Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. SOUTH CAROLINIANS IN VIRGINIA?BATTLE OF WIL- LIAMSBURG ?ELTHAM’S LANDING ?SEVEN PINES AND FAIR OAKS?NINE-MILE ROAD?GAINES’ MILL ?SAVAGE STATION?FRAYSER’S FARM?MALVERN HILL. IN Virginia, Gen. George B. McClellan had been placed in command of the great army which he had fully organized, and his headquarters had been established at Fort Monroe early in April, preparatory to his advance upon Richmond by way of the James river and the peninsula. Gen. Joseph E. Johnston commanded the Confederate army for the defense of Richmond, with headquarters at Yorktown, April 17th. Holding Yorktown and the line which ran across the peninsula to the Warwick, until the 4th of May, Johnston retired from Wil- liamsburg. His army, about 53,000 strong, was opposed by McClellan’s splendidly equipped and organized army, estimated by General Johnston at 133,000. It was Johnston’s intention to fall back slowly on the defenses of Richmond, and then, being joined by the division of Huger from Norfolk, and other reinforcements which he expected the Confederate government would order to his army, to give McClellan battle in front of those defenses on more equal terms. Johnston’s army at that time was composed of the divisions of Magruder (commanded by D. R. Jones), Longstreet, D. H. Hill and G. W. Smith. Magruder and Smith had passed beyond Williamsburg on the march to Richmond, and Hill, encumbered with the trains and baggage, was also moving beyond that point, on the afternoon of the 4th, when Longstreet’s rearguard was attacked, in front of Williamsburg, by the Federal advance. This attack was met and checked by two brigades under Brigadier-General McLaws (Semmes’ and Kershaw’s), with Manly’s battery. In this brief history, the writer is confined, by the plan of the work, to the part ta…
