Union Occupation

The Battle of Lee’s Mill set the stage for an elaborate Confederate ruse as Gen. Magruder maneuvered his troops along the 12-mile line and created the illusion of double his numbers. Gen. McClellan, daunted by the Confederate defenses, had siegeworks and 15 separate batteries for heavy siege cannons and mortars erected between April 5 and May 4, 1862. In mid-April, Gen. Joseph Johnston arrived with three divisions, increasing the Confederate force to 56,000. The only real battle came at Dam No. 1 on April 16, 1862, when the 3rd Vermont Infantry broke through the Confederate defenses but, without reinforcements, retreated under heavy fire. McClellan’s siege operations gave the Confederate high command time to prepare Richmond’s defenses and reorganize their army. Johnston criticized the Peninsula’s defenses and believed Richmond was best defended nearer the capital, while President Jefferson Davis and Gen. Robert E. Lee wanted the Union Army held at the Warwick-Yorktown line. Lee had advised Magruder in the summer of 1861 that a defensive line between Yorktown and Mulberry Island, created by damming and defending the Warwick River, promised the happiest results, but Johnston argued that McClellan outnumbered and outgunned his forces. McClellan scheduled a grand barrage of the Confederate defenses for May 5, 1862, but Johnston disobeyed orders and retreated on the night of May 3, covered by Confederate artillery on the march toward Williamsburg. When Union soldiers occupied the Warwick-Yorktown line on May 4, 1862, they discovered subterra torpedoes, or land mines, buried by the Confederates. As the 23rd Pennsylvania Infantry occupied Lee’s Mill, Sergeant Caldwell stepped on a torpedo that Private Albert Barry calmly extinguished by pouring his canteen over the smoking shell. Not all such encounters were bloodless: at least three dozen Union troops were injured and one civilian telegraph operator died. The Union Army occupied Yorktown and pursued the retreating Confederates, but the Battle of Williamsburg on May 5, 1862, delayed the pursuit and allowed Johnston’s forces to retreat safely to Richmond. The Peninsula Campaign continued for another two months and culminated in McClellan’s defeat during the Seven Days battles around Richmond.

Newport News, Virginia · United States