ably, and although they could not venture to CHAP. XV. withdraw troops from Lee at such a time, they "Battles reënforced Beauregard with five thousand men and Leaders." Vol. IV., MS. War and enabled him to attack Butler; while Bragg pp. 197, 199. in a memoradum, dated the 19th, severely condemns the whole plan on the ground that it would involve such delay as to exhaust their subsistence; that it would allow the enemy to strengthen himself by intrenching; that it would involve the fall of Petersburg; that a retreat of sixty Records. miles by General Lee might destroy his army; that it would abandon a territory rich in stores; that it would lose the Valley of Virginia and the Central Railroad; and finally, that it was unnecessary, as Beauregard had already a force of twenty-three thousand men, enough to whip Butler, if properly handled. Beauregard was therefore sharply enjoined to attack. Delay, Mr. Seddon urged, would be fatal. "By Wednesday our fate will in all probability be settled." The Confederate authorities had used the most strenuous exertions to bring troops to Richmond. The answers of some of their generals to their appeals show the strain to which they were subjecting their resources. General Samuel Jones, having been ordered to send a brigade from Florida, says he will obey, but adds, with a simplicity which is full of ominous meaning, "I greatly doubt if one-half of the men ordered will leave Florida, and my order will cause desertions and disorganizations." Ibid. General Beauregard, having refreshed himself with his customary dispute with the Richmond officials, prepared to attack Butler energetically on the morning of the 16th. Butler's forward May, 1864. CHAP. XV. movement had not only been brought to impotence by the heavy force and the strong intrenchments he had given his adversary the leisure to accumulate across his path at Drewry's Bluff; he had also made a faulty disposition of his line, leaving his right unguarded and open to easy approach from the River road. Beauregard's object was, attacking by that side to cut him off from Bermuda Hundred and capture or destroy him. Ransom was to turn his right, Hoke to attack in the center, Colquitt being held in reserve; while Whiting was to come up from Petersburg and strike the rear or left flank. This plan, well combined as it was, had only a partial success. A dense fog confused the movements of both sides. It It gave Ransom the opportunity to strike Smith's right by surprise and to capture General C. A. Heckman and a portion of his brigade; but his front withMay 16, 1864. Stood successfully all the assaults made upon it, and Gillmore was able not only to repulse Hoke's attack upon him but also to send help to Smith. The morning wore on in a blundering series of movements and orders made and countermanded as the fog lifted and fell. Beauregard did not pursue with any effectiveness his early advantage on the right; yet Butler was so impressed by the menace to his rear, that he at last ordered Smith to fall back and Gillmore to keep in connection with him, until about noon they both established themselves firmly across the turnpike and the roads east of it, and kept that position the rest of the day. Whiting took no part in the battle. He was checked by Ames's division at the Walthall Junction, six miles to the south, and as often happened in the course of the war, from atmospheric conditions and the direction CHAP. XV. of the wind, hearing no sound of the fight, and receiving erroneous news of an advance from City Point, he fell back to Swift Creek. It was night before he received Beauregard's order to aid in the advance, dated at 4: 15, and he replied that the hour May 16,1864. was too late for him to act. A furious rainstorm came on in the afternoon, and during the night Butler fell back to Bermuda Hundred. Beauregard reported a loss in this engagement of 2184; that of Butler was 3500, of which 1400 were prisoners, the killed and wounded being almost exactly equal. But the substantial victory was, of course, with Beauregard, though he did not accomplish all he had hoped. He had saved Richmond for the time and had shut up Butler in his intrenchments between the two rivers "as in a bottle strongly corked.” 1 The news of the fruitless ending of the campaign south of the James came to Grant on the 22d of May, while he was moving south from Spotsylvania; and, accepting the situation with his usual decision, he ordered Butler to keep only enough of his army to hold his works, and to send the rest under Smith to join the Army of the Potomac. They began to arrive at the White House about noon of the 30th of May. Beauregard had already received similar orders from Richmond, and Pickett joined Lee at Hanover Junction, while Hoke's division came up in time for Cold Harbor. 1 This phrase in General Grant's cal relations; and second, bereport had a great success, which caused him considerable annoyance; first, because he afterwards became very friendly with General Butler in politi cause it was not original with |