form a kind of bridge over the swamp to enable more artillery to come
up. The rapidity with which such roads were built was marvelous.

By this time the column on the right had reached the works in front of
the town. The position here was also strong. Although the Warwick did
not interpose, yet high bluffs, crowned with redoubts in which were
mounted heavy guns, frowned upon the assailants. Thus far it appears
that the leaders of our army had been totally ignorant of the position
and strength of the enemy, and had led it up to the works, blindly
feeling the way without maps or guides. (McClellan's Report.) The
defensive works were now found to consist of a series of redoubts and
rifle pits stretching across the Peninsula, seven miles in extent, with
high bluffs on the right and Warwick creek in their front on the left.

The position occupied by our division was known as Lee's Mills, and to
our right, nearly three miles, was the village of Yorktown. The line of
battle was now arranged in the following order from right to left:
Heintzelman's corps, consisting of Porter's, Hooker's and Hamilton's
divisions, were in front of the town; Sedgwick's division of Sumner's
corps on the left of them, and Keyes' corps, comprising Smith's and
Couch's division (Casey's division arrived in a few days), held the
position on the Warwick at Lee's Mills.

The position of the enemy was, without doubt, one of great strength, and
everything had been done to render it more formidable. Yet they were by
no means too strong or sufficiently well garrisoned to resist an assault
from such a body of men as now appeared in their front. That there were
weak points in this line of defenses, stretching seven miles, was
afterwards demonstrated; and that the forces behind the works were by no
means sufficiently numerous, at the time of our approach, to afford
formidable resistance at all points in their extensive line, is now well
known.

It appears from the official report of the rebel General Johnston, who
then commanded all the rebel forces in Virginia, that at the time of the
appearance of our army before Yorktown the works were defended by only
about eleven thousand men, and that even after he had reinforced the
garrisons by the troops which he was hurrying from Manassas, his army
amounted to only fifty thousand men.

The artillery duel was kept up until night. We had lost some men during
the day, but not so many as we had feared. First a poor fel