Terrible Swift Sword by Bruce Catton

Author:Bruce Catton [Catton, Bruce]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
ISBN: 978-0-307-83306-8
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2013-04-09T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIVE

Turning Point

1: The Signs of the Times

There had been a good deal of artillery fire along the Yorktown lines during the night, and there had also been a good deal of rain, but both died out before dawn; and although the morning of May 4 was undeniably damp it was strangely and disturbingly silent. Joe Johnston had gone, leaving empty trenches, a number of abandoned cannon, and a set of live shells with trip-wires attached buried in the works to discourage Yankee patrols. Although his retreating army moved slowly in the heavy mud it had plenty of time. The Army of the Potomac had at last made itself ready to bombard—it had, this morning, forty-eight heavy guns and mortars in six prepared batteries, and a few of these had already opened fire—but it was not ready to pursue. The situation was both pleasing and embarrassing.

General McClellan sent a wire to the War Department announcing that he now possessed Yorktown, and when Secretary Stanton sent congratulations, spiced with the remark that he hoped soon to hear that General McClellan had taken Richmond as well, the general replied that “our success is brilliant,” said that its effects would be of great importance, and declared that he would pursue with fervor and would in fact “push the enemy to the wall.”1

The rain began afresh, the bad roads grew worse, and the army’s advance guard went with difficulty toward Williamsburg, where the Confederate rear guard might possibly be overtaken. The rear guard, it developed, was waiting, protected by a series of modest field fortifications, and on May 5 there was a savage, costly, and rather pointless battle which went on until twilight, at which time the Confederates resumed their retreat. The Union Army lost some 2200 men, the Confederates lost perhaps 1700, and the battle might as well not have been fought except that it gave part of each army some combat experience, which may conceivably have been worth the price paid. McClellan was in Yorktown during the fight, embarking troops to go to the head of the York River, and before the day ended Johnston went riding up the peninsula to prepare to meet such a move, and to a large extent the battle fought itself.2

President Lincoln, meanwhile, was getting busy.

It struck him now that when the Confederates lost Yorktown and the peninsula they also lost all chance to hold Norfolk, and if they lost Norfolk they would automatically lose that fearsome ironclad, Virginia, whose existence had made it impossible for McClellan to use the James River; and so on May 6 the President came down the Chesapeake accompanied by Secretary Stanton and Secretary Chase and went into conference with Flag Officer Goldsborough and with Major General John E. Wool, Army commander at Fort Monroe. In his original campaign plan McClellan had remarked that Norfolk would fall when Richmond fell, which was true enough, but Mr. Lincoln did not want to wait that long and so he was on the scene to try his own hand at running a campaign.

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