May 31-June 1,1862 - Seven Pines

May 31, 1862

Seven Pines, or Fair Oaks 

Henrico, VA

McClellan: IV Corps under Gen. Erasmus Keyes

and the III Corps led by Gen. Samuel P. Heintzelman,

Gen. Edwin Sumner’s II Corps reinforcements,

plus Richardson's II Corps division

and Hooker's III Corp division

vs.

Johnston > Gen. Gustavus W. Smith: Gen. William C. Whiting,

D.H. Hill, and Longstreet eventually.

* Outside the gates of Richmond, but technically before the official start of The Seven Days

* Everybody got that? This is Seven Pines, and although it is virtually in the same place and time as the Seven Days' Battles, it is not actually one of them. Oh and also, the fighting around Fair Oaks station is sometimes known separately as the Battle of Fair Oaks, especially by the North who were more victorious in that corner of the battlefield. That's why there's a Second Battle of Fair Oaks, unless you call this Seven Pines, which is why the Second Battle of Fair Oaks is sometimes known as the battle of Fair Oaks. 👍   

* Not a small battle: the biggest in VA up to this point, maybe even in the East. However, it is most famous for taking Johnston out of the game (until much later in the war) and giving us Lee in command. Both sides claimed victory, but the Confederates lost about 8,000 compared to 5,700 Union casualties. 

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=310722

Battle of Seven Pines
"No men could stand before such fire"
— 1862 Peninsula Campaign —

You are standing at the center of the most intense fighting during the Battle of Seven Pines on May 31, 1862. With Union Gen. George B. McClellan's army threatening Richmond from the east, Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston launched a surprise attack here, where an isolated part of the Union army was entrenched behind fortifications astride the Williamsburg Road.

When Confederates under Gen. Robert E. Rhodes attacked, they suffered heavy losses in the area 200 yards to your front that is now a parking lot and church. Bullets flew as thick as hail as the southerners stormed the entrenchments here at heavy cost, gradually overwhelming the defenders and forcing them to retreat behind you. To the north, across the road to your right, Confederates under Generals George B. Anderson and Samuel Garland, Jr. forced the Federals back.

After being driven from here, Union troops made a stand near the Seven Pines intersections (site of the National Cemetery). Later in the day, fighting erupted near Fair Oaks Station to the north, during which Gen. Joseph Johnston was wounded.

Fighting continued inconclusively the next  day, and the Confederates withdrew. The two-day battle was the largest in Virginia up to this point of the war, with about 11,000 casualties—including Johnston, who would be replaced by Gen. Robert E. Lee.

After troops reoccupied position, they buried the dead and improved fortifications. They occupied the ground until the Seven Days battle started on June 25, when they then abandoned this line.

"They were mown down like grass before the scythe... No men could stand before such fire."—Union Corp. William E. Dunn, one of the soldiers manning the fortifications here when Rodes's men attacked.

The Union fortifications. The "twin houses" in the distance became important battlefield landmarks. Over 400 dead were buried here after the battle. - Courtesy Library of Congress

   *    

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=14247

Battlefield of Seven Pines

The Federal first line, against which the right wave of the Confederate Army directed the main assault of May 31, 1862, crossed the Williamsburg Road near this spot. Casey’s Redoubt, the centre of Federal resistance on this line, was 200 yards southward.

 

Erected by Battlefield Markers Association. 

(Marker Number 39.)

*

Meanwhile, out by the airport...

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=14251

Richmond Defences
Crossing of the Outer Line

At this point the outer line of the Confederate Defences of Richmond crossed the Williamsburg Road. Begun after the Battle of Seven Pines and subsequently much strengthened, the Eastern face of this line was a continuous earthwork from the James to the Chickahominy River.

 

Erected by Battlefield Markers Association. 

(Marker Number 42.)

*

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=15050

McClellan’s Picket Line

The picket line of McClellan's army crossed the road here on the morning of May 31, 1862.

 

Erected 1927 by Conservation & Development Commission. 

(Marker Number W-4.)

*

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=195028

Battlefield of Seven Pines

On May 31, 1862, the Right Wing of the Confederate Forces under Joseph E. Johnston advanced Eastward from this point on both sides the Williamsburg Road to attack the left of McClellan's Army which held Seven Pines and was preparing to besiege Richmond.

 

Erected by Battlefield Markers Association. 

(Marker Number 37.)

*

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=14246

Battlefield of Seven Pines

In their Eastward attack of May 31, 1862 on Federal troops holding Seven Pines, Rodes' Brigade to the South of this highway and Garland’s Brigade to the North, supported respectively by Rains and G.B. Anderson, came under heavy fire approximately at this point.

 

Erected by Battlefield Markers Association. 

(Marker Number 38.)

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=279819

McClellan's First Line

Union Brig. Gen. Silas Casey held both sides of the road here on 31 May 1862, in Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan's first defensive line at Seven Pines. Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston ordered Maj. Gen. D.H. Hill to launch a morning attack, but lack of coordination resulted in delay. Hill, with three brigades about a mile west of here, was to advance once his fourth brigade joined him. Exasperated after waiting several hours. Hill assaulted on his own at 1 P.M. and smashed through Casey's position to McClellan's second line. A lack of support combined with the arrival of fresh Union troops halted the attack. Johnston fell wounded that evening, and Gen. Robert E. Lee replaced him the next day.

 

Erected 2024 by Department of Historic Resources. 

(Marker Number W-5.)

