In these fields and woods unfolded the largest and bloodiest battle of the Seven Days, Gaines' Mill. On the morning of June 27, 1862, Union General Fitz John Porter deployed his entire Fifth Corps, more than 27,000 in all, behind the swampy waters of Boatswain's Creek. He ordered one hundred guns to unlimber along the length of this plateau, known locally as Turkey Hill. Around noon Lee's forces converged on Porter's mile-and-a-half front. Confederate probes struck first near the Union center before expanding to the left and right. The climax of the fighting came around 7:00 p.m. when General Hood's Confederates broke through the Union position along the creek and swarmed up the hillside, spearheading the largest charge Lee's Confederate army would make during the war, almost 55,000 strong.
