Despite numerous deficiencies exhibited by
the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in its first pitched battle at Beaver Dam
Creek and Mechanicsville on June 26th, General Robert E. Lee’s
offensive strategy is working. Stonewall Jackson’s arrival northeast of
Richmond has rendered the Federal position north of the Chickahominy River untenable. Unknown
to Lee, McClellan has already decided to abandon his vulnerable base at White House Landing in
favor of one located south of the Chickahominy. As reports of Jackson’s arrival come in to
McClellan’s headquarters on the night of June 26th, McClellan knows he has to act or Porter’s
V Corps would be swallowed whole. Ruling out offensive action on either side of the river, much
to the chagrin of subordinates who urge him to exploit Porter’s victory at Beaver Dam Creek, and
imagining overwhelming forces wherever he looks, Major General McClellan opts to abandon his
offensive and retreat, not back down the Virginia Peninsula the way he had originally came, but
due south to the nearest haven - the James River. General McClellan terms his retreat a “change
of base” that would save his Army of the Potomac from certain destruction. Brigadier General Porter
is told to fall back to a new defensive position near Gaines’ Mill that would cover the river
crossings and hold the Confederates at bay. Although McClellan is already defeated, his
army still has plenty of fight left in it. At 3:00 AM on June 27th, Brigadier General George
A. McCall, whose three infantry brigades of his Pennsylvania Reserves Division had fought and
won the Battle of Mechanicsville, get the order to withdraw from the Beaver Dam Creek line. Rear
guards supported by artillery screen the movement, holding the creek crossings until after
sunrise, when Rebel skirmishers advance as soon as it is light enough to see. Except for
two companies of the 13th Pennsylvania Reserves, who do not get the order and are captured, all
the Union men and guns make good the three-mile withdrawal to a new position beyond Boatswain’s
Creek, which also is referred to as a swamp. After shifting brigades so fresh troops could
attack at dawn, Lee arrives in Mechanicsville determined to achieve everything on June 27th that
was not accomplished on June 26th. When it becomes obvious that the enemy is falling back, Lee has
A. P. Hill push his Light Division across Beaver Dam Creek. The Confederate commander orders Major
Generals Magruder and Huger to hold the Richmond works “at the point of the bayonet if necessary.”
One of Lee’s first moves that morning is to send an aide to guide Jackson south from Hundley’s
Corner to join the main Confederate body. Lee meets Jackson and A. P. Hill at 10:00 AM and
explains his plan to envelop the enemy. Jackson would march northeastward on Cold Harbor Road
across the headwaters of Powhite Creek to Old Cold Harbor, where he would be joined by D. H.
Hill. Major General Hill is already in motion, conducting his own wider turning movement
on the Old Church Road farther north. When joined, D. H. Hill and Jackson would
command 14 of the army’s 26 infantry brigades. On the Confederate right, Major General Longstreet
would move his division down the River Road along the bluffs overlooking the Chickahominy River
in support of A. P. Hill’s advance in the center toward Powhite Creek and Gaines’ Mill. Unlike the
previous day, A. P. Hill has orders to attack the Federals wherever he finds them. He puts Brigadier
General Maxcy Gregg’s Brigade of well-rested South Carolinians, which had been held in reserve the
previous day, at the front of his Light Division. By mid-morning, Brigadier General Porter
has his reinforced V Corps on the plateau behind Boatswain’s Creek, which encloses a
horseshoe-shaped position of great natural strength. The oval-shaped plateau is about
two miles wide and a mile deep with its long outer side facing north. The Watt, McGehee, and
Adams families each have homes on the plateau, and the cleared land around these structures
furnishes superb fields of fire for defenders. The highest elevation is known locally as
Turkey Hill, though the day’s battle would take its name from a site a mile away, the
home and grist mill of Dr. William Gaines. The doctor is the area’s largest landowner and
is renowned for his support of the Rebellion. Union troops have been camped on his land for
several months and had, over his protests, buried a number of their fever-stricken dead
on the property. Gaines has defiantly announced he would dig up the bodies and feed them to
his hogs after the Yankees were driven away. Rising at the northeast corner of the plateau
and curving around its northern and western sides before emptying into the Chickahominy River,
Boatswain’s Creek is a sluggish little stream, its banks and bottomlands heavily overgrown with
trees and underbrush. The ground to the north and west is largely open and under cultivation and
sloped down to the swampy bottomland. Porter arranges his corps in a crescent-shaped line
almost two miles long facing north and west. Brigadier General George W. Morell’s First
Division covers the left flank on Turkey Hill, and Brigadier General George Sykes’ Second Division of
mostly U.S. Army Regulars holds the right flank. Morell’s position is nearly impregnable. The
Yankees are posted in a first line on the eastern edge of the bottomland and in a second line
halfway up the hillside. McCall’s Pennsylvania Reserves Division is deployed in a third line
along the crest of the plateau as the reserve. Two companies of Colonel Hiram Berdan’s 1st U.S.
