By
the summer of 1862 the main Union Army
under George McClellan was ready
to march on Richmond. McClellan and
his 115,000 men encountered the Confederate
Army at Williamsburg on 4th May. McClellan moved his troops into
the Shenandoah Valley and along
with John C. Fremont, Irvin
McDowell and Nathaniel Banks surrounded
Thomas Stonewall Jackson and his
17,000 man army.
Thomas Stonewall Jackson was under
orders from President Jefferson Davis
to try and delay the attack on Richmond.
Jackson attacked John C. Fremont at Cross
Keys before turning on Irvin McDowell
at Port Republic. Jackson then rushed his troops east to join up with
Joseph E. Johnston and the Confederate
forces fighting George McClellan
in the suburbs the city.
On 29th May, 1862, General Joseph
E. Johnston with some 41,800 men counter-attacked McClellan's
slightly larger army at Fair Oaks. The first charge was made against
forces led by Magruder at Seven Pines. When General George
McClellan heard the firing on the other side of River Chickahominy,
he sent Sumner to reinforce Magruder.In boggy, wooded terrain and
heavy fighting, both sides suffered heavy losses.
General Joseph E. Johnston was badly
wounded during the battle and could not take part in the next day's
fighting. James Longstreet led the
attack the following day but made little progress. In the afternoon,
General Robert E. Lee arrived to replace
Johnson. He immediately ordered a withdrawal to the original Confederate
positions. During the battle the Union Army
lost 5,031 men and the Confederate Army
6,134.
(1)
Sarah
E. Edmonds
was at Fair Oaks in May, 1862. She wrote about it in her book, Nurse
and Spy in the Union Army (1865)
The
"hospital tree" was an immense tree under whose shady, extended
branches the wounded were carried and laid down to await the stimulant,
the opiate, or the amputating knife, as the case might require. The
ground around the tree was several acres in extent was literally drenched
with human blood, and all the men were laid so close together that
there was no such thing as passing between them; but each one was
removed in their turn as the surgeons could attend to them. Those
wounded, but not mortally - how nobly they bore the necessary probings
and needed amputations.
(2)
In his autobiography General Oliver
Howard
describes how he was ordered to reinforce Brigadier General Wiiliam
French at Fair
Oaks on 29th May, 1862.
Just as we were ready
to advance, the enemy's fire began to meet us, cutting through the
trees. My brown horse was wounded through the shoulder, and I had
to dismount and wait for another. Turning toward the men, I saw that
some had been hit and others were leaving their ranks. This was their
first experience under fire. I cried out with all my might: "Lie
down!" Every man dropped to the ground. In five minutes I had
mounted my large grey horse, my brother (Charles Howard) riding my
third and only other one, a beautiful zebra.
In
order to encourage the men in a forward movement I placed myself,
mounted, in front of the 64th New York, and Lieutenant Charles H.
Howard, in front of the 61st New York. Every officer was directed
to repeat each command. I ordered: "Forward!" and then "March!"
I could hear the echo of those words and, as I started, the 64th followed
me with a glad shout up the slope and through the woods.
Before reaching French's line I was wounded through the right forearm
by a small Mississippi rifle ball. Lieutenant Howard just then ran
to me on foot and said that the Zebra horse was killed. He took a
handkerchief, bound up my arm, and then ran back to the 61st.
As the impulse was favorable to a charge I decided to go on farther,
and, asking Brooke's regiment on French's left to lie down, called
again: "Forward!" And on we went, pushing back the enemy
and breaking through the nearest line. We pressed our way over uneven
ground to the neighborhood of the crossroads.
The rear of their line was rapidly firing. My grey had his left foreleg
broken and, though I was not aware of it, I had been wounded again,
my right elbow having been shattered by a rifle shot. Lieutenant Howard
was missing. Lieutenant William McIntyre seized me, and put me in
a sheltered place on the ground. I heard him say: "General, you
shall not be killed." McIntyre himself was slain near that spot,
giving his life for mine. The bullets were just then raining upon
our men, who without flinching were firing back.
(3)
After being badly wounded at Fair
Oaks, General Oliver
Howard
was taken to a large house that had been converted into a Union Army
hospital.
Dr. Hammond, my personal
friend, met me near the house, saw the blood, touched my arm, and
said: "General, your arm is broken." The last ball had passed
through the elbow joint and crushed the bones into small fragments.
He led me to a negro hut, large enough only for a double bed. Here
I lay down, alarming an aged negro couple who feared at first that
some of us might discover and seize hidden treasure which was in that
bed.
My brigade surgeon, Dr,
Palmer, and several others soon stood by my bedside in consultation.
At last Dr. Palmer, with serious face, kindly told me that my arm
had better come off. "All right, go ahead," I said.
"Not before 5 p.m., general." "Why not?" "Reaction
must set in." So I had to wait six hours. I had received the
second wound about half-past ten. I had reached the house about eleven,
and in some weakness and discomfort occupied the negro cabin till
the hour appointed. At that time Dr. Palmer came with four stout soldiers
and a significant stretcher. The doctor put around the arm close to
the shoulder the tourniquet, screwing it tighter and tighter above
the wound. They then bore me to the amputating room, a place a little
gruesome with arms, legs, and hands not yet all carried off, and poor
fellows with anxious eyes waiting their turn.
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