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| Captain John E. Michener Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs |
After a brief stay in Washington, DC during the winter of 1861-62, the 85th Pennsylvania was transported to Fort Monroe, Virginia to be part of General George B. McClellan's massive movement to capture Richmond, the Confederate capital, by advancing up the peninsula between the James and York Rivers. This effort, known as the Peninsula Campaign, would prove to be a massive Union failure and starkly shattered the expectation of many northerners that victory would in a short amount of time.
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| Position of Casey's Division At Williamsburg in support of Hooker and Kearney |
The first pitched battle of the of the Peninsula Campaign, was fought at Williamsburg on May 5, 1864. Union forces caught up to the rear guard of the Confederate army that was retreating from Yorktown. The battle involved over 70,000 troops and resulted in about 4,000 total casualties, but ended without a decisive winner The Union pursuit continued up the Virginia Peninsula towards Richmond.
The 85th Pennsylvania played a supporting role during the engagement. They were called into a line of battle line during the night of May 5, but did not fire their rifles. The men were very excited to be placed in a position to be under fire from artillery for the first time. Although shelled, the regiment suffered just two casualties, their first of the war. Also memorable was the bone-chilling weather, as they stood shivering in formation all night long during a rain storm. More information about the Battle of Williamsburg can be found here.
What "Prison Life" adds to the story: Because of the minor role played by the 85th Pennsylvania at Williamsburg, "Prison Life" adds little to what is already known. Author T.J. Simpson exalts Michener for parading in front of his men and exhorting them to stand in readiness for an order to advance that never came. Michener deserved credit for encouraging his men, but not on the level described below by Simpson. Although placed under fire for the first time, the Confederate shells directed at them mostly fell behind the men, not upon them or in front of them. Michener displayed plenty of bravery during the war; however, it was a stretch for Simpson to highlight this incident in such sonorous language.
From "Prison Life:" [Standing in formation at Williamsburg] "Here Lieutenant Michener’s coolness and intrepidity was fearlessly displayed and won for him the admiration and confidence of all his comrades. Seizing a musket, he rushed to the front and as if wholly unconscious of danger, continued to encourage and animate his men, both by word and example, in the midst of a most deadly fire, until the close of the battle."
The Confederate army following the battle continued their withdrawal up the peninsula towards Richmond under the command of General Joseph Johnston with McClellan in pursuit. Nearly a month after Williamsburg, the 85th Pennsylvania was in the front lines for the Battle of Seven Pines. This fight involved 73,000 troops and ended with nearly 14,000 casualties. This three-day fight, the closest ever to Richmond, ended in a draw. Confederates held off the invasion of Richmond, while the Union rallied after nearly being overwhelmed on the first day of the battle.
The 85th Pennsylvania, as part of Silas Casey's Division of Erasmus Keyes' Fourth Corps, was in the front lines on the first day of the battle. This inexperienced division, greatly reduced by sickness, fought extremely well, holding off a much larger Confederate strike force until re-enforcements arrived hours later from across the Chickahominy River. For more information about the Battle of Seven Pines as well as an excellent detailed map of the opening of the fight, click here.
Michener, then a lieutenant in Company D, was on picket duty with the fight commenced along with his captain, William Horn, and a handful of men. Facing overwhelming numbers of Confederates, he and his men struggled to return to their regiment. Several of were captured. While some in others regiments panicked and fled to the rear, Michener was able to coolly lead the rest of the men back to their regiment.
What "Prison Life" adds to the story: Specific details about Michener's role are provided. Michener, it turned out, was given charge of a group of Confederate prisoners during his return from the picket line by a colonel of another regiment. Michener through Simpson also disclosed the route of his return.
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| History of the 103rd Regiment PA Veteran Volunteer Infantry p.174 Union picket line on the far left; 85th PA to the right of the redoubt along the stage road |
From "Prison Life:" "Lieutenant Michener was cut off from his
division, with the rebels in front and rear, while he and his men were exposed
to a galling fire from both friends and foes. With thirteen men belonging to
his own company and four of the ninety-sixth New York, he moved through the
slashing of newly-fallen timber to the York River railroad, deployed his little
squad as skirmishers, and captured three prisoners with the loss of one of the
New York boys, who was shot in the head while gallantly fighting at his post.
Moving then to the right of the railroad, he succeeded in escaping from his dreadful
dilemma and hastened to the point where [General John] Sedgwick fiercely contesting every inch
of ground, finally changed defeat into victory and triumphantly closed one of
the bloodiest battles of the war."
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| Michener's route from the picket line along the RR line to Sedgwick's position at the Battle of Seven Pines History of the 103rd PA by L.S. Dickey, p. 166 |
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| Colonel Oliver H. Rippey 61st PA Infantry Killed at Seven Pines |
The 85th Pennsylvania and Silas Casey's entire division, after a severe public rebuke from McClellan, was sent to rear during the ensuing Seven Days' Battles. In late June of 1862, McClellan gave up his plan to capture Richmond. After the final fight at Malvern Hill, the 85th Pennsylvania as part of the division of General John J. Peck (who replaced the scapegoated Casey) guarded the Union retreat. McClellan's huge army set up a defensive position at Harrison's Landing on the James River and sat for six weeks. In mid-August, McClellan's army began loading onto ships and left the peninsula. McClellan called the massive retreat a "change of base."
It took several days for the army to be removed aboard transport and barges from Harrison's Landing. The mood of many in the Union army as well as in the North was disappointment and confusion that the Union offensive to end the war had stalled. A Pittsburgh newspaper wrote, "Without a struggle, without even the loss of a single man, the immense Army of the Potomac, officers and men, bag and baggage, stores, tents, horses, ammunition and contrabands, are now far away from Harrison's Landing...steamer after steamer and vessel after vessel passed us steaming or sailing in the direction of Fortress Monroe heavily laden with horses and stores." [Pittsburgh Gazette, August 21, 1862, p.1]
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| Harrison's Landing Harper's Weekly |
From "Prison Life:" This vignette displayed Michener's organizational and management skills. [McClellan’s retreat] "At the evacuation of Harrison’s Landing, Lieutenant
Michener was detailed to take charge of all the baggage belonging to General
Peck’s division. The baggage consisted of trunks, boxes, knapsacks, etc. They
had been hastily and carelessly tumbled into crazy old canal hulks by a
careless and reckless quartermaster and consequently the boats rapidly filled
with water and sunk at the wharf where they had been loaded. To remove this
baggage out of these sunken boats to others was a slow and difficult task. In
less than eighteen hours, however, Lieutenant Michener with a squad of soldiers
and one hundred contrabands [former slave laborers], succeeded in transferring the whole of the baggage
from the sunken boats to the schooner W. A. Ellis. After this was accomplished,
he was ordered by General Peck to proceed with the schooner to Hampton Creek,
Virginia, near Fortress Monroe and land the baggage."
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| Yellow - water route of baggage barge on the James River Blue - land route of 85th Pennsylvania Joel Dorman Steele, A Brief History of the United States |
Most of the Army of the Potomac sailed to Fortress Monroe, Virginia and then on towards Washington, DC. They would soon fight at Second Bull Run, Virginia in August and at Antietam, Maryland in September. The 85th Pennsylvania did not board transports but instead marched back down the peninsula to Fortress Monroe where they stayed while their future assignment was being debated by McClellan and the War Department. The 85th Pennsylvania was eventually sent to Suffolk, Virginia where they spent the next three months.
Next: John E Michener is in charge of a dangerous mission transporting deserters and stragglers.
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