History of Grant's Campaign for the capture of Richmond, 1864-1865, with an outline of the previous course of the American Civil War

Preface

. In the following pages I have sought to give an accurate, clear, and impartial narrative of the campaign which brought to an end the American Civil War, by subduing Richmond, and the great general and brave army defending it; thereby crushing the rebellion, preserving the Union of the States, and accomplishing the abolition of slavery. To explain the state of affairs when General Grant, placed at the head of the whole army of the United States, began the final advance on Richmond, two or three introductory chapters seemed necessary. These I have endeavoured so to write that the reader, if he has not already consulted any history of the war, may yet com prehend the outline of its course during the years 1861, 1862, and 1863. It is hard to say that any one out of the four years of fighting surpasses the other in interest or importance.

If the first is distinguished by the battle of Bull Run, and by the novelty of war operations to both sides, the second comprises half-a-dozen battles of huge slaughter, the first trial in fight of iron-clad vessels, and the issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation by President Lincoln. And if the third can exhibit the thrilling spectacles of

PREFACE.

. VI Jackson's death at Chancellorsville, the all-important battle of Gettysburg, and the reduction of Vicksburg, and tbe course of the Mississippi, the fourth unfolds events which, after all, seem to be of supreme grandeur — Spottsylvania (tbe greatest battle of the war), Sherman's march (the greatest war operation), the capture of Rich mond, the close of all resistance by the South, and the tragic assassination of President Lincoln. Almost all who study the great conflict will concur in the remark made by General Grant himself to an English visitor : — ' Say what they will, this war has been the biggest job of its sort that has been done in this world — nothing like it has gone before.' * It must indeed be in corporated into our history ; and since the Americans dwell with fondness on old English glory as in part theirs by descent, so may we consider with pride the manly bearing of the nation ice founded, whilst we pray that their great strife may be the last ever to arise in any por tion of the Anglo-Saxon race.

To sketch the whole in detail, and to combine a careful equal review of the simultaneous labours of statesman ship, and the solutions effected of moral and material problems, I considered, after brief reflection, to be a task too voluminous and varied for me to venture upon unsupported and uncriticised. I resolved, therefore, to write the history of the fourth and last year of the war, conducted, and triumphantly concluded, by General Grant. The opening pages of this work were written when Grant's campaign was but two months old; when the * Dr. Vaughan, 'Notes on the United States since the War' British Quarterly Review, October 2, 1865.

PREFACE.

. VII news had just arrived of the first onset on Petersburg, and its result lay in the unknown future. I close it after a study of nearly four years, just as General Grant is about to commence a Presidency of the restored Union, from which all expect the most happy results. It is with great diffidence that I present this work ; for though the subject be of great and enduring interest, and though I am conscious of having bestowed zealous labour and earnest thought in searching, selecting, and weighing its facts, these merits may be counterbalanced by an unpleasing style, or other defects, involuntary and un known. The literature and documents of the war, Northern and Southern, are so extensive, precise, and, on the whole, so fair in the statement of events (though not perhaps of numbers) that the historian is much encouraged in his efforts for accuracy.

My acknowledgements are due to the authors of the many narratives of facts, and scientific or philosophical commentaries, which I have made use of. The references at the foot of many pages to some extent express them. PAGE (iii CONTENTS.

Introduction

. SKETCH OF PREVIOUS CAMPAIGNS FOR THE CAPTURE OF RICH- MOND . . . 1

Chapter I. Sketch Of The Life Of General Robert

E. LEE — HE A SECOND TIME INVADES MARYLAND AND PENNSYLVANIA — THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG AND OTHER SIMULTANEOUS RE- VERSES TO THE SOUTH — SUBSEQUENT OPERATIONS IN VIRGINIA DOWN TO THE CLOSE OF THE YEAR 1863 .... 35

Chapter II. The Appearance, Discipline, And Camp Life Of The Army Of

THE POTOMAC, AS ESTABLISHED ON THE RAPIDAN . CHAPTEP, III. SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF GENERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT — HIS OPERATIONS UNDER HALLECK IN 1861-2 — THE SIEGE OF VICKSBURG HIS EXPEDITION TO GET TO ITS REAR — CAPTURE OF VICKSBURG HIS OPERATIONS AT CHATTANOOGA — HE IS NOMINATED LIEUTENANT-GENERAL, AND ASSUMES COMMAND OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC CONTENTS. X

