Battle of Malvern Hill
The Battle of Malvern Hill, also known as the Battle of Poindexter's Farm, was fought on July 1, 1862, between the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, led by Gen. Robert E. Lee, and the Union Army of the Potomac under Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan. It was the final battle of the Seven Days Battles during the American Civil War, taking place on a elevation of land known as Malvern Hill, near the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia and just one mile from the James River. Including inactive reserves, more than fifty thousand soldiers from each side took part, using more than two hundred pieces of artillery and three warships.
The Seven Days Battles were the climax of the Peninsula Campaign, during which McClellan's Army of the Potomac sailed around the Confederate lines, landed at the tip of the Virginia Peninsula, southeast of Richmond, and struck inland towards the Confederate capital. Confederate general Joseph E. Johnston fended off McClellan's repeated attempts to take the city, slowing Union progress on the peninsula to a crawl. When Johnston was wounded, Lee took command and launched a series of counterattacks, collectively called the Seven Days Battles. These attacks culminated in the action on Malvern Hill.
The Union's V Corps, commanded by Brig. Gen. Fitz John Porter, took up positions on the hill on June30. McClellan was not present for the initial exchanges of the battle, having boarded the ironclad USS Galena and sailed down the James River to inspect Harrison's Landing, where he intended to locate the base for his army. Confederate preparations were hindered by several mishaps. Bad maps and faulty guides caused Confederate Maj. Gen. John Magruder to be late for the battle, an excess of caution delayed Maj. Gen. Benjamin Huger, and Maj. Gen. Stonewall Jackson had problems collecting the Confederate artillery.
The battle occurred in stages: an initial exchange of artillery fire, a minor charge by Confederate Brig. Gen. Lewis Armistead, and three successive waves of Confederate infantry charges triggered by unclear orders from Lee and the actions of Maj. Gens. Magruder and D. H. Hill, respectively. In each phase, the effectiveness of the Federal artillery was the deciding factor, repulsing attack after attack, resulting in a tactical Union victory. In the course of four hours, a series of blunders in planning and communication had caused Lee's forces to launch three failed frontal infantry assaults across hundreds of yards of open ground, unsupported by Confederate artillery, charging toward firmly entrenched Union infantry and artillery defenses. These errors provided Union forces with an opportunity to inflict heavy casualties.
Despite the Union army's victory, the battle did little to alter the outcome of the Peninsula Campaign: after the battle, McClellan and his forces withdrew from Malvern Hill to Harrison's Landing, where he remained until August 16. His plan to capture Richmond had been thwarted. The Confederate press heralded Lee as the savior of Richmond. In stark contrast, McClellan was accused of being absent from the battlefield, a harsh criticism that haunted him when he ran for president in 1864.
Background
Military situation
In spring 1862, Union commander Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan developed an ambitious plan to capture Richmond, the Confederate capital, on the Virginia Peninsula. His 121,500-man Army of the Potomac, along with 14,592 animals, 1,224 wagons and ambulances, and 44 artillery batteries, would load onto 389 vessels and sail to the tip of the peninsula at Fort Monroe, then move inland and capture the capital, some 80 miles away. The bold and sweeping landing was executed with few incidents, but the Federals were delayed for about a month in the siege of Yorktown. When McClellan's army finally did attack on May4, the defensive earthworks around Yorktown were undefended. After some hours, the Army of the Potomac pursued the retreating Confederates. When Union troops encountered the Confederate rearguard at Williamsburg, the two armies fought an inconclusive battle. The Confederates continued their withdrawal that night. To stymie the Southerners' retreat, McClellan sent Brig. Gen. William F. "Baldy" Smith to Eltham's Landing by boat, resulting in a battle there on May7. When the Union Army tried to attack Richmond by way of the James River, they were turned back at Drewry's Bluff on May15. All the while, McClellan continued his pursuit of Confederate forces, who were withdrawing quickly towards Richmond.The lack of decisive action on the Virginia Peninsula spurred President Abraham Lincoln to order McClellan's army to move into positions close to Richmond. By May30, McClellan had begun moving troops across the Chickahominy River, the only major natural barrier that separated his army from Richmond. However, heavy rains and thunderstorms on the night of May30 caused the water level to swell, washing away two bridges and splitting the Federal army in two across the Chickahominy. In the subsequent Battle of Seven Pines, Confederate general-in-chief Joseph E. Johnston sought to capitalize on the bifurcation of McClellan's army, attacking the half of the Union Army that was stuck south of the river. Johnston's plan fell apart, and McClellan lost no ground. Late in the battle, Johnston was hit in the right shoulder by a bullet and in the chest by a shell fragment; his command went to Maj. Gen. Gustavus W. Smith. Smith's tenure as commander of the Army of Northern Virginia was short. On June1, after an unsuccessful attack on Union forces, Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederacy, appointed Robert E. Lee, his own military adviser, to replace Smith as the commander-in-chief of the Confederate armies.
