t impenetrable abattis.

On the other hand, Lee's army had been as actively engaged in ditching
and throwing up redoubts, and Richmond was surrounded by a cordon of
most powerful works. Stonewall Jackson had been recalled from the
Shenandoah Valley; and now, with an army of thirty thousand men, a very
large proportion of them being men of his original army, he hung upon
our right and rear, ready to come down upon our communications and flank
like an avalanche.

Scarcely had General McClellan finished his dispatch to the Secretary of
War, in which he announced the glad tidings that he had got his pickets
in the right place, preparatory to a general advance, before he was
aroused from his illusion by the intelligence that the pickets on the
right were being driven in. He had already, during the day, learned
something of Jackson's position, and it was now easy to divine the
intention of that energetic chief.

During the night, Hill and Longstreet crossed the upper Chickahominy;
and, by rapid marches, confronted the pickets of McCall's division at
Mechanicsville before daylight on the morning of the 26th. Jackson,
delayed by our skirmishers, was still behind. Without waiting for
Jackson, Hill ordered an attack by daylight. Our pickets were forced
back upon the main line, and the battle of Mechanicsville commenced.
McCall's division, consisting of Reynolds', Meade's and Seymour's
brigades, was strongly posted behind Beaver Dam creek; a stream about
twelve feet wide, wooded on either side, with water waist deep, and a
steep bank on the side held by the Union forces. Along this bank, timber
had been felled, rifle pits dug, and other careful preparations made for
meeting an attack. The only accessible places for artillery were the two
roads which crossed the stream, one at Ellison's Mills, and the other a
mile above. Against these two points the rebels directed their principal
efforts. Hill's division made the first assault. Clearing their rifle
pits, his men rushed forward with a yell, gaining the creek, within a
hundred yards of our line. Here the creek and the almost impenetrable
abattis checked their progress, and a murderous fire of shot, shells,
cannister and musketry was opened upon them, which threw them into
confusion, and repulsed them with fearful loss. Again and again the
charge was renewed; each time with equal want of success. More and more
grand and terrible the battle became, as the combatants struggled with