Sharpshooters are deployed in the first line. The infantrymen in all three lines shelter
behind hurriedly fashioned earthworks of logs, fence rails, and dirt. Believing he is not
strong enough to extend his line back to the Chickahominy River on his right, Porter relies
on the boggy, broken ground there to discourage a turning movement. Porter has 96 guns
with which to support his infantry. The guns are positioned along the third
line of works or in reserve on the plateau. Adding additional firepower are three batteries
of long-range guns on the south bank of the Chickahominy, where they could assist Morell’s
division. Brigadier General Philip St. George Cooke posts four companies of the 5th U.S.
Cavalry Regiment under Captain Charles J. Whiting on the far left, covering the ground
between Morell’s division and the river. As troops of A. P. Hill’s Light Division advance
toward the enemy’s picket line beyond Powhite Creek, the day’s first contact takes place three
miles away, entirely unknown to General Lee, after men of D. H. Hill’s Division arrive
at Old Cold Harbor well ahead of Jackson. Old Cold Harbor is a nondescript crossroads
hamlet. Another small village, New Cold Harbor, is situated a mile and a half to the west.
When D. H. Hill pushes Garland’s Brigade and G. B. Anderson’s Brigade down the road toward
the Chickahominy River from Old Cold Harbor, his skirmishers are hit by sharp musket fire from
behind a stream to their front and artillery fire from the slope beyond. Captain J. W. Bondurant’s
Alabama Battery of the Jeff Davis Artillery is hurried forward to suppress this fire, and
is bombarded so severely by rifled guns from the high ground to the east, which are manned by the
U.S. Army Regulars from Sykes’ Second Division, that it is quickly withdrawn.
Hill realizes he has met far heavier resistance than is expected and also seems to be
facing the enemy’s front rather than his flank. The stream behind which the Union infantry
shelters is not shown on Hill’s map, and therefore he wisely decides to await Jackson’s arrival.
This action takes place a little after noon, but Lee learns nothing of it or the enemy’s position.
Normally the sound of artillery at that distance would be heard, but on that hot and sultry day
there are so-called acoustic shadows. These heavy pockets of dense, moist air scattered across the
field frequently muffles the sounds of battle. In their first action of the war, Maxcy Gregg
and his men push down Telegraph Road and reach Powhite Creek at Gaines’ Mill around noon. Told
to expect a fight there, the men of Gregg’s Brigade meet only desultory fire and continue on
across the creek to New Cold Harbor, moving at the double-quick down a slope toward a wooded area
that borders yet another swampy body of water. The Battle of Gaines’ Mill, also known in some
Northern accounts as the Battle of Chickahominy River, erupts in earnest at about 2:30 PM on
Friday, June 27th, 1862. From across the swamp comes withering musket fire, joined by shell and
solid shot from Union artillery guns on the high ground, that halts Gregg’s Brigade and drives his
troops back in confusion. After Gregg rallies his shaken regiments and reports back to A. P. Hill
that he has made contact with the enemy, Hill and Lee ride up for a look. Lee quickly realizes the
Federals have taken their stand not behind Powhite Creek as he expects, but in a far more imposing
position behind a creek that does not appear on his maps. Furthermore, the enemy is facing north
as well as west and appears to be in great force. Believing Jackson and D. H. Hill would soon
be adding their weight to the contest, Lee tells Gregg to hold his position until the rest
of the division comes up to renew the assault. After the brigades of Brigadier Generals Lawrence
O’Bryan Branch, Dorsey Pender, Joseph R. Anderson, Charles Field, and James Archer form up on Gregg’s
right, the Confederate battle line stretches for almost a mile. Once again the attackers fail
to mass their guns for concentrated fire, and both the gunners and infantrymen
would suffer as a result. Most of A. P. Hill’s men would have at least
a quarter of a mile of open ground to cross before they reached Boatswain’s Creek. From his
command post at the Watt House on Turkey Hill, Porter observes Hill’s brigades deploying for
battle and rising dust clouds off to his left along the River Road, and signals a request
for reinforcements to army headquarters. Brigadier General Henry W. Slocum’s First
Division of VI Corps had been designated to serve as reinforcements if necessary. McClellan,
coordinating his army’s efforts by telegraph from his headquarters at the Trent House south of
the river, and thus not personally directing any of the actual fighting, relays the request
to VI Corps headquarters, and Slocum’s division tramps across the river at Alexander’s Bridge.
