was certain he would at once be attacked by the rebels in force, its
possession being the most important point in their plan of action, and
its triumphant retention one of the most important in his own.

The first battle of Malvern was ended; but the curtain was soon to rise
on a still more fearful scene of slaughter and one yet more uneven in
its character as regarded the losses of the Union army and the rebels.

The main position occupied by McClellan was a splendid one for defence;
and, thanks to what De Joinville calls the "happy foresight of the
General, who, notwithstanding all the hindrances presented by the nature
of the soil to his numerous artillery, had spared no pains to bring it
with him"--the preparations for holding that position were magnificently
adequate. The extreme right flank was comparatively narrow, and as it
was a point liable to a determined attack, strong earth-works had been
hastily thrown up entirely across it, and it had been further protected
by a thick, impenetrable mass of abattis, the materials for which were
so plentifully furnished by the Virginia woods and in the construction
of which the quasi-mechanical army was rapidly efficient. The left was
protected by the James River and the terror-inspiring gun-boats. In
front the hill sloped gently down to the Charles City and Richmond road,
and other points by which the enemy must debouch to begin the attack.
On this natural plateau not less than three hundred pieces of
artillery--a number fabulous in any preceding struggle in the history of
the world--were placed in battery; so arranged that they would not
interfere With the fire of the infantry along the natural glacis up
which the assailants would be obliged to advance unsheltered. In the
skirts of the woods lying beyond the foot of the hills, long lines of
rifle-pits had been dug--these, and the woods beyond, occupied by a
brigade of Maine and Wisconsin infantry and a portion of Berdan's
celebrated regiment, to act as sharp-shooters.

The sun was sinking rapidly westward in the direction of Richmond--that
coveted capital of Secessia, for the possession of which so much blood
and treasure had been unavailingly expended; the trees, which for so
many hours had afforded no shelter from the blinding blaze, except
immediately beneath their spreading branches and dust-dimmed leaves,
began to cast long shadows eastward; and the fervent heat began to be
more sensibly tempered by the breeze creep