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Battle of Malvern Hill
Other Names: Poindexter’s
Farm
Location: Henrico County
Campaign: Peninsula Campaign (March-September 1862)
Date(s): July 1, 1862
Principal Commanders: Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan [US]; Gen. Robert E. Lee [CS]
Forces Engaged: Armies
Estimated Casualties: 8,500 total
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Description: This was the sixth and last of the Seven Days
Battles*. On July 1, 1862, Gen. Robert E. Lee launched a series of disjointed assaults on the nearly impregnable Union position
on Malvern Hill. The Confederates suffered more than 5,300 casualties without gaining an inch of ground. Despite his victory,
McClellan withdrew to entrench at Harrison’s Landing on James River, where his army was protected by gunboats. This
ended the Peninsula Campaign. When McClellan’s army ceased to threaten Richmond, Lee sent Jackson to operate against
Maj. Gen. John Pope’s army along the Rapidan River, thus initiating the
Northern Virginia Campaign.
(Map to the Right: Reflects the numerous battles fought around Richmond, including Malvern Hill, the trenches,
forts, Union and Confederate troop movements, and the mileage or distance from Richmond. Richmond National Battlefield
Park, 1958.)

Malvern Hill is the story of Confederate infantry against massed Federal
artillery – Southern valor against Union firepower. Late in the afternoon of July 1, 1862, blasts from Union cannon
blanketed this field with smoke. Residents of Staunton, Virginia, more than 100 miles distant, heard the roar of those guns.
Confederate infantry swarmed in front, desperate to gain a foothold near
the Union guns. Their goal: drive the Federals from Malvern Hill and give Robert E. Lee the total victory he so craved.
"[Malvern Hill] wasn't war; it was murder." Confederate Maj. Gen. D. H. Hill
| Battle of Malvern Hill Battlefield Map |

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| Battle of Malvern Hill |

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| Union and Confederate Battlefield Positions |
In both the Union and Confederate front lines, regiments from different brigades, sometimes even from different
divisions and corps, found themselves fighting side by side.
| Battle of Malvern Hill |

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| Seven Days Battles of the Peninsula Campaign |
| Seven Days Campaign of 1862 |

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| (Civil War Preservation Trust) |
* The second phase of the Peninsula Campaign, consequently, 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 they are formally considered part of the Peninsula Campaign, the final battles of June 25 to July 1, with
Lee in command and on the offensive against McClellan, are popularly known as the Seven Days Battles.
Result(s): Union victory
Recommended
Reading: To The Gates of Richmond: The Peninsula Campaign, by Stephen W. Sears. From Kirkus Reviews: In George B. McClellan
(1988) and his work editing the papers of the Union general, Sears established himself as the critical but indispensable authority
on flawed ``Little Mac.'' Now, in a stirring prequel to Landscape Turned Red (1983), his superb account of the Battle of Antietam,
the author reaffirms his mastery of historical narrative. In March 1862, the egotistical but timorous McClellan was prodded
by Lincoln into finally launching the first major offensive by the Army of the Potomac.
Instead of marching directly overland from Washington, McClellan used Federal sea power to
advance on Richmond by way of the peninsula between the York
and James Rivers. Continued below…
The ``Grand
Campaign,'' however, soon belied its creator's Napoleonic pretensions by becoming a three-and-a-half-month nightmare of feints
and pitched battles, ultimately engaging up to a combined quarter-million men on both sides and leaving one of every four
men dead, wounded, or missing. Using hundreds of eyewitness accounts, Sears demonstrates how the most creative use of military
technology (ironclad warships, 200-pounder rifled cannon, battlefield telegraph, and aerial reconnaissance) existed side by
side with the most appalling mismanagement (Stonewall Jackson's uncharacteristic lethargy; McClellan's mistaken belief that
the numerically inferior rebels possessed a two-to-one manpower advantage; out-of-sync attacks by both Confederate and Union
generals). Above all, though, Sears casts the campaign as a clash of wits and wills between McClellan--whom he accuses of
losing ``the courage to command''--and Robert E. Lee--who, upon succeeding the wounded Joseph E. Johnson as head of the Army
of Northern Virginia, seized the initiative, repulsed the assault in the series of ``Seven Days'' battles, and began his long
journey into legend. An authoritative, ironic, and stirring addition to Civil War annals. “…[No] serious study
of the Peninsula Campaign is possible without this book.” Americancivilwarhistory.org
Battle of Malvern Hill Map:
Union and Confederate Battlefield Positions on July 1, 1862
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| Malvern Hill Battlefield Map |
Photo of Malvern Hill in June 2005
(Photograph of the
Malvern Hills situated in the English Midlands, UK. The Celtic name Moel-bryn means
Bare-Hill, and a later spelling was Maelfern, aka Malvern.)
| Malvern Hill Photograph |