Chapter V. March Of General Grant From Spottsylvania To The Out- Skirts

OF RICHMOND THE BATTLE OF COLD HARBOUR — MOVEMENT THENCE TO THE SOUTH OF THE JAMES RIVER, AND ATTACK ON PETERSBURG 178

Chapter VI. The Third Confederate Invasion Of Maryland And Penn- Sylvania

217 CHAPTER VH. OPERATIONS BEFORE PETERSBURG — FUTILE PEACE NEGOTIATIONS 231 CHAPTER VHL OPERATIONS BEFORE PETERSRURG — EXHAUSTION OF THE SOUTH — DETERMINATION OF THE NORTH 246

CHAPTER IX. MARCH OF GENERAL

SnERMAN FROM CHATTANOOGA TO ATLANTA, AND FROM ATLANTA TO THE SEA 263

CHAPTER X. CONQUEST OF THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY BY

SHERIDAN— CLOSER INVESTMENT OF RICHMOND AND PETERSBURG — OVERTHROW OF HOOD BY THOMAS IN THE "WEST CONTENTS. XI PAGE 404

CHAPTER XL STATE OF AFFAIRS IN THE NORTH

— ADVANCE OF SHERMAN THROUGH THE CAROLINAS — GLOOM AND DESPONDENCY IN RICHMOND 358

CHAPTER XII. DESPERATE EFFORT OF GENERAL LEE

— ADVANCE OF GENERAL GRANT — FALL OF RICHMOND — SURRENDER OF LEE

Epilogue

. ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN — DISBANDMENT OF THE ARMY HISTORY OF GRANT'S CAMPAIGN FOR THE CAPTURE OF RICHMOND. 1864-1865.

INTRODUCTION.

. SKETCH OF PREVIOUS CAMPAIGNS FOR THE CAPTURE OF RICHMOND. The third year of the American Civil War had closed, and the army of the Potomac was as far as ever from the goal for which it had first set out in July 1861. It lay peacefully on the north bank of the Rapidan, sixty miles distant from the goal to reach which it had so often marched, to win which it had tramped through Virginian mud and crossed Virginian rivers ; had endured fever and the heat of the Virginian summer in the swamps of the Chickahominy ; and had given up in battle thousands and tens of thousands out of its ranks ; to within sight of which it had once — and once only — attained. Six generals had commanded this great army — this great engine of warfare — and had worked it as unsparingly as if it had indeed been an immense machine, instead of a vast congeries of human beings.

It had fought seven great battles with the opponent who barred its way : five in attacking him, and two to repel him when, flushed with B GRANT'S CAMPAIGN AGAINST RICHMOND. Imtbod. 2 victory, he carried the war into the Northern States. And now as January 1864 began, it was encamped sixty miles from the prize for which it struggled, the lodestone of the American war ; the city on which, as well in Europe as in America, all eyes were fixed — Richmond— the chief city of Virginia and capital of 'the Confederate States of North America.' The generals who had commanded the Northern army, and the campaigns undertaken by it, must now be briefly reviewed. The advance southward of General M'Dowell begun on the 16th July 1861, at the commencement of the war, was brought to an abrupt conclusion by the memorable battle of Bull Run, on the 21st July.* His routed and disorganised army took refuge in Washington, and anxiously expected an attack within twenty-four hours.

The victorious Confederates did not follow up their good fortune by attempting to possess themselves of the Federal capital. They let slip what has ever since been considered a golden opportunity, and contented themselves with re-occupying the country on the right bank ofthe Potomac up to the fortifications on Arlington Heights. A young general of five-and-thirty, who had been stationed in Western Virginia, where he had come off well in some petty engagements, which the New York newspapers magnified into great victories, was appointed to the command of the Northern army, in lieu of M'Dowell. Though his reputation as a general rested solely on these aforesaid petty battles, he could justly claim to have received a thorough military education. Geo. B. * Bull Run is a little river running into the Potomac.

The battle was fought just north of the little railway junction of Manassas. M'Dowell's loss, according to his own admission, was 2,679. The Confederates, how ever, estimated his loss at 4,500. The Confederate loss was 1,752. Intkod. GENERAL M'CLELLAN, 1861. M'Clellan was born at Philadelphia in 1826. At the age of sixteen he entered the West Point Military Academy, where among others he had as classfellows the famous ' Stonewall ' Jackson, and A. P. Hill, another lad of subsequent distinction. Both were to be opposed to him in battle in the Civil War. After a training of four years at West Point, M'Clellan entered the army, graduating as second lieutenant of Engineers. In the Mexican war he was promoted to a first lieutenancy for gallant and meritorious conduct in the actions at Contreras and Cherubusco.

