difficulties, to a better and more secure
position, from which an offensive movement might again be made at an
early day, threatening their capital beyond a hope of defence. To them,
a prize long watched and supposed to be securely entrapped, was after
all escaping to a place of safety; and every Confederate officer and
soldier seemed to feel that the Union army must not be allowed to gain
the line of the James as an army, if any series of desperate and
continued attacks could suffice to destroy it. Never, perhaps, was
greater bravery or more indefatigable energy shown in pursuing a beaten
but dangerous foe, than was shown on this occasion by Hill, Longstreet
and Jackson; and never, certainly, was the doggedly dangerous defence of
the tiger slowly retreating to his jungle, more splendidly shown than by
McClellan, Hooker, Sumner, Keyes, Heintzelman and the other Union
commanders. The conflict of Monday the thirtieth June, at White Oak
Swamp, had brought no substantial benefit to the Confederate arms, nor
had it in any considerable degree weakened the Union forces; and on the
night of that day it became evident to the commanders of both armies
that if Tuesday the first of July should pass without a substantial
victory gained by the Confederates, the Union troops would gain the
shelter of the James and the gun-boats, and the rebel advance be checked
effectually.

It was upon the two armies in this position that the night of Monday
closed down; and it was upon the two armies with their positions very
little changed, that the morning broke on Tuesday, giving light for the
double battle, of a whole day's duration, hereafter to be known as that
of Malvern Hill.[11]

[Footnote 11: For the close and accurate description of this battle, the
correctness of the technical terms employed, the ground occupied, and
some of the very language used,--the writer in this place begs to make
his acknowledgments to Mr William H. White, soldier and scholar, a
Lieutenant in the Ninth Infantry in the campaign against the city of
Mexico, and author of the popular "Sketches of the Mexican War" which
have supplied our literature with some of the finest battle-pieces in
the language.]

Nature has no sympathy with bloodshed and but little with suffering; and
it is only when a God puts off mortal existence that the earth is racked
with the thunders and the earthquakes of Calvary. The birds sing as
sweetly and the sun shines as brightly as usual, on