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

[112] each direction. McClellan seemed to have been subconsciously aware that he ought to attack, and that his advantage was being lost by every day's delay; for his reports to Washington represented his army, from day to day, as being only held back from a general advance by waiting for some slight additional advantage, which a day or two would bring.

On June 2, which was his best opportunity, he was only waiting for the water to fall in the Chickahominy. On June 7 he was waiting for McCall's division (about 10,000 strong) which arrived on the 12th and 13th. On June 16 he was waiting for two days to let the ground harden. On June 18 the general engagement might begin at any hour. On June 25 ‘the action will probably occur to-morrow, or within a short time.’ And at last he was right, for Lee began it on the 26th, and during the interval, since June 2, the advantage had shifted from McClellan's side to Lee's.

As the game and the players now stood, the game was Lee's for a great success, — the greatest ever so fairly offered to any Confederate general. His strategy had been good and had been carried through without a flaw. Jackson's entire army, reenforced by Whiting's division and Lawton's brigade, had been brought down secretly from the Valley and, on the night of June 25, was encamped at Ashland within 13 miles of Mechanicsville. It was about 18,500 strong. Meanwhile, Lee had drawn together, available for battle, around Richmond, about 65,000 other troops, and had fortified his lines on the southeast between the Chickahominy and the James, enough to make them quite secure with half his force. McClellan's right flank was but a single corps, Porter's not over 30,000 strong, and separated from the Federal centre by the Chickahominy River and about four miles of distance. Under these circumstances, with even fairly good tactics, Porter's corps should have been practically destroyed, and with it the Federal line of supply from the York River. That once accomplished, the capture or destruction of the remainder of McClellan's army, during their retreat to the James River, would have been an easier task than the first.

All this was in the game which Lee set out to play on June 26, and the stakes were already his if his execution were even half as