arranged along the heights, so that the fire might pass over the heads
of the infantry, who were arranged upon the glacis, up which the enemy
must charge, hidden, for the most part, by the tall wheat and corn. Here
the main body of the army was posted. First, nearest the James, was
Porter's corps; then Heintzelman's, Keyes', Sumner's and our Sixth
corps, occupying the right flank, two or three miles from the position
where the rebels must advance with their main force. The fleet of
gunboats floated upon the river, on our left flank, ready to send their
screaming monster shells into the ranks of the advancing enemy.

Against this position, naturally almost impregnable, Lee hurled his
hosts, with the design of giving the final blow to the Union army, which
should insure its destruction and capture. The rebel army confidently
believed that the army of the north must now be compelled to surrender
or be driven into the James.

If the rebels were confident and exultant, our own men were filled with
the deepest despondency.

Exhausted by a month of constant labor and watchfulness, with fighting
and marching and digging, now, as they believed, fleeing from the face
of an enemy immensely superior to them in numbers, it is not to be
wondered at that they were apprehensive of the worst results.

Paymasters sought refuge with their treasures in the gunboats on the
river. The Prince De Joinville and his nephews, the Count De Paris and
Count De Chartes, who had acted as aides de camp to General McClellan,
who had been with us from the beginning, active, brave men, who were
frequently where the danger was greatest, and who had entered our
service with the determination of seeing it to the end, now departed;
they, too, finding a respite from their toils upon one of the gunboats.
The young men were accompanied on board by the staff and by the
Commander-in-Chief himself. From the deck of the vessel he communicated
his orders by the signal flags, to those left in command on shore. Here,
with his young friends, and in consultation with the commander of the
fleet, he remained until about five o'clock, when he rode down the lines
to the rear of our corps, where he spent the time till darkness put an
end to the fight.

Such was the sad state of feeling in our army. Yet, exhausted and
depressed as they were, our men were as brave and determined as ever.
They had yet a country; and they knew that the fate of that country
depended upon the