[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]I have visited most of theses sites, unfortunately many of them have been redeveloped. The Seven Pines battlefield today is occupied by the Richmond International Airport and the village of Sandston so there is not much left to see. Glendale is much the same as only a National Cemetery exists. Most of the others have been preserved in some part as a part of the Richmond National Battlefield and also include battlefields from 1864 as well. I visited in 2012 and again in 2018.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]
Seven Pines
In the Spring of 1862 Richmond faced its greatest threat of the war. George McClellan was leading a huge army against the Confederate capitol. In March he drove Joseph Johnston and his 75,000 man army out of its defenses in northern Virginia and McClellan pursued with some of his army and loaded others onto transports and sent them to Fort Monroe on the tip of the Virginia Peninsula. McClellan moved slowly and cautiously, taking weeks to drive the Confederates away from Yorktown and later Williamsburg. His intelligence chief, Alan Pinkerton, was telling him that the Confederates had over 200,000 men to oppose him. This caution bought Johnston time to build defenses around Richmond.
McClellan advanced cautiously and finally arrived around Richmond at the end of May. His army could see the church spires of the city and hear the church bells, they were close. Johnston saw an opportunity to strike McClellan’s superior force. The Chickahominy River separated McClellan’s army meaning if things worked out right he could bring superior numbers to bear on one part of McClellan’s army. He resolved to try and identified an isolated corps near the village of Seven Pines.
Erasmus Keyes’ IV Corps was the isolated unit and Johnston could not have asked for a better target since they were the least experienced of McClellan’s men. Johnston drew up a complex plan and assigned command to James Longstreet to move the 51,000 soldiers into place. If done correctly he would strike about 33,000 Union troops and trap them against the river destroying the force. The problem is the plan did not go as planned. Longstreet was given his orders verbally and other commanders received theirs in writing. Another commander, Gustavus Smith, believed that he was senior and therefore should command the movement. Longstreet also took a different route than prescribed which led to delays and traffic jams. A thunderstorm on the night of May 30 slowed the march to a crawl and flooded the Chickahominy River.
That flood could have been a godsend for the Confederates. Bridges were collapsing all along the river and only a few were still standing, though just barely. When Longstreet got into position on May 31 it was five hours after the scheduled start to the attack. One Confederate commander grew tired of waiting and attacked on his own and managed to drive some of Keyes’ men from a redoubt and those men retreated to defensive works near Seven Pines. At this point both commanders were unaware that fighting was going on. McClellan was sick in bed and Johnston was in an acoustic shadow.
Union reinforcements from Samuel Heintzelman’s III Corps arrived to bolster Keyes around 4:45 PM but the full weight of the Confederate attack drove them back a mile and a half. Fighting died out around 7:30 and Johnston came forward to investigate. While there he was hit by an artillery shell fragment and carried from the field and Gustavus Smith took command. As fighting died out more Union reinforcements arrived from south of the Chickahominy from Edwin Sumner’s II Corps. They crossed the only remaining bridge, which collapsed minutes after the men crossed. Their arrival stopped helped to stop the Confederate attack.
The following day the Confederates renewed their assaults on the Union line near the Fair Oaks Train Station. More Union reinforcements arrived and after heavy fighting the Confederate assaults were spent with the fighting ended around 11:30 in the morning. McClellan arrived on the field and had the opportunity to end the war with the Confederate lines in chaos and plenty of daylight remaining but he chose not to take it. Instead he would settle down for siege. Casualties were heavy with 5,000 Union and 6,100 Confederate. On the Confederate side Smith was found to have cracked under the stress and Robert E. Lee was sent from Richmond to take command.[/vc_column_text][vc_media_grid element_width=”2″ item=”mediaGrid_BlurWithContentBlock” grid_id=”vc_gid:1560102185342-e47b52ed-2c40-7″ include=”14661,14662,14663″][vc_column_text]
The Seven Days
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Mechanicsville
McClellan settled down for a siege and called for his heavy artillery. Lee knew he could not win a siege and after nearly three weeks of waiting decided to strike. The plan was similar in concept to Johnston’s at Seven Pines to try to trap part of McClellan’s army on one side of the river. This time the target was an exposed part of Fitz-John Porter’s V Corps near Mechanicsville and Beaver Dam Creek. Lee left two divisions to hold Richmond and moved with 65,000 men to strike.[/vc_column_text][vc_media_grid element_width=”2″ item=”mediaGrid_BlurWithContentBlock” grid_id=”vc_gid:1560101956972-f820c7b7-8896-4″ include=”5695,5696,5697,5698,5699,5700″][vc_column_text]
Oak Grove
McClellan was actually the first to strike at Oak Grove on June 25. The III Corps was sent to attack the Confederate defenses and were repulsed. McClellan attempted to manage the battle by telegraph and without being on scene ordered the men back to their defensive works. It was not enough to stall what Lee had planned.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]
Beaver Dam Creek