Major General A. P. Hill orders his 12,000-man Light Division to advance at 2:30 PM. Brigadier
General George Morell’s First Division numbers a thousand fewer men than A. P. Hill’s, but with
a part of Sykes’ Second Division also engaged, the defenders there have a small advantage in
numbers. They also hold a considerable advantage in artillery. They have three batteries -
Battery A, 2nd U.S. Artillery, Battery I, 5th U.S. Artillery, and the guns of the combined
Batteries L and M, 3rd U.S. Artillery - posted on the plateau’s lower slopes to thwart Hill’s attack
in addition to those packed tightly on the crest. The Confederate gunners make little
impression on this formidable array. When Captain D. G. McIntosh’s South
Carolina Battery of the Pee Dee Artillery move onto the field, dust and smoke so
obscure the swamp and surrounding hills that McIntosh can not tell friend from
foe and ceases firing after three rounds. The attackers of Gregg’s Brigade, after forcing a
lodgment in the center of the Union line where the divisions of Morell and Sykes meet, are soon
engaged in fierce fighting. Colonel John F. Marshall’s 1st South Carolina Rifles Regiment
charges with fixed bayonets against Batteries L and M, 3rd U.S. Artillery, and
clash with its supporting infantry, Duryée's Zouaves of the 5th New York in
Colonel Gouverneur K. Warren’s 3rd Brigade, and after hand-to-hand fighting are forced back
with the loss of 309 men killed or wounded. The rest of Gregg’s Brigade fares little better.
Branch’s Brigade, which like Gregg’s had not seen action the previous day, is badly battered
during the two-hour assault and loses 401 men. Berdan’s Sharpshooters, in particular,
contribute to the heavy toll. Posted as skirmishers, they move from tree to
tree along the swamp’s eastern edge, feeding cartridges into their Sharps breech-loading rifles
and firing from ranges as short as 40 yards. None of Hill’s brigades except Gregg’s gain
even a toehold beyond Boatswain’s Creek. J. R. Anderson’s Brigade launches three spirited
but unsuccessful charges, while Field’s Brigade becomes so entangled in the swampy undergrowth
that his second line pours volleys of friendly fire into the men in the first rank, forcing
Colonel Robert M. Mayo of the 47th Virginia to order his men to fall flat to avoid fire
coming from both front and back. In two hours, A. P. Hill’s Light Division suffers more than
2,000 casualties while fighting unsupported. Captain William Biddle of General McClellan’s
staff arrives at Turkey Hill about this time and finds Brigadier General Porter calmly sitting
atop his horse behind a strip of woods overlooking the Union left, while a tide of wounded men
stream past and shells exploded all around. A staff officer asks him if he has a message
for headquarters. “You can see for yourself, Captain,” says Porter. “We’re holding them, but
it’s getting hotter and hotter.” At that moment, the vanguard of Slocum’s First Division of
VI Corps arrives from the river crossing, raising Porter’s numbers to 36,400, and he
rides off to plug reinforcements into the line. In the meantime, Stonewall Jackson is struggling
to bring his forces to bear where Lee wants them. He had obtained a guide that morning after meeting
with Lee, but neglects to offer precise directions as to how he wants to reach Old Cold Harbor. The
guide takes the shortest and most direct route, one that leads past Gaines’ Mill. When Jackson
realizes he is not arriving on the enemy’s right flank as Lee wants, he orders the column to turn
around and countermarch to Cold Harbor Road, delaying the Valley forces’ arrival
on the field for almost two hours. Major General Richard S. Ewell, in Jackson’s
van, is the first to reach Old Cold Harbor, where he finds Lee’s aide, Lieutenant Colonel
Walter Taylor, anxiously awaiting him. Worried Porter would mount a counterattack against A.
