Malvern Hill

During the Seven Days’ battles of 1862, George B. McClellan’s Army of the Potomac advanced to the outskirts of Richmond after landing at Fort Monroe and moving up the peninsula, threatening the Confederate capital and possible reunion without abolition of slavery. Confederate General Robert E. Lee seized the initiative on June 26 by crossing the Chickahominy River with nearly 45,000 soldiers in concert with Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson, beginning a week of fighting that drove the Union army back toward the James River. Fighting unfolded at Beaver Dam Creek, Gaines’ Mill, Gouldin’s Farm, Savage’s Station, and Glendale, as McClellan shifted to a new base and Lee turned from protecting Richmond to pursuing and trying to defeat the retreating Federals. On July 1, McClellan’s army occupied a strong defensive position atop Malvern Hill, where poorly coordinated Confederate attacks ended in a decisive Union victory. The next day Lee pursued to Harrison’s Landing, found no further offensive opportunity, and ended the campaign that had secured Richmond before his army moved north toward later victories at Cedar Mountain and Second Manassas and the first invasion of the North.

Virginia · United States