“General Longstreet’s clear head and brave heart left no apology for interference at Williamsburg.”?—?Joseph E. Johnston.

This battle was fairly fought and dearly won by the Confederacy, May 5, 1862. General Joseph E. Johnston was chief in command and General Longstreet had the active direction of the battle.

In his official report upon the battle, General Johnston said,?—?

“The action gradually increased in magnitude until about three o’clock, when General Longstreet, commanding the rear, requested that a part of Major-General Hill’s troops might be sent to his aid. Upon this I rode upon the field, but found myself compelled to be a spectator, for General Longstreet’s clear head and brave heart left no apology for interference.”

The battle was fought by Sickles’s Federal Third Corps, that heroically contested every inch of the ground. It was at the close of the battle that General Hancock distinguished himself by holding his position in and about the forts with five regiments and two batteries against the assault of the Fifth North Carolina and Twenty-fourth Virginia Regiments, and it was on this field that he won the title of “The Superb,” given to him by McClellan in his report.

The object of the battle on the part of the Confederates was to gain time to haul their trains to places of safety. The effect besides was to call two of the Federal divisions from their flanking move to support the battle, thereby greatly crippling their expedition.

General McClellan was at Yorktown during most of the day to see several of the divisions of his army aboard the transports for his proposed flanking and rear move up York River. Upon receiving advice that the Williamsburg engagement was serious and unsatisfactory, he hastened to the battle with the divisions of Sedgwick and Richardson, which he had expected to send up the river.

There were about nine thousand Confederates and twelve thousand Union troops engaged. The Confederate casualties were 1565; the Federal casualties, 2288. Johnston had anticipated McClellan’s move up the York River, and considered it very important to cripple or break it up. Therein he used the divisions of Longstreet, Magruder, D.R. Jones, McLaws, G.W. Smith, and D.H. Hill.

There was a tremendous downpour of rain the night before the battle, flooding thoroughfares, by-ways, woodlands, and fields so that many of the Confederate trains were unable next day to move out of the bogs that were developed during the night.

General Hooker’s division of the Third Corps, on the Federal side, came to the open on the Hampton road, and engaged by regiments,?—?the First Massachusetts on the left, the Second New Hampshire on the right. After the advance of his infantry in the slashes, General Hooker, with the Eleventh Massachusetts and Twenty-sixth Pennsylvania, cleared the way for communication with the troops on the Yorktown road and ordered Webber’s six-gun battery into action. As it burst from the woods through which it had come, the Confederate infantry and every gun in reach opened upon it a fire so destructive that it was unmanned before it came into practice. New Federal troops immediately came to the rescue, and the guns reopened fire. Osborn’s and Bramhall’s batteries joined in, and the two poured an unceasing fire into the Confederate troops about the fort and redoubts. The Fifth New Jersey Regiment was added to the battery guard, and the Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth were deployed on the left in the woodland. The brigades of R.H. Anderson, Wilcox, Pryor, A.P. Hill, and Pickett were taking care of the Confederate side.

General Longstreet, hearing the swelling noise of battle, rode to the front and ordered Colston’s brigade and the batteries of Deering and Stribling to follow, as well as Stuart’s horse artillery under Pelham.

It soon became evident that the fight was for the day. D.H. Hill was asked to return with the balance of his division. Hooker was bracing the fight on his left. He directed Emory to reconnoitre on his extreme left. Grover was called to reinforce the fighting in the edge of the woods. Several New York regiments came into the action, but the Confederates nevertheless continued to gain ground until they got short of ammunition. While holding their line, some of the regiments retired a little to fill their cartridge-boxes from those of the fallen enemy and their fallen comrades. This move was misconstrued into an order to withdraw, and the Confederate line fell back, but the mistake was soon discovered and the lost ground regained. The Eleventh Massachusetts, Twenty-sixth Pennsylvania, and Second New Hampshire came into the action. On the Confederate side, Colston’s brigade, the Florida regiment, and the Mississippi battalion came to the rescue, and General Anderson, who was in immediate charge, grouped his forces, made a concentrated move upon the Federal batteries, cleared them of the gunners, and captured four of Webber’s guns and forty horses. General Stuart rode up about this time, decided that the Federals were in retreat, and insisted upon a charge and pursuit. He was, however, convinced that Federal reinforcements were coming up and that the break was only of their front line. About three o’clock Kearny’s division came to the Federal aid.

Before the reinforcements arrived for Hooker’s relief, Anderson had established his advanced line of skirmishers so as to cover with their fire Webber’s guns that were abandoned. The Federal reinforcing column drove back his advance lines; then he reinforced and recovered his ground. Then he met General Peck, the leader of the last reinforcing brigade, who put in his last regiment, the Ninety-eighth Pennsylvania; but the night was approaching, both armies were exhausted, and little further aggressive work was done.