“
[
385]
battles to fight before reaching
Richmond.”
At
Williamsburg the pursuit really ended, and
Johnston was permitted to place the
Chickahominy and its malarious borders between himself and his tardy opponent.
The flank movement up the
York was not commenced in time to perform its intended service as such.
Franklin's long waiting division was not dispatched for that purpose until the day of the
battle at Williamsburg, when it was debarked at
Yorktown and re-embarked.
It arrived at the head of
York that night, and on the following morning
Newton's brigade landed and took position on a plain of a thousand acres of open land, on the right bank of the
Pamunkey, one of the streams that form the
York river.
1 Within twenty-fours hours afterward
Franklin's whole division had encamped there, and gun-boats had quietly taken possession of
West Point, between the
|
Vests House.2 |
two rivers, and the
National flag was unfurled over that little village, from which every white person had fled.
In the mean time
General Dana had arrived with a part of
Sedgwick's division, but remained on the transports.
The divisions of
Richardson and
Porter soon followed.
No signs of Confederate troops appeared at first, but that night one of
Franklin's vedettes was shot near the woods that bordered the edge of the plain.
On the following morning a considerable force of Confederates was seen, when
Dana landed, and the Sixteenth, Thirty-first, and Thirty-second New York, and the Ninety-fifth and Ninety-sixth Pennsylvania, were ordered to drive from the woods what was supposed to be a body of scouts lurking there in front of a few Confederate regiments.
They pushed into the forest and were met by
Whiting's division and other troops, forming the rear-guard of
Johnston's retreating forces, when a spirited engagement began, chiefly by
Hood's Texas brigade and
Hampton's (
South Carolina) Legion, on the part of the
Confederates.
The contest was continued for three or four hours, when the cannon on the gun-boats, and batteries that were speedily landed, drove the foe from their shelter in the woods, and kept them at bay. In this encounter the Nationals lost one hundred and ninety-four men, mostly of the Thirty-first and Thirty-Second New York.
The loss of the
Confederates was small.
The National force now at the head of
York was sufficient to hold it firmly, as a secure base of supplies for the Army of the Potomac.
As we have observed,
McClellan's pursuit of
Johnston nearly ended at
Williamsburg, where his sick and wounded were placed in the buildings