Battle of Gaines Mill
Federal troops of General Sykes' brigade under heavy attack. (Sketch by Alfred R. Waud)
| date | June 27, 1862 |
|---|---|
| place | Hanover County , Virginia |
| output | Confederation victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
|
34,214
|
57.018
|
| losses | |
|
6,837
894 dead 3,107 wounded 2,836 missing or captured |
7.993
1.483 Dead 6.402 wounded missing or captured 108 |
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The Battle of Gaines Mill , also known as the First Battle of Cold Harbor or the Battle of the Chickahominy River , took place during the American Civil War on June 27, 1862 in Hanover County , Virginia as the third battle of the Seven Days Battles ( Peninsula Campaign ) instead of. General Robert E. Lee and the Northern Virginia Army attacked Brigadier General Fitz John Porter's V Corps again , which had built a strong line of defense behind Boatswains Swamp north of the Chickahominy . Porter's reinforced V Corps held out against several Confederate attacks until the afternoon and inflicted heavy losses on the attackers themselves.
In the evening, Confederate forces launched a charge that pushed Porter's soldiers back to the river. The Union soldiers evaded across the river during the night. The defeat at Gaines Mill led the Commander in Chief of the Potomac Army , Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan , to give up the positions around Richmond and to retreat to the James . Gaines Mill kept Richmond for the Confederates. The battle took place in the same area as the Battle of Cold Harbor in 1864.
background
The Potomac Army moved within a few miles of the Confederation capital and took up defensive positions after the Battle of Seven Pines in late May 1862. The seven-day battle began with an attack by Union forces on June 25 in the smaller Battle of Oak Grove . The first major battle followed the next day when General Lee McClellan attacked at the Battle of Beaver Dam Creek . Lee attacked Porter's V Corps north of the Chickahominy, while the main body of the Union Army stood on the south bank of the river without much contact with the enemy. On June 27, Union forces were forced into a semicircle until Porter's lines collapsed and only a portion of the troops remained north of the river. Four corps remained in their original position south of the river. McClellan ordered Porter to do everything possible to defend Gaines Mill so that the main Union supply depot could be moved to the James.
The battle
On June 27th, General Lee continued his offensive and attacked with the largest number of soldiers ever: over 57,000 men in six divisions. Maj. Gen. AP Hill resumed the attack on Beaver Dam Creek early that morning but found weak lines of defense. As it moved east and neared Gaines Mill, the foremost brigade under Brigadier General Gregg was held up by heavy resistance from the 9th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment. In the early afternoon he ran to Porter's defensive position and marched along Boatswains Creek, but the marshy terrain prevented the attack. Hill made little progress. When Maj. Gen. James Longstreet reached a position south of AP Hill, he saw the difficulty of attacking the area and waited for Maj. Gen. Thomas Jonathan Jackson to take position on Hill's left.
For the second time in the seven-day battle , Jackson was late. Major General DH Hill attacked the right wing of Union forces, where he was stopped by Brigadier General George Sykes ; he dodged to wait for Jackson to arrive. Longstreet conducted a diversionary attack until Jackson arrived to stabilize the lines and attack from the north. In Long Street's offensive, a brigade under Brigadier General George Edward Pickett attempted an assault, but was repulsed under heavy fire with high losses. Jackson reached Hill's position at 3 p.m. and was confused after several hours of cross-country marching. Assuming that Longstreet's offensive was still on, his men held position so as not to risk friendly fire . When he received new orders from Lee, Jackson began his attack at 4:30 p.m.
Porter's line was supported by Brigadier General Henry W. Slocum and his troops behind. Shortly after dusk, the Confederate forces attacked again, poorly coordinated. The attack nevertheless led to the collapse of Porter's positions. The Texan Brigade under Brigadier General John Bell Hood filled a gap in the positions of the Union troops. The brigades of the Brigadier Generals Meagher and French came too late and could only ensure a halfway orderly evasion of the Union troops. A battalion of the 5th US Cavalry Regiment under Captain Charles J. Whiting suffered heavy losses and was forced to surrender. At 4 a.m. on June 28, Porter evaded the Chickahominy and destroyed all bridges behind him.
For two days, Magruder was able to tie up McClellan's troops south of the River with small diversionary attacks. While the serious actions were taking place north of the river, 60,000 Union men were caught up in these skirmishes.
consequences
Gaines Mill was an intense battle, the largest in the Seven Days and the only clearly articulated Confederate tactical victory during the Peninsular Campaign . Lee's victory, his first in the war, would certainly have been clearer without Jackson's mishap. Historian Stephen W. Sears thinks it was because of Jackson's misguided march and poor equipment that Lee ordered the main attack at 7 p.m., not three to four hours earlier. That would have put Porter in great danger, without last-minute reinforcements and cover of darkness. He quotes Edward Porter Alexander, a Confederate artillery officer and post-war historian: "Had Jackson attacked immediately upon his arrival, or during AP Hill's advance, we would have had an easy victory and captured most of Porter's men."
Although McClellan had already planned to move the Potomac Army's main supply depot to the James, the defeat made him nervous and he rashly decided to withdraw from Richmond and withdraw the rest of the Army to the James. Gaines Mill and the Potomac Army's evasion over the Chickahominy was a Confederate psychological victory with the signal that Richmond was out of danger.
literature
- Lee Takes Command. From Seven Days to Second Bull Run . 2nd ed., Time-Life Books, Alexandria (Virginia) 1986, ISBN 0-8094-4804-1 .
- David J. Eicher: The Longest Night. A Military History of the Civil War . Simon & Schuster, New York 2001, ISBN 0-684-84944-5 .
- Vincent J. Esposito: The West Point Atlas of American Wars . Vol. 1: 1689-1900, Praeger, New York 1959.
- Frances H. Kennedy (Ed.): The Civil War Battlefield Guide . 2nd ed., Houghton Mifflin / Hi Marketing, Boston / London 1999, ISBN 0-395-74012-6 .
- James I. Robertson: Stonewall Jackson. The Man, The Soldier, The Legend . MacMillan Publishing, New York et al. a. 1997, ISBN 0-02-864685-1 .
- John S. Salmon: The Official Virginia Civil War Battlefield Guide . Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg 2001, ISBN 0-8117-2868-4 .
- Stephen W. Sears: To the Gates of Richmond. The Peninsula Campaign . Ticknor and Fields, New York 1992, ISBN 0-89919-790-6 .
