Valley army was now two miles beyond
the railroad and pressing ahead (again
Branch failed to forward the message to
other commanders). The two dispatches
constituted the sum of all communication
between Jackson and anyone in the Army
of Northern Virginia that day. At 3 PM,
Hood’s Texans skirmished briskly with
Union cavalry near Totopotomoy Creek,
then had to repair the bridge after the
withdrawing Federals destroyed it.
Around 5 PM, having advanced 16 hard
miles, Jackson arrived at his objective,
Pole Green Church adjacent to Hundley’s
Corner. Seeing not another soul at Hund-
ley’s Corner, either civilian or military,
Jackson sensed that something was terri-
bly amiss. The sound of gunfire three
miles to the south made it clear that an
engagement of some kind was underway.
Jackson’s and Ewell’s forces were still
strung out along two different roads with
their rear guard five miles farther behind
(none of the troops in the rear element
could hear the sounds of battle emanating
from the south). No word from Lee had
arrived. In Jackson’s mind, he had obeyed
his instructions and stood ready to take
part in any further advance toward Cold
Harbor, which he understood to be the
overall objective of Lee’s movement. His
aide, Major Dabney, recalled, “Jackson
appeared to me anxious and perplexed.
My surmise was and is that he was every
moment hoping and waiting for some def-
inite signal from Lee, and that having
reached Hundley’s Corner and still with
no definite instructions, he considered the
risk was too much to go further.”
Having assumed Jackson’s approach
would so threaten Porter that the Union
general would retire without offering bat-
tle, Lee had charted Jackson’s movement
on a faulty map that placed Pole Green
Church near the headwaters of Beaver
Dam Creek. The church, however, was
actually almost three miles north of the
creek’s northern edge. At Hundley’s Cor-
ner, Jackson was in no position to turn
Porter out of his works. Jackson ordered
his men into bivouac in a state of semi-
readiness, but failed to notify Lee or any-one else of his army’s arrival. With almost
three hours of daylight remaining and the
sounds of battle to the south growing more
intense, Jackson’s failure to inform Lee of
his presence at Hundley’s Corner was an
inexplicable lapse, especially for one of the
Confederacy’s most aggressive and expe-
rienced battlefield commanders.
At 3 PM, having heard nothing from
Branch or Jackson, A.P. Hill, Jackson’s old
West Point classmate, ran out of patience.
Richmond was in jeopardy, he wrote later,
and any delay “would hazard the failure of
the entire plan.” The always aggressive
Hill crossed the Chickahominy and initi-
ated Lee’s offensive on his own. Surely, Hill
thought, Jackson would be present by the
time he made contact. With Brig. Gen.
Charles Field’s 2,000-man brigade of
untested Virginians in the lead, followed
in turn by those of Brig. Gens. James
Archer, Joseph Anderson, Maxcy Gregg,
and Dorsey Pender, Hill crossed Meadow
Bridge and rapidly drove enemy pickets
from his front.
The Federals began falling back towardMechanicsville, a small crossroads cluster
of houses that lay in the open surrounded
by tilled fields, with Hill’s men in pursuit.
Pender’s and Gregg’s brigades swung to the
right to provide flank protection for Hill’s
main thrust, which was now surging
across the open fields toward Mechan-
icsville. East of the village, a six-gun Union
battery opened up, exacting a considerable
toll on the men of Field’s vanguard, while
sharpshooters hidden behind a ridge
opened fire as well.
Lee, watching from the bluffs south of
the river near the Mechanicsville Bridge,
saw Confederate troops advancing through
the shell-swept village and observed,
“Those are A.P. Hill’s men.” Lee had not
intended that there be any real fighting at
Mechanicsville, but here was Hill, fighting
his way eastward against stronger than
expected resistance. Lee quickly ordered
Maj. Gens. James Longstreet and D.H. Hill
to put their divisions into action.
Lee accompanied D.H. Hill’s troops as
they crossed the Chickahominy and pro-
ceeded up the Mechanicsville Turnpike,CWQ-Sum16 Mechanicsville_Layout 1 4/20/16 4:15 PM Page 50