Other Names: Fair Oaks, Fair Oaks Station

Location: Henrico County

Campaign: Peninsula Campaign (March-July 1862)

Date(s): May 31-June 1, 1862

Principal Commanders: Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan [US]; Gen. Joseph E. Johnston and Maj. Gen. G.W. Smith [CS]

Forces Engaged: (84,000 total)

Estimated Casualties: 13,736 total (US 5,739; CS 7,997)

Result(s): Inconclusive

Background: The Peninsula Campaign (also known as Peninsular Campaign) during the American Civil War was a major Union operation launched in southeastern Virginia from March through July 1862, and it was the first large-scale offensive in the Eastern Theater. The operation, commanded by Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, was an amphibious turning movement intended to capture the Confederate capital of Richmond by circumventing the Confederate States Army in Northern Virginia. McClellan was initially successful against the equally cautious General Joseph E. Johnston, but the emergence of the aggressive General Robert E. Lee, who assumed command immediately following Seven Pines or Fair Oaks, turned the subsequent Seven Days Battles into a humiliating Union defeat. Although the Battle of Seven Pines was tactically inconclusive, it was the largest battle in the Eastern Theater to date (and second only to Shiloh in terms of casualties to date) and marked the end of the Union offensive, leading to the Seven Days Battles and Union retreat in late June.

Description: On May 31, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston attempted to overwhelm two Federal corps that appeared isolated south of the Chickahominy River. The Confederate assaults, though not well coordinated, succeeded in driving back the IV Corps and inflicting heavy casualties. Reinforcements arrived, and both sides fed more and more troops into the action. Supported by the III Corps and Brig. Gen. Sedgwick’s division of Brig. Gen. Sumner’s II Corps (that crossed the rain-swollen river on Grapevine Bridge), the Federal position was finally stabilized.

(Right) "Grapevine Bridge and the Seven Days Battles."

Sumner, II Corps commander, heard the sounds of battle from his position north of the river. On his own initiative, he dispatched a division under the command of Sedgwick over the sole remaining bridge. The treacherous "Grapevine Bridge" was near collapse on the swollen river, but the weight of the crossing troops helped to hold it steady against the rushing water. After the last man had crossed safely, the bridge collapsed and was swept away. Sedgwick's men provided the key to resisting Brig. Gen. Whiting's attack. At dusk, Gen. Johnston was seriously wounded during the action, and command of the Confederate army devolved temporarily to Maj. Gen. G.W. Smith.

(Right) Peninsula Campaign, map of events to the Battle of Seven Pines.

The second phase of the Peninsula Campaign took a negative turn for the Union when Lee launched fierce counterattacks just east of Richmond in the Seven Days Battles (June 25 – July 1, 1862). Although none of these battles were significant Confederate tactical victories (and the Battle of Malvern Hill on the last day was a significant Confederate defeat), the tenacity of Lee's attacks and the sudden appearance of Stonewall Jackson's "foot cavalry" on his western flank unnerved McClellan, who pulled his forces back to a base on the James River. Lincoln later ordered the army to return to the Washington, D.C., area to support Maj. Gen. John Pope's army in the Northern Virginia Campaign and the Second Battle of Bull Run. The Virginia Peninsula was relatively quiet until May 1864, when Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler again invaded as part of the Bermuda Hundred Campaign. Continued below...

Analysis: Both sides claimed victory, but neither side's accomplishment was impressive. George B. McClellan's advance on Richmond was halted and the Army of Northern Virginia fell back into the Richmond defensive works.

(Right) Vintage Map of Union and Confederate battlefield positions on the morning of June 1, at the Battle of Seven Pines. Courtesy Confederate War Papers: Fairfax Court House, New Orleans, Seven Pines, Richmond and North Carolina.

The battle was frequently remembered by the Union soldiers as the Battle of Fair Oaks Station because that is where they did their best fighting, whereas the Confederates, for the same reason, referred to it as Seven Pines. Historian Stephen W. Sears remarked that its current common name, Seven Pines, is the most appropriate because it was at the crossroads of Seven Pines that the heaviest fighting and highest casualties occurred.

