Battle of Williamsburg

“ How crowded with great events that are history now. Let us glance at it : When our forces fell back from Manassas in 1801, his batteries had their part in covering the movement, and guarding the fords of the Rappahannock. During the campaign of the Peninsula, his Blakely was as a sentinel on post next tho enemy; and at the battle of Williamsburg his courage and skill transformed raw militia into veterans. ”

“ The battle in front of Williamsburg was fought in terrible weather, the whole country flooded by the rains, the roads almost impassable for artillery, and the troops "wading in mud and slush," as General Hill expressed it. On the morning of the 5th, Longstreet held the forts and line in front of Williamsburg. Anderson's South Carolina brigade, commanded by Col. Micah Jenkins, was stationed in Fort Magruder, and in the redoubts and breastworks to the right and left of the fort. This brigade was composed of the Palmetto sharpshooters, Lieut.-Col. Joseph Walker; Fourth battalion, Maj. ”

“ General McClellan was at Yorktown during most of the day to see several of the divisions of his army aboard the transports for his proposed flanking and rear move up York River. Upon receiving advice that the Williamsburg engagement was serious and unsatisfactory, he hastened to the battle with the divisions of Sedgwick and Richardson, which he had expected to send up the river.
There were about nine thousand Confederates and twelve thousand Union troops engaged. The Confederate casualties were 1565 ”

“ With the courage born of the desperateness of the situation the citizens of Williamsburg set about repairing the devastation wrought by the invader. Wrecked homes and desolated families followed fast in the wake of the British army. From field and hills the militia assembled to repel their approach, leaving the crops to the care of the men too old for service, the women who bravely shouldered tasks too heavy for delicate frames, and the few negroes who remained faithful to their owners. ”

“ We hurry purposely past the affair of Williamsburg which followed, to say a few words of the battle of Fair Oaks, the first great general action of the campaign, fought May 30 and 31. The Confederates here first showed that fierceness in the offensive which became the characteristic of their Virginian army, and crushed, though they did not destroy, as had been hoped at Richmond, the left wing of their enemy, on which the chief assault was directed. But they were sorely discouraged by the loss of their general, who was badly wounded at the very crisis of the day ”

“ We have militia still in front of our right and left, and a good look out on the river. Our provisions may come to the capital landing. Williamsburg and its strong buildings are in our front. I have upon the lines General Muhlenberg with one thousand men, four hundred of whom are Virginian regulars, and one hundred dragoons. In borrowing White's unequipped horses we may add one hundred hussars. ”

“ Soon some thousands of armed men made ready to march to the capital to demand the restoration of the gunpowder. On Tuesday, the 25th of April, the independent company of Fredericksburg notified their colonel, George Washington, that, with his approbation, they would be prepared to start for Williamsburg on the following Saturday, “properly accoutred as light-horsemen,” and in conjunction with “any other bodies of armed men who” might be “willing to appear in support of the honor of Virginia.” ”

“ Seldom has so small a force as that of Jackson (approximately 16,000) so largely influenced the final outcome of a major military operation.
Johnston, in the meantime, had reinforced Magruder at Yorktown. On May 4 the town was evacuated, and the next day a successful rearguard action was fought at Williamsburg, covering the Confederate withdrawal to Richmond. The Federal army followed by land and water to White House on the Pamunkey where, on May 16, McClellan set up his headquarters. The next day the Federal forces resumed their advance on Richmond. ”

“ See—as the annual round returns the phantoms return, It is the 27th of August and the British have landed, The battle begins and goes against us, behold through the smoke Washington's face, The brigade of Virginia and Maryland have march'd forth to intercept the enemy, They are cut off, murderous artillery from the hills plays upon them, Rank after rank falls, while over them silently droops the flag, Baptized that day in many a young man's bloody wounds, In death, defeat, and sisters', mothers' tears. ”

“ But while the soldiers were neglected, and the assembly faltered, and the militia disobeyed, the French and Indians kept at work on the long, exposed frontier. There panic reigned, farmhouses and villages went up in smoke, and the fields were reddened with slaughter at each fresh incursion. Gentlemen in Williamsburg bore these misfortunes with reasonable fortitude, but Washington raged against the abuses and the inaction, and vowed that nothing but the imminent danger prevented his resignation. ”

“ Around the junction massive fortifications had been erected running out in different directions from the station. Through the embrasures of these earthworks the muzzles of heavy cannon pointed menacingly toward Washington. Acres of trees had been felled to give free range to artillery, and at key positions along the front men were constantly on guard at their battle stations. Camps had sprung up like mushrooms in the open countryside, and here troops in and out of uniform could be seen almost incessantly engaged in drill. ”

“ The British lost twenty men killed and wounded; but, charging, put the militia to flight.
Arnold sending a detachment ashore at Fort Hoods, a skirmish ensued with two hundred and forty men in ambuscade, under Colonel George Rogers Clarke. The enemy lost seventeen killed and thirteen wounded at the first fire, when Clarke being charged, found it necessary to retreat. John Marshall was present at this affair. The enemy dismantled the fort and carried off the heavy artillery. Nelson, in the mean time, by a forced march, reached Williamsburg just before the fleet came to off Jamestown. ”

“ Magruder was assailed by some five thousand Yankees at Bethel, on the Peninsula. His force was about nine hundred; but he was behind intrenchments. We lost but one man killed and five wounded. The enemy’s loss is several hundred. That road to Richmond is a hard one to travel! But I learn there is a panic about Williamsburg. Several young men from that vicinity have shouldered their pens and are applying for clerkships in the departments. But most of the men of proper age in the literary institutions are volunteering in defense of their native land. ”

