This text is part of:
[167]
Oar victorious army began at once to evacuate, by order,1 the strong position wherein they had just achieved so decided and bloody a success, leaving their dead unburied and many of their wounded to fall into the hands of the enemy; making a hurried and disorderly2 night-march, over roads badly overcrowded, to the next position selected by their commander, at Harrison's Bar, seven miles down the James.
The movement was covered by Keyes's corps, with the cavalry, which did not leave Malvern till after daylight of the 2d.
The last of our wagons was not in place at the new position till tile evening of the 3d, when the rear-guard moved into camp, and the army was at rest.
A small Rebel force had followed our rear-guard, and this day threw a few shells; but was soon driven off by the response of our batteries and gunboats.
Gen. McClellan reports the aggregate losses of his army in the Seven Days fighting and retreating, from
1 Even Fitz-John Porter's devotion to his chief was temporarily shaken by this order, which elicited his most indignant protest.
2 Gen. Hooker, when examined before the Committee on the Conduct of tile War, testified with regard to this affair as follows:
Ques.: Were you in the battle of Malvern? Answer: Yes, sir; and at that place we won a great victory. Q.: Could you have gone into Richmond after that fight? A.: I have no doubt we could. The day before, I had had a fight at Glendale; and, under the orders. I had to leave my wounded behind me, and I left two surgeons to take care of them. The enemy, in coming to Malvern, had to march right by my hospital. My surgeons afterward reported to me that, about 3 P. M. on the day of the battle of Malvern, the enemy commenced falling back, and kept it up all night; that they were totally demoralized. many of the men going off into the woods and trying to conceal themselves from their officers; and that they were two days collecting their forces together. Q.: Had the defeat of the enemy at Malvern been followed up by our whole force, what would have been the probable result? A.: Richmond would have been ours beyond a doubt. Q.: Instead of that, you fell back to Harrison's Landing? A. : Yes, sir. We were ordered to retreat; and it was like the retreat of a whipped army. We retreated like a parcel of sheep; everybody on the road at the same time: and a few shots from the Rebels would have panic-stricken the whole command.
Hartford. Published by O. D. Chase and Company. 1866.
Tufts University provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.