Saturday, May 5, 2012

5th.—At 10 o’clock last night, I left the front line of battle, withdrew about half a mile, laid down on the ground by the side of a negro house, and about 2 this A. M., was made amusingly conscious of the fact, that underneath the eve of a roof is not a pleasant place to pillow one’s head during a heavy rain. I was not in the least thirsty. I crawled into a cellar near by, laid upon the damp brick floor, with my wet blanket over me, fell asleep and dreamed I was a “toad and fed upon the vapors of a dungeon.” But I was not a toad, though I own up to the vapors a little in the morning.

Detached from my regiment this morning to establish and organize a large army hospital at Whittaker’s. * * * *

It has been a bloody day. A battle has been fought and our enemy driven; but we have suffered terribly. About 7 A. M., Generals Hooker and Heintzleman came upon Fort Magruder, with our left wing. The enemy came out and met us. He seemed eager for the fray, which we had supposed he was running to avoid. He seemed determined and confident in his strength and position. Falling on Sickles’ Brigade, he decimated it at once. By noon, the battle on our left wing became general. General Hooker lost twelve guns, and by three o’clock our left wing was whipped and retreating in confusion.

At this time General McClellan, who, for some reason unknown to me, had been in the rear, was coming up, and met our flying battalions. By the active aid of his staff and a large escort, he succeeded in rallying our defeated army. He ordered up reinforcements, and sent them back to the field, where, though they could not drive the enemy, they maintained their ground. They retook Hooker’s lost guns, and captured one from the enemy. General Peck’s Brigade suffered severely, but he held them to the fight. The headquarters of the army and the large hospital of which I had control, were about two miles from Fort Magruder, around which the hottest of the fight raged. Shells were frequently falling and exploding in uncomfortable proximity to us, and by 3 o’clock could be heard ominous whispers about the necessity of abandoning our quarters, preparatory to a general retreat. The greatest anxiety now prevailed as to the fate of our army. The left could not hold out much longer without further reinforcements. The center had not been engaged. I hear that a dispute arose between Generals Sumner and Heintzleman, as to their rank, and that in the confusion resulting therefrom, the centre was not brought forward, nor were any of them sent to reinforce other parts of the line. (Strange that the Commander in Chief should not be with his army in a time like this!) The enemy were sending off forces to flank our right, and should they succeed in this movement and get into our rear, our whole army must inevitably be destroyed. The right wing was weak, consisting of only two brigades of General Smith’s Division—the first composed of 5th Wisconsin, 49th Pennsylvania, 6th Maine and 43rd New York, and the third composed of the 7th Maine, 33rd, 49th and 77th New York, all volunteers, with two batteries. General Davidson, who usually commanded this third brigade, being absent, the whole was under command of General W. S. Hancock. For some reason, the third brigade had not come up, and when the enemy’s detachments of six regiments, supported by a well mounted fort, the guns of which were in easy range of our lines, attacked our right, we had only the first brigade and the two batteries to contend against them. This was the position of affairs when, at half-past three o’clock, I left the large hospital crowded full of the wounded, to go to the right wing. Up to this time I had supposed our army invincible, at least by an enemy fleeing from us, and now I was utterly astounded to find our officers clearing the roads of teams, men and everything which could impede the retreat of our army, and bodies of our artillery collecting in front of all the gorges, to check the speed of a pursuing enemy. I dashed past all these, crossed Queen’s Creek, when a short ride brought me out into a large plain, in full view of our right wing, in line of battle, just as four regiments of the enemy emerged from the woods to the extreme right of our line of skirmishers. We were outflanked!

