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| Battlefield at Savage's Station (Based on Century Magazine drawing. 1888) |
Saturday night, June 28, found the entire Army of the Potomac on
the move.
Generals Franklin, Sumner, and Keyes received orders to move all
their supplies to Savage’s Station; they were to destroy what they couldn’t
move. The wounded soldiers at Savage’s Station who could walk marched to
Carter’s Station on the James River. Those who couldn’t walk, they loaded on to
ambulances. When the army ran out of space on the ambulances, the remainder of
the wounded were left behind to be taken, prisoner.
Four entire carloads of ammunition for the siege guns were sent
up from the depots at the White House, then run into the Chickahominy and
destroyed. The army burned vast quantities of supplies at Fair Oaks and a
smaller amount at Savage’s Station.
General McClellan struck his tent at 3 AM and started for
Charles City. He rode off to Malvern Hill to choose a new base for his army, putting
no one in charge or leaving orders about continuing the march. This would cause
continued confusion throughout the remainder of the campaign.
Generals Smith, Sumner, Keyes, and Heintzelman set their troops
in motion at daybreak. By noon, the main body of the army arrived at Charles
City, some 10 to 15 miles from the James River.
Generals Franklin and Sumner were the first to come under
attack. They had remained behind at Fair Oaks to protect the retreating baggage
wagons. The rebels attacked the army as it fell back on the railroad and
Williamsburg Turnpike.
The fighting was localized. Some commands came under attack for
a few hours — some for the full day.
Colonel Charles Tompkins, the chief of artillery for Sedgwick’s
Division, marched to Allen’s Farm, or the Peach Orchard, early on June 29.
Kirby’s Battery was set up on the north side of the railroad, and Tompkins
placed his on the right of the Nineteenth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers. No
sooner had they positioned their guns than an intense artillery and musket fire
opened on them. Tompkins responded but soon had to cease firing. The Bormann
Fuses burned short and were exploding while still among his troops.
At 9 o’clock, General Sumner moved a portion of his guns to the
railroad on the left of Kirby’s guns. Just 2,000 yards away, they saw the
rebels bearing down on them and opened with case and shell.
Around 1 o’clock, the regiment fell back on Savage’s Station.
Lieutenant Edmund Kirby
of the First U. S. Artillery was on the field next to Tompkins. His guns came
under heavy fire for nearly four hours. Then, just after noon, he received
orders to move his battery to Savage’s Station. General Smith positioned his guns
on the right, where they came under continuous fire. That evening, Kirby
received orders to fall back on White Oak Swamp and then in the morning to
Nelson’s Farm (also known as Frayser’s Farm).
Captain Del Kemper of the Virginia Artillery caught up with the
Union’s rear guard at Savage’s Station about 4 o’clock that afternoon. He
opened with two cannons but was forced to pull back within five minutes because
of the “superior character and number of the enemy’s pieces.” He joined the
battle again at 7 o’clock but quickly withdrew. His battery suffered one
killed, two wounded, five horses killed, and another four wounded.
Colonel James D. Nance of the Third Carolina Infantry found
himself in the heart of the fighting at Allen’s Farm or the Peach Orchard. When
they approached Savage’s Station, his regiment took cover in a slight hollow in
an open field. The surrounding woods protected his men so well “from the fire
and shells of the enemy that they affected no injury to my command before the
advance was made.”
When the command to charge came, his “regiment dashed up the
ascent in front through the woods, yelling as they went, and into the thick
undergrowth in which it was impossible to discover either friend or foe over 20
yards.” They pushed on slowly, driving the Union troops out of the woods, then
just as they reached the clearing, he received an order to “cease firing”
because they were shooting their own troops.
The enemy fire increased as Nance reformed his men in the nearby
underbrush. The Union troops “poured a deadly and incessant fire” into his
line. Nance retreated upon his right flank. That night, his men slept on their
arms in the woods without fires to keep warm.
While the battle raged outside of Savage’s Station, Union troops
burned the railway bridge over the Chickahominy and ran twelve cars of supplies
into the river. They converted the big house at the station into a hospital.
Seven hundred wounded men and the surgeons to care for them were left behind.
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