iles in their rear, and the three finest corps in the
army were separated from them by a broad, rapid river, which could be
crossed at two places only. The troops of Keyes were mainly
inexperienced, undisciplined volunteers from the Middle States. When
their adversaries advanced, therefore, in force, on the twenty-ninth
instant, they made a fitful, irregular resistance, and at evening
retired in panic and disorder. The victorious enemy followed them so
closely, that many of the Federals were slain in their tents. During
that night, the Chickahominy, swollen by rains, overflowed its banks,
and swept away the bridges. The beaten and disorganized relic of the
fight of "Seven Pines," was thus completely isolated, and apparently to
be annihilated at daybreak. But during the night, twenty thousand fresh
men of Sumner's corps, forded the river, carrying their artillery, piece
by piece across, and at dawn they assumed the offensive, seconded by the
encouraged columns of Keyes. The fight was one of desperation; at night
the Federals reoccupied their old ground at Fairoaks, and the
Confederates retired, leaving their dead and wounded on the field. They
lost, among their prisoners, General Pettigrew, of South Carolina, who
was severely wounded, and with whom I talked as he lay in bed at
Gaines's Mansion. He appeared to be a chivalrous, gossipy old gentleman,
and said that he was the last South Carolinian to stand by the Union.

On the succeeding day, Monday, June 2, I rode to "Grape-Vine Bridge,"
and attempted to force my horse through the swamp and stream; but the
drowned mules that momentarily floated down the current, admonished me
of the folly of the hazard. The bridge itself was a swimming mass of
poles and logs, that yielded with every pressure; yet I saw many wounded
men, who waded through the water, or stepped lightly from log to log,
and so gained the shore, wet from head to foot. Long lines of supply
teams and ambulances were wedged in the depth of the thick wood,
bordering the river; but so narrow were the corduroy approaches to the
bridge, and so fathomless the swamp on either hand, that they could
neither go forward, nor return. The straggling troops brought the
unwelcome intelligence, that their comrades on the other side were
starving, as they had crossed with a single ration of food, and had long
ago eaten their last morsels. While I was standing close by the bridge,
General McClellan, and staff, rode through the sw