Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/296

274 original position near Barhamsville, after a loss of 48 men as against 194 for Franklin.

No further attempt was made to delay Johnston's retreat, which his right continued to the vicinity of the Long bridges of the Chickahominy, and his left to the crossing of that stream by the York River railroad, near Dispatch Station, where he took position, on May 9th, on the north side of the Chickahominy, facing to the northeast, covering all the roads to Richmond by which McClellan could approach, and where he remained undisturbed until the 15th, resting and recruiting his army in a position to be supplied by railway trains and difficult to be turned by water. Longstreet held the right, located near the Long bridges, and Magruder the left, near Dispatch Station.

Huger evacuated Norfolk May 9th, after destroying the navy yard, and fell back toward Petersburg. The now famous ram Virginia was blown up by her gallant crew on the 11th and her men hurried to Drewry's bluff on the James, to take charge of the guns at the fortifications which General Lee, in the meantime, had prudently constructed at that point. The Virginia out of the way, the Federal gunboats ascended the James and attacked Drewry's bluff, eight miles below Richmond, on the 15th. The channel of the James had been filled with sunken ships and other obstructions, and the gunboats met with a most spirited resistance from the guns in the works on the bluff, which repulsed their attack and compelled them to fall back down the river. This naval attack in his rear induced Johnston to retreat across the Chickahominy on the 15th, and place his army in front of the defensive works, three miles to the east of Richmond, which had been thrown up in 1861 for the defense of that city.

On the 8th of May, McClellan ordered Stoneman's cavalry forward from Williamsburg to open the way for the advance of Franklin. On the 10th his army was well concentrated near Barhamsville; thence, feeling his way cautiously, four of his corps reached the vicinity of Cumberland, on the Pamunkey, and New Kent Court House on the 15th. On the 16th his advance took possession of the White House, near which the York River railroad crosses the Pamunkey; thence, advancing along the York River railroad, he reached the north