Stonewall Jackson was in the Shenandoah Valley and the rest of the Confederate troops were east and north of Richmond. In front General McClellan’s army was encamped, a hundred thousand strong, about the Chickahominy River preparing for a regular siege of the Confederate capital. His army was unassailable from the front, and he had a small force at Mechanicsville and a much larger force farther back at Beaver Dam Creek.
A Confederate conference was called. Longstreet suggested that Jackson be called down from the Valley to the rear of the Federal right, in order to turn the position behind Beaver Dam, and that the rest of the Confederate forces who were to engage in the attack cross the Chickahominy and get ready for action. General Lee then sent General J. E. B. Stuart on his famous ride around McClellan. He made a favorable report of the situation. Upon further conference, the 26th was selected as the day for moving upon the Federal position at Beaver Dam. There was some spirited fighting between the two armies, but the advance of Jackson, which had been some time delayed, made the Federals abandon their position at Beaver Dam. They were closely followed, and were again encountered at Gaines Mill, where battle followed.
Longstreet came up with reserve forces, and was preparing to support Hill, when he was ordered by General Lee to make a demonstration against the Federal left. He threw in three brigades, and for a time the battle raged with great fierceness. General Jackson could not reach the point of attack, and General Lee ordered Longstreet to throw in all the force he could. The position in front of him was very strong. An open field led to a difficult ravine beyond Powhite Creek. From there the ground made a steep ascent, and was covered with trees, slashed timber, and hastily made rifle-trenches. General Whiting came up with two brigades of Jackson’s men. Longstreet’s column of attack then was the brigades of R. H. Anderson and Pickett and the divisions of Law, Hood, and Whiting. They attacked and defeated the Federals on their left and captured many thousand stands of arms, fifty-two pieces of artillery, a large quantity of supplies, and many prisoners, among them General Reynolds, who afterwards fell at Gettysburg.
On the 29th General Lee ascertained that McClellan was marching towards the James, and decided to intercept his forces in the neighborhood of Charles City Cross-Roads. Longstreet was to march to a point below Frayser’s Farm with General A. P. Hill. Holmes was to take up position below on the New Market road; Jackson was to pursue the Federal rear; Huger to attend to the Federal right flank. Thus the Federal rear was to be enveloped and a part of McClellan’s army destroyed. Longstreet found himself in due time in front of General McCall with a division of ten thousand Federals near Frayser’s Farm. Finally artillery firing was heard, which was taken for the expected signal for the beginning of battle, and Longstreet’s batteries replied as the signal that he was ready. While the order was going around to the batteries, President Davis and General Lee, with their staff and followers, were with Longstreet in a little open field near the firing lines, but not in sight of the Federals.
The Federal batteries opened up spitefully. They did not know of the distinguished Confederates near by, yet a battery had by chance their exact range and distance, and poured a terrific fire in their midst. The second or third shell killed two or three horses and wounded several men. The little party speedily retired to safer quarters. Longstreet sent Colonel Micah Jenkins to silence the Federal battery with his long-range rifles. He charged the battery, and that brought on a general fight between Longstreet’s division and the troops in front. The Federal lines were broken and a number of batteries taken. At points during the day McCall several times regained his lost position. He was finally pushed back. At length McCall’s division was driven off and fresh troops came to the Federal relief. Ten thousand men of A. P. Hill’s division, held in reserve, were now brought into action.
About dark General McCall, while looking up a fragment of his division, ran into Longstreet’s arms and was taken prisoner. General Lee was there at the time. Longstreet had served with McCall in the old Fourth Infantry, and offered his hand as McCall dismounted. The Federal general did not regard this as an occasion for renewing old friendships, and he was promptly offered an escort of Longstreet’s staff to take him to Richmond.
MARCH AGAINST POPE AND THE SECOND MANASSAS
Even as early as 1862 the Union army had been using balloons to examine the position of the Confederates, and even that early, the scanty resources of the Confederates made the use of balloons a luxury that could not be afforded. While gazing enviously upon the handsome balloons of the Federals floating serenely at a distance that their guns could not reach, a Confederate genius suggested that all the silk dresses in the Confederacy be got together and made into balloons. This was done, and soon a great patch-work ship of many and varied hues was ready for use. There was no gas except in Richmond, and so the silk-dress balloon had to be inflated there, tied to an engine, and carried to where it was to be sent up. One day it was on a steamer down the James River, when the tide went out and left the vessel and balloon on a sand-bar. The Federals gathered it in, and with it the last silk dress in the Confederacy. General Longstreet used to say, laughingly, that this was the meanest trick of the war.
When General Pope came down into Virginia as Federal commander-in-chief, with the double purpose of drawing McClellan away from Westover and checking the advance of the new enemy approaching from Washington, General Lee sent Stonewall Jackson to Gordonsville and ordered General Longstreet to remain near Richmond to engage McClellan if he should attempt an advance on that city. On the 9th of August, 1862, Jackson encountered the Federals near Cedar Mountain and repulsed them at what is known as the battle of Cedar Run. About five o’clock in the afternoon of this fight the Federals, by a well-executed move, were pressing the Confederates back, when the opportune approach of two brigades converted seeming defeat into victory. The Federals were more numerous than the Confederates, and Jackson deemed it unwise to follow in pursuit, so the Confederates retired behind the Rapidan to await the arrival of General Lee with other forces.