P. Hill’s battered division, Lee had dispatched Taylor to find any of Jackson’s units and get them
into battle as soon as possible. At the same time, Lee tells Major General Longstreet on the right
to make at least a diversion in support of A. P. Hill. It is almost 4:00 PM when Lee
meets Ewell on Telegraph Road and tells him to attack with his three brigades against
the Union center where Gregg and Branch have been beaten back. Lee also sends one of Ewell’s
aides to locate the rest of Jackson’s Command and get them to the field as well.
Ewell sends in his lead brigade, the Louisiana Tigers - now commanded by the
6th Louisiana’s Colonel Isaac G. Seymour in the absence of recently-promoted Richard Taylor
- without waiting for the rest of his division. Forming the Louisiana Brigade into a line of
battle with the 6th Louisiana on the extreme right and the 9th Louisiana on the far left,
with the 1st Louisiana Special Battalion and the 7th and 8th Louisiana forming
the brigade center, Seymour’s Tigers advance under a heavy fire of musketry from John
Martindale’s 1st Brigade of Morell’s division. During the assault, Colonel Seymour is killed
while leading his battle lines into the fray. His troops quickly become confused in the boggy
thickets of the creek. Command devolves to Major Roberdeau Wheat, the renowned commander of the
1st Louisiana Special Battalion, who is mortally wounded leading an assault with his battalion.
The Tigers waver and then flee to the rear. Ewell’s next brigade under Brigadier General Isaac
Trimble attacks in piecemeal fashion with just two of its regiments, the 15th Alabama and 21st
Georgia. “Boys, you are mighty good but that’s hell in there,” a retreating Louisianan warns them
as both regiments charge into murderous rifle and cannon fire without hesitation. Neither is able to
advance beyond the western edge of the bottomland. The Union lines hold against these
repeated attacks, but each takes a toll. Since their midday skirmish near Gaines’
Mill, the Irishmen of the 9th Massachusetts have repulsed consecutive attacks by Branch,
Pender, and Trimble and are out of ammunition. The nearby Zouaves of the 5th New York, after
losing a third of their number in a succession of charges and countercharges, is sent to
the rear for rest and resupply. As Porter moves units from McCall’s Pennsylvania Reserves
Division into the hardest hit parts of his line, the 9th Pennsylvania Reserves advances with
fixed bayonets to relieve the 9th Massachusetts. “We chased them across a field into some woods,
but then they got reinforcements and we had to fall back,” wrote Corporal Adam Bright of the
regiment. “Three times we reformed our lines and charged them but could not get them out
of the woods.” More of Slocum’s troops are arriving at this point, inserted like McCall’s
into the lines where they are most needed. Confederate President Jefferson Davis and
his entourage are observing the fighting from high ground one mile behind the front but can see
little of the fighting in the tangled bottomland. On the extreme Confederate right, Longstreet
orders the 2,000 men of Brigadier General George E. Pickett’s Brigade to attack the Union
position behind Boatswain’s Creek to assist A. P. Hill’s hard-pressed division. The Virginians
march downhill and disappear into the thickets near the water’s edge. Concentrated artillery fire
from the crest of Turkey Hill and the south bank of the Chickahominy, pummel Pickett’s Virginians.
During the attack, which lasts from 4:00 - 4:30 PM, Brigadier General Pickett is wounded - shot
off his horse while leading the assault - but he continues to move forward with his men while
leading his horse on foot. A second assault by Pickett’s Brigade is led by Colonel Eppa Hunton
of the 8th Virginia. Hunton’s 8th Virginia is the only regiment of Pickett’s Brigade that succeeds
in establishing a breakthrough in the Union lines across Boatswain’s Creek, but it is unexploited
and so no further ground is made in Hunton’s sector. Longstreet learns from walking wounded of
the attack’s failure. “Old Pete” quickly realizes that it would take the entire army attacking
in concert to dislodge the enemy from the hill. Though the attacks of A. P. Hill, Ewell,
and Longstreet have been repulsed, Porter is growing more anxious by the minute.
