav e captured if
Huger had arrived in time. AS it was
Gen. HIS troops fought most gal
lantly and suffered heavy losses, but
succeeded in driving back the FEEDER
ais for over a mile and returned next
day to their original position, SO that
after the battle both armies occupied
practically the anne positions they
held before the battle. The first Fed
eFal troops attacked were Casey'S di-
vision and they were badly defeated,
many behaving SO badly that Gen.
Mcclellan (who then commanded the
Union army recommended that the
division be broken up n placed in
other commands.
In this battle North Carolina sol
diers, as usual, suffered more severe
~ than those of any other State, the
brunt of the battle seems to have fall
IN on them. 1t was in this battle that
the famous Fourth North Carolina
regiment Chen commanded by Major
Bryan Grimes. afterwards. Gen.
Grimes) had SO many killed and
wounded and fought with such des-
perate courage. Gen. Longstreet, in
ms official report, cOmplimented Gen.
Hill and his officers and men very
highly upon their action in this bat
tie. The Confederate 1oss in killed and
wounded was about 5000 and that Of
the Federals was about 5000. There
was no more heavy fighting nea
klchTOnd for over three weeks, when
Gen. Lee began the Sieve Days Bat
Ties and drove McC1ellan's maSnifi-
Gently equipped army to the shelter OF
tle Federal G~unbOatS at Harrison s
handing on the James river. This was
me first time that a majority OF
the troops of either army lac eve.
uSm Of fire. but within a few weeks
they had Very much experience on the
lleId Of battle and their ranks were
great reduced.
NO. 9-RATvCI OF