THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. 85 tile gentlemen ordered up one of their bands, which played a popular air; but it was hardly ended before the musicians gave way to a battery, which, coming up at full gallop, opened a terrible fire, to which we soon responded. These examinations convinced us that the enemy was not idle, and that he had thrown up works, armed with heavy guns, precisely where we did not wish to see them. At last, after many experiments, the battle began. On the 25th of June, Hooker received his orders to advance a mile, to a large clearing on the direct road to Richmond. It was calculated that this movement would be followed by a general resistance on the part of the confederates, which would renew the battle of Fair Oaks, with the important difference that our bridges being all solidly established, we could command the assistance of the whole army. If the challenge were not accepted, then we should have made one step forward; we should make another next day, and so, by degrees, we should enter Richmond. Moreover, we trusted to our star for the rest. Hooker, mounted on a white horse, which made Win conspicuous in the woods to all of us and to the enemy, advanced gallantly. The ground he was to conquer was taken, lost, retaken and finally held by him, with a loss of from 400 to 500 men. His two brave brigadiers, Groves and Sickles, gave him the most energetic assistance; but during the conflict, serious news had reached us. Deserters, runaway negroes, the Washington telegraph itself, generally so sober in its information, agreed in this news: numerous reinforcements had reached Richmond from the South. Beauregard, set free by the cessation of operations in the Southwest, had brought the aid of his capacity and of his prestige to the pro-slavery cause. Jackson, leaving the eighty thousand defenders of Washington breathless from their idle chase after him, had completed the concentration of the whole
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