First Land Battle in the Peninsula Campaign
It was a new time for the American press. Standards for war coverage were far from set, and each one reporting the war took what liberties he felt might not only get the job done but help his side as well. The Charleston Mercury’s correspondent, Hermes, the pseudonym used by George William Bagby, was in peaceful times a doctor and a man of letters. His description of the Williamsburg battle, written from Richmond, captures the imagination of the reader in a manner worthy of a novelist describing the Napoleonic Wars.
In the North, newspapers were fabricating stories of Union soldiers’ bravado and General McClellan’s Napoleon-like greatness. L.L. Crounse of The New York Times, who reported from Williamsburg, was an unlikely candidate for writing such stories, at least about McClellan. Returning from the field to the home of the Whitaker family, who had made quarters available to Crounse and several of his newspaper colleagues, he discovered that the house had been taken over by General McClellan for his headquarters and that Crounse and his colleagues would be quartered in the cellar. That night, as McClellan slept well in bed, Crounse and a fellow correspondent had to stretch out on a table for a nocturnal experience far less comfortable than the one being enjoyed by the young “Napoleon.”
May 8, 1862: From the Charleston Mercury Special to the Charleston Mercury, May 12, 1862. The fight at Williamsburg, which JOHNSTON characterizes as an affair, must have been a battle of some magnitude, as LONGSTREET’S troops and STUART’S brigade of cavalry, were engaged against an equal, if not a superior, force of the enemy. Our infantry used the bayonet freely, and with brilliant success. The fighting of our cavalry is described by a French officer, who witnessed it, as more brilliant and daring than anything he ever witnessed in Europe. It was hand to hand combat with Federal cavalry of the regular army, whose practice with the sword could not overcome the pluck and superior horsemanship of our troops. The old tricks of raising a flag of truce, trailing arms, and open professions of friendship, were resorted to by the Yankees, and, strange to say, succeeded. Corsi regiment from Alexandria was thus fired into at a distance of thirty yards, with fearful effect. The volley was returned, and our boys rushed in with the bayonet. No quarter should have been given. As to the casualties, reports vary greatly. One account says 300, another 1000, in killed and wounded. Enemy loss rated very high. I hear from a good source that probably as many as 20 pieces of cannon were captured by us, but all were left behind, owing to the mud and lack of horses. Many of our sick and wounded fell into the enemy hands, and I fear prisoners too – those of the enemy amounting to 600 or more. Our citizens are called upon today to go down and receive our wounded, and also to prepare food for them.
With regard to the fight at Barhamsville, we are completely in the dark. The courier who brought General Johnston despatch, which (as published) says there has been no fight, and no prospect of one, declares that fighting had been going on from early in the morning till 12 0, the hour at which he left. From this courier or other sources, the papers get the names of Generals killed and wounded at Barhamsville. Johnston is calling for reinforcement, and the impression is that our position is critical. But this is kept back from the public.
Still nothing from Corinth. A despatch on business from Beauregard was received on Monday. Apprehensions of a flank movement are entertained. Reports are current of a movement of Yankees upon the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad, and of a naval engagement in James River, but I can get no particulars of the latter. The withdrawal of Border States members from the Yankee Congress, intimated as probable in the latest Northern news, is a delusion. Where would the creatures go? They couldncome to us; they may kick up a little, but they have eaten the red pottage and decided their fate. Johnston has sent several thousand well soldiers here for fear of their catching the measles. So the soldiers say. Weather cool, clear and bright.
HERMES
A Washington correspondent gives the following account of the process of embalming adopted there:
The body is placed on an inclined platform; the mouth, ears, nose, etc., are stopped with cotton; if wounded, cotton is put in the wound, and a plaster is put on; an incision is made in the wrist, the attachment is made from an air pump, and fluid ejected into the arteries. The wound is then sewed up and the body is hoisted up to dry. To save the eyes from sinking in, wax is put under the eyelids. The hair I found to come out very easy, but after the embalming it could not be removed. The bodies take on an average about seven quarts, but Gen. Lander took seventeen quarts. There were some eight bodies on hand; some had been there thirty days. The operators say in four months the body will become solidified like marble, but no chance has yet been had to prove it. Col. Baker’s body, on arriving at San Francisco, was in an advanced state of decomposition. Dr. Holmes, late of Williamsburg, Long Island, is the oldest in the business here, and I am informed he has made thirty thousand dollars.
