THIRD BOOK.-THE CAPTAIN.



                    CHAPTER I.

        FROM RICHMOND TO MALVERN HILL.

COUSTER'S new won rank was not yet fairly settled,
     when the prestige of McClellan received a sudden check.
After lying behind the Chickahominy for nearly a week, he
had pushed out his left wing far in advance of the rest, Casey's
division being at Fairoaks Station, on the railroad, while the
rest of the army -was nearly four miles away. Casey was in
full view of Richmond, and his troops were the nearest of any
force of infantry that reached there, for three long years after.
   More than half of McClellan's army remained on the other
bank of the Chickahominy, and Johnston saw that he had a
good chance to annihilate that part which was so imprudently
advanced. By this tine he had accumulated 76 ,000 men. and
felt able to move. He made his plans to strike Casey on the
31st June, and was mnch assisted by the fact that a heavy rain
on the 30th had so swelled the Chickahominy that it became
for the moment unfordable.
   On the 31st Johnston struck Casey, nearly surrounded hiuma,
and drove him in confusion, beat back Kearny, who came to
his support, and completely defeated that wing of the Federal
Army. It was only saved from ruin by the coming of Sumner's
corps over the trestle bridges that had been placed on the Chicka-
hominv; Sumner partially restored the fight, but McClellan's
advance was checked.
   He experienced, however, a slight benefit of fortune in spite