The subsequent two weeks on the peninsula were mostly quiet. On June25, though, a surprise attack by McClellan began a series of six major battles over the next week near Richmond—the Seven Days Battles. On the first day, as Lee led the Army of Northern Virginia toward the Union lines, McClellan preempted him with an attack at Oak Grove. Lee's men successfully warded off the Union assault, and Lee continued with his plans. The next morning, the Confederates attacked the Army of the Potomac at Mechanicsville. Union forces turned back the Confederate onslaught, inflicting heavy losses. After Mechanicsville, McClellan's army withdrew to a position behind Boatswain's Swamp. There, on June27, the Union soldiers suffered another Confederate attack, this time at Gaines's Mill. In the resulting battle, the Confederates launched numerous failed charges, until a final concerted attack broke the Union line, resulting in the only clear Confederate victory during the Seven Days. The action at Garnett's and Golding's Farm, fought next, was merely a set of skirmishes. Lee attacked the Union Army at the Battle of Savage's Station on June29 and the battles of Glendale and White Oak Swamp June30, but all three battles were inconclusive. After this series of conflicts that inflicted thousands of casualties on both armies, McClellan began to assemble his forces in an imposing natural position atop Malvern Hill.
Geography and location
Malvern Hill, a plateau-like elevation in Henrico County, Virginia, provided an impressive natural military position about two miles north of the James River. The hill rose some to its crest to form a crescent about in length and wide. Its slope was about in length and very gradual, with only one or two notable depressions. Along the western side of the hill ran Malvern Cliffs, a bluff-like formation that overlooked Turkey Run, a tributary of nearby Turkey Island Creek. Western Run was another tributary of Turkey Island Creek, which lay mostly along the eastern side of the hill and slanted slightly into the northern side. One depression dipped some at the valley of Western Run and slanted upwards to the plateau. Malvern Hill's center was slightly lower than the flanks. The gentle, bare slant meant that any assailing army could not easily take cover, and artillery would have the benefit of a clear, open field.Several farms were positioned near Malvern Hill. Roughly north of the hill were the Poindexter and Carter farms. Between the two farms was a swampy and thickly wooded area that made up the course of Western Run. The largest in the area was the Mellert family's farm, usually called the Crew farm for a former owner, situated at the western side of the hill. About a quarter of a mile due east of Malvern Hill was the West farm. Between these two farms lay the Willis Church Road, which some locals called the Quaker Road. This road also ran past the Malvern house, the hill's namesake, which was perched atop the southern edge of the plateau. "It was, altogether, an exceedingly formidable position", wrote historian Douglas Southall Freeman. "Had the Union engineers searched the whole countryside below Richmond, they could not have found ground more ideally set for the slaughter of an attacking army."
Prelude
Key participants
McClellan's forces prepare
A few days prior to the action on Malvern Hill, McClellan incorrectly believed the Army of the Potomac was vastly outnumbered by its Confederate foe, and his fear of being cut off from his supply depot left him cautious and wary. On the night of June28, McClellan told his generals he intended to move his army to a position on the north bank of the James River called Harrison's Landing, where they would be protected by Union gunboats. The Army of the Potomac came to Malvern Hill, the army's final stop before reaching the Landing, with approximately 54,000 men.On the morning of June30, 1862, the Union V Corps under Fitz John Porter, a part of McClellan's Army of the Potomac, amassed atop Malvern Hill. Col. Henry Hunt, McClellan's skilled chief of artillery, posted 171 guns on the hill and 91 more in reserve in the south. The artillery line on the hill's slope consisted of eight batteries of field artillery with 37 guns. Brig. Gen. George Sykes's division would guard the line. In reserve were additional field artillery and three batteries of heavy artillery, which included five 4.5-inch Rodman guns, five 20-pounder Parrott rifles and six 32-pounder howitzers. As more of McClellan's forces arrived at the hill, Porter continued to reinforce the Union line. Brig. Gen. George Morell's units, stationed between the Crew and West farms, extended the line to the northeastern section. Brig. Gen. Darius Couch's division of the IV Corps, as yet unbloodied by the skirmishes of the Seven Days, further extended the northeastern line. This left 17,800 soldiers from Couch's and Morell's divisions at the northern face of the hill, overlooking the Quaker Road, from which the Federals expected Lee's forces to attack.
Early the next day, Tuesday, July 1, McClellan, having come from nearby Haxall's Landing the night before, examined his army's battle line on Malvern Hill. His inspection left him worried most about the Union Army's right flank, which lay behind Western Run. Western Run was an area necessary for McClellan's plans to relocate to Harrison's Landing, and he feared an attack might come from there. As a result, he posted the largest portion of his army there: two divisions from Edwin Sumner's II Corps, two divisions from Brig. Gen. Samuel P. Heintzelman's III Corps, two divisions from Brig. Gen. William Franklin's VI Corps and one division from Maj. Gen. Erasmus Keyes's IV Corps, who were stationed across the James. The division under Brig. Gen. George McCall, badly mangled in the fighting at Glendale and having lost McCall and two of its three brigadiers, was held in general reserve.
McClellan did not believe his army was ready for a battle, and hoped Lee would not give them one. Nonetheless, he left his troops at Malvern Hill and traveled downstream aboard the ironclad USS Galena to inspect his army's future resting place at Harrison's Landing. McClellan did not delegate an interim commander; Porter, who was in command during the initial attack, became the de facto leader on the Union side of the battle.