“ The British loss was five officers wounded, and seventy-five privates killed and wounded. ****
The Americans, under La Fayette, remained in the vicinity of Williamsburg until the arrival of the combined armies, nearly two months afterward, on their way to besiege Cornwallis at Yorktown. b Dec 20, 1848 I arrived at Williamsburg at noon, (b) and proceeded immediately to search out the interesting localities of that ancient and earliest incorporated town in Virginia. They are chiefly upon the main street, a broad avenue pleasantly shaded, and almost as quiet as a rural lane. ”

“ Skirmishes and contact with the militia would arouse the men for a brief while, but with the cessation of the excitement, nature would again lift its cry for mercy and plead for sleep for man and beast.
And so on and on and on until the sun was about to hide its face behind the western slopes, and at four o’clock in the afternoon, on the 14th, the column, now struggling and oppressed with both hunger and weariness, reached Williamsburg, Ohio, and camped for the night, and the greatest single cavalry march of the world, composed of as large a force as twenty-five hundred men, was ended. ”

“ Recalling the incidents of his career since his eventful expedition within the rebel lines, there was nothing in his conduct to merit even the notice of his superiors, unless it was what others called his skill and courage in rallying the broken company at Glendale. He had been warmly praised for 188 this act; but he deemed it of little importance, for the memory of Williamsburg cast into the shade anything that had occurred to him since that bloody day.
He was ushered into the presence of the general, who gave him the kindly welcome which he always bestowed upon those of humble rank. ”

“ It is exceedingly difficult of comprehension that, with the numerous troops, artillery, and batteries, which the Confederate journals asserted to be in readiness to repel attack, an invasion which took place in face of the enemy, and was effected over a broad river, with shores readily defensible, should have been unresisted. Here it is said there is a mighty plan, in pursuance of which the United States troops are to be allowed to make their way into Virginia, that they may at some convenient place be eaten up by their enemies ”

“ Dunmore, anticipating the resentment of the people, armed his servants and some Shawnee hostages, and muskets were laid on the floor, loaded and primed, and the captains of the ships of war lying at York were ordered to have in readiness an armed force for the defence of the palace. As soon as these proceedings became known, the Williamsburg volunteers flew to arms, and were with difficulty restrained by Peyton Randolph and Robert C. Nicholas from assaulting the palace and seizing the governor. ”

“ Almost directly in front of his victorious army stretched the intrenchments of Washington but, although he knew something of the panic into which that city had been thrown by the last battle, he had not troops enough to risk assaulting fortifications to the defense of which well-nigh every able-bodied man in the vicinity had been called. The fall of Washington might perhaps have ended the war, but the loss of the neighboring state of Maryland and an attack on some of the Pennsylvania cities, such as Harrisburg and Philadelphia, promised to prove equally effective. ”

“ Everyone knew that the order was to take Nancy at any price, and open the town for the Kaiser to march in, triumphant, as did Louis XIII of France centuries ago. William was said to be waiting with 10,000 men of the Prussian Guard, in the wood of Morel, ready for his moment. Furiously the Germans worked to place their huge cannon on the hills of Doncourt, Bourthecourt, and Rozebois. Villages burned like card houses. Church bells tolled as their towers rocked and fell. Forests blazed, and a rain of bombs poured over the country from clouds of flame and smoke. ”

“ Their principal army, under Washington, was occupied in watching over Pennsylvania and the South. At any rate, it was believed that, in order to oppose the plan intended for the new campaign, the insurgents must risk a pitched battle, in which the superiority of the royalists in numbers, in discipline, and in equipment seemed to promise to the latter a crowning victory. ”

“ Wise’s expedition against Williamsburg; but it was deprecated by our people here, whose families and negroes have been left in that vicinity. They argue that we cannot hold the town, or any portion of the Peninsula in the neighborhood; and when the troops retire, the enemy will subject the women and children to more rigorous treatment, and take all the slaves. ”

“ I The allied American and French armies joined Lafayette at Williamsburg, Virginia, September 25, 1781, and on the 27th there was a besieging army there of sixteen146 thousand men, under the chief command of Washington, assisted by Rochambeau. The British force, about half as numerous, were mostly behind intrenchments at Yorktown. ”

“ If we conceive of an invasion of New York to-day, other than by some devastating fleet, we can at once see that the whole outline of defence as proposed by Washington, until he ordered the retreat, was characteristic of his wisdom and his settled purpose to resist a landing, fight at every ridge, yield only to compulsion, enure his men to face fire, and "make every British advance as costly as possible to the enemy." ”

“ Washington and Rochambeau, with the allied armies, marched against Yorktown from their rendezvous at Williamsburg on September 28. They drove in the British outposts, and began siege operations so promptly and vigorously that the place was completely invested on the thirtieth by a semi-circular line of the allied forces, each wing resting on the York River. The Americans held the right; the French the left. A small body of British at Gloucester, opposite Yorktown, was beset by a force consisting of French dragoons and marines, and Virginia militia. ”

“ The men in terror cast away their guns, and leaving cannon and flags, rushed for the nearest fords of Bull Run. The Confederate cavalry pursued them, while Kemper’s field battery ploughed them through and through with shells. The road to Washington was one surging mass of human beings struggling to get away from the dreadful field of death.
General Jackson’s troops took no part in pursuit except to plant a battery and fire at the fleeing foe, many of whom did not stop until they were safe across the Long Bridge at Washington. ”

“ On Henry Hill, poignant with memories of the previous year, were now assembled Reynolds’ divisions, Sykes’ regulars, and other available troops. With courage and gallantry that matched the crisis of battle, they hurled back repeated Confederate assaults that continued until dark. The successful defense of Henry Hill made possible Pope’s retreat over 36 Bull Run, by the Stone Bridge and other fords, to the strong defenses of the Centreville plateau. ”