Battle of Malvern Hill - Richmond, VA
Posted by: 
archway
N 37° 24.765 W 077° 14.940
18S E 300966 N 4143035
The final engagement of the Seven Days Battles took place here July 1, 1862. The site, a unit of the Richmond National Battlefield Park, features numerous historical markers and an interpretive trail.
Waymark Code: WM76BG
Location: Virginia, United States
Date Posted: 09/08/2009
Views: 2
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. Union General George B. McClellan was rattled by Lee's tactics and was fooled by a Confederate army that appeared larger than it actually was.
Retreating to the south, the Union army held off Confederate pursuers until they had reached Malvern Hill. This elevated location gave the Union forces a strategic advantage. Once the Confederate line had assembled, Lee sent in his men to disastrous results. The Federal army held their ground easily and completed their retreat to the James. Lee was forced to fall back, satisfied at least that Richmond was no longer under threat. The Battle of Malvern Hill ended the Seven Days Battles as well as McClellan's Peninsula Campaign.
The battlefield marker at this location reads as follows:
Against the Federals holding this eminence, the Confederates delivered repeated assaults from the North on July 1, 1862 and lost about 5,000 men in the final, indecisive Battle of the Seven Days’ Campaign. That night McClellan withdrew to Harrison's Landing, near Westover.