nd roads, and a different vegetation. They were not in
a good humour, anyhow.

Ewell was at Dispatch Station, seven miles below, guarding Bottom's
Bridge and tearing up the York River Railroad. Stuart was before him,
sweeping down on the White House, burning McClellan's stations and
stores, making that line of retreat difficult enough for an encumbered
army. But McClellan had definitely abandoned any idea of return upon
Yorktown. The head of his column was set for the James, for Harrison's
Landing and the gunboats. There were twenty-five difficult miles to go.
He had something like a hundred thousand men. He had five thousand
wagons, heavy artillery trains, enormous stores, a rabble of camp
followers, a vast, melancholy freight of sick and wounded. He left his
camps and burned his depots, and plunged into the heavy, still, and
torrid forest. This Sunday morning, the twenty-ninth, the entrenchments
before Richmond, skilful, elaborate pieces of engineering, were found by
Magruder's and Huger's scouts deserted by all but the dead and a few
score of sick and wounded, too far gone to be moved. Later, columns of
smoke, rising from various quarters of the forest, betrayed other
burning camps or depots. This was followed by tidings which served to
make his destination certain. He was striking down toward White Oak
Swamp. There the defeated right, coming from the Chickahominy, would
join him, and the entire great force move toward the James. Lee issued
his orders. Magruder with Huger pursued by the Williamsburg road. A. P.
Hill and Longstreet, leaving the battlefield of the twenty-seventh,
crossed the Chickahominy by the New Bridge, passed behind Magruder, and
took the Darbytown road. A courier, dispatched to Ewell, ordered him to
rejoin Jackson. The latter was directed to cross the Chickahominy with
all his force by the Grapevine Bridge, and to pursue with eagerness. He
had the directest, shortest road; immediately before him the corps which
had been defeated at Gaines's Mill. With D. H. Hill, with Whiting and
Lawton, he had now fourteen brigades--say twenty thousand men.

The hours passed in languid sunshine on the north bank of the
Chickahominy. The troops were under arms, but the bridge was not
finished. The smoke and sound of the rival batteries, the crack of the
hidden rifles on the southern side, concerned only those immediately at
issue and the doggedly working pioneers. Mere casual cannonading,
amusement of sharpshoote