Seven Pines - Civil War Discovery Trail Sites on Waymarking.com

The Battle of Seven Pines, also known as the Battle of Fair Oaks or Fair Oaks Station, took place on May 31 and June 1, 1862, in Henrico County, Virginia, as part of the Peninsula Campaign of the American Civil War. It was the culmination of an offensive up the Virginia Peninsula by Union Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, in which the Army of the Potomac reached the outskirts of Richmond.

On May 31, Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston attempted to overwhelm two Federal corps that appeared isolated south of the Chickahominy River. The Confederate assaults, although not well coordinated, succeeded in driving back the IV Corps and inflicting heavy casualties. Reinforcements arrived, and both sides fed more and more troops into the action. Supported by the III Corps and Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick's division of Maj. Gen. Edwin V. Sumner's II Corps (which crossed the rain-swollen river on Grapevine Bridge), the Federal position was finally stabilized. Gen. Johnston was seriously wounded during the action, and command of the Confederate army devolved temporarily to Maj. Gen. G.W. Smith. On June 1, the Confederates renewed their assaults against the Federals, who had brought up more reinforcements, but made little headway. Both sides claimed victory.

Although the battle was tactically inconclusive, it was the largest battle in the Eastern Theater up to that time (and second only to Shiloh in terms of casualties thus far, about 11,000 total) and marked the end of the Union offensive, leading to the Seven Days Battles and Union retreat in late June.

The text from the historical marker reads as follows:

"Confederate attacks on May 31, 1862, designed to push the Union army away from Richmond, struck an isolated wing of the Federal Fourth Corps in this vicinity.

The heaviest action took place along the Williamsburg Road. Marching from the west, men of Gen. D.H. Hill's Division broke Gen. Silas Casey's line and pushed on toward the Seven Pines crossroads east of here. Close-quarters fighting raged in and around Casey's Redoubt, which stood close to this spot. Hill's attack unleashed "the most terrible fire of musketry... that I have ever witnessed," thought Casey.

Late in the day, Confederate leader Gen. Joseph E. Johnston fell wounded north of here at Fair Oaks. The next day, Gen Robert E. Lee took command of the army. The encounter at Seven Pines was the largest battle fought in Virginia during the first 14 months of the Civil War. There were more than 70,000 troops engaged and at least 10,000 casualties."

Source: Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Seven_Pines)

Type of site: Battlefield Address: 23 E. Williamsburg Rd. Sandston, VA USA 23150 Admission Charged: No Charge Website: [Web Link] Phone Number: Not listed Driving Directions: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   05/21/2012 JL_HSTRE visited it