This was the most exciting moment of my life. Our left had been whipped, our centre had been passed, the Commander in Chief not on the field, the officers in command, instead of concentrating all their energies, were quarreling about their respective ranks, and had failed to reinforce the right, which had again and again sent for support, the enemy on the point of outflanking us here, and getting in our rear, in which, if successful, our army must be cut to pieces. At this moment, five companies of the 5th Wisconsin were skirmishing in the advance. Two of these companies on the right had just opened fire on the four regiments advancing. General Hancock had just given an order to fall back; the batteries, which, were in advance of all, instead of falling back, leisurely and in order, were whipping their horses, whooping, hollering, running from the field as if chased by a thousand devils; three of the four regiments of Hancock’s brigade were falling back in obedience to the order; whilst the Fifth Wisconsin, not hearing the order, or determined not to abandon their skirmishing on the field, was continuing the fight against the immense odds of four to one. Nobly did it fight, every shot seeming to tell on the advancing foe. But just then, as if to add to the certainty of our destruction, two other regiments of the enemy emerged from the abattis on the left of this wing, and were bearing directly down on the little band so nobly fighting under such disadvantage. Between these two regiments and the fighting columns was one company of the Fifth Wisconsin, skirmishing under command of Lieutenant Walker. His quick eye told him that the only hope of salvation for our army was to prevent the uniting of these forces with those now fighting, and with his little band of sixty brave men, he boldly confronted the advancing fifteen hundred, supported by their fort, not six hundred yards off. At this critical juncture, there is a moment’s relief. Our third brigade is seen in the distance—but it is too far away to afford effective aid. Again the eye reverts, as the only hope, to the fighting battalions. Lieut. Walker is manœuvring his handful of men into fighting position under cover of a fence, from which they delivered their shot into the approaching mass with wonderful effect; but still the mass advanced, and he was seen passing along his line amid the rain and the lightning of the battle, whilst his voice was heard above its roar. Suddenly a flash along the whole fort’s front, a roar of cannon, and the shrieks of shot and shell, made my blood run cold as I saw the Lieutenant whirled into the air and disappear among the rails and rubbish. The little band fell back; the cheering voice was hushed—but for a moment. Instantly he was seen emerging from the rubbish—the voice was again heard— back rushed the little band to the fight—the two bodies of the rebel army failed to connect—the battle of Queen’s Creek was won—and the army of the Potomac was saved. But in recording the part taken by Lieutenant Walker and his brave band, I must not omit to fix permanently the heroism displayed by the main body of this regiment, who carried on the fight with the four flanking regiments of the enemy. Every man seemed most of the time to be fighting after his own plan, and on his own responsibility. The five companies skirmishing were under the general command of Lieutenant Colonel Emery, to whose firmness and coolness much of our success is to be attributed. The remaining five companies were in line under Colonel Amasa Cobb. The fight was commenced on our skirmishers,[1] who slowly fell back, contesting every inch of ground till they reached their supports, who now joined in the fight, slowly falling back to the main line. The relative positions of the 5th Wisconsin, the enemy’s advancing line, and our regiments which had fallen back on the order of Gen. Hancock, were such as to prevent the rear regiments from aiding the 5th Wisconsin. It was precisely between them and the enemy, and a fire from them would have been destructive to our own men. Why Gen. Hancock did not change their position, I cannot imagine, unless under the excitement, he forgot it. To me his sole object seemed to be to get the Wisconsin regiment out of danger. The enemy were pressing it. It was sending its vollies with the deliberation and precision of marksmen at a shooting match, and at every one, the ranks of the enemy were literally mowed down. It still fell back towards the main line, firing and fighting. By the time that it reached this line the enemy’s ranks were so thinned that our success was now certain. It reached the main body, and one volley from our entire brigade ended the fight. At this moment, an order to “charge ” was given, but simultaneously with the order, the enemy displayed a white flag, and the order was countermanded. No charge was made, the firing instantly ceased, the battle was won. In twenty-one minutes from the time that the firing commenced, these four regiments were so utterly destroyed that the two regiments which Lieutenant Walker had held in check, saw the futility of a further endeavor to reach them in time, and they, too, fell back. They left in dead and wounded about seven hundred on the field. The main body of the enemy, which had been so severely punishing our left, seeing our right driving their friends, fell back on Williamsburg, leaving their dead and wounded, their fortifications, and the field in our possession. Thus ended the great battle of Williamsburg, including the battle of Queen’s Creek. The loss has been heavy on both sides, but the extent of it has not yet been ascertained.

After the battle closed, I spent the evening and night in caring for the wounded of my regiment, for whom I organized a separate hospital, keeping charge of them myself. I had seen so much indiscriminate amputating of limbs, that I determined it should not be so in my regiment, so long as it could be avoided by any efforts of mine.

[1] In this skirmishing, the companies of Captains Wheeler, Evans, Bugh, and Catlin, were engaged. Every officer, as well as every soldier, proved himself a hero.