Following the Flag

the deserted encampments, returned to Alexandria, and sailed for Fortress Monroe. General McClellan decided to advance upon Richmond by the Peninsula, between the York and James Rivers. Gene

the Chesapeake. The troops landed

to cover the approaches by land. The iron-clad Merrimack, with the Teazer and Jamestown gunboats, were in the James River. Admiral G

operations, and a delay of many weeks; the other, to obtain aid from the navy, attack the water-batteries at Yorktown, silence them, and then go up the York River with his army, sailing

the army received orders

the vast encampment. The soldiers had been waiting two weeks. They were one hundred t

eir friends, burnished their guns, heaped the fires with fresh fuel, a

on of the work before them, and realized

as in the great cause, prepared his last will

Christian religion, and believing in the righteousness of the cause in which I am engaged, I am ready to offer my poor li

ight they had their knapsacks packed, their tents taken down, and all things ready for the march. By sunrise they were on the road, General Heintzelman's corps leading the column. The r

families. The Peninsula was the first settled territory in America, and many of the planters had immense estates. One of the signers of the Declaration of Independence resided at Yorktown,-Governor Nelson. His house is yet standing,-a large two-story brick building, which General Magruder

ncircling the town, also reached across the Peninsula. The English general had between seven and eight thousand men. General Washington and Count R

rough Philadelphia, Baltimore, Annapolis, Mount Vernon, and Williamsburg. They had no transports to take them down the C

nton, General Lincoln, Colonel Scammell, the brave New Hampshire officer who was shot by a Hessian soldier. In the French army were Count Rochambeau, Marquis

is light infantry, and Governor Nelson, with the Virginia militia, were on the north side of the Hampton road, while south of it were the New England and New Jersey and New York troops, under General Clinton. They held the center of the American line. The left wing of the Americans,

ide of the road and the French on the south side,-two long lines of troops. The British army marched between them, the drums beating a slow march, and the colors which had waved proudly on so many battle-fields closely encased. It was a s

long lines of soldiers, the colors waving in the breeze, the British army in its scarlet uniforms, the crowd of spectators from th

ops of the Union, as their fathers had done befo

ting for their liberty, and were engaged in a just war. But sincerity is not certain proof of the righteousness of a cause.

Representatives in Congress pointed to the maelstrom to which they were driving the ship, but they refused to see it. Our fathers asked for equalities of rights and privileges, but it was refused. The South asked that their claim to territory won by the common blood and treasure of the country be recognized, and that our domestic institutions, as guaranteed by the Constitution, be respected. These petitions were answered by professed ministers of the Church of Jesus Christ in raising contributions from t

and Freedom; for the possession of Kansas, where men and women were driven out, their buildings burned, or themselves thrown into rivers, or deliberately murdered, for preferring freedom to slavery. They recalled the attempt to compel the people of the North to return the slaves who were escaping to Canada,-also the kidnapping of free citizens of the North; the imprisonment of men and women for teaching a slave to read the Bible.

of the Confederacy, who in the beginning opposed secession; who said to

s measures, and the most inspiring in its principles to elevate the race of man that the sun of heaven ever shone upon. Now

at law, to what one overt act, can you point on which to rest the plea of justification? What right has the North assailed? What interest of the South has been invaded? What justice has been denied, or what claim founded

ginia, had removed all the arms from the Northern arsenals to the South, that the sl

c funds intrusted to his care. They reflected that all of these men had forsworn themselves, that they were traitors and robbers, that they had deliberately, through years of power, planned to rebel, to destroy the government, and bring ruin upon the people if they could not have their way. They believed that without cause the Rebel

nd that his justice cannot sleep forever. The Almighty has n

America,-to the principles of the government of the United States,-as their hope for the future. They did not forget their homes on the breezy hills of the North and in the sunny valleys,

arry night, or lay upon the ground where their fathers achi

s corps had the center, and occupied the ground which Baron Steuben and General Clinton held in that siege. General Keyes's corps came to the Warwick River, at Lee's Mills, almost op

agruder's batteries. While the cannon were booming on that afternoon of the 4th, the

has been detached from the force under your immediate command,

received it on the

ions which had been begun. It compelled the adoption of another, a different, and a less effective plan of campaign. It made rapid and brilliant operations impossible. It was a fatal err

away, calmly and dispassionately review the causes of the failure of the Peninsular campaign. On one hand, it is alleged to have been the fata

cDowell would have enabled him to go to West Point w

r was not a fatal error; that it did not compel the adoption of another plan; that no other plan was adopted; that it did not leave General McClellan incapable of continuing operations already begun; that it did not deprive him of the power of taking West Point, inasmuch as he never had had the power; neither d

resident and General McClellan, the President ha

s precisely this that drove me to detain McDowell. I do not forget that I was satisfied with your arrangement to leave Banks at Manassas Junction, but

Junction to this city to be entirely open, except what resistance could be presented by less than tw

he Peninsula. General McClellan's troops in front of the enemy, present and fit for duty, numbered

red thousand men, and probably more. In consequence of the loss of Blenker's division and the First Corps (

ong the whole front of my line. I have no accurate data upon which to base an exact statement of his force; but, from various sources of information, I was satisfied that I had before me the enemy's Army of the Potomac, with the exception of the two corps d'armée of Banks and McDowell, forming an aggregate number certainly of not less than one hundred thousand, since asce

und soft, and it rained nearly every day. The woods were very dense. There were new roads made. The brooks were bridged. Some of the soldiers made gabions, or baskets of wicker-work, for the batteries.

The horses could not do it, and regiments of men

t garments, upon the water-soaked ground. Fever made its appearance, and thousands were sent to the hospitals, worn down by

throw a portion of his force across the Warwick River, and gain a foothold upon the western shore. There was an old field on the east side of the stream, which was overgrown with young pines and oaks. A lin

fteenth North Carolina. They did not stop an instant, but rushed upon the Carolinians, who fled to the rear in great confusion, and the Vermonters took possession of their rifle-pits. The commander of the Carolinians, Colonel McVining, fell mortally wounded, also many of his men, before the impetuous charge of the Green Mountaineers. But Rebel reinforcements were at hand. Anderson's brigade a

near York River began to throw shells and solid shot into Yorktown. That night negroes came into General McClellan's lines and reported that the Rebels we

vy fire through the night, to spike the guns just before daybreak, and leave the place. So through the night there was a grand uproar of artillery along the Rebel lines. The g

he Rebel camp. The guns still looked frowningly from the fortifications, te

y-two heavy guns in the intrenchments. They planted torpedoes, and connected them with wires and co

t first, had held an army of a hundred thousand in check, and gained