Edward Porter Alexander, Military memoirs of a Confederate: a critical narrative

Before sundown Johnston recognized that his attack was a failure, and he was about to arrange that his troops should sleep on their arms and renew the fight at dawn, when he received two wounds. The first was a flesh wound in the shoulder from a musket ball, and the second, a few moments later, was a blow in the chest from a heavy fragment of shell, knocking him from his horse. He was placed in an ambulance and started toward his headquarters, but suffered such pain from the motion caused by the fearful roads that a litter had to be substituted. He was incapacitated for service until the middle of November, when he was assigned to the principal command of the Army in the West.

G. W. Smith succeeded Johnston in the command, and the action of the next day is therefore to be called ‘Smith's Battle.’ It is sometimes stated in Confederate accounts, that this day offered the Confederates their best opportunity to crush the enemy, because it is supposed that the Chickahominy was now entirely impassable. This is a mistake. The railroad bridge had been repaired and covered with plank, and was always available for infantry and for horses, though not for vehicles. By 8 A. M., June 1, the Federal engineers had built a pontoon bridge at the site of the New Bridge, but it was under Confederate fire, and the approaches to it were impassable during the flood. By noon Sumner's upper bridge was again practicable for infantry, and by dark the lower one. By morning, June 1, therefore, the Federal army was practically safe from any Confederate attack. It had six divisions on the ground and a good line of battle, extending across the railroad nearly parallel to the Nine Mile