Life and campaigns of JJackson, (Stonewall Jackson) . t width would indicate. During thisyear, especially, the excessive rains and repeated freshets hadconverted its little current into an important stream, its marshesinto lakes, and its rich, level cornfields into bogs. But at thedistance of half a*mile from the channel, the country on eachside rises into undulating hills, with farms interspersed irregu-larly among the tracts of forest, and the coppices of young MClellan, taking his departure from the White House,on the Pamunkcy, and using the York River Railroad
Life and campaigns of JJackson, (Stonewall Jackson) . t width would indicate. During thisyear, especially, the excessive rains and repeated freshets hadconverted its little current into an important stream, its marshesinto lakes, and its rich, level cornfields into bogs. But at thedistance of half a*mile from the channel, the country on eachside rises into undulating hills, with farms interspersed irregu-larly among the tracts of forest, and the coppices of young MClellan, taking his departure from the White House,on the Pamunkcy, and using the York River Railroad as his lineof supply, had pressed his vast army to the cast and north ofRichmond. Its two wings, placed like the open jaws of somemighty dragon, the one on the north and the other on the southside of the Chickahominy, almost embraced the -northeast angleof the city. To connect them with each other, he had con-structed tluee or four elaborate bridges across the stream, withcauseways Icadmg to them, and along the length of the valley, THE BATTLES AROUND RICHMOND. 437. j/ifiomaitoXR CiTYPOlM, THE BATTLES AKOUND RICHMOND. 438 LIFE OP JACKSON. by which he hoped to defy both mire and floods. On bothsides, his front was so fortified with earthworks, abattis, andheavy artillery, that they could not be assailed, save with cruelloss. These works, on his left, were extended to the front ofthe battle-field of Seven Pines, and on his right to the hamlet ofMechanicsville; which, seated upon the north bank of tlie Chick-ahominy, six miles fiom Richmond, commanded the road thenceto Hanover Court House. The Confederate army, now under the immediate order ofGeneral Eobeit E. Lee, confronted MClellan, and guarded thecourse of the Chickahominy, as high as the half sink farm, north-west of Richmond, where Brigadier-General Branch, of MajorGeneral A. P. Hills division, was stationed within a few milesof Ashland. General Lee, after the battle of Seven Pines, hadfortified his front, ea
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Keywords: ., bookauthordabneyro, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, bookyear1866
