DESPERATE battles day and night crimsoned the fields in the siege about Richmond. McClellan called for reinforcements to force his way into the city, but they failed to arrive. So dismayed was he that he sent this warning to Stanton at Washington: "If I save this army now, I tell you plainly that I owe no thanks to you, or any other person in Washington." This photograph shows the Grapevine Bridge on the Chickahominy over which McClellan passed his army. This bridge was built by the 15th New York Engineer Corps. All the supplies that could be taken in the wagon trains were hurried over Grapevine Bridge and the remainder were burned or abandoned. Hundreds of artillery charges were opened. Powder was scattered over the pile and barrels of oil poured on. At Savage Station a railroad train loaded with ammunition was set on fire, then sent, with the locomotive throttle wide open, to plunge from the broken tracks into the river, each car exploding as it reached the surface of the stream. Grapevine Bridge was destroyed and Jackson held away from the Battle of Gaines' Mill, which undoubtedly saved the Army of the Potomac from capture. Through Mechanicville, Gaines' Mill, Savage Station, Peach Orchard, White Oak Swamp and Malvern Hill the Union soldiers fought their way from the twenty-sixth of June to the first of July, finally escaping to Harrison's Landing on the James River after a loss of 15,249 men. The Confederates had beaten them back from Richmond at a cost of 17,583 men. McClellan set up his base of operations at Harrison's Landing and remained a menace to Richmond. [Illustration: PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN AT GRAPEVINE BRIDGE OVER THE CHICKAHOMINY]