In mid-June 1862, after defeating three Union armies in the Shenandoah Valley, Maj. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson and his Valley Army joined Gen. Robert E. Lee to defend Richmond. Jackson and his men marched by here on 26 June to strike the flank of Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan's army near Mechanicsville, but because of Jackson's exhaustion and unfamiliarity with the roads, they arrived too late to fight. On 27 June, Jackson and the rest of the Army of Northern Virginia assaulted the Union right flank at Gaines's Mill, Lee's clearest victory in the Seven Days' Campaign.