By 5:00 PM, his men are exhausted, dehydrated, low on ammunition, and their weapons foul. “I am
pressed hard, very hard,” he informs headquarters. “About every Regiment I have has been in
action, and unless reinforced I am afraid I shall be driven from my position.” Having
made no contingency plans for such a situation, McClellan sends no immediate reinforcements,
but instead merely asks his subordinates if they have any troops to spare. McClellan finally
dispatches two brigades of Brigadier General Edwin Sumner’s II Corps, but due to their location it
would be almost three hours before they arrive. “Tell them this affair must hang in suspense
no longer. Sweep the field with the bayonet!” Maj. Gen. “Stonewall” Jackson, CSA
June 27th, 1862 Jackson finally arrives at Old Cold Harbor
and, at last cognizant of the situation and the enemy’s dispositions, begins trying
to get his remaining forces into the fray. These are the divisions of Brigadier Generals
William H. C. Whiting and Charles Winder, at this point stretched out for several miles
along Cold Harbor Road. Rather than sending his ailing chief-of-staff, Major Robert Dabney, to
guide these units into position, Jackson gives hurried, complicated verbal orders to another
aide, his quartermaster Major John Harmon. The two fresh divisions are to
move into line in echelon between D. H. Hill and Ewell. If that fails, they are
to move toward the sound of heaviest firing. Knowing little of tactics, Harmon becomes
hopelessly confused when he attempts to relay Jackson’s instructions to Whiting and
Winder, after which the puzzled generals remain stationary for another precious hour. As the
roar of gunfire intensifies all along the front, Major Dabney realizes what has taken place
and rides over to convey the correct orders. One after another, six more Confederate
brigades finally begin moving into line. Some of the brigades have two miles to march
and others encounter further confusion when they near the front but, with the daylight
beginning to fade, overriding everything else is a sense of urgency. After Jackson
meets briefly with Lee on Telegraph Road, he rides back to his units and dispatches couriers
to his two division commanders. “Tell them this affair must hang in suspense no longer,” says
Jackson. “Sweep the field with the bayonet!” But getting these scattered units into
position in the woods and marshes is a painfully slow and difficult process. As a
result, two of Winder’s brigades end up in the reserve behind Longstreet’s Division on the
far right a mile from the rest of Winder’s men. Whiting commands the brigades of John
Bell Hood and Colonel Evander Law. As he marches the two brigades toward the sound
of the heaviest firing, Whiting has allowed them to drift to the right. They go into action on
Longstreet’s left, under that officer’s direction. It is almost 7:00 PM and the setting
sun appears a dull red to the soldiers through the haze of smoke and dust. With A. P.
Hill’s Light Division and part of Ewell’s Division too exhausted for further fighting, and one of
Longstreet’s brigades allocated to the reserve, Lee deploys 16 brigades totaling 32,100 into line
for the final attack. The battle line stretches in a great arc for two miles. On the right, the
soldiers face east and on the left they face south. With McCall’s and Slocum’s divisions fully
engaged, Porter’s strength is approximately 34,000 men, even though many of the men in the front-line
divisions of Morell and Sykes are worn out after hours of heavy fighting. Moreover, a number of
McCall’s and Slocum’s regiments have been put into line haphazardly, which is apt to lead to
significant confusion as the attack goes forward. After Lee orders his entire line forward, the
climax of the Battle of Gaines’ Mill turns into a confused melee. D. H. Hill faces a daunting
task on the Confederate left. The slope to the crest of the hill is 400 yards long. The stretch
of hillside is entirely open, and the Federals have placed a battery near the McGehee House
to contest any advance with enfilading fire. The five brigades of D. H. Hill’s Division go
in and quickly become entangled in the swamp, emerging from the woods and marshes piled one
behind the other. Two regiments, the 2nd and 4th North Carolina, suffer heavy casualties in a vain
effort to seize the battery’s guns. Struggling mightily toward the crest of the hill, the bulk
of D. H. Hill’s Division engage in savage fighting with Sykes’ Regulars in an orchard near the
McGehee House that becomes a bloody battlefield. “Every post, bush, and tree now covers a
man who is blazing away as fast as he can,” wrote Sergeant Thomas Evans of the 12th U.S.
