May 7th. There being no transportation for our command at present, we are quietly taking our ease, awaiting the quartermaster’s pleasure. Captains McKay and Curtiss, Doctor Dean and I rode out this morning to take a look at Yorktown and its fortifications. We found the town full of officers and soldiers, and wretchedly filthy. The works are well built and armed. We counted a lot of the cannon left behind by the rebels, amounting to about fifty; amongst them were a lot of old pieces, 32 and 42-inch ship carronades, dating back about one hundred years, but there were several modern eight-inch Columbiads, and four nine-inch Dahlgrens, which were too heavy, I suppose, to carry away. On the glacis our troops found a lot of loaded shells buried in the ground, with percussion fuses so arranged that a man stepping on one of them caused it to explode. These villainous contrivances were thickly planted all over the glacis, quite out of sight, and would have caused great loss and confusion if we had ever charged over them. The shells are mostly eight-inch ones and were expected to have done a lot of damage. We congratulated ourselves on the good taste the enemy showed in surrendering without a fight; artillery men were at work digging them up while we were looking on. In the streets were any quantity of pigs, narrow-visaged, black, vicious looking fellows, browsing about the gutters, and a few ugly, dirty, common women, who lived in shanties forming the dirty, straggling streets. It is, and must always have been, a poor spot, and yet beautifully situated with every facility for a large commerce. It is now to be transformed into a military depot and has already daily steam communication with Fortress Monroe. The wide river is full of vessels and gunboats, and thousands of men are at work building docks. Every hour in the day troops are embarking and being forwarded to West Point, which makes the docks a lively place. We were told to-day that the enemy’s rear guard evacuated Yorktown at 2:30 A. M. on the fourth, the bulk of their army having been withdrawn during the night of the third. Thus the rebels had made up their minds long before to evacuate the town when things became serious, and had been for over two weeks busily engaged sending away everything of value.
Franklin’s division sailed from here only yesterday, so the chance of its cutting off Magruder’s retreat to Richmond is rather slim.
