ogressed. Magruder, with his own and McLaws' Division, supported
Smith, and was to act as emergencies required. Kershaw was now under
McLaws. Huger was to march up on the Charles City Road and put in on
Longstreet's left as it uncovered at White Oak Swamp, or to join his
forces with Longstreet's and the two drive the enemy back from the
railroad. Keyes' Federal Corps lay along the railroad to Fair Oaks;
then Heintzleman's turned abruptly at a right angle in front of
G.W. Smith. The whole was admirably planned, and what seemed to make
success doubly sure, a very heavy rain had fallen that night, May
30th, accompanied by excessive peals of thunder and livid flashes of
lightning, and the whole face of the country was flooded with water.
The river was overflowing its banks, bridges washed away or inundated
by the rapidly swelling stream, all going to make re-enforcement by
McClellan from the north side out of the question. But the
entire movement seemed to be one continual routine of blunders,
misunderstandings, and perverseness; a continual wrangling among the
senior Major Generals. The enemy had thrown up two lines of heavy
earthworks for infantry and redoubts for the artillery, one near Fair
Oaks, the other one-half mile in the rear. Longstreet and D.H. Hill
assaulted the works with great vigor on the morning of the 31st of
May, and drove the enemy from his first entrenched camp. But it seems
G.W. Smith did not press to the front, as was expected, but understood
his orders to remain and guard the crossing of the river. Huger lost
his way and did not come up until the opportunity to grasp the key to
the situation was lost, and then it was discovered there was a mistake
or misunderstanding in regard to his and Longstreet's seniority. Still
Huger waived his rank reluctantly and allowed Longstreet and Hill to
still press the enemy back to his second line of entrenchments. From
where we lay, inactive and idle, the steady roll of the musketry
was grand and exciting. There was little opportunity for ability and
little used, only by the enemy in their forts.

Several ineffectual attempts were made to storm these forts, and
to dislodge the enemy at the point of the bayonet. Finally R.H.
Anderson's Brigade of South Carolinians came up, and three regiments,
led by Colonel Jenkins, made a flank movement, and by a desperate
assault, took the redoubt on the left, with six pieces of artillery.
When Rhodes' North Carolina Brigade got su