The Battle of Lee’s Mill

In March of 1862, Union Maj. Gen. George McClellan’s Army of the Potomac landed at Fort Monroe and Camp Butler with 121,500 soldiers, 44 batteries of field artillery, and 101 heavy siege cannons, while Confederate Maj. Gen. John Magruder, promoted after his June 10, 1861 victory at the Battle of Big Bethel, viewed the Peninsula’s defenses as precarious and requested more cannons and troops. On April 4, 1862, the Army of the Potomac advanced up the Peninsula in two columns, with the III Corps moving from Fort Monroe along the Hampton-Yorktown Road toward Yorktown and the IV Corps moving from Camp Butler along the Great Warwick Road toward the Halfway House between Yorktown and Williamsburg, as McClellan planned a two-pronged movement to hold Magruder’s forces at Yorktown and block their retreat toward Williamsburg. The Battle of Lee’s Mill on April 5, 1862 stopped this Union flanking movement because McClellan’s maps incorrectly showed the Warwick River flowing parallel to the James River, leaving him unaware that it flowed from near Yorktown and blocked the Union advance. Lee’s Mill was defended by one brigade from Brig. Gen. Lafayette McLaws’ division, supported by Capt. Joseph Cosnahan’s Peninsula Artillery, while Brig. Gen. William F. Smith’s division led the Union advance from the Warwick Court House toward Lee’s Mill. Lt. Col. John Weems marched four companies of the 10th Georgia Infantry across the river to skirmish with the advancing Union soldiers, and Capt. Cosnahan’s two cannons in the extreme right redoubt dueled with Capt. Charles Wheeler’s Battery E, 1st New York Light Artillery and forced its withdrawal. Halted by the Confederate defenses, Smith deployed his three brigades under heavy fire along the Warwick, and IV Corps commander Brig. Gen. Erasmus Keyes reported to McClellan that no part of the line as far as discovered could be taken by assault without an enormous waste of life. The battle cost the Confederates seven casualties and the Union twelve, but it thwarted McClellan’s plans and convinced him to besiege the Warwick-Yorktown line.

Newport News, Virginia · United States