He was also in the encounters at Molino del Rey and Chepultepec, and by the close of the war had obtained his captaincy (1848). Stationed at West Point again, as a director of field labours and infantry instructor, he continued industriously studying the theoretical parts of the art of war, and his Manual for the Army, and his Introduction to the Bayonet Exercise, gave proof of his devotion to his profession. Soon after we find him superintending the erection of Fort Delaware ; anon exploring the Red River ; next ordered to Texas, and then commanding a survey for the western division of the Pacific Railroad (1852). He was for a short time in the West Indies, on secret service. To complete his varied experience of things military, the young soldier was to contrast with the free-and-easy warfare he had seen in Mexico, and the adroit but rough engineering of his countrymen, the tradition-governed tactics of European armies, their strict discipline, and their manner of conducting siege operations for the capture of a fortified city.

Appointed one of the United States Military Com mission to the Crimea during the Russian war of 1855, Captain M'Clellan, from the camp ofthe allied armies of France and England, saw out the remarkable siege of Sebas topol. On his return to America, at the close of the war, he e2 GEANT'S CAMPAIGN AGAINST RICHMOND. Inteod. 4 published the result of his observations in a work on the Organisation and Conduct of European Armies.* .A year or two later, promotion being slow in the United States army, and seeing no prospect of any active military occupation, he resigned his commission and undertook the management of two of the great Western Railways. For three years he was Vice-President of the Illinois Central Railway Company, and in the beginning of 1861 was General Superintendent of the Ohio and Mississippi, when the outbreak of the rebellion gave him the oppor tunity of an active military command which, influenced by his predilection for his old profession, he at once ac cepted, f In person General M'Clellan was of medium stature, but square build, well knit together, and capable of en during fatigue.

His features indicated great self-reliance, combined with a courteous and unobtrusive nature. His complexion was fair, his hair light brown, and his moustache and chin-tuft quite light. The photographs of him, which abounded in the years 1861-62, must have given many persons an erroneous impression through their one deficiency, that of colour. General M'Clellan arrived in Washington on July 26, and set earnestly to work to re-organise the army of the Potomac. It was a task of no ordinary difficulty. What was little better than a vast mob of civilians masquerading as soldiers when it left Washington, on the week's cam^ paign which terminated at Bull Run, was now further demoralised by defeat. M'Clellan did his work well. He reformed the organisation ofthe army ; by daily drill and frequent reviews he trained the raw civilian volunteers * Republished at Philadelphia in 1861.

It contains some sharp criticism on the operations before Sebastopol. t Life and Campaigns of General M'Clellan (Philadelphia, 1864). Introd. FEDERAL ARMY REFORMED. 5 into a soldier-like appearance ; and he enforced a stricter supervision over the officers, who could no longer lounge about the streets of Washington, and throng the hotels and bar-rooms, as had been their wont. The army re covered confidence in itself, and felt confidence in its leader ; and within three months after the stinging defeat of Bull Run the populace of the North was congratulating itself on the numbers, the good equipment, the discipline, and the presumed efficiency of its magnificent army. Loud were the praises of the general who had clone all this ; he was at once proclaimed to the world as the great military genius of America.

The ' New York Herald' pronounced him a ' young Napoleon,' who would soon smash up the Rebels in ' the coming Waterloo ' in Virginia. And, on the resignation ofthe aged General Scott, on November 1, George B. M'Clellan found himself appointed Comman der-in-Chief of the armies of the United States. Since the battle of Bull Run the Confederates had not once assumed the offensive, and General M'Clellan was in no hurry to commence hostilities. For seven months the two armies confronted each other on the lines ofthe Potomac. With the spring of 1862 came the first indications that the war would go on in earnest — that the Northern army would advance into the territory of the South. In the month of January a Federal victory, in the battle of Mill Spring, Kentucky, proved the forerun ner of a series of successes which redeemed Kentucky and carried the Union flag to the south of Tennessee.

