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[Illustration: Yours truly Charles Carleton Coffin (signature)]




  FOLLOWING THE FLAG
  FROM AUGUST 1861 TO NOVEMBER 1862
  WITH THE
  ARMY OF THE POTOMAC

  BY
  CHARLES CARLETON COFFIN

  AUTHOR OF "MY DAYS AND NIGHTS ON THE BATTLEFIELD," "BOYS OF '76,"
  "BOYS OF '61," "WINNING HIS WAY," ETC.

  NEW YORK
  HURST & COMPANY
  PUBLISHERS




  CHARLES CARLETON COFFIN SERIES
  UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME
  By CHARLES CARLETON COFFIN


  Following the Flag.
  Four Years of Fighting.
  My Days and Nights on the Battlefield.
  Winning His Way.


  _Price, postpaid, 50c. each, or any three books for $1.25_


  HURST & COMPANY
  PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK




PREFACE.


It will be many years before a complete history of the operations of
the armies of the Union can be written; but that is not a sufficient
reason why historical pictures may not now be painted from such
materials as have come to hand. This volume, therefore, is a sketch
of the operations of the Army of the Potomac from August, 1861, to
November, 1862, while commanded by General McClellan. To avoid detail,
the organization of the army is given in an Appendix. It has not been
possible, in a book of this size, to give the movements of regiments;
but the narrative has been limited to the operations of brigades and
divisions. It will be comparatively easy, however, for the reader
to ascertain the general position of any regiment in the different
battles, by consulting the Appendix in connection with the narrative.




CONTENTS.


  CHAPTER                                             PAGE
          Introductory                                   9

       I. Organization of the Army of the Potomac       11

      II. Ball's Bluff                                  22

     III. Battle of Dranesville, and the Winter of
          1862                                          38

      IV. Siege of Yorktown                             49

       V. Battle of Williamsburg                        65

      VI. On the Chickahominy                           82
          Affair at Hanover Court-House                 84

     VII. Fair Oaks                                     88

    VIII. Seven Days of Fighting                       108
          Battle of Mechanicsville                     111
          Battle of Gaines's Mills                     115
          Movement to James River                      121
          Battle of Savage Station                     123
          Battle of Glendale                           125
          Battle of Malvern                            131

      IX. Affairs in front of Washington               138
          Battle of Cedar Mountain                     140

       X. Battle of Groveton                           147
          The Retreat to Washington                    157

      XI. Invasion of Maryland                         158
          Barbara Frietchie                            160
          Battle of South Mountain                     165
          Surrender of Harper's Ferry                  171

     XII. Battle of Antietam                           175
          Hooker's Attack                              187
          Sumner's Attack                              194
          The Attack upon the Center                   206
          Richardson's Attack                          212
          General Franklin's Arrival                   216
          Burnside's Attack                            221

    XIII. After the Battle                             238

     XIV. The March from Harper's Ferry to
          Warrenton                                    250
          Removal of General McClellan                 269


APPENDIX.

     The Organization of the Army of the Potomac,
     April, 1862                                       278




LIST OF DIAGRAMS.

                                       PAGE
  Ball's Bluff                           29

  Battle of Dranesville                  41

  Battle of Williamsburg                 69

  Battle of Fair Oaks                    91

  Battle of Mechanicsville              112

  Battle of Gaines's Mills              116

  Battle of Glendale                    128

  Battle of Malvern                     134

  Battle of Groveton                    149

  Battle-Field of Antietam              180

  Sedgwick's Attack                     198

  French's and Richardson's Attack      208

  Burnside's Second Attack              232




INTRODUCTORY.


For more than three years I have followed the flag of our country
in the East and in the West and in the South,--on the ocean, on the
land, and on the great rivers. A year ago I gave in a volume entitled
"My Days and Nights on the Battle-Field" a