The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1912-05-03
The war game of a year seemed about

Gen. John Bankhcad looked over
the ground. and fixed his headquarters
at Yorktown. on the north side of the
a town famed some three
of a century before for haN-
ing been the scene of the surrender of
ami
At this point the peninsula is about
eight miles wide. The watershed,
which defects the local streams vnri-
ouSly to the James or the York. runs
up close to Yorktown on the northern
side of the peninsula. the crest of the
divide being less than a mile from
hanks of the York river. Immcdi-
ately over this crest from Yorktown
wick creek. it is called. 1t wound a
sluggish six or eight mile course
southwark to the James river.
1t was A worthless. negligible sort of
a stream, this Warwick creek. No
real military commander would for a
moment regard its lazy length, jump
able AT any point for half a dozen
miles. as being worth consideration
when it came to stopping 100000 men.
But John Bankhead Magruder
wasn't a real military commander; he
was an oddity, an ahnormality. He
locked at McClellan's hundred and
eight thousand. and he looked at his
Own eight thousand. and then he
looked at his small, worthless War
wick creek. 1t lay Laundering
through the tllicket for 5 miles before
ii got to tide water-a . miles where
Mcclellan could cross anyw here.
\ Mighty Engine OF War.
Then John Bankhead got busy with
axes and saws and shovels; got busy
building dams. And one morning Me
.Clellan's scouts. prowling through the
bushes on thei.' way to Richmond.
found that his small Warwick creek,
j, mpablc and negligible before that
time. now swelled into Il most formid-
ahl" mass of Watery obstacle. Up and
down its length. wherever tho contour
of the country favored. Gen. John
Eankhead had swiftly set him a dam
and backed up the waters of this OH
scure brook into a mighty engine of
war; for it opposed to this hundred
and eight thousand a width of 100
yards and a depth thai was far be-
yond wadable. On the side of the
d"m next TO Mcclellan the thicket had
hs en- swept away and IN the opposite
bank energetic rif1elnen and briStl!ng
mo planted. facing enemvward, so
that any one DESTROYS of destroying
these dams n attempting to do 50
by by making a direct movement upon
them, found as ready and easy a
means of suicide as one weary of life
might wish.
Immediately the tidings of this new
ard strange method of blocking his
way was borne to Mcclellan. That
would ne :er do, of course. thought he.
Ii wasn't put down in any Of the
looks. this scheme of damming a
small stream and turning it n a mill
ltary barrier, and the Warwick stream
was, therefore. still a negligible guam
;ity from a military viewpoint, even
though its waters stretched broad II
deep across the union path. Indeed,
according to McClellan's oticia! maps.
the Warwick didn't have II business
stretching across the peninsula but
should have turned upstream and be-
come a mere loop of the James river.
With refreshing naivete. Gen. McClel-
ian, in his report on the Williamsburg,
or peninsula campaign. offers as COM
plete excuse for his solid rebuff at
Warwick stream.
Maps which had been prepared by
the Typographical engineers under
general Wool's command. were fur
nished me, in which the Warwick riv-
er was represented as flowing parallel
to the James river, making the So
called Mulberry island. We had no
information, therefore. as to the true
SoLAi &c vi IS wal ~ n Y oop INV Y
ninsula. nor of it's formidable line
Straightway he sen Gen. f. ID.
keNeS to oNer that ground as
though Warwick stream and its de-
fenses We're noneXistent, h while he
addressed himself to hesieging the lit
tie town of Yorktown. which formed
the northern end of Gen. John Bank
head Magrudcr's line of defense.
For a fortnight Gen. keyes tried to
get past this nonresident Warwick
stream. What he found there is told
in a letter he wrote to United States
Senator Ira Harris:
Notwithstanding the rapidity Of
my advance. was stopped by a line
of defense behind n stream or success
sion of ponds. nowhere being fordahle.
one terminus being Yorktown. the 9TH
or ending in the James river. The
line in front of us is one of the strong
est ever opposed to an invading force
in any country"
Again says Gen. Reyes LATER. when
better acquainted With what this OBJ
lone with an obscure country creek:
The line in front of us is. in the
opinion of all the military men here
who are at all competent to judge, me
of the strongest in the world
Thus, while Mcclellan. with his
los. 900. heset Yorktown and the lines
of the Warwick. Magruder. with his
5000, held it for the time allotted to
him. as being sufficient for the gath
ering of forces for the defense of
Richmond-three weeks. At the end
of that time, having bravely held his
every position and finding it no longer
necessary to remain at Yorktown. he
abandoned the entire line, leaving the
Warwick to sink back into oblivion.
and fell back on the road to Richmond
down which achievements had come
to his aid in the shape of several
doughty divisions under Gen. Long
street.
The Battle of Williamsburg.
Eight miles above the abandoned
lines of Yorktown the aged town of
to nothingness. Through this place
the southern troops took their way
back toward Richmond. Longstreet,
the fighter now in command Of the
confederate forces: and fast upon
their rear came Hancock. than whom
the north could boast no drawer or
more energetic general. He was only
q brigadier then. but he fought a bril-
gade like it was an army corps. Hook
er, too, shook the lethargy of the
Yorktown siege from him and plunged
into tho fight that too place in the
eastern outskirts Of the old town. Both
sides were eager for battle: for it was
felt on both sides thai the deciding
conflict of the war would be fought
on this road to Richmond. Hardly
had the opposing forces grappled,
however. before night put an end to
their efforts. Such was the condition
OF the Virginia highways, a veritable
sea of mud, that the troops slept
where the darkness found them.
choosing hunger rather than attempt
ipp tho n,iooro hlo rnode