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Browsing named entities in Varina Davis, Jefferson Davis: Ex-President of the Confederate States of America, A Memoir by his Wife, Volume 2. You can also browse the collection for May 31st or search for May 31st in all documents.

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Varina Davis, Jefferson Davis: Ex-President of the Confederate States of America, A Memoir by his Wife, Volume 2, Chapter 26: the gun-boats in the James River-battle of seven Pines. (search)
e fight and are victorious, we can all soon meet again. If the enemy retreat to protect Washington, of which there are vague reports, I can probably visit you. In the meantime the enemy moved up, and finding the crossing at Bottom Bridge undefended, on the 25th threw a corps across the Chickahominy. He afterward added another corps, and commenced fortifying a line to Seven Pines. Mr. Davis continued his narration in The Rise and fall of the Confederacy: In the forenoon of May 31st, riding out on the New Bridge road, I heard firing in the direction of Seven Pines. As I drew nearer, I saw General Whiting, with part of General Smith's division, file into the road in front of me; at the same time I saw General Johnston ride across the field from a house before which General Lee's horse was standing. I turned down to the house, and asked General Lee what the musketry firing meant. He replied by asking whether I had heard it, and was answered in the affirmative; he sai
Varina Davis, Jefferson Davis: Ex-President of the Confederate States of America, A Memoir by his Wife, Volume 2, Chapter 27: Jackson in the Valley. (search)
he loyal States for militia to defend the city. Jackson pressed eagerly on to disperse the garrisons at Charlestown and Harper's Ferry. General Winder's brigade drove the enemy in disorder from Charlestown toward the Potomac. When in the vicinity of Harper's Ferry, General Jackson, with an effective force of about fifteen thousand men, much less than either of the two armies under Shields and Fremont that were marching to intercept him, by a forced march, arrived on the night of May 31st at Strasburg, and learned that General Fremont's advance was in the immediate vicinity. General Ewell held Fremont in check with so little difficulty that General Taylor described it as offering a temptation to make a serious attack upon Fremont's whole army. Ashby, vigilant and enterprising, soon perceived this, and pointing it out to Ewell, asked for infantry to attack the pursuing party so as to destroy them before their supports could get up. This force was given to him, and just
Varina Davis, Jefferson Davis: Ex-President of the Confederate States of America, A Memoir by his Wife, Volume 2, Chapter 29: seven days battles around Richmond. (search)
fidence is without a precedent. At the commencement of the war he enjoyed the highest reputation of any officer on the continent. The operations of General Lee in the short campaign which is just over were certainly those of a master. No captain that ever lived could have planned or executed a better campaign. It was perfect in all its parts, and will be set down hereafter as among the models which the military student will be required to study. The army under General Johnston on May 31st, from official reports,. showed an effective strength of 62,696. Deduct the losses sustained in the battle of Seven Pines, as shown by the official reports of casualties, say, 6,084 and we have 56,612 as the number of effectives when General Lee took command of the Army of Northern Virginia. Before the seven days battles around Richmond, reinforcements to the number of 24, 50 were brought to the army, so that at the beginning of the contest with McClellan, Lee had 80,762 effectives