“Having been ordered by Gen. McClellan to hold the Seven Pines strongly, I designed to throw forward to that neighborhood two brigades of Casey’s division, and to establish my picket-line considerably in advance, and far to the right.”
In the mean time the rebel preparations were of the most powerful description, and seemed to promise to them undoubted success. General Hill, with a force of 16,000 men, was to march from Richmond, along the Williamsburg road, towards Seven Pines. General Longstreet, with 16,000 more, was to support his right wing; and General Huger with a third 16,000, was appointed to protect his left flank, prepared to fall upon the right wing of the Federal troops. General Smith, with still another 16,000 men, was to make a detour through the woods, for the purpose of cutting off the retreat of Casey’s division. Such was the generalship of the rebel officers that often with really inferior numbers, they so massed their troops as to be superior in numbers upon the battle-field.
Throughout the night of the 30th of May, there was a raging storm, the like of which few who listened to its roar and fury could remember ever to have experienced. The thunder roared without intermission; torrents of rain drenched the earth; while the whole sky was on fire with an unceasing blaze of lightning. It was from the peltings of this storm, saturated with rain, which had penetrated the camps, and turned their hard field-beds into pools of mud, that the Federal troops rose, to face an advancing army of six or seven times their own number. The tempest had gradually died away, toward daybreak, but a lowering sky seemed to increase the gloom of the dreary landscape. Nor were the men, after a night of unrest, any brighter than the aspect of surrounding nature. The roads flooded by rain, were almost impassable; and the waters of the Chickahominy, overflowing its banks, were encroaching upon the swamps.
About an hour before noon it was announced that a large body of the rebels had been seen approaching, on the Richmond road. Picket-firing commenced almost immediately, and was instantly followed by the shriek of several shells from the enemy’s artillery, which came tearing through the air, in the neighborhood of General Peck’s headquarters—proving that the enemy was advancing on General Casey’s division.
The troops were, on the instant, summoned to arms. Every man at work on the intrenchments was dispatched to his regiment; the artillery was harnessed up, the batteries placed in position; and the One Hundred and First Pennsylvania Volunteers, was sent down the road, to check the advancing foe and to support the pickets.
Up to this moment it was supposed that nothing more was impending than one of those sharp skirmishes in which the troops had so often engaged. The Pennsylvania troops marched briskly onward, little imagining that they were throwing themselves on the bayonets of an army of 16,000 men; till, to their horror and consternation, as they emerged from the forest, they found themselves face to face with an overwhelming force. A volley of bullets swept, with devastating effect, upon their ranks dealing death on every side, and scattering one-fifth of their number dead or wounded upon the field. It was a moment in which flight was valor; for in fifteen minutes they would inevitably have been surrounded, and every man cut down or made a prisoner.
General McClellan was, at the time, severely criticised for that sentence in his dispatch to Secretary Stanton which read, “Casey’s division, which was the first line, gave way, unaccountably and discreditably.” The retreat of this handful of men, after first losing one-fifth of their number, does not reflect upon their heroism. General Casey says in his official report,—
“In my humble opinion, from what I witnessed on the 31st, I am convinced that the stubborn and desperate resistance of my division saved the army on the right of the Chickahominy from a severe repulse, which might have resulted in a disastrous defeat. The blood of the gallant dead would cry to me from the ground on which they fell, fighting for their country, had I not said what I have to vindicate them from the unmerited aspersions which have been cast upon them.”
It is gratifying to be able to add that General McClellan subsequently owned that he had been mistaken in this particular, and did justice to those brave soldiers.
Five thousand men in an almost open field could do but little to repel the advance of two divisions of the enemy, each numbering 16,000 men. Onward the rebels marched, till within a few yards of Stuart’s battery, when the brave artillerists delivered their last fire, before, at their commander’s order, they retired. The Federals now retreated about a quarter of a mile, toward their second line; and the rebels having paused to secure the captured cannon, again advanced, still pouring in, upon the retreating Union troops, volley after volley of bullets and shells. But the latter maintained their ground for upwards of three hours, without a single regiment arriving to their assistance. After a short conflict, of awful fierceness, the rebels succeeded in taking the redoubt; and General Casey’s devoted little band, fearfully mutilated, exhausted and bleeding, retreated through General Couch’s troops drawn up in line half a mile behind them; and thus sheltered, once more reformed their wasted, broken ranks.