Official Records of the Rebellion

[313]

No. 19.

Report of Brig. Gen. Fitz John Porter, U. S. Army, as Director of the Siege of Yorktown, from April 7—May 5.

Introduction - Involved in construction work - Placed in command of siege - Commends regiments and individuals

On the 27th, for reasons known only to the major-general commanding the Army of the Potomac, I was appointed director of the siege, and had assigned to me for temporary duty two of his aides, Captains Kirkland and Mason. On that day I visited the whole work and made myself acquainted with everything relating to it, the working parties, the guards, &c., which I had not personally known, and arranged for united action under all circumstances on the whole front and for expediting the completion of the works. For these purposes I issued on that day in manuscript my printed instructions of May 1. To the faithful execution of them by all officers in command, and to the energetic, laborious, and faithful action of the officers in charge of working parties and their assistants, is due in a great measure the punctual arrival of details properly supplied with tools and provisions, and the rapid completion of the labor assigned them.

On the 28th a two-gun battery was silenced by a battery of First New York Artillery, attached to the artillery reserve. This battery was erected by the enemy opposite Battery A, on our left, to annoy our workmen and to aid in the protection of one of the dams of the Warwick, a small work in the front of which had been carried by General Grover on the 26th.

On May 1 the enemy placed two rifled guns in Hamilton’s front, near the burned house, and indications of a sortie were reported by the general of the trenches, Colonel Lansing. The necessary dispositions were made to resist any attack of the enemy, but none was made except on a party making rifle pits in advance of the works on the extreme right. It was repulsed with slight loss by a small force of the Second Maine and Thirteenth New York Volunteers.

From the 1st instant the firing of the enemy had been quite brisk, causing some losses, but on the 3d the firing increased in rapidity and many of the shots fell in our camps. Suspicions of intended evacuation of Yorktown were roused that night, but all efforts to ascertain the fact were defeated, and it was with great difficulty that the rifle pits on the right were completed.

About 3.30 on the morning of the 4th, upon explosions and fires in the enemy’s works being reported to me, I directed the generals of the trenches, General Jameson and Colonel McQuade, Fourteenth New York, at once to push forward a force into the works. Before the order was carried into effect General Jameson informed me that deserters reported the place abandoned. The commands designated to enter the town pushed forward rapidly. The one on the left was fired upon from the Red Fort. Those on the right experienced some losses from shell planted in the ground, which exploded when trod upon. Many of these shell were concealed in the streets and houses of the town, and arranged to explode by treading on the caps or pulling a wire attached to the doors. These attempts to destroy life were discovered in time to prevent many injuries.

As the sun rose the national flag was unfurled to the breeze, conveying to the Army and Navy the glad tidings that the authority of the United States had been extended without a desperate struggle over these formidable defenses and this stronghold of the enemy. Colonel Gove, Twenty-second Massachusetts, and Colonel Black, Sixty-second [314] Pennsylvania Volunteers, simultaneously displayed their flags. The greater number of the batteries were ready for service, when in great haste the enemy, on the night of the 3d instant, abandoned Yorktown and the line of works on the Warwick. On the 5th all batteries would have been completed in time to open fire that night. Battery No. 1, on the 1st instant, opened fire upon the town and wharf, and succeeded in driving from the latter vessels which appeared to be landing troops and ammunition. The destructive effects of this battery, and the presumed knowledge of the enemy of the probable time the other batteries would open, must have been the main cause of the sudden evacuation of Yorktown and abandonment of the line of the Warwick, as it cannot be doubted that the fire of these batteries would in a few hours have been most destructive upon the enemy and rendered untenable the works of Yorktown, without which the defenses of the Warwick were useless.

I desire to call the attention to the reports heretofore forwarded of General Jameson, Colonel McQuade, and Colonel Lansing, generals of the trenches, which exhibit the state of affairs at the last moment of the siege and the occupation of Yorktown. (See Jameson’s, No. 53, and McQuade’s, No. 55; Lansing’s, not found).  Eager for the success of our cause; intelligent, earnest, and laborious in the performance of duty; energetic in requiring the same of all under them; guarding against unnecessary exposure of their men, yet regardless of danger to themselves, thy represent the spirit of all officers, from other divisions as well as my own, with whom my duties have thrown me in contact. In this connection I desire also especially to mention Brigadier-Generals Morell, Martindale, Birney, Butterfield, and Grover, and Col. J. H. Hobart Ward, all generals of the trenches. Lieut. Col. Strong Vincent, Eighty-third Pennsylvania Volunteers; Lieut. Col. Howard [Thos. W.] Egan, Fortieth New York, and Major Holt, whose intelligence, energy, good judgment, and system in the control of the working parties cannot be too highly commended.

In addition to my own division were employed in the labors of the siege the divisions of Hooker and Hamilton and the regular troops under Brigadier-General Sykes. As far as came under my observation all performed their laborious and oftentimes dangerous duty cheerfully and effectively. A few complaints were made by the engineers and officers in charge of working parties of negligence on the part of some troops, but the complaints were very rare.

Introduction - Involved in construction work - Placed in command of siege - Commends regiments and individuals