96 THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. which the enemy would be obliged to advance to the attack. '1’he artillery lire was to be reinforced by the lo()-poundcrs of iheBunboats which were ordered to flank the gosition. It M as mere madness to rush upon such obstacles ; but the confederates attempted it. Again and again during the day of the 1st of July they undertook to carry Utlvern Hill, but without the slightest chance of success. The whole day for them was an idle butchery. Their loss was very heavy ; that of the federals insignificant. This success was due to two causes. First, to the fortunate foresight of the General, who, in spite of numerous natural obstacles to the passage of artillery, had spared nothing to bring his on, and next to the firmness of his troops. Men do not make such a campaign, and go through such experience as they had endured, without coining out more or less formed to war. If their primitive organization had been better, the survivors of this rude campaign, I do not fear to assert, might be regarded as the equals of the best soldiers in the world. On the evening after this battle the exhausted enemy retired to appear no more, and the army of the Potomac took np a position and sought rest at Harrison’s Bar, a spot chosen by the engineers and the navy as the most favorable for defence and for receiving supplies. The campaign against Richmond had ended, without success, but not without honor. The honor of the army was safe ; but those who had looked to success for the early restoration of the Union under an impulse of generous and patriotic conciliation saw their hopes unhappily fade away.
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