The chances of seriously injuring, us were more favorable to the enemy this time than ever they were afterward, for with the troops from Richmond, comprising three brigades of veterans and about five thousand irregulars on my front and right flank, with Gordon’s cavalry in the rear, and Fitzhugh Lee’s cavalry on my left flank, holding the Chickahominy and Meadow bridge, I was apparently hemmed in on every side, but relying on the celerity with which mounted troops could be moved, I felt perfectly confident that the seemingly perilous situation could be relieved under circumstances even worse than those then surrounding us.  Therefore, instead of endeavoring to get away without a fight, I concluded that there would be little difficulty in withdrawing, even should I be beaten, and none whatever if I defeated the enemy.

In accordance with this view I accepted battle; and the complete repulse of the enemy’s infantry, which assailed us from his intrenchments, and of Gordon’s cavalry, which pressed Gregg on the Brook road, ended the contest in our favor.  The rest of the day we remained on the battle-field undisturbed, and our time was spent in collecting the wounded, burying the dead, grazing the horses, and reading the Richmond journals, two small newsboys with commendable enterprise having come within our lines from the Confederate capital to sell their papers.  They were sharp youngsters, and having come well supplied, they did a thrifty business.  When their stock in trade was all disposed of they wished to return, but they were so intelligent and observant that I thought their mission involved other purposes than the mere sale of newspapers, so they were held till we crossed the Chickahominy and then turned loose.

After Merritt had crossed the Chickahominy and reached Mechanicsville, I sent him orders to push on to Gaines’s Mills.  Near the latter place he fell in with the enemy’s cavalry again, and sending me word, about 4 o’clock in the afternoon I crossed the Chickahominy with Wilson and Gregg, but when we overtook Merritt he had already brushed the Confederates away, and my whole command went into camp between Walnut Grove and Gaines’s Mills.

The main purposes of the expedition had now been executed.  They were “to break up General Lee’s railroad communications, destroy such depots of supplies as could be found in his rear, and to defeat General Stuart’s cavalry.”  Many miles of the Virginia Central and of the, Richmond and Fredericksburg railroads were broken up, and several of the bridges on each burnt.  At Beaver Dam, Ashland, and other places, about two millions of rations had been captured and destroyed.  The most important of all, however, was the defeat of Stuart.  Since the beginning of the war this general had distinguished himself by his management of the Confederate mounted force.  Under him the cavalry of Lee’s army had been nurtured, and had acquired such prestige that it thought itself well-nigh invincible; indeed, in the early years of the war it had proved to be so.  This was now dispelled by the successful march we had made in Lee’s rear; and the discomfiture of Stuart at Yellow Tavern had inflicted a blow from which entire recovery was impossible.