THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. 49 distance it met a portion of the confederate army, which gave way and fell back before it. Smith informed McClellan of this, and the General, who thought that Stoneman might outstrip the hostile column and ent it off at the fork of the roads before Williamsburg, sent orders to that officer to hasten his march. Unfortunately, it was not easy to advance rapidly. The roads, and particularly that road taken by the cavalry, were narrow and full of frightful morasses from which it was difficult to extricate the cannon, although the weather had been fine and dry for several days. At any other time we should have paused to admire the scenery of this lovely region covered with virgin forests broken at intervals by a clearing, and recalling by its aspect the smiling districts of Devonshire, that Provence of England. But now we only looked upon these forests as the hiding places of an enemy. The young Duke of Chartres, on a scout with forty horsemen, suddenly fell upon a confederate brigade. This was the rear guard of the column described by Smith. The prince brought back some fifteen prisoners and gave his information to Stoneman, who hurried his advance to reach this column before it should join the body of the hostile forces supposed to be at Williamsburg. Soon the fork of the two roads was reached, the one leading from Yorktown, by which Stoneman was advancing, and the other leading from Lee’s Mill, by which the confederates were retreating. But the moment that the federal cavalry came out upon this fork, it was received by an artillery fire from numerous field works erected in front of Williamsburg. A rapid survey explained the position. As we have stated, the Virginian peninsula narrows towards Williamsburg. Two creeks or bays, the one opening out of the James, the other out of the York, and both terminating in marshes, make this neck of land still smaller, and form between the marshes a kind of isthmus upon which the roads from Lee’s Mill and from Yorktown debouch. To the south 4
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