Edward Alfred Pollard, The lost cause; a new Southern history of the War of the Confederates ... Drawn from official sources and approved by the most distinguished Confederate leaders.

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[266] men. McClellan had three corps d'armee in the lines before Yorktown, and had in the field a force of nearly 90,000 infantry, 55 batteries of artillery (making a total of 330 field guns), and about 10,000 cavalry, besides a siege train of 103 guns. This estimate of his force did not include the garrison of Fortress Monroe of about 10,000 men, nor Franklin's division which arrived about the end of April. The commander of this force hesitated before a line of eleven thousand men. His hesitation again saved Richmond. He was again deceived as to the strength of the Confederates. With admirable adroitness Gen. Magruder extended his little force over a distance of several miles, placing a regiment in every gap open to observation, to give the appearance of numbers to the enemy. McClellan took to the spade, and commenced the operation of a regular siege against Yorktown. While he was constructing his parallels, Gen. Johnston moved down to reinforce the Confederate lines of the Peninsula, in time to save Magruder's little force from the pressure of enveloping armies.

McClellan had been deceived twice as to the force in his front. He was to be outwitted twice by the strategy of retreat. Gen. Johnston decided neither to stand a siege nor to deliver a battle at Yorktown. The enemy was in largely superiour force, besides his additional strength in gunboats, and the object was to force him to more equal terms. It was readily seen by Johnston that in falling back to defences already prepared nearer Richmond, and investing the line of the Chickahominy, he would obtain the opportunity of concentrating a large force in front of the capital, besides being unexposed to operations in his rear, which threatened him at Yorktown from McDowell's corps at Fredericksburg. It was the just and sagacious view of the situation, and again the great master of Confederate strategy was to teach the enemy a lesson in the art of war.

Johnston had obtained all the delay he desired in keeping the enemy before his lines; and on the 4th day of May, when McClellan had nearly completed all his parallels, secured communications between the different batteries, and was almost ready to open fire on the town, the news came that the Confederate army had retired.

The whole Federal army was, at once, put in motion to pursue. The Confederate works were left intact, but excepting a few unwieldy columbiads, all ordnance had been carried off. The men made “dummies,” and put them in the embrasures, besides stuffing old clothes to represent sentinels. The pursuing army toiled on through rain falling in torrents, over roads deep in mud, the men straggling, falling out and halting without orders, and artillery, cavalry, infantry and baggage intermingled in apparently inextricable confusion. The scene had much more the appearance of the retreat of a defeated army than the advance of a successful one.

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