AMERICA.

New Zealander, Volume XVIII, Issue 1718, 27 August 1862, Page 5

AMERICA.

battle BEFORE RICHMONH, Liverpool, June 14.

The Canard steamship Scotia, Captain Judkins, arrived, with advices from New York to the 4th inst. An immense sensation was created in Washington nn Sunday, the Ist inst., by the receipt in the afternoon 0 f the despatch from General M’Clellan. Newspaper reports state that during the engagement passer Lowe in his balloon was hovering above the guene, and communicating information by telegraph as to the movements of the Confederates. It is alleged that General Casey’s troops were mostly recruits, and that Hs force was reduced by disease to 6,000 men. The Nw York Times' correspondent describes the engagement as follows:

(i The position held by General Casey was on the lyilliamsburgh stage road, within six or seven miles of Bichniond, and on a lino so extended at the front that the troops required to maintain picket guards of sufficient strength made no slight draught on his weakened forces. The right of the line was held by his first brigade, under General H. M. Naglee, as bravo and vigilant an officer as is to bo found in the army of the Potomac. General Naglec’s pickets extended across the railroad (running parallel with the Williamshnrrii road, about a mile to the right) to near the sixth milepost from Richmond, and so on further to the rhrht and a little to the rear until within a short distance of a point on the Chickahominy, where General Sumner had thrown a bridge across the stream, and was hourly expected to cross to complete the lino of pickets to the river. The centre of General Casey’s position was held by the 2nd brigade j General Wasjlefi’s (formerly General Reims’s) extended from General jlaglce’s linos to the left a short distance across the ■VvSiamsburgh road, where it joined the 3rd brigade, General Palmer’s stretching some distance farther to the left, and joining the lines of General Couch, who guarded the left flank, the main portion of his force being a short distance to the rear of Casey on the Willianisbargh-road. The position occupied by the main body of these two divisions was a clearing of about one mile square, surrounded on the leY and the front by a belt of lorest, in which General Casey's pickets were stationed. On the right a wooded swamp divided the clearing from a similar opening in the forest along the railroad, which was occupied by General Naglee with his brigade. Just beyond the woods to front were similar clearings with woods on their further side, where the rebels lay concealed, their pickets occupying the edge of the forest, and separated from our pickets by the width of the fields, forming a sort of neutral ground between the two armies, over which each kept close watch lest his neighbour should take possession. Step by step General Casey had pressed on to this point, overcoming such opposition as met him, until it became evident that the rebels had reached the limit of their retreat, and further advance could not be ventured without the risk of a general engagement, for which the plans were not yet ripe. Our proximity to the rebels was evidently annoying to them, and on Thursday, and again on Friday, they made an unsuccessful attempt, with a force of a few hundred, to drive in the pickets and discover what mischief was plotting behind the belt of woods sheltering General Casey from their view. Their attack was resolutely met by the pickets, who fell back on the reserves and held their ground, defeating the purpose of the enemy. Meanwhile General Casey was actively at work securing his position, a large force of men being busy, under the skilful direction of Lieutenant E. W. W cst, of his staff’, digging rifle P^ 3 and felling trees lor abattis. A similar line of defensive works had been commenced and partially completed at General Casey’s former position, at the Seven Pines, three miles further to the rear, aud just back of these was a line of earthworks, constructed by General Couch, and more carefully finished. Failing in the two attempts to gather information by forcing back General Casey’s pickets, the rebels apparently resolved upon an advance in force against the left wing of the army, doubtless determined to drive it beyond the Chickahominy, should the opportunity offer, and put themselves in a position to turn General M’Clellan’s left flank. Buring the afternoon of Friday, a terrific thunderstorm arose, continuing through most ot the night with uninterrupted severity, deluging the earth with rain, convening the spongy soil into a nearly impassable bog, and raising the waters of the Chickahominy so as to carry away one of two bridges General Sumner had prepared for his passage, and somewhat disturb the foundations of the other. The broad sheets of lightning that night, and the camp fires of unusual size, gleaming in the pitchy darkness, seemed to illuminate our position, and may possibly have assisted the rebels in getting an idea of the bearing of things. Just before the storm had reached its fury there was some skirmishing between the artillery on both sides. This commenced again in the morning, several shots flying over our