26th.—The forenoon of to-day passed something as did the afternoon of yesterday. Asked for transportation to bring my tents and baggage from Liberty Hall. Cannot have it till to-morrow; so, having nothing to eat, nor any place to shelter, have lived on the kindness of my friends.
About 2 o’clock P. M., ” Stonewall Jackson” and General Ewell, from the North, and Generals Lee, Longstreet and Hill, from Richmond, having united their forces to the number (reported) of about one hundred thousand, made an attack on General McCall’s division, which was strongly posted and fortified about a mile and a half east of Mechanicsville, on the left bank of the Chickahominy. This is about four miles from where we are encamped on the right of the river. The fight was severe, every musket and artillery shot being distinctly heard at our quarters. Our excitement, during the whole of the afternoon, has been intense. The firing ceased at about 9 o’clock in the evening. A few minutes later, orderlies and aids-de-camp were dashing from regiment to regiment, reading a dispatch from General McClellan, that “Stonewall Jackson is thoroughly whipped.” Great rejoicing and cheering in camps. But, strange—one regiment to whom it was read, never, during the whole excitement, raised a cheer or manifested one symptom of elation. That regiment is the Fifth “Wisconsin Volunteers. It has been under General McClellan’s personal friend and relative, Brigadier General Winnfield Scott Hancock, for whom it has won whatever of reputation that Brigadier General claims to have. Can it be possible that this favorite regiment has so far lost its confidence in the Brigadier as to distrust the statement of his friend, the Commander-in-Chief? However this may be, I have heard several of them remark that “it will be time for us to cheer when we know it is true.” Significant.
