THE ELEVENTH MASSACHUSETTS. 409 lows bounded through the driving rain. It was now three o'clock in the afternoon, and for nearly eight hours Hooker's single unconquerable brigade had withstood the whole shock of battle. Help came not a moment too soon. Berry hurled his regiments like a thunderbolt on the foe. The fifth Michigan, receiving the fire that smote them, and too impatient to return it, charged bayonet-clearing a rifle pit with a thrilling shout, and leaving a hundred and forty-three bodies in their fiery path. Kearney immediately after came up, and riding into the thickest of the fire, led his troops forward with irresistible impetuosity. As they advanced, however, they met the long line of ambulances conveying the wounded of Hooker's brigade to the rear, whose groans and cries of distress, joined with the mud and rain, and the exhaustion of the long and terrrible march, were not calculated to produce a favorable impression on them as they were going into action. General Heintzelman saw it and immediately ordered several of the bands to strike up national and martial airs. The effect was electrical, and as the strains of the familiar tunes reached the ears of the wounded as they were carried from the field, their cheers mingled with those of the stout hearted men who were marching past them into battle. Under the sudden inspiration, mud and rain and weariness were forgotten, and with renewed energy they pushed forward to where the deafening explosions told them their companions in arms were facing death. Berry charged furiously on the astonished rebels, and Birney followed, reversing the tide of battle and rolling it on the foe. Hooker's brigade, a portion of which after their ammunition was exhausted, held its position with the bayonet alone, was at last relieved; for Kearney now cleared the crimsoned woods and swept the field. Of the brave regiments which bled so freely this day, none was handled with more skill, or hurled again and again with more irresistible impetuosity on the foe, than the eleventh 410 A BAYONET CHARGE. Massachusetts of Grover's brigade, commanded by Colonel Blaisdell. Like "Le Terrible" of Napoleon's army in Italy, it broke regiment after regiment of the enemy in pieces. Its march was like that of fate, and its charging cheer was the shout of victory. While Hooker was thus breasting the storm on the left, Peck advancing up the road, near York river, came upon the enemy's center in the open space, in which stood fort Magruder. Though exposed to a murderous fire of shot and shell from the fort and the long lines of rifle pits that commanded all the open ground, by keeping the cover of a pine grove, he held his ground the entire day. In the mean time, Hancock had advanced on the extreme right, and crossing a dam, took possession of some deserted earthworks. Late in the afternoon, the enemy anticipating an attack on his extreme wing, by him, moved against him with a heavy force. Fearing that his retreat might be cut off, should his force prove too weak to hold the advanced position, the latter began to fall back slowly and steadily in line of battle, ever presenting a dauntless front to the foe. The rebels, taking this movement for a retreat, and thinking the victory already won, dashed forward, cheering and firing as they came. When Hancock had got all his artillery safe, he halted his brave band, only twenty-five hundred strong. On came the enemy till they were nearly on the top of the sloping ground, and within forty yards of his line. "Fire," rang along the unfaltering ranks, and a swift, deadly volley swept the rebel line. "Charge," followed in quick succession, and with levelled bayonets and leaning forms, the whole mass threw itself forward down the slope. As the gleaming line of steel drove swiftly on, the elated rebels halted, appalled at the sight. One glance at the determined countenances, and that even line of bayonets, moving steady and swift as the inrolling wave, and they broke and fled in dismay. THE FIELD AFTER THE FIGHT. 411 The rebel position was turned by this success, and night having come on, the enemy retreated under cover of darkness. The next morning, our victorious columns marched into Williamsburg with drums beating and colors flying. Enthusiastic shouts rent the air, but they fell all unheeded on the ears of the brave sleepers in the woods and open spaces where the battle had raged the day before. Soaked with rain, and covered with mud, the dead lay in heaps where Hooker had so long and grimly held his ground. Amid the shattered trees, and shivered branches, and mangled horses, and wrecks of the fierce fight-the blood standing in pools around them—they slept the quiet sleep of death. All the dreary night, the soldiers, with torches, had threaded the woods in search of the wounded; still