camp, indicating that the rebels had in some way gained a more correct idea of our position. Shortly after noon the grand attack commenced, General Casey’s pickets being driven in all along the front after a spirited resistance, the rebels advancing in force along three roads—the Williamsburgh-road, to our left, the railroad, in the centre, and the ‘Ninemile-road,’ as it is called, on the right. With his feeble division greatly weakened by extension, General Casey had no backbone to oppose to this sudden attack. But no thought of yielding his ground entered the mind of the old soldier, scarred wiih the wounds of Mexico and disciplined to danger by a hundred fights. His troops Jweie immediately formed into position, the three brigades maintaining their relative position on the right, left, and centre, and as thorough preparations were made for resisting the attack as its suddenness would admit of. Regan’s New York battery was stationed just to the right of the Wiliiamsburg-road, Bates’ battery of Napoleon guns further to the left across the road, and Fitch’s battery 300 or 400 yards to the rear, the last sending its shell over the heads of our troops at the enemy beyond. The fourth battery was near the railroad, further to the right. Jhe vigour with which the enemy pressed forward to the attack indicated the confidence of superior strength A battalion of two regiments pressed against General Naglee on the right, another fell on General Wassell at the centre, and a third on General Palmer to the left, pouring iu at once a fire hot and heavy, and advancing with great resolution in face of the steady fire of canister and grape from the guns in front, and shell from those further to the rear, mowing down their ranks in all directions. The rebels had but little artillery, and were evidently disposed to make good the deficiency by pressing to close quarters with their superior force, to bear down at once by weight of numbers the feeble skeleton regiments of 300 or 400 men who composed the advanced division. Most of General Casey’s troops were thrown forward to the edge of the woods in front of his position to meet the advance of the rebels, a few regiments being left behind the partially completed rifle-pits a short distance to the rear. Thus a division, nearly new to warfare, was suddenly exposed, in an open field, to the heaviest of fire from an enemy covered to a considerable extent by the woods through which they were advancing. Terribly the tempest raged, the air almost growing thick with musket balls; officer after officer fell, or was borne from the field a wounded man; the men dropped by scores, and die usual number of weak-jointed ones were falling to the rear. But in spite of the rapid thinning of their ranks the regiments generally held their ground until the enemy succeeded in rushing around on the left flank, and poured in an enfilading fire from that direction, against which the rifle-pits were no protection. Hie 60 rounds of ammunition with which they entered the fight w ere nearly exhausted, and no more was at baud. Meantime, one of General Couch’s brigades, commanded by General Abercrombie, was ordered up to the support of General Naglee on the right, General Levens, ol the same division, sustaining General Wasscll on the centre, and General Feck, with the remainbrigade, supporting General Palmer on the left. When General Casey’s troops were forced to give way tbe rebels fell on these brigades of Couch’s division, wbo disputed every inch of ground, until sustained by General Kearney, pressing up the Williamsburg-road with reinforcements to meet them, supported by the division of General Hooker in his rear. Pressing rapidly forward, General Kearney advanced along tno '’Uliamsburg-road to within a short distance of our original position, where he bivouacked for the night in hunt of the enemy. It was along this Williamsburgroad that the main attack was made, and here our troops were forced back for half a mile or more, before : . wvival of General Heiutzclinan’s corps, the feeble ,)ri gidcß of Casey’s division, averaging less than 2,000 men , being completely broken up; many, if not most .the officers killed, wounded, or missing, and the privates scattered througli the woods and along the road. Bravely and well did General Casey do his fPtyi pressing on to the extreme front and cheering on 118 men, regardless of the storm of fire and hail that [ a ged about him, cutting down his officers on all sides, mi strangely escaping his own person. Bravely and did most of his officers stand by him until one a ter another they were borne from the field dead or wounded. Colonel Bailey, Chief of Artillery, was shot M, y in the afternoon, the ball striking him in the ‘«ttiVana causing his death, after a short period of inability. Major Van Vaultenberg, the second in command of the Ist New York Artillery, was killed. <u| jtuant Ramsay wownd<j<3, white overy battery nut