In the beginning of March M'Clellan was undoubtedly matur ing his plans for an advance, when the sudden falling back of the -Confederate forces gave him the opportunity for an immediate forward movement. On March 10 General M'Clellan led his army out of Washington. Without a shot being fired they marched p GRANT'S CAMPAIGN AGAINST RICHMOND. Intbod. to and beyond Bull Run. They encamped about Manassas and Centreville, points where the contest had gone on. M'Dowell was present— now as a subordinate general — and we read, with a feeling of respect, that he shed tears as he gazed on the spot where so many of his men had fallen. American generals had not yet become familiar ised to days of wholesale slaughter. During the half year's training a good commissariat had been instituted by the Northern War Department, and the troops had with them supplies and stores in abundance.

This wras a matter of some importance, for the country was desolate, and the retreating Confederates had carried off with them, or carefully destroyed, all their materiel and all their camp appurtenances. Yet what were those pieces surmounting the fortifications over which the Federals could nowr ramble at will ? It was with rage and vexation that the officers surveyed these trophies which the Confederates had left for them, for these guns which had frowned on them so long were wooden ones* The retreating Confederates were neither routed nor in any way demoralised, as New York newspapers had asserted on the receipt of the news of the evacuation of their position in front of Washington. Knowinothat M'Clellan's advance must come soon, their generals had merely drawn them back to a stronger position, and they were now entrenched on the south bank of the river Rappahannock.

To carry this position— and successful in that, to march some sixty miles, crossing several smaller rivers — was the direct road to Richmond. But General M'Clellan had not seriously thought of taking this route. He resolved on a plan which he had probably carefully * The Prince de Joinville says that M'Clellan knew for a long time that the enemy had wooden cannon mounted, but his army was not mature, and the roads were unfit for an advance.— Campagne du Potomac, p. 42. Inteod. OPENING OF M'CLELLAN'S CAMPAIGN. 7 studied whilst lying in Washington. By a reference to the map it will be seen that the city of Richmond stands upon a bend of the James river, eighty miles above its fall into the sea, or rather into the broad estuary of Hampton Roads, which, merging with the extreme south of the great Chesapeake Bay, is even then twenty miles from the ocean proper.

Between the mouths of the Potomac and the James, two other great rivers, with similar wide mouths, issue into the Bay. The one most to the north is the Rappahaniiock, which has just been spoken of. The southern, and consequently the nearest to the James, is the York River. Between the James and this latter, whose mouth is fifteen miles to the north of Hampton Roads, is the Yorktown peninsula, formed by the near approach of the two rivers before they join the Bay. At the extreme point seawards of this peninsula is Fortress Monroe, which, garrisoned by the United States Government troops at the outbreak of the rebellion, had been retained by the Federals all through the war. It was this peninsula that M'Clellan determined to make his basis for operating against Richmond. The army of the Potomac was moved from Manassas close up to the river, and within ten days, from March 20 to the beginning of April, the bulk of the army was quietly transported down the wide Potomac, and the sea-like Chesapeake Bay, to a landing in the vicinity of Fortress Monroe.

A large force being left at Manassas, under Generals Banks and M'Dowell, to control the Confederate line of the Rappahannock, General M'Clellan himself at length departed, and was with his troops by the first days of April. Ere he started, an order of President Lincoln relieved him of the general command of the United States' Armies. With an enormous army, estimated at 100,000 men, with a numerous and powerful body of artillery, about Ihtbod. 8 pieces altogether, and supported by gunboats, General M'Clellan "set forward for Richmond. A march of twelve miles brought him to the first obstacle to his progress. This was Yorktown, situated on the isthmus between the rivers York and James. The Confederates had thrown up entrenchments right across the isthmus, which is about six miles wide. These were actually of little strength, and a European general would not have spent much shot and shell over them before ordering an assault.

General M'Clellan instituted a siege, and for well nigh a month amused himself by besieging Yorktown, by entrenching and reconnoitring, skirmishing, and practising his artillery on the fortifications. So pleased seems he to have been with this dilettante warfare, that it is impossible to say how long he might not have remained without attacking the place, had not the Confederates a second time politely opened the door for him.* They had augmented their forces, and it was probably their settled design to draw the Federal army on towards Richmond, and give battle on their own ground. During May 2 and 3 they quietly evacuated Yorktown, and left General M'Clellan free to resume his march. After an engagement on the 5th, well sustained on both sides, they withdrew from Williamsburg, which General M'Clellan occupied the next day.

