d to advance early on the 29th, and moving, the one
by the Williamsburg, the other by the Charles City road, to strike
the enemy in flank.

A.P. Hill and Longstreet, recrossing the Chickahominy at New Bridge,
were to march by the Darbytown road in the direction of Charles City
cross roads, thus turning the head waters of the White Oak Swamp, and
threatening the Federal rear.

Jackson, crossing Grapevine Bridge, was to move down the south bank
of the Chickahominy, cross the Swamp by the bridge, and force his way
to the Long Bridge road.

The Confederate army was thus divided into four columns, moving by
four different roads; each column at starting was several miles
distant from the others, and a junction was to be made upon the field
of battle. The cavalry, moreover, with the exception of a few
squadrons, was far away upon the left, pursuing a large detachment
which had been observed on the road to the White House.* (* This
detachment, about 3500 strong, consisted of the outposts that had
been established north and north-east of Beaver Dam Creek on June 27,
of the garrison of the White House, and of troops recently
disembarked.)

McClellan had undoubtedly resolved on a most hazardous manoeuvre. His
supply and ammunition train consisted of over five thousand waggons.
He was encumbered with the heavy guns of the siege artillery. He had
with him more than fifty field batteries; his army was still 95,000
strong; and this unwieldy multitude of men, horses, and vehicles, had
to be passed over White Oak Swamp, and then to continue its march
across the front of a powerful and determined enemy.

But Lee also was embarrassed by the nature of the country.* (*
Strange to say, while the Confederates possessed no maps whatever,
McClellan was well supplied in this respect. "Two or three weeks
before this," says General Averell (Battles and Leaders volume 2 page
431), "three officers of the 3rd Pennsylvania Cavalry, and others,
penetrated the region between the Chickahominy and the James, taking
bearings and making notes. Their fragmentary sketches, when put
together, made a map which exhibited all the roadways, fields,
forests, bridges, the streams, and houses, so that our commander knew
the country to be traversed far better than any Confederate
commander.") If McClellan's movements were retarded by the woods,
swamps, and indifferent roads, the same obstacles would interfere
with the combination of the Confederate columns; and