nearlvlll ° f *T’ and some « them lost S—l2 nmS h j K rSCS ‘ EatCS ’ S battei Y of Napolean Izj! 12-pound brass pieces—which was to the in°th« tlm i de P lived of locomotion and stuck last Zl T df was left behind in retirement of ouJ ■ Sft 1 DOt r tU General Na g lee had taken it upon . In fddi ? 86C t that . 6everal *0 pieces were spß i addition to this, one threc-inch Parrot cun of T* d ' Sabled b X a 6hot ' and fcll th e f Battorv L? 0 . The Penn sylvania Reserve —rS' ° f , C . oU . cb 8 Dlvlslon . also lost one of their guns loss so faf as P leceß of ordnance constituting 1 our entire So ft!! • 1 C< ? uld lcarn - Wc c an better afford to St ? f! e ? es tban wc can afford to have the rebels profit by their gam. They show every indication of sdmLTißh n - W T ° f artillery ’ and need Is evidently t(i ms fi Po!?> l heir , cff ° rt c to profit h j? the dances of war Sumn!S f,S emSe VC r °/ ° Ur £“ ns ' Mea »time, General the Ohltnh succeeded in bringing his troops across the Chickahommy, and was advancing on the right to mmntam our position there, where less ground had n After of labour > General Sum! B e ' bad tbro 7 n two bridges across the creek between hehiß ? n - dg ° a "?, Ncw Bnd ge, where local reports held it to be impossible to find any foundation for piles to support the superstructures. One of these bridges was some two miles above Bottom’s Bridge, the other a mile further up fte stream. The lower of these was carried away during the heavy storm of Friday night, and General Sumner was obliged to depend upon a single shaky structure for the passage of his troops, who nearly all, however, succeeded in crossing that night the head of the column reaching the Nine-mile road, along which the rebels were pressing our troops at about 7 o clock, holding the enemy in check for the night, and preventing them from following up in that direction the advantage they had gained during the day. .blushed with their seeming victory of Saturday, the rebels awoke with confidence on Sunday to follow up their movements, sure of driving us this time to the Chickahommy and beyond; but they had made the unfortunate mistake of estimating the strength of our reserves by the weakness of our advance. Most bitterly did they pay for their mistake. Pressing eargely forward with confidence of victory, they were met by the trained troops of Heintzelmau and Sumner, whose unyieldmg columns checked their fierce assault, turning the tide of battle everywhere against them, and forcing them at the point of the bayonet on towards Richmond, ihe rebels presented a strong front to the gleamin"bayonets of our men, not 100 yards distant. As the Second advanced on the double quick, cheering and shouting, the rebels held hack their fire until our men were hardly 100 feet from their line, when they fired a murderous volley into the ranks of the Second. It proved too low, and a few were killed or wounded. Immediately after the rebels fired this volley they broke ranks and fled through the wood. A few of their bravest remained to resist our passage, but they were soon mowed down by the steel front of the gallant Second Excelsior. It was now their turn to break and run, and their losses of the Sabbath left them little cause for rejoicing over the trifling gain of Saturday. Terribly did the rebels suffer on this, as well as on the previous day, from the well-directed fire of our artillery, piling the ground with the slain. Terrible also to them were the frequent charges of our solid columns, pressing them back, step by step, to the last point of endurance, when they broke and ran, iugloriously leaving behind them many of their men and officers, as well as privates, prisoners in our hands. The number of these it is not yet possible to ascertain, several days necessarily elapsing after every engagement before a full inventory can be taken. Even of our loss it was impossible to form any correct idea at the time I left the field of battle. The only source of information was the wounded, who gave such particulars in regard to their respective regiments as they could, as they were borne by from all parts of the field. To the oftrepeated question, ‘ Well, how did your regiment stand it?’ I got uniform answers. ‘O, Sir, our regiment was all cut to pieces, Sir; nothing left of it.’ I, of course, was able to rely little on such stories from my disabled informants, knowing the tendency, not only among soldiers, but equally among people in civilized life, to mgnify their own misfortune into a measure of the public calamity. They took no account of their nimble-footed comrades, who had disappeared without damage to life or limb. It is impossible, so soon after the affair, to give even a rough estimate of the loss in an engagement spread over so great a space of country, and in the confusion which always ensues alter a battle. That the loss is very severe, and particularly so in the matter of officers, there is no manner of doubt. The difficulty of rightly estimating our loss is also enhanced by the fact that many of those falling were unavoidably left upon the ground subsequently occupied by the enemy in his first successful attack. The number of these we cannot learn until regimental rolls are compared. It is sincerely to bo regretted, in view of the tales wc have of the barbarous treatment of our wounded by the rebels, when once they fall into their hands, that necessity should have compelled any to be left upon the field, to receive ‘ the tender mercies of the wicked.’ That the rebel loss was greater by far than our own I do not doubt. Besides our superiority in artillery, our small-arras were much more effective, having all the superiority in fatal power which the Minie ball has over the round rifle ball. The wounds inflicted by the enemy were mainly by the latter. Had the leaden hail in which our men were obliged to stand so long been composed of conical instead of round shot many more Rachels would be mourning over the loss, and many more homes draped in funeral weeds. Your correspondent feels particularly grateful to the blockade, being morally certain that had the ball which lodged so harmlessly in his legging been a Minie he would have been obliged always hereafter to write standing on one foot—a good figure of speech for Juvenal, but one which he would rather be excused from practically embodying. As it is, the sight abrasion left upon his leg by the ball, after forcing two thicknesses of leather one of cloth, is sufficiently suggestive of a reward to satisfy his moderate ambition for military adventure. Besides the guns General Casey lost all his camp equipage, his tents being pitched ujion the field of battle in such near proximity to the rebels as to render their loss inevitable in case of the slightest yielding of his troops. The generals in his division must also have lost their effects, which, fortunately, were of no great value, all the baggage of the officers, as well as the knapsacks of the soldiers, having been some days before ordered to the other side of the Chickahominy, with the waggons, quartermasters’ stores, and everything not absolutely indispensable. So the loss was slight, except in the disappearance of papers of considerable value, which were left in the tents. At about 12 o’clock General M’Clellan rode up to the front, accompained by his Staff and bodyguard, and met General Heinlzelrnan seated at the foot ot a tree. Little Mac democratically seated himself at the side of Heintzelman, on the ground, when his Staff grouped themselves, resting on stumps of trees and logs, I here was the Prince do Joinville, the Count do Pans, and the Hue de Chartres, forming a select group of three, conversing quite animatedly in French, and the other members of M’Clellan’s Staff joining in with a little English. ‘ They fight on Sunday always,’ said the Hue dc Chartres, alluding to the rebels. General M Clcllan had been seated probably half an hour conversing with General Heintzelman, when General Hooker rode up from the extreme advanced line gained that morning, and, as he was dismounting from his horse, General M’Clellan rose from his seat and, advancing, shook him warmly by the hand, and congratulated him and his noble division in terms of the highest praise. A long conversion took place between them. It was plainly seen n* further advance was to he made that day, as no troops were ordered up to the front. At a little after 1 o’clock General M’Clellan mounted his horse and rode along the lines of his troops, back and forth, until all the soldiers had had an opportunity ot seeing him. Napoleon never was received by his enthusiastic troops with greater manifestations of delignt than was M’Clellan by his army, showing that he possessed the confidence as well as the hearts of his men. They feel that they must ever be victorious under his guidance. The rebels during the fight had their sharpshooters posted in trees to pick o our officers-a fact discovered in the early part of the action. In company with General Sickless, Colonel Graham, Colonel Hall, and Lieutenant Graham, I rode out upon the battle-field on Sunday afternoon at 4 o clock, me 1 scene witnessed here baffles all description. Caissons, with horses shot dead in their traces, ambulances, waggons, &c., filled the road in front of Casey s camp. There were about 200 of our wounded still lying where they fell on Saturday. Some of them spoke kindly of lhe y rebels, saying they treated them very well. Head rebels as well as our own men, were lying m eyuy nart of the field and wood. I counted 57 dead rebels in front of a small piece of wood not 40 feet s ff ll “ rc - One wounded rebel was lying on the ground, urtable to move; ho was shot in both legs. On each side of him lay some dead rebels. As W6 pilSSCtl by , he begged US for God’s sake to take the dead men away from him. The stench was intolerable. We lost 19 guns in the St of Saturday. Not one of them has been recovered The rebels ran a train down near hj air Oak Station and carried away our commissary stores, guns, &c to Richmond. The rebels destroyed what they could not conveniently carry awajj, including the new tents of Casey’s and Couch’s divisions. Our loss in the two day’s engagement, in killed and wounded, will ZoZ to about 3,000. A groan ««JB. who will probably return, having strayed away, l out separate charges with the bayonet were made yesterday. S one instance the enemy were driven a mile, during wh°ch 173 rebels were killed by the bayonet alone. Lieutenant Washington, aide to General Joe Johnston. was taken prisoner. The enemy s dead left on the field aiuoipßetl to | jSQG.’