Despite claiming victory, McClellan was shaken by the experience. He wrote to his wife, "I am tired of the sickening sight of the battlefield, with its mangled corpses & poor suffering wounded! Victory has no charms for me when purchased at such cost." He redeployed all of his army except for the V Corps south of the river, and although he continued to plan for a siege and the capture of Richmond, he lost the strategic initiative. An offensive begun by the new Confederate commander, Gen. Robert E. Lee, would be planned while the Union troops passively sat in the outskirts of Richmond.

Lee, Seven Days Battles, and Civil War

At the outbreak of war, Robert E. Lee was appointed to command all of Virginia's forces, but upon the formation of the Confederate States Army, he was named one of its first five full generals. Lee did not wear the insignia of a Confederate general, but only the three stars of a Confederate colonel, equivalent to his last U.S. Army rank. He did not intend to wear a general's insignia until the Civil War had been won and he could be promoted, in peacetime, to general in the Confederate Army.

Lee's first field assignment was commanding Confederate forces in western Virginia, where he was defeated at the Battle of Cheat Mountain and was widely blamed for Confederate setbacks.  He was then sent to organize the coastal defenses along the Carolina and Georgia seaboard, where he was hampered by the lack of an effective Confederate navy. Once again blamed by the press, he became military adviser to Confederate President Jefferson Davis, former U.S. Secretary of War. While in Richmond, Lee was ridiculed as the 'King of Spades' for his excessive digging of trenches around the capitol. These trenches, however, would play an important role in battles near the end of the war.

In the spring of 1862, during the Peninsula Campaign, the Union Army of the Potomac under George McClellan advanced upon Richmond from Fort Monroe, eventually reaching the eastern edges of the Confederate capital along the Chickahominy River. Following the wounding of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston at the Battle of Seven Pines, on June 1, 1862, Lee assumed command of the Army of Northern Virginia, his first opportunity to lead an army in the field. Newspaper editorials of the day objected to his appointment due to concerns that Lee would not be aggressive and would wait for the Union army to come to him. Early in the war his men referred to him as "Granny Lee" because of his allegedly timid style of command. After the Seven Days Battles and until the end of the war, however, his men respectively referred to him as "Marse Robert." He oversaw substantial strengthening of Richmond's defenses during the first three weeks of June and then launched a series of attacks, the Seven Days Battles, against McClellan's forces. Lee's attacks resulted in heavy Confederate casualties and they were marred by clumsy tactical performances by his subordinates, but his aggressive actions thwarted McClellan, who retreated to a point on the James River where Union naval forces were in control. These successes led to a rapid turn-around of public opinion and the newspaper editorials quickly changed their tune on Lee's aggressiveness. Following his defeat at Gettysburg, Lee sent a letter of resignation to Pres. Davis on August 8, 1863, but Davis refused Lee's request. On January 31, 1865, Lee was promoted to general-in-chief of Confederate forces.

Historical Information

Seven Pines National Cemetery is located in Henrico County, Va., approximately eight miles southeast of Richmond. The Battle of Fair Oaks (also known as the Battle of Seven Pines) took place in this region and the cemetery’s 1.9-acres are located on a portion of the Seven Pines Battlefield.

(Right) Historical Marker: The Seven Pines National Cemetery was established in 1866 and is located on the "Civil War Seven Pines Battlefield." It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.

After the close of the Civil War, Lieut. Col. James H. Moore, assistant quartermaster, was authorized to select a site for a permanent national cemetery for the interment of the battlefield dead. The original 1.3-acre site was appropriated in 1866, and later purchased, from Richard Hilliard. Two small plots of land were added to the site in 1874 and 1875. The cemetery name is derived from the seven pine trees planted along the inside of the cemetery wall in 1869.

(Left) Gettysburg Address Historical Marker at Seven Pines National Cemetery.

A program of concentrating the battlefield remains began in May 1866. More than four years had elapsed since the first casualties of the war had been hastily buried, however, and the remains were often difficult to identify. As a result, 1,216 interments were unknown here, compared to 141 known dead.

Monuments and Memorials

There are no monuments located at Seven Pines National Cemetery.

Burial Space

Seven Pines National Cemetery is closed to new interments. The only interments that are being accepted are subsequent interments for veterans or eligible family members in an existing gravesite.

Periodically however, burial space may become available due to a canceled reservation or when a disinterment has been completed. When either of these two scenarios occurs, the gravesite is made available to another eligible veteran on a first-come, first-served basis.

Since there is no way to know in advance when a gravesite may become available, please contact the cemetery at the time of need to inquire whether space is available.