by William Chapman
It is 1862 and the Peninsula Campaign is raging in eastern Virginia. Yorktown, the site where the terminal battle of the American Revolution was waged, is once-again surrounded by earthworks. A strong line of works running south from that point, constructed by General John Blankhead Magruder's Confederates, spans the width of the peninsula, ending at the Warwick River, a swampy tributary of the James. The Federal agressor, Major General George McClellan has 121,500 men at his disposal, a striking contrast to Magruder's small army of 35,000. McClellan's goal is Ricmond.
A view of the Confederate earthworks outside Yorktown (1862). Notice that the works are fortified with cotton bales.
The Peninsula Campaign was McClellan's plan to push to Richmond up the stretch of land between the York and James rivers that is known as "the Peninsula". Originally, the plan had been for a Naval attack on the city backed up by infantry, however, that plan was foiled in the naval battle of Hampton Roads, where the CSS Virginia made any Federal Naval agression on the James nearly impossible. McClellan decided to proceed with his infantry nevertheless. Now, a month after the start of the campaign, McClellan had already pushed Magruder's men a quarter of the way up the peninsula to Yorktown.
Magruder's headquarters was in Lee Hall mansion.
Magruder's Yorktown-Warwick line was a long, well-fortified string of works across some of the most unforgiving landscape in Virginia. The southern part of the line, running along the Warwick, was built on wet marshland and frought with mosquitos, dense underbrush, and plenty of mud. Magruder took advantage of the low, marshy landscape and dammed up sections of the Warwick river at the center of his line, thus flooding a large area in front of his earthworks. This technique is known as inundation, and it proved to be quite effective.
McClellan had been misinformed by his maps and lead to believe that the Warwick River flowed perpendicular to the James (instead, flowed perpendicular to the Confederate lines). Magruder had also led McClellan to believe that there were far more Confederates than there really were by marching his men back and forth in front of a clearing where he knew Federal scouts could see them. With this false information in mind, McClellan made his first attack on the Confederate line at the southern part, at a place called Lee's Mill. McClellan deployed his men close to the Rebel lines and launched an artillery barrage on April 5th, which did little damage.
The Confederate earthworks at Lee's Mill.
McClellan became convinced that the Yorktown-Warwick line was practically impenitrable, and rather than having his men attempt to break through the line, had them pull back and build siege works perpendicular to the Confederate line.
While the Federal army was busy intrenching itself, Confederate General Joseph Johnston arrived at Magruder's line with reinforcements. McClellan, who loved to make use of new millitary technology, utilized a surveillance balloon, operated by Thaddeus Lowe, to attempt to view the Confederate line.
On April 16, McClellan made another push, this time at the center of the Confederate line. It was at a place that had been flooded by one of Magruder's dams, Dam No. 1. The dam was defeded by two twin forts (each with one large artillery piece), a string of rifle pits, and a one-gun battery on the edge of the inundated land.
The one-gun battery at Dam No. 1.
The Confederate rifle trench in the defenses of Dam No. 1.
Inside one of the twin forts in the defenses of Dam No. 1.
The attack opened with an artillery bombardment. At 3:00 in the afternoon, the 3rd Vermont infantry crossed the inundated land on the dam, and some who could not fit on the dam waded across. Heavy Confederate musket fire made the Warwick "boil". A sixteen year old drummer in the 3rd made several trips back and forth across the river to help his wounded comrades. The Federals drove the Rebels from their rifle pits, only to be decimated by Cobb's Georgians, who gave them a hail of musketry. The 3rd Vermont retreated back across the dam, and there was an attempt by the 4th and 6th Vermont units to back them up, but it was to no avail. In the end, there were 95 dead in the Federal army and 121 wounded.
The marshy water where the 3rd Vermont crossed the Warwick River.
The Confederates came under the command of Johnston shortly after Dam No. 1. Johnston had gathered intelligence that McClellan was peparing to launch into a full-blown siege (using siege artillery), and was wise enough to realize that his men could not withstand a siege of that magnitude, so he fell back to the town of Williamsburg. The next day, the Federals would find the Warwick-Yorktown line empty. The Union army would proceed to occupy Yorktown, using the Nelson House (Cornwallis's Revolutionary War headquarters) as a hospital, and the siding of the Moore House (the site of the Revolutionary War surrender negotiations) as firewood. The Pinensula Campaign would rage on for the rest of that summer, eventually culminating in the Seven Days Battles at the gates of Richmond.
The Thomas Nelson house in 1862.
The building on the right is the Thomas Nelson house, which was used as a hospital during the occupation of Yorktown.
This original photo of the Augustine Moore shows where the house was stripped of some of its siding to be used as firewood by the troops.
The Moore house today after its restoration.
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