A correspondent of the Tribune gives the following narrative of the “ Battle of Fair Oaks,” as the engagement before Richmond is to be called:— ** Heintzelinan’a Head-quarters, “ Monday, June 2. “ Saturday night closed upon the battle-field of that day with the enemy in full force in front. Our troops were under arms all night along the entire line of action, prepared for the renewal of the fight the next morning. During the night the enemy had advanced fully up to the fmthest point made by them the day before, and were strongly posted on both sides of the railroad. General Sedgwick’s division had arrived on the right on Saturday evening, too late to take part in the action of that day, but fresh and eager for for that approaching. During the night Birney’s brigade had been posted at better advantage of position than had been the fortune of our troops occupying that and the adjacent grounds of the day before; and with the determination to redeem the losses of Saturday inspiriting our entire line the action commenced. The regiments to which the brunt of the haltie fell were those which had not suffered much in the contest of the day before, although all of Heintzelman’s corps, or Hooker’s and Kearney’s division, and Keyes’s corps, were represented in it. I cannot say that any organised body from Casey’s division participated in Sunday’s work. The affair is yet too recent to admit of a description in full that would do justice to all the parties deserving especial mention, and to mention a part might do injustice to others. Two brigades, however, whose spheres of action were within the field of tny personal observation I do not hesitdte to mention, although others may be equally deserving. There can be no question that Sickle’s brigade in Hooker’s and Birney’s in Kearney’s division covered themselves with glory in their several charges, each against a force much their superior in numbers. Unfortunately for hj imself, General Birney was ordered under arrest early in the morning for some infraction of orders, and the command of his brigade devolved on Colonel J, H. Hubert Ward, of the 38rh New York. Under this gallant officer this brigade, consisting of the 38th and 40th New York and the 3rd and 4th Maine, and to which the 7th Massachusetts had been temporarily attached, drove a much stronger force of t he enemy through a heavy wooded swamp out of the woods into an open field, where two regiments of the brigade were posted so as to give them a galling fire that soon compelled them to fall back ; and when Colonel Ward ordered the bayonet charge the entire brigade gave them the point, and drove them for nearly a mile in a perfect route. Sickle’s brigade also gave the enemy a taste of the bayonet, and drove them with great slaughter out of the rifle-pits from which they were dealing death to our troops. These successes, followed up with courage aud promptness, and sustained by the hard fighting in Sedgwick’aftdmsion, settled the fortune of the day, and changed what had been the closest contested and severest engagement east of the Alleghanies into a substantial triumph ofour arms. The rebels fell back ail afternoon, and a reconnoissance to-day discovers none within a distance of three miles of our position of Saturday. The conduct of the rebels in the engagements of yesterday and the day before was worthy of a better cause. General officers speak of some of their charges on Saturday as splendid ; but they were in strong forces, the attacking party, and had the choice of ground—three points in their favour, and if they had any good fight iu them it should come out under such circumstances. They outnumber our troops about five to one, according to the best reconnoissance that could be made—five distinct lines of battle, lying in older, supporting each other. Their loss must be greater than our own in killed —perhaps not so great in wounded. They use a cartridge of one ball and three buckshot—most effective in shot ranges, and more destructive than the best prized rifle-hall, as they wound more than they kill. From prisoners taken yesterday I hear of one Alubama regiment that went into the engagement over 1,300 strong on Saturday morning, Sunday morning itreported only 150. Colonel Bratton, of the Ist South Carolina, taken prisoner by Birney’s brigade, confirms that statement, and gives similar reports of other cases. His own regiment had more than 50 killed by one fire of one of our regiments armed with the Austrian rifle. But our own loss was very heavy, particularly in wounded, and fully up to the day before. Birney's brigade suffered in killed and wounded less than 200 mostly in the 3d Maine and 40lh New York, The latter has not yet been able to ascertain the names of the killed and wounded. The 38th New York suffered somewhat, but not to the extent of either of the others named; while tbe 4th Maine, being posted near the railroad track, and using it for a breastwork, lost but very few, and all of its wounded being slightly. But in Sedgwick’s division the loss was very severe, the number of wounded reported being near 1,000. These are now being brought over for removal by cars to White-house, all of the wounded in lleintzelman’s corps having been sent on. The cars move but slowly, and while waiting for return trains the ground around head-quarters is covered with the wounded —hundreds of them without shelter; and to acid to the horrors of their situation we have had severe thunderstorms for two nights in succession, to which these wretched suflerersare exposed. To-night the division on the left took position in advance, yet not as far as Casey’s occupied before being routed on Saturday. The camps are full of rumours that Richmond is evacuated, but whether or not there is truth in the rumour it is impossible to determine here, although so near. It is certain, however, that our troops furthest advanced can see no rebel camps at this part of the line, and the theory that the fight of Saturday was to cover some movement in the rear of it may be correct. If they have not evacuated Richmond, and do not immediately do so, there can be no question that we are on the eve of the most terrible battle of the war. Guns were heard this afternoon in the direction of James River, and there is a rumour that the gunboats have passed the obstructions, but it is hardly believed. If true, then the great struggle cannot much longer bo delayed.”