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[531] being now fully disclosed, Lee rapidly re-enforced to meet this menace, and success was already very problematical. New dispositions were, however, made on the 14th. On the following day General Birney was directed to find the enemy's left flank and turn it, Gregg's cavalry covering the movement on the right; but he did not conduct his operations sufficiently to the left, and nothing was accomplished that day. On the morning of the 16th, Birney1 made a direct attack, with the division of Terry, and succeeded in carrying the line, capturing three colors and two or three hundred prisoners; but the enemy soon rallied and recovered the position. In connection with Birney's operation, Gregg's mounted division, and an infantry brigade under General Miles, were sent to operate on the Charles City road. Gregg's advance was spirited, and he succeeded in driving the enemy before him for a considerable distance—the Confederate General Chambliss being killed in the skirmish. Fresh forces during the afternoon assailed Gregg, however, who retired, fighting, to Deep Creek, across which he was afterwards driven. In Birney's front the enemy showed so strong a force that a renewal of the attack was deemed impracticable. During the night of the 16th a fleet of steamers was sent from City Point to Deep Bottom, returning at four A. M. on the following morning—the object being to convey the impression to the enemy that the expeditionary force was withdrawing, and induce him to come out of his works and attack. This ruse was not successful.
1 During the night the greater part of General Birney's command was massed in rear of the position occupied by General Barlow. The line from the New Market and Malvern Hill road, at a point designated on the map as the ‘Potteries,’ to the extreme right, was held by a thin skirmish line only. One of General Mott's best brigades, under Colonel Craig (One Hundred and Fifth Pennsylvania Volunteers), was sent to General Birney. The remainder of Mott's division was massed in rear of his picket-line, except a small force left at the ‘Potteries.’ Gibbon's division (temporarily under Colonel Smythe) was also massed in rear of the skirmish line, and Barlow's division was con centrated near the fork of the Darby and Long Bridge roads.
1866.
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