The battle of Malvern Hill,
by Currier and Ives.
Richmond National Battlefield Park commemorates
more than 30 American Civil War battles
around Richmond, Virginia. These battles
include: Beaver Dam Creek, Cold Harbor,
Drewery's Bluff, Gaines Mill, Glendale,
Malvern Hill, and New Market Heights, site
of 14 Medals of Honor for United States
Colored Troops.
The national battlefield park was authorized
on March 2, 1936. As with all historical
areas administered by the National Park
Service, it was listed on the National Register
of Historic Places on October 15, 1966.
Battle of Cold Harbor
The Battle of Cold Harbor was fought between
May 31 and June 12, !864 and is one of the
battles at which General Ulysses S. Grant
was present in personal command. This did
not forestall the Confederates or prevent
a Union loss, but men of both sides fought
and fell valiantly: 16,000 men died or were
wounded or lost at Cold Harbor and years
later the number was being revised as farmers
and hapless visitors continued to uncover
remains of men who fell in this horrible
corner of Virginia. Visitors to the Cold
Harbor / Richmond battlefields have reported
encounters with ghostly soldiers and unexplained
lights; the sound of hoof beats and cannon
fire still persist to this day.
Combatants
United States of America Confederate States
of America
Commanders
Ulysses S. Grant
George G. Meade Robert E. Lee
Strength
108,000 62,000
Casualties
13,000 2,500
Battle of Cold Harbor by
Kurz and Allison, 1888.
Richmond National Battlefield Park commemorates
more than 30 American Civil War battles
around Richmond, Virginia. These battles
include: Beaver Dam Creek, Cold Harbor,
Drewery's Bluff, Gaines Mill, Glendale,
Malvern Hill, and New Market Heights, site
of 14 Medals of Honor for United States
Colored Troops.
The national battlefield park was authorized
on March 2, 1936. As with all historical
areas administered by the National Park
Service, it was listed on the National Register
of Historic Places on October 15, 1966.
Cold Harbor Ghost Photo from Jack Larson
King
Richmond's story is not just
the tale of one large Civil War battle,
nor even one important campaign. Instead,
the park's resources include a naval battle,
a key industrial complex, the Confederacy's
largest hospital, dozens of miles of elaborate
original fortifications, and the evocative
spots where determined soldiers stood paces
apart and fought with rifles, reaping a
staggering human cost.
The battle of Gaines' Mill
outside of Richmond, Virginia, was the first
Civil War battle where both sides got help
from above--in the form of observation balloons.
Cold Harbor
Second Cold Harbor Virginia
American Civil War
May 31-June 12, 1864
On May 31, Sheridan's cavalry seized the
vital crossroads of Old Cold Harbor. Early
on June 1, relying heavily on their new
repeating carbines and shallow entrenchments,
Sheridan's troopers threw back an attack
by Confederate infantry. Confederate reinforcements
arrived from Richmond and from the Totopotomoy
Creek lines. Late on June 1, the Union VI
and XVIII Corps reached Cold Harbor and
assaulted the Confederate works with some
success. By June 2, both armies were on
the field, forming on a seven-mile front
that extended from Bethesda Church to the
Chickahominy River. At dawn June 3, the
II and XVIII Corps, followed later by the
IX Corps, assaulted along the Bethesda Church-Cold
Harbor line and were slaughtered at all
points. Grant commented in his memoirs that
this was the only attack he wished he had
never ordered. The armies confronted each
other on these lines until the night of
June 12, when Grant again advanced by his
left flank, marching to James River. On
June 14, the II Corps was ferried across
the river at Wilcox's Landing by transports.
On June 15, the rest of the army began crossing
on a 2,200-foot long pontoon bridge at Weyanoke.
Abandoning the well-defended approaches
to Richmond, Grant sought to shift his army
quickly south of the river to threaten Petersburg.
Beaver Dam Creek Mechanicsville,
Ellerson's Mill Seven Days Battle Civil
War
Virginia American Civil WarJune 26, 1862
General Robert E. Lee initiated his offensive
against McClellan's right flank north of
the Chickahominy River. A.P. Hill threw
his division, reinforced by one of D.H.
Hill's brigades, into a series of futile
assaults against Brigadier General Fitz
John Porter's V Corps, which was drawn up
behind Beaver Dam Creek.
Confederate attacks were driven back with
heavy casualties.
Jackson's Shenandoah Valley divisions,
however, were approaching from the northwest,
forcing Porter to withdraw the next morning
to a position behind Boatswain Creek just
beyond Gaines' Mill.
Result(s): Union victory
Location: Hanover County
Campaign: Peninsular Campaign (March-September
1862)
Principal Commanders: Brigadier General
Fitz John Porter [US]; General Robert E.
Lee [CS]
Forces Engaged: 31,987 total (US 15,631;
CS 16,356)
Estimated Casualties: 1,700 total (US 400;
CS 1,300)
Richmond-Capital of the Confederacy
As capital of the newly formed Confederate
States of America, Richmond, Virginia, became
the constant target of northern armies.
During the four years of the Civil War,
Union generals made repeated attempts to
capture the city by land. Richmond, however,
was vulnerable by water as well as by land.
Gunboats could navigate the James River
all the way to Richmond. The key to the
city's river defenses lay in a small fort
only seven miles south of the capital. Known
throughout the south as Drewry's Bluff,
northern troops referred to it as Fort Darling.