*    *    *

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=10599

Second Day at Seven Pines

Most of the fighting on the second day of the Battle of Seven Pines (Fair Oaks), occurred near here on 1 June 1862. Confederate Maj. Gen. Gustavus W. Smith, who had assumed command following the wounding of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston the evening before, resumed the attack in the morning. When the Union defenses proved too strong, the Confederates disengaged and retired to their original lines. Gen. Robert E. Lee, who already had been assigned to command the Confederate troops in front of Richmond early in the day, assumed that command when Smith collapsed from exhaustion during the afternoon.

 

Erected 1994 by Department of Historic Resources. 

(Marker Number W-10.)

 

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=10604

Fair Oaks Station

This intersection of the Richmond and York River Railroad with the Nine Mile Road became one of Henrico County’s best-known landmarks during the Civil War. Fair Oaks Station lay on the north side of the junction. As part of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston’s Confederate attack at Seven Pines on 31 May 1862, his troops under Brig. Gen. Richard H. Anderson passed here as they assaulted the Union right. On 29 June 1862, an innovative Confederate artillery piece was pushed past the intersection by a locomotive and used during the Battle of Savage’s Station. It consisted of a siege gun mounted on a flatcar behind a shield of rails. This was the first use of railroad artillery in warfare.

 

Erected 1994 by Department of Historic Resources. 

(Marker Number W-7.)

 

*

After this battle, but before the next....

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=167845

Dabbs House
Lee's First Headquarters
—1862 Peninsula Campaign—

Here at the Dabbs House on June 1, 1862, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee established his first field headquarters as the new commander of the Army of Northern Virginia. He replaced Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, who had been wounded, as Union Gen. George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac closed in on Richmond. By June 5, Lee had developed his plan for countering McClellan's advance: fortify the approaches east of the city with a small force to man them, and attack the Federals with the rest of his army.

Lee held two important conferences here. On June 11, cavalry commander Gen. J.E.B. Stuart met with Lee, and Stuart's famous first ride around the Union army was the result. That reconnaissance feat, covering 100 miles in 72 hours with only one fatality, boosted sagging Confederate morale. Stuart had learned that the Federal right flank was "in the air" (not anchored on a natural obstacle like a river and therefore exposed to attack).

On June 23, Lee assembled his top subordinates here for the first time. They included Gens. A.P. Hill, D.H. Hill, James Longstreet, and Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson. Lee used Stuart's  report to finalize his plans. This "Dabbs House Meeting" led to the series of engagements called the Seven Days' Battles that introduced Lee to the world as a talented general.

Called High Meadow before the war, this was Josiah and Mary Dabbs's farm in 1861. After Josiah Dabbs died in January 1862, his widow moved into Richmond and left the house unoccupied. By 1864, the house stood between the first and second of three Confederate defensive lines. Part of the house was constructed about 1820 and multiple additions were completed between the mid-1800s and mid-1900s.

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=15929

The Dabb House
General Lee's Headquarters

In the residence at the end of this lane, General R.E. Lee had headquarters from June 1 to June 26, 1862. Hither for conference came “Stonewall” Jackson, Longstreet, Stuart, A.P. Hill, D.H. Hill and other of his lieutenants. Here the plan for the Seven Days’ Campaign was drawn.

 

Erected by Battlefield Markers Association. 

(Marker Number 12.)

*

This unexpected detour might as well go here in the blog...

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=14254

Fort Lee

Here, where the outer line of the Confederate defences of Richmond crossed the Charles City Road, stood Fort Lee, named after General Robert E. Lee and constructed to protect a vital line of approach to the capital city from strong or sudden attack.

 

Erected by Battlefield Markers Association. 

(Marker Number 45.)

Wanna get complicated? There is a Fort Lee in VA. It is an active U.S. Army training installation, but it is located in Prince George County, near Petersburg and 25 miles south of Richmond - not here. Also they renamed it in 2023. Some of us are also used to seeing "Fort Lee" up in NYC when coming off the George Washington bridge. That refers to Fort Lee, the site of a Revolutionary War encampment used by George Washington that sits at the western terminus of the Bridge. There was also another Fort Lee in WV! But none of that is whatever was here - and I'm super weirded-out that they named the fort after a still-living General. Scant details available; difficult to search. 

Finally, it was mostly 1864/5 stuff at the next and last Seven Pines site, but there's also another overview of the 1862 campaign here.

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=171304

1862 Peninsula Campaign
The Civil War in Tidewater

In April 1862, Union Gen. George B. McClellan began marching his huge Army of the Potomac west up the Peninsula between the James and York Rivers from Fort Monroe to Richmond, the Confederate capital. Gen. John B. Magruder’s forces delayed the Federals for almost a month at Yorktown. Reinforced by Gen. Joseph E. Johnston but still vastly outnumbered, the Confederates withdrew fighting up the Peninsula to Richmond. Gen. Robert E. Lee took command of the Army of Northern Virginia when Johnston fell wounded on May 31. Beginning on June 26, Lee counter-attacked and forced the Federals away from the city in a series of actions known as the Seven Days’ Battles. The fighting ended after the bloody Battle of Malvern Hill on July 1. McClellan eventually withdrew to Fort Monroe.

Follow in the footsteps of one of the largest troop movements in military history. Virginia Civil War Trails’ 1862 Peninsula Campaign: Civil War in Tidewater is a 125-mile tour route that allows you to explore more than 60 sites in Tidewater Virginia. Please drive carefully as you enjoy the history and beauty along the trail.

Sources/Suggested Reading:

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/civil-war/battles/seven-pines

The battlefield videos from Warhawk are incredible and this one on the Battle of Seven Pines is no exception. Minute by minute details down to the regiment.