Lee’s First Victory: At a Huge Cost

By nightfall Union resistance on Turkey Hill had ended, and except for the wounded, most Federal forces recrossed the Chickahominy overnight and joined the rest of the Army of the Potomac. In two days of brutal fighting, Lee divided his army, drove one Union corps across the Chickahominy, and ended McClellan’s thrust to Richmond. The cost was staggering: both sides suffered 15,000 casualties, the greatest loss in any battle of the Peninsula Campaign and, at that stage of the war, second only to Shiloh. Before the area could recover, the armies returned in the spring of 1864, when the savage battle of Cold Harbor swept across some of the same farms, leaving miles of fortifications, 18,000 more casualties, and untold misery.

Virginia · United States