No resistance had been offered, as all the Confederate troops had been concentrated for the defense of Richmond.
When Norfolk was captured the _Merrimac_ steamed out to make her way out of the river; but the water was low, and the pilot declared that she could not be taken up.

Consequently she was set on fire and burned to the water's edge, and thus the main obstacle to the advance of the Federal fleet was removed.
They had advanced as far as Fort Darling, and the ironclad gunboats had engaged the batteries there.

Their shot, however, did little damage to the defenders upon the lofty bluffs, while the shot from the batteries so injured the gunboats that the attempt to force the passage was abandoned.

While falling back to a place called Harrison's Landing on the James River, the Federals were attacked by the Confederates, but after desperate fighting on both sides, lasting for five days, they succeeded in drawing off from the Chickahominy with a loss of fifty guns, thousands of small-arms, and the loss of the greater part of their stores.
All idea of a further advance against Richmond was for the present abandoned.

President Lincoln had always been opposed to the plan, and a considerable portion of the army was moved round to join the force under General Pope, which was now to march upon Richmond from the north.
From the commencement of the Federal advance to the time when, beaten and dispirited, they regained the James River, Vincent Wingfield had seen little of his family.