supply of
"commissary" was yet abundant to be taken as an antidote against the
malaria.

At day-break the regiment was roused from slumber by the soul-stirring
sounds of the "reveille" which reverberated through the dark pine woods
of the "sacred soil." The strangers were prevailed on to take a hasty
cup of coffee, and as the men were forming for company drill, we bade
them "good-by," and sought our own regiments, which we found in camp in
a clearing, at Ship Point, nine miles from Yorktown, then held by the
enemy.

The writer did not see the Ninth again until the 27th of June following
(1862), and the occasion was a sad one. When McClellan's right wing was
crushed like an egg shell under Gen. Fitz John Porter, on the north bank
of the Chickahominy, two brigades of Sumner's Second Corps (Meagher and
French's) were ordered from the centre of our lines at Fair Oaks to
check the victorious march of the overwhelming masses of the enemy.
After fighting like Spartans for two days, the twenty-seven thousand men
under Porter were outflanked by the enemy who were sixty-five thousand
strong. Porter's troops were compelled to retire, and by sundown they
were in full retreat towards the temporary bridges constructed by our
troops, over the Chickahominy. At this juncture the two brigades
mentioned were ordered from our centre to check the advance of the now
victorious enemy.

The force engaged at Gaines' Mill was: Union, 50 Regiments, 20
batteries, 27,000 men. Confederate: 129 Regiments, 19 batteries, 65,000
men. Losses: Union, killed, 894; wounded, 3,107; missing, 2,836; total,
6,837. Confederate: Somewhat larger, especially in killed and wounded.
Perhaps in the whole history of the war there was no battle fought with
more desperation on both sides than that of Mechanicville (June 26), and
Gaines' Mill (June 27). Fitz John Porter handled his army with such
ability that his inferior force repelled repeated attacks of the flower
of the rebel army under Lee and Jackson; and if it were not for the
blundering of the cavalry, under Gen. Cook, through whose
instrumentality Porter's lines were broken, he would have repelled all
efforts to drive him to the river. As an evidence of the desperate
nature of the conflict, it may be mentioned that one Rebel regiment
(Forty-Fourth Georgia) lost three hundred and thirty-five men.

We got there, about eight miles, at eight o'clock, having pushed on by
forced marches all the way, but too late