Edward Porter Alexander, Military memoirs of a Confederate: a critical narrative

[118] at Meadow Bridge, is under arms and expecting to receive the signal to advance not later than 4 A. M. It does not come until after 10 o'clock. As soon as it was received, Branch crossed the Chickahominy and moved toward Mechanicsville, the enemy's pickets falling back before him.

At one point the road pursued by Branch approached, within a short distance, a road upon its left, which was being followed by Ewell's column, and the two generals had a brief meeting, but there was no other communication between the columns until the next day. Meanwhile, since an early hour in the morning, the divisions of A. P. Hill at Meadow Bridge, and of D. H. Hill and Longstreet at the Mechanicsville bridge, two miles below, had been under arms and anxiously awaiting the sound of Jackson's guns.

President Davis was on the ground, having ridden out from Richmond, not only to see, but anxious to participate in, the coming battle. A few siege-guns had been mounted on the low bluffs along the Chickahominy Valley, and they were now manned for use, in case our crossing at the Mechanicsville bridge was resisted. But hour after hour passed, and there came no sound of conflict from the direction of Jackson's advance.

At 3 P. M. A. P. Hill, of his own motion, decided to wait for Jackson no longer. It is strange that he should have taken this responsibility without orders from Lee, who was within two miles, and who, it seems, would not have approved it. Henderson states that, ‘A message from Lee, ordering Hill to postpone all further movement, arrived too late.’¹ Doubtless Lee wished, now, to make a fresh start on the morrow, as Johnston had wished at Seven Pines.

The enemy made slight resistance to Hill's advance, and fell back through Mechanicsville to his works behind Beaver Dam Creek, opening the road to Longstreet's and D. H. Hill's divisions. A. P. Hill's division moved so rapidly that it arrived at Mechanicsville a mile and a half ahead of Branch's brigade. No advantage was gained, however, by thus anticipating the coming up of Jackson. The enemy held, behind Beaver Dam Creek, an intrenched position quite impregnable to assault.