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From: Pat Vorenberg <>
Subject: Eppa Hunton Autobiography - Continued
Date: Sat, 5 Sep 1998 09:10:43 -0400 (EDT)


Chapter 4 - pp 66 - 69 [Battle of Seven Pines - Robert E. Lee takes command]

In the meantime the Battle of Seven Pines was fought, May 31-Jun3 1, 1862.
This was a hotly-contested fight. Although we held our own and drove the
enemy back some distance, no substantial results followed from our victory.
General Johnston, who was always in the fiercest of a fight, was wounded
about dusk on the evening of May 31. The fight lasted two days. On the
second it was not very severe, but on the first it was terrific, and my
regiment was hotly engaged. It was under the command of my gallant
Lieutenant-Colonel Norborne Berkeley, and all hands behaved, as usual, with
gallantry. Major Thrift, the newly elected Major, was mortally wounded, and
was afterwards succeeded by Captain Edmund Berkeley.

The next day because of the disability of General Johnston, that grandest of
men, that noblest of patriots, that greatest of military chieftains, General
Robert E. Lee, was assigned to the command of the army, then called the Army
of Northern Virginia.

McClellan was drawing his immense army, like the coils of an anaconda,
around the City of Richmond, and General Lee planned the bolest campaign
known to military history to rid Richmond of the siege. The two armies were
very unequal in numbers. General McClellan held his line of battle from the
James River up to the little town of Mechanicsville, to the northeast of
Richmond, with a large force of the Federal Army at Fredericksburg under
General McDowell. The administration at Washington was afraid to allow this
force to unite with McClellan for fear of a dash upon the Federal Capitol.
This apprehension always weighed upon the administration at Washington and
kept from our front often-times a large part of their army to defend the
capital.

Jackson had won world-wide fame in the Valley of Virginia. He won three
battles, over greatly superior numbers each time, in three days, and drove
the enemy down towards Harper's Ferry. When General Lee determined to attack
McClellan, he gave orders to Jackson to move secretly and swiftly across the
Ridge and attack McClellan on his right. General Lee's general plan of
battle was to cross the Chickahominy, leaving a small portion of his army
(two divisions, Huger's and Magruder's on the Richmond side of the river,
disperce McClellan's forces under Fitz John Porter on the north side and
draw the rest of his forces from their protected position on the south side
of the river. The boldness of the attack consisted in the fact that if
McClellan had been equally bold when General Lee crossed the Chickahominy
leaving only a small portion of his army to defend Richmond, McClellan might
have marched into Richmond. But he did not.

I was still sick in Lynchburg. Dr. Taylor, my physician, came to see me on
the 24th of June, 1862. I told him that I was satisfied there was a fight on
hand and I was going to my regiment. He laughed at the idea and said I must
not think of such a thing. The next morning he came to see me, and I had
gone. At Farmville the train was delayed awhile, and two or three of my
friends came out and learning I was on my way to my regiment and seeing my
condition, proposed to take me by force from the train. I absolutely refused
to leave, and went on.

I joined my regiment on the morning of the 26th, then camped on the
Mechanicsville Turnpike. My boys, as usual, were glad to see me. The brigade
had been strengthened at that time by the addition of the 56th Virginia
Regiment under the command of William D. Stuart, and consisted all through
the war of the 8th, 18th, 19th, 28th and 56th Regiments.

The right flank of McClellan was attacked that day at Mechanicsville by A.
P. Hill's forces supported, toward the close of the action by D. H. Hill and
Longstreet, and repulsed. General McClellan had taken up a very strong
position at Gaines Mill - sometimes called the "Watt Farm" The first line of
the enemy was in a washout made by the water in times of freshet. it was
probably four feet deep and five feet wide, and made a most excellent cover
for the Federal soldiers. One hundred yards back on the ground which
commenced to rise from this ravine was another line fortified by cutting
down and piling up logs and trees. One hundred yards further, and still
higher, the ground rising rapidly, was another line fortified in the same
way, and beyond this was an open field where the artillery was located.

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