150 Years Ago - Williamsburg

Judson Cheney
Born: May 11, 1838, Hopkinton, St. Lawrence County, New York
Died: September 29, 1864, Chaffin Farm, Virginia
Relation to Author: 2nd Great Grand Uncle

On this day, 150 years ago, the Battle of Williamsburg was fought. Judson and the 98th NY Regiment were about one mile away from the action. They had joined the chase after the Confederates had abandoned their Yorktown lines.

As we moved, we heard the sound of cannon; we could even at intervals distinguish the rattle of small arms, and we knew that our troops were engaged at the front.

The Confederates had evacuated Yorktown two days prior and it took McClellan a day organize and get the army ready to pursue. But on the 5th, the front lines pursuing had engaged the Confederates at their defenses around Williamsburg.

With 2,285 US casualties and 1,560 Confederate casualties, the battle is considered a blunder for the North. They lost a lot of men to no advantage as the Confederate troops continued the retreat to their defenses around Richmond.

Leading up to this battle, Judson and the rest of McClellan's army were engaged in the siege of Yorktown. McClellan had been moving the troops up the Virginia peninsula towards Richmond and hoping to flank this confederate army. Instead, he found that the Confederate troops were settled into a line of earthwork defenses across the peninsula near Yorktown as well as another line near Williamsburg. At Yorktown, the Confederates managed to hold off McClellan by making the Union think they had far more troops than they did.

During the month-long siege, Judson's regiment (and Casey's division) was in camp, though moving a few times to different camps to get closer to Yorktown. Camp life involved one review, picket duty, inconsistent food, a good amount of rain, and already a lot of sickness.