PHILADELPHIA, May 5.
The Inquirer has a
special dispatch from Fort Monroe, giving the following particulars in regard
to the evacuation of Yorktown:
ONE MILE BEYOND
YORKTOWN,
Sunday, May 4 – 10 A.
M.
All day yesterday the rebels kept up a hot fire on Gen.
Porter’s division. No one was hurt. Our Parrott gun at Farnholt Court House
occasionally answered them last evening, and up to midnight heavy firing was
kept up. About that time there fire
slackened considerably, and at 2 o’clock stopped altogether. We fired one or two more batteries at them,
but got no answer.
About 3 o’clock this morning a building at Yorktown was
fired, and Prof. Lowe and Gen. Heintzleman went up in a balloon and found it
was the storehouse at Yorktown wharf. At
daylight they reported the forts empty.
At 7 o’clock we occupied Yorktown without a gun being fired.
Of the guns of the enemy, nearly all remaining were spiked
and dismounted. By the side of the river
battery were large piles of ammunition, powder, balls, shells, &c. Eighty guns were in Yorktown, which is
surrounded by a semi-circle. The
earthworks were all constructed to cover one another in every position, but
they must have eventually yielded could he have got around them.
The gun we dismounted the other day killed and wounded four
rebels.
The fort had been occupied by the 1st battalion New Orleans
artillery, the 8th and 30th Alabama regiments, the 10th and 18th Louisiana, and
13th and 15th Georgia regiments. These
troops were ordered to report at Howard’s Grove, and left the fort at
midnight. A rear guard was left who
waited for the appearance of day, and then retired in greatest haste.
Two deserters who left their regiment in Williamsburg at
Daylight, say the whole rebel army was in a panic. Prof. Lowe’s balloon reconnoissance discovered
their rear guard at 9 a. m., to be four miles out. Gen. McClellan immediately ordered out the
artillery and cavalry and is pushing after them at full speed.
All our gunboats came up at 9 o’clock and landed some
marines at Gloucester, who raised the United States flag amid the cheering that
could be heard across the river. The
boats all then left and are now running up York river, shelling the banks on
both sides.
A number of mines had been prepared for our troops by
placing Prussian shells under ground in the roadways and entrances to the fort.
No whites were to be found, and only a few negro women and
babies. The town was squalid and
filthy. A few days of warm weather would
have brought on a pestilence. An
abundance of bread, flour and a large quantity of meat, salt and fish was
left. All the tents were left, but no
horses or wagons.
Reports concur that the rebels consist of a mob of about
100,000 men, ill fed, dirty and disheartened.
The road from Yorktown to Hampton, on which we encamped, was
guarded by Fort Magruder, mounting a large number of guns, part of which were
taken away and part spiked. Some of their
works were well built and well laid out, while others were wretched
contrivances. The work upon them was
finished on Friday night, and the slaves sent to the rear under guard. The rebels have nothing behind in which they
can make a stand. Last night their camp
fires all along were the same as usual.
The dense woods along the peninsula enable them to leave without being
seen by the balloon.
The large guns of the rebels were mostly Columbiads, taken
from the Norfolk navy yard. Some of them
have been recently mounted.
The fortifications, although of the roughest character,
where very formidable, being surrounded by deep gorges almost impossible to
pass.
Times’ Dispatch
The retreat of the rebels appears to have been
precipitate. The commenced dismounting
and carrying their guns back to Williamsburg four days ago. Wagons have been engaged in transporting
their ammunition, provisions, and camp equipage for over a week. Their sick and wounded, numbering over 2,500,
were sent to Richmond ten days ago.
The rebel soldiers and negroes were at work on their
entrenchments until 2 o’clk. this morning, when their rear guard ordered the
work to cease and take up the march to Williamsburg.
Ten thousand of the rebels were sent from Winne’s Mill to
reinforce an army sent from Richmond to oppose McDowell’s advance last Thursday
week.
A great battle is expected at Williamsburg, as the rebel
troops particularly those under Magruder, have mutinied on several occasions
within two weeks. 6,000 of his men threatened
to lay down their arms unless they received food and clothing.
Three rebel lieutenants, 2 sergeants, and 20 men were
captured on the other side of Yorktown, and brought in. Since the 3d, over 70 deserters have come in,
who report their army as thoroughly disheartened and demoralized.
The honor of first entering the enemy’s works belongs to the
73d regiment, of N. Y. The Texas Rangers
left as our forces were advancing. A
large force of the enemy are reported captured four miles behind Yorktown.
HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF
THE POTOMAC,
May 4 – 7 P. M.
Hon. E. M. STANTON:
Our cavalry and horse artillery came up with the enemy’s
rear guard in their entrenchment about two miles this side of
Williamsburg. A brisk fight ensued, just
as my aid left Smith’s division of infantry arrived on the ground, and it is
presumed carried his works, though I have not yet heard. The enemy’s rear is strong, but I have force
enough up there to ensure all purposes.
All along the lines their works prove to have been most formidable, and
I am now fully satisfied of the correctness of the course I have pursued. The success is brilliant, and you may rest
assured that its effects will be of the greatest importance. There shall be no delay in following up the
rebels. The rebels have been guilty of
the most murderous and barbarous conduct in placing torpedoes within the
abandoned works near wells and springs, and near flog staffs, magazines,
telegraph offices, in carpet bags, barrels of flour, &c. Fortunately we have not lost many men in this
manner – some four or five killed and perhaps a dozen wounded. I shall make the prisoners remove them at
their own peril.
(Signed,)
GEO. B. McCLELLAN, Maj.
Gen.
– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette,
Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, May 6, 1862, p. 1
