Seven Days Battles

Seven Days Battles

McClellan’s Army advanced on Richmond and reached within 15 miles of the city. His forces were divided between the North and South sides of Chickahominy River. On May 31, 1862, the Confederate forces under the command of Joseph Johnston attacked the divided Union forces at Seven Pines as it was known. The plan was simple, but the execution failed totally.

The confederate forces attacked piecemeal, instead of in one group. The results were that no significant ground was gained. 6134 confederates were killed or wounded, against 5031 Union troops. On the evening of May 31, confederate commander Joseph Johnston was severely wounded and Robert E Lee was appointed as the new confederate commander.

One of Lee’s first actions was to order James Ewell Brown Stuart to scout out union positions. Lee knew that he had to attack before McClellan could begin a siege of Richmond. On June 26th he attacked at Mechanicsville, the far end of the Union line. The brunt of the attack was made by the forces of AP Hill. The Confederates had 1500 casualties, while the Union, only 400. McClellan felt that with overwhelming confederate forces likely to attack he should withdraw the forces to a more defensible position at Gaines Mill.

The next day Lee attacked again. The battle went on for the whole day, by the end of the day Confederate forces succeeded in breaking through Union lines at Turkey Hill. When the results of the battle became known, McClellan made the decision to give up his base of supply at the White House and move it to Harrison’s landing.

As the Army of the Potomac withdrew across the Peninsular, Lee attempted to destroy it at Savage Station on June 29th and Glendale on June 30. Lee made a final effort at Malvern Hill to destroy the Union army. The Hill was well defended, and 5590 confederates died while trying to scale it. So the Seven Days campaign came to an end.