Holding the High Ground

At Beaver Dam Creek, the Union position combined open fields, steep slopes, a broad swampy creek, infantry sheltered by a millrace, and strongly placed artillery on the ridge, creating obstacles the attacking Confederates could not overcome. The Confederates lost 1,500 men there while the Federals lost only 350. Despite this decisive victory, George B. McClellan withdrew this exposed part of his army on the night of June 26 because Stonewall Jackson’s Confederates threatened its rear. The first phase of the Confederate effort to force the Union army away from Richmond by maneuver thus succeeded only after a battlefield defeat. A. F. Hill of the 8th Pennsylvania Reserves recalled Union troops deployed along the millrace as a brigade charged across the valley and began to climb the hill, only to be struck by a hidden regiment’s devastating volley and driven back in dismay.

Mechanicsville, Virginia · United States