Item No. 5338913

A copy of an August 1862 order that represents the end of the Peninsula Campaign for the Army of the Potomac. In the order, General Seth Williams, chief-of-staff to General George B. McClellan, directs General Erasmus Keyes’s 4th Corps to prepare to move. The army had withdrawn to Harrison’s Landing on the James River after being forced away from Richmond during the Seven Days Battles. On August 4, orders arrived from Washington DC for McClellan to withdraw his army from the peninsula and unite with reinforcements in northern Virginia. This order was issued from army headquarters on the same day. It reads, “The Commanding General directs that you hold your Command in readiness to move at very short notice with two days rations.” The army would indeed be withdrawn, and would clash again with the Confederates before the end of the month at the Second Battle of Bull Run.

The order is endorsed by six notable officers, including the five commanding officers of Colonel William W. H. Davis’s brigade:

1. Captain William H. Morris, a regular army officer who would later be colonel of the 6th New York Heavy Artillery and a brigadier general.

2. Colonel Charles H Van Wyck, 56th New York, who had been wounded in the knee at the Battle of Fair Oaks. He later was a US Senator from Nebraska.

3. Lieut. Colonel William M. Shaw, 11th Maine

4. Colonel John C. Dodge, 52nd Pennsylvania

5. Lieut. Colonel Phineas Stanton, 100th New York

6. Colonel William W. H. Davis, 104th Pennsylvania, commanding the brigade.

The order was written on a letter sheet measuring about 8” x 10”. Creased at the original folds.

Head Quarters Army of the Potomac
Camp near Harrisons Landing, Aug 4th 1862

Circular

The Commanding General directs that you hold your Command in readiness to move at very short notice with two days rations.
Very Respectfully
Your Obt. Srvt.
(Sd.) S. Williams
A.A.G.

Official
(Sd.) C. C. Suydam
A.A.G.

Hd. Qrs. 4th Corps, Aug 4th 1862

Official
Hd. Qrs. Peck’s Division, Aug 4th 1862
Wm. H. Morris
A.A.G.