The Confederates retreating in perfect order as he advanced, he bore to the north of the Chickahominy, and marched with his main army to Cumberland on the Pamunkey river, which flows * Looking over the newspapers of the last few days preceding the evacuation, we do indeed find this eminently luminous report of progress to come. Says the Associated Press dispatch from Yorktown, April 29th : ' The time is drawing near when the commanding general will commence the task of reducing the enemy's works, erected to impede the advance of the Union forces.' What, then, had he been about during the three weeks before this, that he was now only going to ' commence the task' ? Ixteod. FROM YORKTOWN TO RICHMOND. 9 into the York, whilst a division of 16,000 men, under General Franklin, ascended the York in transports, and, supported by gunboats, took possession of West Point, where, ten miles from Cumberland, they formed M'Clellan's rear.

Cautiously and slowly M'Clellan moved along the south bank of the Pamunkey, and by the 21st his advance-guard had come up to the Chickahominy river, and Richmond was in sight. Something else, too, was in sight — the pickets of the Confederate army. For Richmond was now but ten miles off, and if the Rebels were going to make a stand, it must be here, and at once. So said the New York press. Whilst General M'Clellan was thus drawing near to Richmond events had taken place far off in the north, and near to him in the south, which materially affected his position. Naval operations were going on in the Jilmes which might prove of assistance to him ; and aid which he calculated upon, or at least hoped for, from the line of the Potomac, was turned aside. The evacuation of Yorktown by the Confederates necessitated also their withdrawal from the Government seaport of Norfolk, on the southern side of Hampton Roads.

This accordingly was done, and the place was occupied by Federal troops from Fortress Monroe on May 1 0. The famous ' Merrimac,' which ever since her one glorious day of battle on March 8 had lain idly but usefully guarding the entrance to Hampton Roads — usefully, for it monopolised the attention of the Federal fleet off Fortress Monroe — was abandoned and blown up in the early morning of the I lth, and thus the James river was open to their vessels. The Federal ironclads, Monitor, Nangatuck, and Galena, with other vessels, immediately passed into Hampton Roads, and steamed up the James, in hopes of making their way right up to Init.od. 10 Richmond. But their progress was arrested on the 15th by Fort Darling, on a bend ofthe river eight miles below that city. From the batteries of this fort, situated on a hio-h bluff 200 feet above the water surface, they were subjected to a heavy fire, which they could not reply to effectively, and after sustaining considerable damage they were obliged to return down the river.

Thus, though the gunboats could not get near to Richmond, they had possession of the river to this point, only eight miles below it, and had M'Clellan's line of march been by the side of the James, a combined attack by the gunboats and the troops would probably have given him possession of this fort, and he would have marched side by side with them on to Richmond. As it was, the River Chickahominy, the Confederate army, and Fort Darling, were between him and the gunboats. But General M'Clellan had not chosen his more nor therly route by the Pamunkey without a reason. Fifty miles to the north, on the River Rappahannock, whence, as we have seen, he had brought his army, there yet remained a large Federal force under the command of General M'Dowell. The exact number is not easily ascertained, but it was probably at least 25,000 men.

This army lay strangely inactive. There was not any considerable Confederate force to oppose it, and General M'Clellan calculated on its immediate advance and junction with his army in front of Richmond. For this pur pose troops were withdrawn from another of the Federal armies, stationed more to the west, and it seemed to be really going to M'Clellan's aid* On May 26 General M'Dowell advanced six miles to the south of the Rappa hannock. The next day he hurried twenty miles to the * Campagne du Potomac, p. 138. Edge, M'Clellan and the Yorktown Campaign (London, 1865). Schalk, Campaigns of 1862 and 1863 (Phila delphia, 1863). Ixteod. M'CLELLAN'S PLANS THWARTED. 11 rear, where his army was wanted for the defence of Washington. This curious state of affairs came on thus. The army from which M'Dowell had drawn his rein forcements was that of General Banks, situated in the valley of the Shenandoah River, on the western side of the Blue Ridge — that wonderful range of mountains which stretches diagonally through the centre of Vir ginia.

