Year: 1864

Gn


came upon one Of the swamps of the Chick
ahominy, which had to he turned or over
passtd. In the process of which 1t became
very difficult to establish the connection
between different parts of his line. This
overcome. however, his troops pressed for
ward with the same vigor that marked the
conduct of their companion division OH the
left. Parts Of the brigades of Tyler and
Owen gained the rebel works; but for rea-
SONS identical with those that forced back
Barlow's troops, they also were compelled
to give up what they had won. Gibbons's
division, too. lost very heavily. In giving
way, Gibbons's division also was far from
losing all the ground 1t had gained. 1t took
up an advanced position, close to the enc:
my, and Just over the crest the rearward
slope of which was held by the rebels. This
position 1t has retained during the day. and
McKean's brigade has held all day posi-
tion within fifteen yards of the enemy's
works. tE u FE.T[t TI
THE KEY-PoINT OF THE BATTLE, AND HOW IT


WAS LOST. c


Not until the splendid attack of Ham
cocks corps had been made, not till after
its blood-bought victory had been wrested
from our hands was he or any man in this
army aware of the supreme Importance of
the position this morning carried and lost.
1HlS Is II illll. WattSH
hill. dominating the whole battle ground
and covering the angle of the Dispatch
road. Along this ridge the rebel works
formed a salient,'and in front OF it was a
sunken road. Of this road Hancock got
possession, and the brigades of Miles and
Brooks actually struck and carried the
work directly on the salient! Had we held
this point, we would have had position
whence the entire rebel line might have
hna 1A1. I Al. n. A. 4.
much to say that the day would have been
ours and Lee pushed across the Chicka-
hOminy. These considerations Gel tlinly in
spire bitter regrets; but who does not know
that it is on precisely such contingencies
that the fate of battle often hangsp


LONG LULL-INcIDENTs OF THE DAY.


Returning from the ride along the lines
at 8 A. NJ, | found that Generals Grant and
Meade had established their personal head
quarters in advance of that occupied during
the night, and had taken their station on
the site of Coal Harbor, where General
Wright's headquarters were tiXed-he, him
self, however, having gone forward with
his corps. The rain of the early morning
ceased, and the sun was struggling through
the clouds. Nothing could be more strfk-
ing than the contrast presented by the two
commanders, as they stood In consultation
on that bare hill, with their faces turned
Richmond ward. The small form with the
slight stoop in the shoulders, sunken grey
eyes, still, reserved demeanor, inpaSsive
face and chin as of a bulldog or close-set
steel trap-that is Grant; the tall figure,
with the nervous, emphatic articulation and
action, and face as of antique parchment
that is Meade-and the antipodes could not
bring together greater contrast. Whether
it was that Gen. Grant himself was in doubt
as to the path which should be pursued. or
that he felt the need of seeing for himself
the actual stuation-for from our point of
vision everything was hid by veil of
wOods-I know not; but he suddenly mount
ed his horse and rode rapidly down to the
headquarters of General Hancock and af-
terward to the headquarters of General
Wright, and when he came back it was plain
there ,uOuld be no rene,cdl Cfthe battle, for we
all rode leisurely back to the old camp oc-
cuped the night before.


WITHIN FIFTEEN YARDS OF THE REBEL WORKS


| am about to narrate an incident which
will make draft on the faith of the reader
even greater than did the assertion that
portions of our line held their position
within fifty yards of the rebel works--and
that is that one portion of our line retained
all day position within fifteen yards of the
rebel works This heroic band was the brig
ade of Col. Mexican. brigade of Gibbons
division of Hancock's corps, and number
ing about eight hundred men.


CHICKAHoNINY IN HISTORY.


Notwithstanding that the position of our
own line would localize the action of to-day
as the battle of Coal Harbor, have called
it the battle of the Chickahominy, for the
double reason that this name marks the
formation of the rebel line, which we as
sailed; and further, because the supreme
object of to-day's action was to force the
passage of that stream. In view of the
failure to make good this purpose, the
thought of the army and of the coul try
will naturally be directed to the future
moves on the great chess-board. 1t is a
fact of which you may not have thought,
that Lieutenant-General Graht, in his adj
vance on Richmond, has crossed every line
of operations that has ever been planned
with Richmond as the objective. He has
adopted not; he has bisected all. He is at
present on the line of McClellan's peninsu-
la campaign; but will he remain on 1t?
May he not swing across that too? It would
certainly be in the line of his mode OF action
to do so. But such considerations belong
to an order of speculation in which extreme
delicacy is an object of dut' imposed upon
every writer here. Accordingly, let the ac-
tion Of to-day pass into history to hold such
relation with the whole campaign as the