Drewry's Bluff in the Bermuda
Hundred Campaign, 1864
On May 5, 1864, Union Major General Benjamin
F. Butler and his Army of the James landed
at Bermuda Hundred, a neck of land only
15 miles south of Richmond. Marching overland,
they advanced within three miles of Drewry's
Bluff by May 9. While several Union regiments
did manage to capture the fort's outer defenses,
delays by Union generals spoiled the success.
Confederate infantry under General P.G.T.
Beauregard seized the initiative and successfully
counterattacked on May 16. Once again a
Union drive on Richmond met defeat at Drewry's
Bluff. The area remained an integral part
of Richmond's defense until the fall of
Petersburg in April 1865.
Principal Commanders: Cdr. John Rodgers
[US]; Cdr. E. Farrand, Brig. Gen. William
Mahone, Capt. S. S. Lee, and
Lt. John Taylor Wood [CS]
Forces Engaged: 5 gunboats [US]; battery
garrison [CS]
Estimated Casualties: 41 total
Description: With the fall of Yorktown,
the Confederate ironclad Virginia at Norfolk
was scuttled to prevent her capture. This
opened the James River to Federal gunboats.
On May 15, five gunboats, including the
ironclads Monitor and Galena, steamed up
the James to test the Richmond defenses.
They encountered submerged obstacles and
deadly accurate fire from the batteries
at Drewry’s Bluff, which inflicted
severe damage on the Galena. The Federal
Navy was turned back.
Result: Confederate victory
Gaines’
Mill
Peninsula Campaign (March-September
1862)
Date(s): June 27, 1862
Principal Commanders: Brig. Gen. Fitz John
Porter [US]; Gen. Robert E. Lee [CS]
Forces Engaged: 91,232 total (US 34,214;
CS 57,018)
Estimated Casualties: 15,500 total (US
6,800; CS 8,700)
Description: This was the third of the
Seven Days’ Battles. On June 27, 1862,
Gen. Robert E. Lee renewed his attacks against
Porter’s V Corps, which had established
a strong defensive line behind Boatswain’s
Swamp north of the Chickahominy River. Porter’s
reinforced V Corps held fast for the afternoon
against disjointed Confederate attacks,
inflicting heavy casualties. At dusk, the
Confederates finally mounted a coordinated
assault that broke Porter’s line and
drove his soldiers back toward the river.
The Federals retreated across the river
during the night. Defeat at Gaines’
Mill convinced McClellan to abandon his
advance on Richmond and begin the retreat
to James River. Gaines’ Mill saved
Richmond for the Confederacy in 1862.
Result(s): Confederate victory
Malvern Hill
The final battle of the Seven Days was
the first in which the Union Army occupied
favorable ground. For the preceding six
days, the Army of the Potomac, commanded
by Major General George B. McClellan, had
been retreating to the safety of the James
River, pursued by the Confederate Army of
Northern Virginia, commanded by General
Robert E. Lee. Up to this point, the major
battles of the Seven Days had been mostly
inconclusive, but McClellan was unnerved
by Lee's aggressive assaults and remained
convinced that he was seriously outnumbered,
although in fact the two armies were roughly
equal.
Malvern Hill offered good observation and
artillery positions, having been prepared
the previous day by the V Corps, under Brig.
Gen. Fitz John Porter. McClellan himself
was not present on the battlefield, having
preceded his army to Harrison's Landing
on the James, and Porter was the most senior
of the corps commanders. The slopes were
cleared of timber, providing great visibility,
and the open fields to the north could be
swept by deadly fire from the 250 guns placed
by Col. Henry J. Hunt, McClellan's chief
of artillery. Beyond this space, the terrain
was swampy and thickly wooded. The entire
Army of the Potomac occupied the hill, with
the exception of the IV Corps, under Brig.
Gen. Erasmus D. Keyes, which had proceeded
to Harrison's Landing.
D.H. Hill wrote afterwards, "It wasn't
war; it was murder." Lee's army suffered
5,355 casualties (versus 3,214 Union) in
this wasted effort and withdrew to Richmond,
while the Union Army completed its retreat
to Harrison's Landing.
The Battle
of Chaffin's Farm, also known as New Market
Heights
fought September 29–September 30,
1864, as part of the Siege of Petersburg
in the American Civil War.
The nature of warfare evolved dramatically
during the final ten months of the Civil
War. Static warfare in the trenches replaced
the freewheeling mass movements of earlier
campaigns. This began at Cold Harbor in
June 1864 and progressed southward to the
series of battles around Petersburg. These
affairs occasionally erupted into full-scale
battles. The Battle of Chaffin's Farm is
a particularly illustrative example of a
late war engagement.
From the very beginning of the war, Confederate
engineers worked feverishly to build permanent
defenses around Richmond. By 1864, they
had created a system anchored south of the
capital on the James River at Chaffin's
Farm, a large open bluff named for a local
resident. This outer line was supported
by an intermediate and inner system of fortifications
much closer to the capital.
The strength of these lines remained untested
until September 1864 when Union General
Ulysses S. Grant tried to capture Richmond
or Petersburg by attacking simultaneously
north and south of the James. The attack
north of the river occurred on September
29. Troops under Federal general Benjamin
Butler captured the strategically important
New Market Heights in the early morning.
Other elements of Butler's forces under
Edward O. C. Ord then overwhelmed the Confederate
defenders inside Fort Harrison. However,
uncoordinated attacks against Forts Gilmer,
Gregg, and Johnson all failed, leaving Butler
and Grant chagrined at their only partial
success. A Confederate counterattack on
September 30 proved equally futile, and
the two armies settled into trench warfare
that continued until the end of the war.
This fighting around Chaffin's Farm cost
the nation nearly 5,000 casualties.
