This view is not held by writers on the Northern side, who represent the battle in question as only the first of a series of engagements, all of pretty nearly equal importance, and mere incidents attending General McClellan’s change of base to the shores of the James River.  Such a theory seems unfounded.  If the battle at Cold Harbor had resulted in a Federal victory, General McClellan would have advanced straight on Richmond, and the capture of the city would inevitably have followed.  But at Cold Harbor he sustained a decisive defeat.  His whole campaign was reversed, and came to naught, from the events occurring between noon and nightfall on the 27th of June.  The result of that obstinate encounter was not a Federal success, leading to the fall of Richmond, but a Federal defeat, which led to the retreat to the James River, and the failure of the whole campaign against the Confederate capital.

It is conceded that General McClellan really intended to change his base; but after the battle of Cold Harbor every thing had changed.  He no longer had under him a high-spirited army, moving to take up a stronger position, but a weary and dispirited multitude of human beings, hurrying along to gain the shelter of the gunboats on the James River, with the enemy pursuing closely, and worrying them at every step.  To the condition of the Federal army one of their own officers testifies, and his expressions are so strong as wellnigh to move the susceptibilities of an opponent.  “We were ordered to retreat,” says General Hooker, “and it was like the retreat of a whipped army.  We retreated like a parcel of sheep; everybody on the road at the same time; and a few shots from the rebels would have panic-stricken the whole command."[1]

[Footnote 1:  Report of the Committee on the Conduct of the War, part i., p. 580.]

Such was the condition of that great army which had fought so bravely, standing firm so long against the headlong assaults of the flower of the Southern troops.  It was the battle at Cold Harbor which had produced this state of things, thereby really deciding the result of the campaign.  To attribute to that action, therefore, no more importance than attached to the engagements on the retreat to James River, seems in opposition to the truth of history.

We shall present only a general narrative of the famous retreat which reflected the highest credit upon General McClellan, and will remain his greatest glory.  He, at least, was too good a soldier not to understand that the battle of the 27th was a decisive one.  He determined to retreat, without risking another action, to the banks of the James River, where the Federal gunboats would render a second attack from the Confederates a hazardous undertaking; and, “on the evening of the 27th of June,” as he says in his official report, “assembled the corps commanders at his headquarters, and informed them of his plan, its reasons, and his choice of route, and method of execution.”  Orders were then