Gaines’ Mill

On June 27, 1862, the battle at Gaines’ Mill became the second-largest battle in American history up to that time. One day earlier, General Robert E. Lee had forced the Union Fifth Corps from its position at Beaver Dam Creek, and here he massed 65,000 Confederate soldiers against that same corps, which stood with its back less than two miles from the Chichahominy River and its front protected by the steep ravine of Boatswain Creek. A vigorous defense by the Union Fifth Corps repulsed several Confederate attacks until very late in the day, when a determined assault across a two-mile front broke the Federal line in two places. Sunset saved the Fifth Corps from possible destruction on the banks of the river. The battle is notable as Lee’s first major victory of the Civil War and as an illustration that direct frontal assaults, while costly, did not always fail. General Fitz John Porter’s Fifth Corps suffered 6,000 casualties in defense of this extended ridge, and Lee’s army sustained 9,000 casualties. Gaines’ Mill proved a landmark battle by producing soaring confidence among Southern soldiers and civilians and by showing that Civil War battles had the potential for greater violence and destruction than previously supposed.

Virginia · United States