adier-General of Volunteers, and assigned to a brigade
in Couch's Division of the Fourth Corps. His division was
engaged in the battle in front of Fort Magruder on the 5th
of May, 1862. On the 31st of the same month he was engaged
in the most critical portion of the desperate fight at Fair
Oaks, where his command was conspicuous for valor and devotion.
This was one of the most stubbornly contested fields of the
war. Gen. Devens was severely wounded toward the close of
the day, but with a few other officers he succeeded in reforming
the repeatedly broken lines and in holding the field until
reinforcements arrived and stayed the tide of Confederate
triumph. He returned to his command as soon as his wound
would permit, and took part in the battle of Fredericksburg
in December, 1862. In his official report General Newton
says: "My acknowledgments are due to all according to their
opportunities, but especially to Brigadier-General Charles
Devens, who commanded the advance and the rear guard, in the
crossing and recrossing of the river." In the following
spring General Devens was promoted to the command of a division
of the Eleventh Corps. He was posted with his division of
4,000 men on the extreme right of the flank of Hooker's army,
which was attacked by 26,000 men under the great rebel leader,
Stonewall Jackson. General Devens was wounded by a musket
ball in the foot early in the day; but he kept the field,
making the most strenuous efforts to hold his men together
and stay the advance of the Confederates until his Corps was
almost completely enveloped by Jackson's force and, in the
language of General Walker, "was scattered like the stones
and timbers of a broken dam." He recovered from his wound
in time to take part in the campaign of 1864. His troops
were engaged on the first of June in the battle of Cold Harbor,
and carried the enemy's entrenched line with severe loss.
On the third of June, in an attack which General Walker characterizes
as one "which is never spoke of without awe and bated breath
by any one who participated in it," General Devens was carried
along the line on a stretcher, being so crippled by inflammatory
rheumatism that he could neither mount his horse nor stand
in his place. This was the last action in which he took an
active part. On the third of April, 1865, he led the advance
into Richmond, where the position of Military Governor was
assigned to him after the surrender. He afterwa