the new line of advance of the Army of the Potomac would be by its right flank instead of by its left, and therefore in a different direction from the one upon which Grant had resolved. The reader will now understand how the main body of cavalry, under Sheridan,-Gregg's and Torbert's divisions,―came, on May 27th, to be leading the advance of the army, and Wilson's division to be guarding the rear on the way from the North Anna across the Pamunkey to Totopotomoy Creek. CHAPTER XXII. THE BATTLES OF BETHESDA CHURCH AND COLD HARBOR. We left the Army of the Potomac just after it had crossed to the south side of the Pamunkey. The Pamunkey and the Mattapony, as has been mentioned, form, from their point of junction, the York River. South of the Pamunkey, about thirteen miles above that junction, is the White House, the depot of supplies during the Peninsular Campaign, which, now that the Army of the Potomac has advanced from the North Anna to within a march of it, again serves that purpose. The Pamunkey, just back of where the major part of the Army of the Potomac had crossed it, lies in a southeasterly direction. Flowing into it near there, with their mouths six miles apart, are, in the order from north to south, Crump's Creek and Totopotomoy Creek, lying in a general way in a southwesterly direction, enriched through their courses and at their heads by numerous affluents and corresponding swampy bottoms. About four and a half miles down the Pamunkey from the mouth of Totopotomoy Creek is the mouth of Matadequin Creek, the general course of which, being about west, its head-waters approach near to those of the Totopotomoy, with the same characteristics of numerous affluents and swampy bottoms. Further south than these three streams, running southeasterly in its upper course, and therefore parallel there to the Pamunkey, is the Chickahominy, flowing into the James River, and passing in its upper course between the Army of the Potomac and Richmond, and lying, when the army was in its final position, five miles beyond its centre, to the southwest. On the north side it has numerous affluents with swampy bottoms. These, flowing in a general way from north to south, have their headwaters in direction athwart the course of the Matadequin. Consequently, the whole country in which the two armies are now operating is seamed with swamp-confined watercourses running in various directions and preventing uniform advance of hostile lines and ease of movement within each from flank to flank. Just to the westward of this intricate formation of ground lies the Virginia Central Railroad, running north from Richmond to Hanover Court House, distant fifteen miles. When, about noon of the 28th of May, the Second, Fifth, and Sixth Corps of the Army of the Potomac found themselves across the Pamunkey, they drew up in a position about two miles south of it. The right of the Sixth Corps rested beyond Crump's Creek, enclosing the road to Hanover Court-House; the Second Corps, forming the centre, lay from northwest to southeast, with its left in the rear of Hawes's Shop, and the Fifth Corps continued the general line until its left reached the point where the Old Church Road to Hawes's Shop crosses the Totopotomoy. The Ninth Corps, as previously mentioned, did not get across the Pamunkey until midnight. Wilson, with a division of cavalry, was on the north side of the Pamunkey, protecting the transit of the trains. Sheridan, with two divisions of cavalry, was off to the left front. No one knew, from ocular demonstration, the exact position of the enemy. All that had been seen of him since leaving the North Anna was a brigade of his cavalry, which had had a slight encounter with the advance of the Army of the Potomac crossing the Pamunkey. But there are in war demonstrations other than ocular ones which determine the general position of an enemy. The direction of Richmond from the position of the Army of the Potomac, and the direction of the roads leading thereto, coupled with the nature of the ground, determined the general position in which Lee's line of battle must eventually be. The problem to be solved was to ascertain, at the least expenditure, its exact position. On the 28th Sheridan had been ordered to move two of his divisions of cavalry beyond Hawes's Shop towards Richmond. He had not advanced far when he encountered the main body of the enemy's cavalry, under Hampton and Fitzhugh Lee, and held the place after a hard fight lasting until dark, before which time he was reinforced by two brigades of Torbert's division of cavalry, in the rear at Crump's Creek, rendering the tenure of the position secure. There is a simple plan by which to bring the respective positions of the hostile armies to the apprehension of the reader. Let him picture to himself that the Totopotomoy runs south of east from near Atlee's Station, on the Virginia Central Railroad, for about five miles, and there bends and runs thence north of east to its mouth at the Pamunkey, and that the Chickahominy, at a point about five miles south of this upper reach of the Totopotomoy, runs about parallel with that reach. Now, if these directions and distances are clearly held in mind, it will be seen that the production of the enemy's line of battle from left to right along the upper and southeast reach of the Totopotomoy would, after leaving the lower, northeast reach, beyond the bend of the stream, bring up a few miles off on the northern bank of the Chickahominy. And it will be equally apparent that, as all the roads north of the Chickahominy leading to Richmond from the northeast are intersected about at rightangles by the line described, that that was necessarily the line of defence adopted by the enemy. The line of the enemy therefore faced northeast, and the line of the Army of the Potomac must have faced southwest. The two, rep |