Battle of Williamsburg

In April 1862, Union forces under Gen. George B. McClellan began a major campaign to capture Richmond, marching west from Fort Monroe up the Peninsula between the York and James Rivers toward the Confederate capital, while a Confederate army half their size opposed them. At first light on May 5, 1862, Union Gen. Joseph "Fighting Joe" Hooker attacked the Confederate line toward Fort Magruder through cold drizzle, smoke, plowed fields, and dense woods. Union skirmishers emerged from the mist in front of Gen. Richard H. Anderson's guns in Fort Magruder and nearby redoubts, twice driving back Anderson's skirmishers before Confederate counterattacks. By 11 A.M., Anderson's men, reinforced by brigades under Gens. Cadmus M. Wilcox, A.P. Hill, and George E. Pickett, pushed the Union left flank back, and a soldier of the 19th Mississippi Infantry reached the Union cannons, climbed onto one, and waved his regimental flag to signal the guns in Fort Magruder to cease firing. Muddy roads delayed reinforcements trying to reach Hooker, but Union Gen. Philip Kearny urged them forward, and together Kearny and Hooker pushed the Confederates back into their redoubts. Although Union forces soon camped in Richmond's eastern suburbs after overcoming three Southern defensive lines, Robert E. Lee later led a Confederate offensive during the Seven Days' Battles, June 25-July 1, that drove the Union army away, while Williamsburg remained under Federal martial law for the rest of the war.

Williamsburg, Virginia · United States