On May 31, 1862, Confederate attacks intended to push the Union army away from Richmond struck an isolated wing of the Federal Fourth Corps in this vicinity. The heaviest fighting took place along the Williamsburg Road, where men of Gen. D.H. Hill’s Division, marching from the west, broke Gen. Silas Casey’s line and pushed on toward the Seven Pines crossroads east of here. Close-quarters combat raged in and around Casey’s Redoubt, which stood close to this spot, and Hill’s attack unleashed what Casey called “the most terrible fire of musketry … that I have ever witnessed.” Late in the day, Confederate leader Gen. Joseph E. Johnston fell wounded north of here at Fair Oaks. The next day, Gen. Robert E. Lee took command of the army. Seven Pines was the largest battle fought in Virginia during the first 14 months of the Civil War, involving more than 70,000 troops and causing at least 10,000 casualties.