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. By May 4, 1862, Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston’s army was retreating west toward Richmond from Yorktown as McClellan followed. To accelerate the Federal advance and intercept Johnston, McClellan shipped half his force up the York River to West Point, the terminus of the Richmond and York Railroad at the junction of the Mattaponi and Pamunkey rivers. On May 6, Gen. William B. Franklin’s division began disembarking at Brickhouse Point on the York River as Confederate cavalry scouts watched from the hills to the south, and by dawn on May 7 a vast array of equipment and thousands of troops had poured into the open fields. After the scouts reported the landing to Johnston at Barhamsville, three miles southwest, Johnston assigned Gen. Gustavus W. Smith to block the Federal advance, and Smith sent Gen. W.H.C. Whiting’s division forward. As Franklin’s division moved south toward Barhamsville, Confederate Gen. John Bell Hood led his Texas brigade north with Col. Wade Hampton’s Legion on his right, and together they drove Franklin’s skirmish line back toward the river. Whiting soon discovered that his men were within range of Federal gunboats in the York River while the vessels were out of range of Confederate cannons, so about 2 p.m. he disengaged and withdrew to Johnston’s main force. The Confederate army and its supply trains continued retreating to Richmond, and Whiting’s division had delayed Franklin long enough for them to escape. New commander Robert E. Lee later led a Confederate offensive during the Seven Days’ Battles at the end of June that drove the Union army away from Richmond’s eastern suburbs.