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| Picture of Malvern Hill |
Against the Federals holding this eminence, the Confederates delivered repeated assaults from the North
on July 1, 1862 and lost about 5,000 men in the final, indecisive Battle of the Seven Days Campaign. That night McClellan
withdrew to Harrison's Landing, near Westover.
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”Over five thousand dead and wounded men were on the ground,”
a Union officer reported next dawn, ”but enough were alive and moving to give the field a singular crawling effect.”
Gen. Lee's army had suffered a staggering 5,355 casualties (versus 3,214
Union) in this failed and tragic effort, but Lee continued to follow the Union army all the way to Harrison's Landing. Malvern
Hill also ended the Peninsula Campaign. When McClellan's army ceased to threaten Richmond, Lee sent Jackson to operate against
Maj. Gen. John Pope's army along the Rapidan River, thus initiating the Northern Virginia Campaign.
Sources: National Park Service; Richmond National Battlefield Park; Official
Records of the Union and Confederate Armies; Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT); Burton, Brian K., Extraordinary Circumstances: The Seven Days Battles, Indiana University Press; Eicher, David J.,
The Longest Night: A Military History of the Civil War, Simon & Schuster, 2001; Esposito, Vincent J., West Point Atlas
of American Wars, Frederick A. Praeger, 1959; Kennedy, Frances H., ed., The Civil War Battlefield Guide, 2nd ed., Houghton
Mifflin Co., 1998.
Recommended
Reading: Extraordinary Circumstances: The Seven Days Battles (Library Binding). Description: EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCES tells the story of the Seven Days Battles,
the first campaign in the Civil War in which Robert E. Lee led the Army of Northern Virginia. One of the most decisive military
campaigns in Western history, the Seven Days were fought in the area southeast of the Confederate capitol of Richmond from
June 25 to July 1, 1862--and began a string of events leading to the Emancipation Proclamation and the shift toward total
war.
Recommended
Reading: The Richmond Campaign of 1862: The Peninsula and the
Seven Days (Military Campaigns of the
Civil War). Description: The Richmond campaign of April-July
1862 ranks as one of the most important military operations of the first years of the American Civil War. Key political, diplomatic,
social, and military issues were at stake as Robert E. Lee and George B. McClellan faced off on the peninsula between the
York and James Rivers. The climactic clash came on June 26-July 1 in what became known as the Seven Days battles, when Lee,
newly appointed as commander of the Confederate forces, aggressively attacked the Union army. Casualties for the entire campaign
exceeded 50,000, more than 35,000 of whom fell during the Seven Days. Continued below…
This
book offers nine essays in which well-known Civil War historians explore questions regarding high command, strategy and tactics,
the effects of the fighting upon politics and society both North and South, and the ways in which emancipation figured in
the campaign. The authors have consulted previously untapped manuscript sources and reinterpreted more familiar evidence,
sometimes focusing closely on the fighting around Richmond and sometimes looking more broadly at the background
and consequences of the campaign.
Recommended
Reading: Seven Days Before Richmond: McClellan's Peninsula Campaign
of 1862 and its Aftermath (Hardcover).
Description: Combining meticulous research with a unique perspective, Seven Days Before Richmond examines the 1862 Peninsula
Campaign of Union General George McClellan and the profound effects it had on the lives of McClellan and Confederate General
Robert E. Lee, as well as its lasting impact on the war itself. Continued below…
Rudolph Schroeder's
twenty-five year military career and combat experience bring added depth to his analysis of the Peninsula Campaign, offering
new insight and revelation to the subject of Civil War battle history. Schroeder analyzes this crucial campaign from its genesis
to its lasting consequences on both sides. Featuring a detailed bibliography and a glossary of terms, this work contains the
most complete Order of Battle of the Peninsula Campaign ever compiled, and it also includes the identification of commanders
down to the regiment level. In addition, this groundbreaking volume includes several highly-detailed maps that trace the Peninsula
Campaign and recreate this pivotal moment in the Civil War. Impeccably detailed and masterfully told, Seven Days Before Richmond
is an essential addition to Civil War scholarship. Schroeder artfully enables us to glimpse the innermost thoughts and motivations
of the combatants and makes history truly come alive.
Recommended
Reading: The Peninsula Campaign of 1862: A Military Analysis (Hardcover). Description: The largest offensive of the Civil War, involving army,
navy, and marine forces, the Peninsula Campaign has inspired many history books. No previous work, however, analyzes Union
general George B. McClellan's massive assault toward Richmond
in the context of current and enduring military doctrine. The Peninsula Campaign of 1862: A Military Analysis fills this void.
Background history is provided for continuity, but the heart of this book is military analysis and the astonishing extent
to which the personality traits of generals often overwhelm even the best efforts of their armies. Continued below…
The Peninsula
Campaign lends itself to such a study. Lessons for those studying the art of war are many. On water, the first ironclads forever
changed naval warfare. At the strategic level, McClellan's inability to grasp Lincoln's grand objective becomes evident. At the operational
level, Robert E. Lee's difficulty in synchronizing his attacks deepens the mystique of how he achieved so much with so little.
At the tactical level, the Confederate use of terrain to trade space for time allows for a classic study in tactics. Moreover,
the campaign is full of lessons about the personal dimension of war. McClellan's overcaution, Lee's audacity, and Jackson's personal exhaustion all provide valuable insights for today's
commanders and for Civil War enthusiasts still debating this tremendous struggle. Historic photos and detailed battle maps
make this study an invaluable resource for those touring the many battlegrounds from Young's Mill and Yorktown through Fair Oaks to the final throes of the Seven Days' Battles. Kevin Dougherty, Hattiesburg,
Mississippi, is professor of military science at the University of Southern Mississippi. He is the
author of The Coastal War in North and South Carolina. J.
Michael Moore, Yorktown, Virginia, is the registrar of Lee Hall Mansion.
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