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Fitzhugh Lee, General Lee, Chapter 7: Atlantic coast defenses.-assigned to duty in Richmond as commander in chief under the direction of the Southern President. (search)
nited States. Prince John, as he was called, occupied a strong position from river to river. The embarkation of McClellan's troops began on March 17th, and he left in person on April 1st, reaching Fortress Monroe on the afternoon of the 2d. When he arrived fifty-eight thousand men and one hundred guns had preceded him. Magruder was a short distance in his front with eleven thousand men. His left was at Yorktown, on York River, and his line of battle extended along the Warwick River to Mulberry Island, on the James, where his right rested. Gloucester Point, opposite Yorktown, projects well out into the river. Fortifications had been constructed there, and it was expected that the guns at that point as well as those at Yorktown by crossfire could prevent the passage of the Federals up York River in any attempt to reach the Confederate rear. It will be remembered that when the British held Yorktown over a century ago they also fortified and held Gloucester Point, and to it, at on
Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 2., Chapter 14: movements of the Army of the Potomac.--the Monitor and Merrimack. (search)
g Bethel, at positions in front of Howard's and Young's Mills, and at Ship Point, on the York River. But when he perceived the strong force gathered at Fortress Monroe, he felt too weak to make a stand on his proposed line, and he prepared to receive McClellan on a second line, on Warwick River. He left a small body of troops on his first line and at Ship Point, and distributed his remaining force along a front of about thirteen miles. At Yorktown, on Gloucester Point opposite, and on Mulberry Island, on the James River, This was sometimes called Mulberry Point, for it is not actually an island now, the channel between it and the former main having been closed. he placed fixed garrisons, amounting in the aggregate to six thousand men, so that along a line of thirteen miles in front of McClellan's great army, there were only about five thousand Confederate soldiers behind incomplete earth-works. General McClellan estimated Magruder's force at from fifteen thousand to twenty thous
Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 2., Chapter 15: the Army of the Potomac on the Virginia Peninsula. (search)
ield) was about 100,000. The commanding General seems to have been singularly uninformed or misinformed concerning the country before him, during this campaign. He refused to receive information from the loyal negroes, preferring to take the testimony of Confederate prisoners. He officially declared that information concerning the forces and position of the enemy was vague and untrustworthy, and when he commenced his march up the Peninsula, he did not know, he says, whether so-called Mulberry Island was a real island, or which was the true course of the Warwick River across the Peninsula, or that the Confederates had fortifications along that stream. See McClellan's Report, page 74. Experts on both sides (among them several of McClellan's Generals) declared their belief that,. had the fugitives been promptly and vigorously pursued the next morning, the National army might easily have followed them right into Richmond; See Report of the Committee on the Conduct of the War, i. 20
Horace Greeley, The American Conflict: A History of the Great Rebellion in the United States of America, 1860-65: its Causes, Incidents, and Results: Intended to exhibit especially its moral and political phases with the drift and progress of American opinion respecting human slavery from 1776 to the close of the War for the Union. Volume II., chapter 6 (search)
ed in these numbers. Gen. J. B. Magruder, at Yorktown, watched this ominous gathering in his front at the head of a Rebel force officially reported by limn at 11,000 in all: 6,000 being required to garrison Gloucester Point, Yorktown, and Mulberry Island; leaving but 5,000 available for the defense of a line of 13 miles. Gen. McClellan says his information placed Magruder's command at 15,000 to 20,000 men, aside from Gen. Huger's force at Norfolk, estimated by him at 20,000. Feeling the imp so! was the sudden exclamation of Gen. Magruder, in sympathy with the gallant suggestion. The resolution demonstrated a remarkable heroism and spirit. Our little force was adroitly extended over a distance of several miles, reaching from Mulberry Island to Gloucester Point, a regiment being posted here and there, in every gap plainly open to observation, and on other portions of the line the men being posted at long intervals, to give the appearance of numbers to the enemy. Had the weaknes
General Joseph E. Johnston, Narrative of Military Operations During the Civil War, Letters. (search)
act that, after the Army of Northern Virginia arrived at the vicinity of Yorktown, application was made to have stopped the supplies from Richmond, except upon my requisition. Very few stores were at the post of Yorktown, and transports could not with safety reach the post. A portion of the troops drew regularly from Yorktown. Provisions for the regular supply were hauled in wagons from King's-Mill Landing on James River. A few days' supply for a division was kept upon a sloop near Mulberry Island. The reserve for the army was kept at Williamsburg, and issued to the troops as they passed. And the best evidence of no loss at this main depot is the fact that the last divisions were unable to get a day's rations. The small depot at Gloucester Point lost little or nothing. The meat from there came to the army at Baltimore Cross-roads. Small amount, at Jamestown Island, not removed, of little value. To sum up, then: the amount of loss sustained by the department by the withdr
Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Poetry and Incidents., Volume 2. (ed. Frank Moore), chapter 242 (search)
A runaway slave's testimony.--The following is the verbatim testimony of Luis Herod, a slave, who came into camp at Newport News, Va., June 24: I was 22 years this last April 15th gone; I was borned in Mulberry Island; my massa's name was John Green, sir; he has been gone now, reckon about four weeks; he is now in Yorktown; he was a real bad man; he has licked me dyvers a time; he always licked me wid a cowhide, made out a cow's skin; he went away telling us colored folks dat dese ere dam Yankees were coming to work us like mules, and dat we must hoe his corn and stay by de old home; I stayed dare four weeks after massa quit; day geb us only two pounds of meat, and a peck oa meal to feed us a week, and lick us hard at dat; I was in Yorktown week afore last to see my mass', me and six more oa de boys, and day put us to work cutting hay for de horses; I worked in Yorktown on de fort dare; found it warry hard; I reckon ‘bout hundred warry poor white folks worked wid me and us od
Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 3. (ed. Frank Moore), Doc. 209. fight with the Patrick Henry (search)
Doc. 209. fight with the Patrick Henry Official report by her Commander. Confederate States steamer Patrick Henry, off Mulberry Island, James River, Va., Dec. 2, 1861. sir: Since the 18th of November the enemy have accumulated at Newport News several small gunboats and armed tugs. Learning that they were in the habit of sending several of these gunboats up the river at night, and withdrawing them in the morning, induced me to take the first favorable opportunity to surprise arid attack them. This morning being dark and suitable for the enterprise, I left our anchorage, off Mulberry Island, at four o'clock A. M., and proceeded cautiously down the river, all lights carefully concealed. I regret, however, to say, that I was disappointed in not finding the steamers as high up the river as I expected. At early daylight we discovered four steamers anchored in line, this side of the frigates, but in supporting distance of them, and the battery at Newport News. We rounded t
Rebellion Record: a Diary of American Events: Documents and Narratives, Volume 9. (ed. Frank Moore), chapter 77 (search)
o action, required, that in the absence of all signals, each commanding officer was to exercise his own judgment and discretion in doing all the damage he could to the enemy, and to sink before surrendering. From the bearing of those officers, on the eighth, I am fully satisfied that that order would have been carried out. Commander Tucker speaks highly of all under him, and desires particularly to notice that Lieutenant-Colonel Cadwallader, St. George Noland, commanding the post at Mulberry Island, on hearing of the deficiency in the complement of the Patrick Henry, promptly offered the services of ten of his men as volunteers for the occasion, one of whom, George E. Webb, of the Greenville Guards, Commander Tucker regrets to say, was killed. Lieutenant Commanding Barney reports every officer and man on board of the ship performed his whole duty, evincing a courage and fearlessness worthy of the cause for which we are fighting. Lieutenant Commanding Webb specially notices t
The Photographic History of The Civil War: in ten volumes, Thousands of Scenes Photographed 1861-65, with Text by many Special Authorities, Volume 5: Forts and Artillery. (ed. Francis Trevelyan Miller), Defending the citadel of the Confederacy (search)
. On June 14th, General Lee reported to Governor Letcher that the work on the redoubts which had been projected was going on so slowly that he deemed it his duty to call the governor's attention to the matter. Lee had, during the previous month, taken the precaution to fortify the James River below the mouth of the Appomat-tox, by having works erected on the site of old Fort Powhatan, about twelve miles below the confluence of the two rivers, and at Jamestown Island, Hardin's Bluff, Mulberry Island, and Day's Point. In July, 1861, the citizens of Richmond were aroused to their patriotic duty of helping in the fortification of the city, and, by formal resolution of a committee on defenses, proposed that the city bear its proportionate share of the expense, and that their officers consult with those of the general Government as to the strength and location of the works. It was decided to employ the services of such free negroes as would be available in the city, under the superi
Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 7. (ed. Reverend J. William Jones), Battle of Hampton roads--Confederate official reports. (search)
into action, required that in the absence of all signals, each commanding officer was to exercise his own judgment and discretion in doing all the damage he could to the enemy, and to sink before surrendering. From the bearing of those officers on the 8th, I am fully satisfied that that order would have been carried out. Commander Tucker speaks highly of all under him, and desires particularly to notice that Lieutenant-Colonel Cadwallader Saint George Noland, commanding the post at Mulberry island, on hearing of the deficiency in the complement of the Patrick Henry, promptly offered the services of ten of his men as volunteers for the occasion--one of whom, George E. Webb, of the Greenville guards, Commander Tucker regets to say, was killed. Lieutenant-Commanding Barney reports every officer and man on board of the ship performed his whole duty, evincing a courage and fearlessness worthy of the cause for which we are fighting. Lieutenant-Commanding Webb specially notices th
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