Messrs. Brown and Alexander are trying to get a bill through Congress for the exclusive right to embalm bodies, and to have Congress authorize a corps of embalmers for each division. The charges are $50 for an officer and $25 for a private, and I must say the bodies look as life-like as if they were asleep.
Special to the Charleston Mercury, May 23, 1862 – The accounts of the parts taken by the different corps in the late actions near Williamsburg have been very imperfect, and, of course, somewhat partial, in the absence of any official report as yet of the engagement. The Richmond Examiner learned the following incidents of the brilliant charge of the cavalry of the Hampton Legion, and gives them as an interesting portion of the history of the late remarkable action or series of battles in the neighborhood of Williamsburg:
It appears that on the 14th instant, the cavalry of the Hampton Legion, consisting of the Brooks Troop, Capt. Lanneau, Beaufort District Troop, Capt. Sevier, Congaree Troop, Capt. McFie, and the Edgefield Hussars, under command of Lieut. P. M. Butler, Capt. Clark being absent on account of sickness, under the command of Major M. C. Butler, were protecting the rear of our army on its retirement from Yorktown, in conjunction with the cavalry of Col. Davis and Lieut. Col. Wickham a few miles before the army reached Williamsburg.
The enemy made their appearance, hurrying up our rear guard. The cavalry were in position to meet their advance, when a courier arrived, announcing that General Johnston had sent for the cavalry to meet that of the enemy. Major Butler, with his squadron, immediately responded to the order at a gallop, and reported to Gen. Johnston, who ordered him to report to General McLaws, who was in Fort Magruder, who did so. General McLaws pointed to the enemy cavalry across the ravine and ordered him to disperse them, which he accomplished in the most gallant and successful manner.
THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC ARRIVING AT YORKTOWN FROM WILLIAMSBURG (A. WAUD. AS PUBLISHED IN HARPER’S WEEKLY). LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.
KEARNY (SIC) AT THE BATTLE OF WILLIAMSBURG (ALFRED WAUD). LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.
The fight soon became a hand to hand one, the enemy making a stout resistance; but they had to yield to the superior courage of the cavaliers of South Carolina, although the enemy outnumbered them. Captain Lannauu, at the first blow, severed the head of a Hessian. Captain Sevier, Captain McFie and Lieutenant Butler, all were conspicuous in the charge for their coolness and gallantry. In fact, all of the officers acquitted themselves with spirit. In the charge we lost two killed: privates B. W. Boggs and Stephen Boynton, who fell in the front ranks. Among the wounded were Sergeant Low, Privates McGinnis, Fowles, Richard Flanigan, who received severe sabre cuts, and Gillespie Thornwell, a beardless boy, son of Rev. J. H. Thornwell, who was wounded four times by their sabres, and, when surrounded, declared he would die before he would surrender. In the fight the squadron captured fourteen prisoners; killed fifteen or twenty; took ten horses, saddles, bridles, and a number of Coltrepeaters and sabres. In this desperate charge not a man faltered, but followed boldly their gallant leader, who was in front, whilst he threw his irresistible column upon them. The Hessians could not stand the shock and gave away in disorder.
Gen. Johnston has exhibited his appreciation of this charge in a complimentary general order, and has said that its success saved Gen. Stuartentire’s command, who were, for a time, cut off. Well did the squadron sustain the hardearned and lasting honors of the Hampton Legion, and Major Butler the prestige of his name.
