The Civil War/The Seven Day's Battle
THE SEVEN DAY'S BATTLE–JUNE 26 TO JULY 2, 1862
The seven day's battle fought just outside Richmond from June 26 to July 2 were a series of small battles fought by a certain corps of the Union Army commanded by General McClellan and certain commands or corps of the Confederate Army commanded by General Joe Johnston until he was wounded and General Lee was appointed commander of the Army of Northern Virginia.
General McClellan was within 7 miles of Richmond with 80,000 men, but the rumors were that General Lee had called everyone in to help defend the Capital and 200,000 men were there to stop McClellan. This was not true, General Lee pulled out General Longstreet's, General D. H. Hill's, and General A. P. Hill's 30,000 men, leaving only 20,000 to defend the City. General Lee ordered these troops to join forces with General Jackson's 30,000 coming from the Valley of Virginia to strike General McClellan's forces in the rear. The Chickahominy River was out of its banks and all bridges washed out keeping General Jackson from uniting with Longstreet and company to make a strike at Mechanicsville, Virginia. General A. P. Hill sent General Reynold's and General Seymour's brigades to do this on June 26 and General McClellan thought there were many thousands of men in front of him and now many thousands in his rear. He sent word to President Lincoln to send reinforcements or he would be wiped out completely, but would die with his men. The whole truth of the matter he could have marched into Richmond anytime he wished and used the Confederate trenches and forts to keep General Lee out, but he was sure 200,000 troops lay waiting for him.
Instead of going into Richmond he started his retreat east of Richmond and next day on June 27 his army was overtaken at Cold Harbor. A savage battle took place most of the day. General Jackson and General Longstreet came to A. P. Hill's aid. They mauled General Reynold's and General McCall's troops, capturing over 2,000 prisoners with General Reynold's and General McCall's included, also they drove McClellan's forces from the field and took 20 of his best pieces of artillery.
General McClellan was now in full retreat, he recrossed the Chickahominy river and burned the bridges, hoping to slow down the Confederate army. They rebuilt the bridge and caught a small part of General Summer's corps at Savage's Station on Sunday June 29. These were General Magruder's forces under General McLaw's division. This was a very small battle; the Union forces were on the march and only wished to hold the Confederate forces back out of the way.
On Monday, June 30, General Lee had hoped to hit General McClellan with 80,000 men in the center of his 8 mile long line of retreat, divide his army and cut each half to pieces, near Frasier's farm. The streams were all swollen and out of their banks and Lee's army had trouble reaching the place of attack in time. Longstreet and Hill were there with 18,000 troops; they did what they could, but coundn't do too much damage, not what General Lee had planned. They hit McClellan's wagon train and artillery and captured 20 more guns by making a bayonet attack just before dark.
The Union army had taken up a strong positions at Malvern Hill on July 1, General McClellan hoping to make his last stand before retreating to the James River. General Lee had hoped to hit the Union army in full strength at dawn on this day, but only General D. H. Hill with his two brigades arrived on time. General Hill sent General Magruder and General Hunger to storm this hill and was cut down almost to a man. General Jackson, General Longstreet and General A. P. Hill arrived just before dusk and made plans to hit the Union forces next day. At dawn they found no Union forces on Malvern Hill, they had moved out during the night and were headed to the James River; they reached there on July 7.
General Lee rested his men a few days and returned back to Richmond on July 8 in full control of Richmond, so ending the Peninsula campaign as McClellan went on to Harrison's Landing to head back to D. C.
This series of battles showed some of the best fighting of the war, but was the worst generalship of any battle. General McClellan was way off as his information was not correct and General Lee was not up to par either, he had his army moving faster on paper than his men could go on the ground.
The Confederate Army lost 19,406 men killed, wounded or missing, while the Union Army lost 15,249. This was very much a Confederate victory as General McClellan and his army was no longer a threat to Richmond.
The 42nd infantry division helped fight these battles under the able leadership of General Richard Ewell under General Jackson's 2nd Corp.
Grandfather was wounded in his right hand in the fighting late in the day at Malvern Hill and was sent to Camp Winder General hospital at Richmond.