notwithstanding their untiring labors, many the next morning lay where they fell, listening with dull senses to the shouts and triumphant strains of their advancing comrades. It was a dreary sight to see the ambulances slowly moving amid the dripping trees, the drivers carefully picking their way to keep the wheels from passing over the lifeless forms. Our loss in killed, wounded, and missing, was about two thousand, the greater part of which fell on Hooker's brigade. Hancock did not lose over twenty in his brilliant charge, which called forth a warm eulogy from McClellan to the two regiments which made it. While this battle was raging, Franklin was approaching West Point with his troops, to intercept the retreat of the rebel army. It effected a landing, and on Wednesday was attacked by the enemy. A battle followed, in which we lost some two hundred killed and wounded, and a large number of prisoners. Nothing of consequence seemed to have been accomplished by this movement, save the rapid transportation of a large force far in advance, where it could co-operate with McClellan's army. Franklin's division was too weak to attack the whole retreating force of the enemy. CHAPTER XXXII. MAY, 1862. OUR GUN BOATS ASCEND THE JAMES RIVER-SURRENDER OF NORFOLKDESTRUCTION OF THE MERRIMAC-GRATIFICATION OF THE PEOPLE-ATTACK ON FORT DARLING-MC CLELLAN'S ADVANCE ON RICHMOND-BATTLE OF HANOVER COURT HOUSE-THE ROAD OPENED FOR MC DOWELL TO ADVANCE -RICHMOND NOT TO BE TAKEN UNLESS HE DOES-DISSATISFACTION AND UNREASONABLENESS OF THE PUBLIC-A DEAR EXPERIMENT OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR. W HILE our army was chasing the flying enemy towards Richmond, important events were passing in the region of its long encampment before Yorktown. The day after the battle at West Point, the Galena, and two other gun boats, passed the batteries on the James river, and began to feel their way towards Richmond. towards Richmond. Two days after, General Wool, with five thousand men, effected a landing at Willoughby point, and advanced on Norfolk. The rebel General, Huger, had evacuated it when it was decided to abandon Yorktown, and it was left defenseless. On the approach of our forces, a delegation from the city came out to meet them, and the place, which had been the great depot for the supply of heavy ordnance for the rebels, fell into our hands without firing a shot. It actually fell with Yorktown, for after that event it was entirely cut off from help. The tak ing it with an armed force, therefore, was a mere matter of form, though a part of the public made a laughable attempt to convert it into a brilliant military exploit of the President himself, who happened to be at fortress Monroe at the time. The fate of the Merrimac was also sealed with the fate of Yorktown; for she was totally unfit for the sea, while her THE MERRIMAC BLOWN UP. 413 draft of water was too great to allow her to go up to Richmond. It therefore occasioned no surprise, to hear that she had been blown up by her crew. Wool entered Norfolk on Saturday. The same night, this rebel craft, which had caused us so much damage, was set on fire. She presented a grand spectacle in her ignominious death. When she was fairly aflame, she lighted up the tranquil waters of the bay for miles around and wrapped in her fiery shroud, burned on for hours, till the flames reached the magazine, when her iron ribbed sides burst with the sound of thunder, shaking the shores with the explosion; then she suddenly sunk in the deep, a companion at last to the Cumberland and Congress. The news of her destruction was received with intense satisfaction, not merely because she had sent to the bottom two national vessels with a part of their gallant crews, but her menacing attitude in the waters of the Chesapeake, keeping a whole fleet occupied in watching her motions, irritated the national pride. Her presence there was regarded as a perpetual insult and taunt. Our self rehence there spect demanded that she should be disposed of; was a sort of personal gratification in having her commit suicide. To this, there was added a sense of relief, for no one could exactly measure her power to do mischief, and as long as she was in existence there was a feeling of insecurity. Besides, she being disposed of, left the Galena, Naugatuck, and other vessels, at liberty to go up the James river, and operate against the batteries that lined its banks, and perhaps reach Richmond itself. The rebels, before evacuating Norfolk, destroyed the navy yard, inflicted what injury they could on the granite dry dock, and left as complete a wreck as their time and abil ity would permit. Sewall's Point, and all the other neighboring batteries fell, of course, and a large quantity of heavy ordnance came into our possession. General Viele was ap |