Williamsburg VA, May 7, 1862 – Now that the smoke of the battle has somewhat cleared away, I am able to give you a more connected account of the engagement, on Monday, between our advance guard and a large force of rebels who opposed our entrance into this town. The position from which the rebels assailed our forces was an exceedingly strong one, being along the line of defenses established by them just below Williamsburgh, last Spring, previous to their fortification of Yorktown and Warwick Creek. Near the centre of a broad plain, at the upper side of which stands Williamsburgh, and right across the turnpike road leading to the city, they erected a substantial bastion, large enough to accommodate six or seven thousand men, and commanding the place in every direction, so that a force approaching it from any point must be exposed to a raking fire for three-quarters of a mile or more. Well supplied with artillery, and defended with determination by a force of 5000 men, this bastion would give a world of trouble to an army of five times that number. It was supported by five smaller flanking works of the same pattern, on the right, two on the left, each of them having platforms for two guns. The large work being fitted for five guns.
THE C. DE PARIS RIDING INTO YORKTOWN WITH THE FIRST CLEAR ACCOUNT OF AFFAIRS AT WILLIAMSBURG (WAUD). LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.
The approach to the plain thus defended from the direction of Yorktown was by two roads, the one on the left, taken by Hooker’s Division and its supports, being a straight path through the wends. That on the right, along which Hancock advanced, led over a brook or creek, which had been dammed at this point, where the road crossed it through a defile in such a way as to convert the defile into a deep pond, passed at the lower side by a narrow causeway, commanded by an earthwork looking down upon it at a height of fifty feet, and from a bold bluff on the other side. Over this causeway troops would be compelled to march four abreast for a distance of more than one-eighth of a mile, exposed to the fire of a fort above the reach of their artillery. For some reason, however, this position has never been occupied. Probably it was intended to mount artillery there, as the occasion demanded. The fact that this work, and the flanking works about Fort Magruder, were none of them occupied on Monday, shows plainly that the rebeIs had not proposed to make any decided stand against us here. Indeed, the command of the York River, secured to us by the evacuation of Yorktown, made their position at this point of the Peninsula untenable, as we could easily throw a force above them to take them in the rear.
The rebels had, to fact, pushed on several miles beyond Williamsburgh with their main body, before our advance approached on Sunday night, retaining a small force only at the forts in their rear. But leaving everything behind them, our troops pushed on so rapidly after the rebels, struggling through the mud with their heavy wagons, that they found it absolutely necessary, to hold us in check long enough to secure their retreat. Accordingly, on Monday morning, troops were hurried back to the support of their rear guard, occupying Fort Magruder. They continued to come in all through the day, supplying fresh troops to oppose our men. Commencing with a small force, each party continued to swell its numbers with reinforcements, until the rebels had finally fifteen or twenty thousand men on the ground, and we about the same number. The rebels had the advantage of hurrying their troops along more rapidly, so that some of our men were compelled to stand their ground for hours against a much superior force opposing them.
The battle at Williamsburg, known also as the battle at Fort Magruder, in York and Williamsburg Counties, occurred on May 5, 1862. In the first pitched battle of the Peninsula Campaign, Gen. George McClellan and his 40,768 Federal troops went up against Maj. General James Longstreet and his 31,823 Confederate troops resulting in 2,283 and 1,560 casualties respectively.
Following up the Confederate retreat from Yorktown, Gen. Hooker’s Union division encountered the Confederate rearguard near Williamsburg. Hooker then assaulted Fort Magruder, an earthen fortification alongside the Williamsburg Road, but was repulsed. Confederate counterattacks, directed by Maj. Gen. Longstreet, threatened to overwhelm the Union left flank, until Gen. Phillip Kearny’s division arrived to stabilize the Federal position. Gen. W.S. Hancock’s brigade then moved to threaten the Confederate left flank, occupying two abandoned redoubts. The Confederates counterattacked unsuccessfully, but Hancock’s localized success was not exploited. The failure of the Union troops to press the advantage resulted in an inconclusive conflict. The foundation of indecisiveness was being established by McClellan, which allowed the Confederates to eventually press the advantage.
SOLDIERS ACCOMPANY WAGON TRAIN PASSING THROUGH WILLIAMSBURG ON DUKE OF GLOUCESTER STREET (WILLIAM MCILVANE). LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.
