impending disaster it was not easy to extricate the troops from
their dangerous position, and McClellan showed high skill in masking
his line of retreat. Lee did not, therefore, immediately discover
the direction in which he was moving and this delay probably prevented
him from annihilating the remnants of the Union army. Once on the
trail, however, he lost no time and, loosing "his dogs of war," they
fell upon the retreating columns again and again in the series of
terrible conflicts known as the "Seven Days' Battles." But the
Union army was struggling for its life and, like a stag at bay, it
fought off its pursuers with desperate courage, until finally at
Malvern Hill (July 1, 1862), it rolled them back with such slaughter
that a bolder leader might have been encouraged to advance again
toward Richmond. As it was, however, McClellan was well content
to remove his shattered legions to a point of safety at Harrison's
Landing, leaving Lee in undisturbed possession of the field dyed
with the blood of well-nigh 30,000 men.





Chapter XVI




A Game of Strategy


While the remnants of McClellan's fine army were recuperating from