McClellan was now in sore straits.  He could not weaken his lines on the south side of the Chickahominy to re-enforce Fitz John Porter, for fear Magruder, Holmes, and Huger, who were watching his every movements in their front, should fall upon the line thus weakened and cut his army in twain.  The next day McClellan commenced his retreat towards the James, having put his army over the Chickahominy the night after his defeat.  His step was, no doubt, occasioned by the fact that Lee had sent Stuart with his cavalry and Ewell’s Division of Infantry down the north side of the Chickahominy and destroyed McClellan’s line of communication between his army and the York River.  However, the Confederate commander was equally as anxious to cut him off from the James as the York.  He aimed to force him to battle between the two rivers, and there, cut off from his fleet, he would be utterly destroyed.  Lee only wished McClellan to remain in his present position until he could reach the James with a part of his own troops, now on the north side of the Chickahominy.

On the evening of the 27th, Magruder made a feint with Kershaw’s and some other brigades of this division, near Alens, as the troops in his front showed a disposition to retire.  A line of battle was formed, skirmishers thrown out, and an advance ordered.  Our skirmishers had not penetrated far into the thicket before they were met by a volley from the enemy’s line of battle.  The balls whistled over our heads and through the tops of the scrubby oaks, like a fall of hail.  It put chills to creeping up our backs, the first time we had ever been under a musketry fire.  For a moment we were thrown into a perfect fever of excitement and confusion.  The opening in the rear looked temptingly inviting in comparison to the wooded grounds in front, from whence came the volley of bullets.  Here the Third South Carolina lost her first soldier in battle, Dr. William Thompson, of the medical staff, who had followed too close on the heels of the fighting column in his anxiety to be near the battle.

Early in the morning of the 28th, Lee put the columns of Longstreet and A.P.  Hill in motion in the direction of Richmond around our rear.  After their meeting with Holmes and Huger on our extreme right, they were to press down the James River and prevent McClellan from reaching it.  Jackson, D.H.  Hill, and Magruder were to follow the retreating army.  We left our quarters early in the day, and soon found ourselves in the enemy’s deserted camp.

The country between the James and the Chickahominy is a very flat, swampy county, grown up in great forests, with now and then a cultivated field.  The forests were over-run with a tangled mass of undergrowth.  It was impossible for the army to keep up with the enemy while in line of battle.  So sending our skirmishers ahead the army followed the roads in columns of fours.  In each regiment the right or left company in the beginning of battle is always deployed