
Savage Station - Sandston, VA
Posted by:
archway
N 37° 31.696 W 077° 16.143
18S E 299500 N 4155896
Quick Description: Placed by the Battlefield Markers Association, marker #13 describes the Battle of Savage's Station, one of the Seven Days Battles in 1862.
Location: Virginia, United States
Date Posted: 9/7/2009 8:42:06 AM
Waymark Code: WM7612
Views: 0
Long Description:
The Seven Days Battles took place in late June and early July 1862.
Earlier in June, the Confederate army had stopped the Union's
assault on Richmond at the Battle of Seven Pines in what is now
Sandston. At the end of that battle, General Robert E. Lee was
appointed commander of the Army of Northern Virginia.
Lee had been an advisor to Jefferson Davis and had a reputation
for being cautious. That changed when Lee decided to attack the
Union army directly and destroy it before it could retreat to the
James River. As an example of this new, aggressive approach, the
Confederacy used railway artillery for the first time at Savage's
Station. Despite this innovation, the battle ended in a stalemate.
The fighting resumed the following day in two separate engagements
at White Oak Swamp and Glendale.
Savage Station
In the field beyond this marker was fought June 29,
1862, the battle of Savage Station in which Confederate forces
under command of Major-General John B. Magruder attacked
indecisively the rearguard of the Federal Army moving toward James
River. This was the Third Battle of the Seven Days’
Campaign.
~~~
About the Battlefield Markers (Source: National Park
Service):
This is one in a series of 61 markers erected
beginning in 1925 to identify the battlefields around Richmond. The
tablets were the work of the Battlefield Markers Association, a
group of historians committed to commemorating the Richmond
battlefields. Most prominent among the association's members was
Dr. Douglas Southall Freeman, the eminent biographer of George
Washington and Robert E. Lee. The work of Dr. Freeman and the
Association ultimately led to the purchase of battlefield lands and
the establishment of Richmond National Battlefield Park in
1936.