The Battle of Gaines' Mill was the third of the Seven Days Battles of the American Civil War, taking place in Hanover County, Virginia on 27 June 1862 amid George B. McClellan's Peninsula Campaign. The Confederate divisions of A.P. Hill, Richard S. Ewell, and Stonewall Jackson attacked the Union defensive positions at Gaines' Mill, near Boatswain Creek, and launched several unsuccessful assaults on Fitz John Porter's V Corps of the Army of the Potomac before a final push at dusk drove the Union corps back to the Chickahominy River.
Background[]
Following the Union tactical victory at the Battle of Beaver Dam Creek, the cautious Army of the Potomac commander George B. McClellan withdrew Fitz John Porter's V Corps to Harrison's Landing on the James River to prevent Stonewall Jackson's Confederate forces from threatening his flank. In doing so, he abandoned the Pamunkey River railroad, which would have been necessary to transport heavy artillery to his army for a siege of the Confederate capital of Richmond. Porter's corps was unable to prepare a strong rear guard for the withdrawal, and, at the same time, the Army of Northern Virginia's commander Robert E. Lee sent A.P. Hill and James Longstreet's divisions to pressure Porter's corps as it withdrew, while Stonewall Jackson and his brother-in-law D.H. Hill would attack Porter's right and rear. This attack involved 57,000 Confederate troops in six divisions, the largest Confederate attack of the war.
Battle[]
At 12:00 PM on 27 June 1862, Hill's division reached Cold Harbor, where it was supposed to rendezvous with Stonewall's forces. However, two of his brigades came under unexpected fire at the nearby crossroads, coming up against George Sykes' Union Army division. Hill's division moved across Beaver Dam Creek that same morning, and he directed Maxcy Gregg and Lawrence O'Bryan Branch's well-rested brigades to spearhead the assault on the Union army. However, Hiram Berdan's skirmishers and the zouaves of the 5th New York Infantry Regiment inflicted heavy losses on the Confederates, with the 1st South Carolina Rifle Regiment suffering 57% casualties during the assault. Hill's men became mired down in the swamps and occasionally committed friendly fire, and Hill lost 2,000 of his 13,200 men in his failed attacks on the entrenched Union positions.
Union forces repelling a Confederate assault at Gaines' Mill
Lee then ordered Longstreet's division to launch a diversionary attack on the Union corps, but George E. Pickett's brigade suffered heavy losses while attempting a frontal assault on the Union. Richard S. Ewell's division also suffered heavy losses during its own attack, as the Confederate attacks came in a disjointed manner due to the delays Stonewall's forces experienced. Porter soon received reinforcements from the VI Corps, but Stonewall and his forces arrived to reinforce the Confederates. At dusk, the Confederates mounted a coordinated assault that broke Porter's line and drove his men back to the Chickahominy River; the Union forces withdrew across the river at night. The Confederates were too disorganized to give chase, but their success at Gaines' Mill saved Richmond from a Union siege. The Battle of Cold Harbor occurred at almost the same location two years later.