This army had for some time been reported as driving the ' Rebels ' down the whole length of the valleyT, insomuch that at the close of the month of April the ' Rebel ' forces, whose general was said to be one Jackson or Johnson (the newspaper correspondents were uncertain which was the name), and who was in truth the great commander soon after so well known and so famous as Stonewall Jackson, were reported to have fled to the east of the Blue Ridge. That general was in fact only waiting his opportunity. The ill-advised with drawal of a portion of the Federal general's forces gave it to him. On Friday, May 23, Jackson's cavalry fell like a thunderbolt on the Federal outpost at Front Royal, a village in the head of the valley, and about sixty miles due west of Washington. The almost entire destruction or capture of this outlying detachment gave warning to the main body under General Banks himself, lying at Strasburg, twelve miles off, and he prepared in haste for flight.

The next day was a race northward to Winchester, a distance of twenty-two miles. Four several times during the day the Confederates came up with General Banks' rear-guard, and cut it up terribly. At daybreak on the 25th he was again assailed, driven in disorder from Winchester, and forced to perform a march of thirty miles the same day, harassed by Jacksons cavalry all the while, till he could get to safety at Williamsport, on the north bank of the Potomac. Introd. 12 But AVashington was in no real danger, and General Jackson knew very well that he could not maintain the position he had gained, even had such been his intention. On the contrary, having routed Banks' army, gained stores, arms, and prisoners, and put the Northern states men in a flutter for a few hours, he was now intent on making his wav down the Shenandoah valley again as rapidly as he had emerged from it.

M'Dowell, whose troops, as we have seen, should have been marching to the aid of M'Clellan, had sent General Shields with 15,000 men to Manassas, en route to oppose him, and from the west of Virginia another of the too scattered armies of the North — that of General Fremont— was coming up. Exactly a week after the fiery expulsion of Banks, General Jackson passed through Winchester again ; with consummate skill he eluded coming to blows with Shields and Fremont, who, arriving from opposite points, were now joining their forces at Strasburg, and, complete master of the situation, he took his way down the valleyT. Of course he drew the two Federal generals after him ; but, blind to the dangers of the chase they were engaged in, they sejiarated their forces, and came on in tracks slightly apart.

On June 6 General Fremont found himself close on Jackson's rear-<raard, which was marching out of Harrisonburg, a town in the foot of the valley. A regiment of cavalry, which was sent on four miles to reconnoitre, fell into an ambuscade of Jackson's posted in the woods, and suffered great loss, nearly all its officers being shot down. On the 8th Jackson, who had received reinforcements, turned and gave battle, inflicting heavy loss on Fremont's army ; and on the next morning, having moved off during the nio-ht, he fell with fury on Shield's division, which was coming up by the side of the Shenandoah River. IXTROD. STONEWALL JACKSON. 13 The two Federal armies thus routed in detail fell back towards Strasburg, and after watching them for a few days, Stonewall Jackson went over the Blue Ridge and on his way to Richmond, to participate in fresh victories and to gain fresh laurels.* Who was Jackson ? and why had he this cognomen of Stonewall ?

Jackson was a tall, quiet, serious Virginian, who had been educated at West Point, and had served in Mexico with great credit — would, likely enough, have then made himself a name, had the Mexican war lasted a little longer. After that was over he became a Professor in the military college at Lexington, in the Shenandoah or Virginia Valley, and filled that post for ten years. He took up arms in 1861, from a feeling of devotion to his State. At Bull Run a Confederate officer, watching his firm bearing, exclaimed ' Look at Jackson there, standing like a stonewall,' and the epithet was taken up by every body ever after. His great principle for war operations was ' Mystery.' His soldiers were taught to answer ' Don't know ' to any question of military plans or infor mation. On the march he would sometimes pitch his camp at four cross roads, and often he would hurry his men along at the double-quick to meet an imaginary foe.

We left General M'Clellan and his army on the left bank of the river Chickahominy. Up to his arrival there all had gone well and smoothly with the young com mander. So well and smoothly indeed, that people were condoling with the ' Young Napoleon ' in that he had not yet had the opportunity of any engagement for displaying his military genius. He was not destined to wait for this much longer. Reconstructing the bridges called Bottom's, the Rail- * New York newspapers. Dani ell's Life of Stonewall Jackson (New York, 1863). Intkod. 14 way, and the New, which, crossing the river at three points in a length of about fifteen miles, had been broken down by the Confederates, General M'Clellan cautiously transferred a portion of his forces to the south bank whilst, extending his right wing further to the north, he took possession of Hanover Court House.