Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 21.djvu/133

 Life and Character of Lt.-General D. H. 7//'//. 125

LEE ASSUMES COMMAND SEVEN DAYS' BATTLE.

On the 3ist of May, 1862, General R. E. Lee was assigned to the command of the army in place of General Johnston, who had been painfully wounded on the previous day, and immediately ad- dressed himself to the arduous task of preparing for the decisive encounter, which could not be long delayed. His "exhibition of grand administrative talent and indomitable energy in bringing up that army in so short a time to that state of discipline which main- tained aggregation during those terrible seven days' fight around Richmond" (says Colonel Chilton) was " his greatest achievement."

The order of battle in the memorable seven days' fight required A. P. Hill, when Jackson should pass down in rear of Mechanicsville, to cross at Meadow bridge and drive the enemy so as to enable D. H. Hill to pass over the bridge at that village.

MECHANICSVILLE.

In obedience to messages from General Lee and President Davis, General Hill, after crossing, went forward with the brigade of Briga- dier-General Ripley to co-operate with the division of General A. P. Hill. At the request of Brigadier- General Pender, Hill directed Ripley just at dark to act in concert with that dashing officer in the effort to turn the enemy's position at Ellerson's Mill and drive him from it.

The desperate charge across an open field in the face of a murder- ous fire, in which that brave soldier and noble man, Colonel Mont- ford S. Stokes, of the First North Carolina regiment, fell mortally wounded, was neither planned by General Hill nor executed under his directions. (Official Records, Series i, Volume XI, Part 2, page 623.) The suggestion that General Hill deliberately and unneces- sarily rushed those gallant men into danger is unfounded and unjust.