Frustrated by his failure at Glendale, Robert E. Lee gathered his army on July 1, 1862, for a final effort to destroy the Union army, but unlike his previous efforts during the Seven Days, he did not have a Union flank or a strung-out marching column to attack. Instead, the powerful Union rear guard stood arrayed on the plateau of Malvern Hill, about a half mile in front of this place. On July 1, the Willis Church parsonage became an important landmark: before the attacks, division commander D.H. Hill met with his officers near the house, Colonel W. Gaston Meares of North Carolina was killed by a shell in the yard, Confederate artillery attempted to take position in nearby fields, and Lee watched from a blacksmith shop across Willis Church.
