Civil War Change of Base Gaines's Mill Savage's Station

Kindle version of vintage magazine article originally published in 1865. Contains great info and illustrations seldom seen in the last 150 years.

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General Butterfield signalized himself greatly on this day by his almost superhuman efforts to beat back the foe. His horse was shot under him. A fragment of a shell struck his hat. His sword was indented by a musket ball. Several of his aids fell at his side. Still, reckless of danger and death, he rallied his heroic men to the most desperate resistance, sharing with them every peril.

The fury of the cannonade was such that clouds of dust plowed up by the balls hung smotheringly over the battle-field. Thus hour after hour the desperate struggle was continued. Every man of the National reserves was at length in action. There was not another musket or another gun which General Porter could bring into the field. And now the rebel reserves, nearly twenty thousand strong, fresh and unbroken, are moving up upon our flank and rear. It is an awful moment. Our troops are worn out, their ammunition nearly exhausted, and the multitudinous foe are about to surround them, cutting off all possibility of retreat. There is a little disorder on the left wing. Some regiments break and retreat. The disorder spreads toward the center. There is no panic, no wild, tumultuous flight. But the intelligent Northern soldiers perceive the hopelessness of continuing the struggle where they are, against such vast inequality of numbers, and they perceive also the folly of allowing themselves to be surrounded. Shouldering their muskets, and disdaining to run, they sullenly retire. The French Princes—the Comte de Paris and the Hun de Chartres—who had nobly drawn their swords to aid us in maintaining that republican liberty which France assisted us in establishing, threw themselves into the thickest of the peril to prevent the retreat from being converted into a rout. The rebels were advancing, assured of perfect victory, and in majestic strength.

"Then," writes the Prince de Joinville, "came the order for the cavalry to charge. I happened at this moment to be near its position. I saw the troopers draw their swords with the sudden and electrical impulse of determination and devotion. As they got into motion I asked a young officer the name of his regiment. ‘The Fifth Cavalry,' he replied, brandishing his sabre with a soldier's pride in his regiment. Unfortunate young man! I saw the same regiment the next day. From the charge of that evening but two officers had returned. He was not one of them."

The patriot charge failed, and the broken squadrons, leaving the ground covered with their slain, were driven back in disorder. There were two batteries alone now left to check the onward sweep of this great billow of war. The gunners continued to load and fire with the utmost rapidity at point-blank range, opening immense gaps at every discharge in the rebel lines. But the foe advanced with courage which even the patriot troops were compelled to respect, notwithstanding the infamy of the rebel cause. The Union artillery horses had all been shot down; the guns were surrounded with the wounded and the dead. The surviving gunners, in the fading twilight, abandoned their pieces and fled. All these guns, twenty-two in number, were lost.

About 5 o'clock General M'Clellan had directed General Sumner, whose corps was at Fair Oaks, to send two brigades to the aid of General Porter, then so sorely pressed. French's and Meagher's were instantly put on the march for the battle-field about five miles distant. They moved at the double-quick. General French, in virtue of seniority, commanded. They met the troops of Porter sternly retiring before the foe. Forcing their way through the dense and broken mass, they ascended a hill and deployed in line of battle near Gaines's Mill.