Infantry Regiment. “Column after column of the enemy melts away like smoke but is
quickly re-formed and again rushes on.” Successive waves of Confederates rush the Yankee
line. Brigadier General Alexander Lawton’s 3,600-man brigade eagerly advances into their
first fight of the war against the Union center. The Stonewall Brigade of Winder’s Division pushes
into line on Lawton’s left next to D. H. Hill, joined by a fresh brigade from Ewell’s Division
and Trimble’s reformed brigade. On the Confederate right, Longstreet’s Division faces the most
difficult terrain and heaviest cannon fire of any attacking unit. His men also have to cross almost
a quarter mile of open ground to reach the swamp and the first line of enemy works.
“Up to the crest of the hill we went at a double quick, but when we came into view
on the top of the ridge we met such a perfect storm of lead right in our faces that the whole
brigade literally staggered backward several paces as though pushed by a tornado,” wrote
Corporal Edmund Patterson of the 9th Alabama. Whiting’s two-brigade division, which numbers
fewer than 8,000 men, moves into position and constitutes what amounts to the left wing of
Longstreet’s assault. Hood’s Texas Brigade comprises the 1st, 4th, and 5th Texas, 18th
Georgia, and Hampton’s South Carolina Legion. After observing the fierce resistance
offered by the well-posted Union defenders, Whiting realizes that if the attack is to
succeed, then Law’s and Hood’s brigades would have to advance without pausing to
fire, cover the open ground down to the swamp as swiftly as possible without losing
order, and punch through the Yankee line. As he moves his five regiments into line on
Law’s left, Hood notices a gap between Law and Longstreet and therefore splits his command,
marching the 4th Texas into the gap. For some unknown reason, several companies of the 18th
Georgia attach themselves to the 4th Texas as well. Because of these circumstances, Hood would
send his Texas Brigade forward on both flanks of Law’s Brigade. Ignoring the jurisdiction of the
4th Texas’ commander, Colonel John Marshall, Hood assumes personal command of his old regiment.
Marshall is killed just minutes into the advance. With Hood leading the advance on foot, more
than 500 men of the 4th Texas and 18th Georgia step off. The field to their front is
littered with dead and wounded comrades, smashed artillery caissons and carriages, stricken
horses, and broken ammunition wagons. Law’s and Longstreet’s men keep pace alongside. They hold
their fire and try to make as little noise as possible. As fire from the massed batteries on
Turkey Hill tear holes in the long gray line, the number of dead and wounded mount rapidly.
Hood seems to be everywhere at once. He urges men forward, shouts for them to close
on the colors, and orders them to continue to hold their fire. As the range closes to 300
yards, fire from Berdan’s Sharpshooters and Brigadier Generals John Martindale’s
and Charles Griffin’s front-line troops exacts a horrendous toll. Hood’s men fall by the
score, but the survivors close ranks and push on. About 150 yards from the swamp, Hood’s
companies pass through a line of Confederates who are hugging the ground and ignoring the
entreaties of their young lieutenants to advance. Disregarding the pleas of these demoralized
men to turn back, Hood’s troops reach the top of a ridge that leads down to the swamp, the ridge
marking the farthest advance of A. P. Hill’s men. As Hood’s soldiers push over the rise and
start down the slope toward the swamp, sheets of flame erupt from the
Union works to their front. “The fire of the enemy was poured into us
with increasing fury, cutting down our ranks like wheat in a harvest,” wrote Private William
R. Hamby of the 4th Texas. Law and Hood would lose a total of 1,018 men this day, most of them
during this sprint to the water’s edge. When they are within 100 yards of the swamp, the order goes
out to fix bayonets while on the move and advance at the double quick. They finally hit the swamp
and at point-blank range from the first line of Federals raise the Rebel Yell. Concurrently,
off to the right, a half-mile-long line of Longstreet’s troops are crashing into the swamp,
traversing the water, and scrambling up the slope. Porter’s numbers there are at least equal to
those of the attackers. With even the best infantryman able to get off no more than three
rounds a minute, the exhausted defenders cannot fire fast enough to halt the swift advance. The
Federals in the first line panic, turn, and flee, and in their rush to the rear block the
fire of the troops in the second line, carrying those defenders along with them. As the
blue tide surges toward the crest of Turkey Hill, Confederate infantrymen stop to fire at last. “One volley was poured into their backs, and
it seemed as if every ball found a victim, so great was the slaughter,” wrote a Texan. With a
breach finally accomplished in the Federal center, Porter’s left and right flanks crumble as
Longstreet and Jackson widen the rupture in both directions. On Jackson’s left, Ewell
and D. H. Hill outflank Sykes’ Regulars, forcing them to fall back.
