HANOVER COURT HOUSE AND GAINES'S MILL
By Fitz John Porter, Major-General, U.S.V.

UNDER the direction of General McClellan certain measures for the protection of the right flank of the army in its advance upon Richmond were put in my hands, beginning simultaneously with the march of the army from the Pamunkey. ^ Among these were the clearing of the enemy from the upper Peninsula as far as Hanover Court House or beyond, and, in case General McDowell's large forces, then at Fredericksburg, were not to join us, the destruction of railroad and other bridges over the South and Pamunkey rivers, in order to prevent the enemy in large force from getting into our rear from that direction, and in order, further, to cut the Virginia Central Railroad, the one great line of the enemy's communications between Richmond and Northern Virginia.

A portion of this duty had been accomplished along the Pamunkey as far as was deemed prudent by Colonel G. K. Warren's forces, posted at Old Church, when on the 26th of May, preparatory to an immediate advance upon Richmond, General McClellan directed me to complete the duty above specified, so that the enemy in Northern Virginia, then occupying the attention of McDowell, Banks, and Frémont, could not be suddenly thrown upon our flank and rear nor otherwise strengthen the enemy in Richmond. I was allowed to adopt my own plans, and to select such additional forces as I deemed necessary.

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^ The army left its camp at White House Landing, on the Pamunkey, May 17th to 20th. The 6th Corps, under Franklin, advanced along the north bank of the Chickahominy, and on the 23d and 24th Davidson's brigade of Smith's division occupied Mechanicsville after a brief Encounter with a Confederate column of Magruder's com- mand, under General Paul J. Semmes.--- EDITORS.
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RUSH'S LANCERS-THE 6TH PENNSYLVANIA CAVALRY.