The following day Lee, now reinforced by Stonewall Jackson’s men, wanted to strike Porter. The plan went awry immediately. Jackson was to initiate the attack but his men were worn out and moved slowly. One of the commanders that was to wait grew impatient and made the assault on his own. Porter was well entrenched and repulsed the attack easily. Jackson arrived in the evening but did not engage nevertheless McClellan ordered Porter to retreat. McClellan was spooked, he believed that he was facing three times the number of Confederates then he actually was so Lee now had the initiate and would not give it up.[/vc_column_text][vc_media_grid element_width=”3″ item=”mediaGrid_BlurWithContentBlock” grid_id=”vc_gid:1560101956976-7418bcf9-b52a-6″ include=”5688,5689,5690,5691,5692,5693,5694″][vc_column_text]
Gaines’s Mill
The next morning found Porter near Gaines’s Mill. Porter was ordered to hold the position at all costs so that McClellan could complete a “change of base” to the James River. His subordinates urged him to attack Richmond but he refused. Lee brought 57,000 men to bear on Porter, who deployed behind breastworks on a ridge near Boatswain’s Creek. Porter had a strong position and the Confederates knew it. Jackson would be the key but again he was late. James Longstreet was ordered to make a diversion and sent George Pickett’s Brigade to attack, which was repulsed with heavy losses. Jackson finally arrived at around 4:30 and began his assault. Porter received reinforcements that hurled Jackson back but the Confederates tried again and this time broke Porter’s line. The Confederates paid dearly for the victory losing 8,000 men to the Union’s 6,800.[/vc_column_text][vc_media_grid element_width=”2″ item=”mediaGrid_BlurWithContentBlock” grid_id=”vc_gid:1560101956979-0f4fd028-9e5f-0″ include=”5701,5702,5703,5704,5705,5706,5707,5708,5709,5710,5711,5712,5713,5714,5715,5716″][vc_column_text]
Garnett’s Farm
McClellan was now completely spooked and ordered the army to withdraw to Harrison’s Landing. The generals were puzzled. Only Porter had been seriously engaged and he represented only one out of five corps but the commanding general ordered a retreat. Lee found out quickly. On June 27, while the fighting at Gaines’s Mill was ongoing, Robert Toombs, a prewar fire-eater, was ordered to conduct a reconnaissance to determine the Union position. Toombs had other ideas and launched an assault that was easily repulsed near Garnett’s Farm. The following day he was ordered to do the same thing over the same ground and he had the same result. While Toombs was defeated easily McClellan’s anxiety only increased.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]
Savage’s Station
June 29 saw the next fighting near Savage’s Station. Lee hoped to destroy the Federal army with a complex maneuver designed to get into the Federal rear. Lee ran into the Federal rear guard at about 9:00 AM and began a two hour fight. Jackson against was slow in arriving as he was rebuilding bridges over the Chickahominy River and believed that he was to stay behind and guard them. John Magruder’s Division struck Edwin Sumner’s II Corps and neither side engaged fully. Stalemate set in at dusk as a thunderstorm moved in and brought an end to the fighting.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]
Glendale
Despite all of the failures so far Lee still had a golden opportunity to destroy the Federal army. With some of the army still marching between White Oak Swamp and Glendale it was strung out and a bottleneck was forming. Lee ordered his army to strike. Jackson would lead the attack with 45,000 men but once again the plan was poorly executed. One other wing of the Confederate assault force was slowed by obstructions on the road and another got lost. Jackson moved slowly and only became engaged late in the evening. It would be A.P. Hill and James Longstreet who would bear the brunt of the attack and they hit the strung out Federals hard. Hand-to-hand fighting ensued as the Federals fought for their lives. They managed to hold but did not commit their entire force while the Confederates had committed everything on the field. The battle was a draw but McClellan again continued pulling back.[/vc_column_text][vc_media_grid element_width=”3″ item=”mediaGrid_BlurWithContentBlock” grid_id=”vc_gid:1560101956982-836012f8-3630-1″ include=”5730,5731″][vc_column_text]
Malvern Hill
Lee was getting frustrated. He had ordered Malvern Hill, a plantation, to be seized the previous day but it was now in Federal hands. The position offered an excellent artillery platform for the Federals with wide open fields. McClellan’s chief of artillery placed the guns to do maximum damage. Lee decided not to try to flank the position but instead launch a headlong assault with Jackson leading the assault and Magruder and Benjamin Huger continuing the attack when they arrived on the field. The entire Union army was here so this was Lee’s last chance. Once again the plan did not work. The Unions struck first with a ferocious artillery barrage at 1:00 PM and knocked most of the Confederate artillery out of the battle. Lee sent what infantry he had forward at 3:30 but the assault was stopped with heavy losses, never getting to within 200 yards of the Union line. Union firepower defeated Confederate valor. Lee lost 5,300 men while McClellan 3,200.
McClellan now pulled back to Harrison’s Landing and the security of the gunboats on the James River. Lee did not have the strength to follow, though his cavalry commander did briefly bombard the camp. Lee had lost 20,000 men in the fighting, McClellan about 16,000. The losses were stunning for the Confederates but the hit to Northern morale was even bigger. Lee was now a hero and McClellan’s star was falling and most of his army would be transferred to a new army being formed.[/vc_column_text][vc_media_grid element_width=”2″ item=”mediaGrid_BlurWithContentBlock” grid_id=”vc_gid:1560101956984-18d9d437-7b0a-0″ include=”5717,5718,5719,5720,5721,5722,5723,5724,5725,5726,5727,5728,5729,10291,10292,10293,10294″][vc_column_text]
Around Richmond
Some pictures around Richmond like the Confederate White House, Chimborazo Hospital and Monument Avenue.[/vc_column_text][vc_media_grid element_width=”2″ item=”mediaGrid_BlurWithContentBlock” grid_id=”vc_gid:1560101956990-bdf521d3-2618-4″ include=”7263,7264,7265,7266,7267,7268,7269,7270,7271,7272,7273,7274,7275,7276,7277,7278,7279,7280,7281,7282,7283,7284,7285,7286″][vc_column_text]
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