At this point, the battlefield contracts rapidly toward the river crossings.
Those Union regiments still under firm control, mostly the Regulars, withdraw without panicking,
halting to fire occasionally before continuing on. Others fall back in disorder. The Rebel
objective at this point becomes the enemy’s artillery on the plateau. As the range closes,
Yankee gunners switch to canister rounds, but as their infantry supports begin leaving, the
field gunners come under merciless fire as well. After capturing 10 guns from the batteries
along the crest, the Confederate attackers turn their attention to a second line of
guns in reserve on the plateau and encounter, to their surprise, a Napoleonic-style cavalry
charge. Philip St. Cooke has, without orders, led his command up the hill to support the
threatened batteries and, with sabers drawn, 250 men of the 5th U.S. Cavalry Regiment boldly
charge the advancing Confederates. The attack accomplishes nothing but the death of 55 troopers.
The victorious Confederates capture nine more guns and two entire Federal regiments, which had become
lost in the hasty retreat that followed the Union collapse. Unfortunately for Lee and his generals,
there is too little daylight remaining for another concerted Confederate push. Sykes’ troops,
maintaining their reputation by retiring in good order, join with Sumner’s two brigades, which
have just arrived and includes Brigadier General Thomas F. Meagher’s Irish Brigade, to cover the
retreat while Porter gets the rest of his army and his reserve artillery across the river in
the darkness. Gradually, the fire slackens and then dies away, marking the end of the battle.
Near the end of the fighting around Boatswain’s Creek, Brigadier General John F. Reynolds, in
command of McCall’s 1st Brigade of Pennsylvania Reserves, is captured after falling asleep from
exhaustion over the past two days of action. While resting in a spot he deems safe, he becomes
unaware that his men are retreating around him, and becomes captured by troops of D. H. Hill’s
Division. An embarrassed Reynolds is comforted by his pre-war colleague, Major General D.
H. Hill, who tells him, “do not feel so bad about your capture, it’s the fate of wars.”
General Lee sends a message to Jefferson Davis that the Army of Northern Virginia has gained
its first victory. But Robert E. Lee’s first battlefield victory of his Civil War career has
come at a dreadful cost. The Army of Northern Virginia suffers 1,483 men killed, 6,402 wounded,
and 108 missing at the Battle of Gaines’ Mill. As for the Army of the Potomac, it has suffered
894 killed, 3,114 wounded, and 2,829 captured. The two armies had together put a
staggering number of men onto the field, 96,000 including reinforcements, making
the Battle of Gaines’ Mill - the third of the Seven Days Battles - the costliest and
largest battle of the Peninsula Campaign. Major General McClellan is fortunate that it is
not a great deal worse. Only poor Confederate communications, the stoutness of Sykes’ Regulars
in retreat, the last-minute arrival of two of Sumner’s brigades, and darkness saves his command
from being driven against the Chickahominy River and wiped out before it could cross
four narrow bridges to safety. “Had Jackson attacked when he first
arrived, or during A. P. Hill’s attack, we would have had an easy victory, comparatively,
and would have captured most of Porter’s command,” wrote Colonel Edward Porter Alexander, the
Army of Northern Virginia’s chief of ordnance. That night, after a day during which he had
allowed more than 60,000 Union soldiers to sit idly by south of the river while Porter’s
lines were being driven in in savage fighting, McClellan announces he would do what
he had privately already decided to do: abandon the Peninsula Campaign and seek
a new base on the James River. Lee closes his message to Davis, “We sleep on the field,
and shall renew the contest in the morning.”
just one thing- it's not a documentary. Warhawk does animated versions of the battles- and so far they are very, very good
My great great grandpa fought here for the 12th Pennsylvania potomac
Yeah Warhawk is awesome