The fighting 51Armistead L. Long, who served on Lee's staff
during the war, recalled the winter of
1861-62 as a time when the press and public
were 'clamorous' against his superior, and
Edward Porter Alexander, another staff
member in June 1862, remembered that
when Lee assumed command 'some of the
newspapers - particularly the Richmond
Examiner - pitched into him with
extraordinary virulence,' insisting that
'henceforth our army would never be
allowed to fight.The Seven Days battles
The next five weeks proved Lee's critics
wrong. No general exhibited more daring
than the new southern commander, who
believed the Confederacy could counter
northern numbers only by seizing and
holding the initiative. He spent June
preparing for a supreme effort against
McClellan. When Jackson's valley troops and
other reinforcements arrived, Lee's army, at
90,000 strong, would be the largest ever
fielded by the South. By the last week of
June, the Army of the Potomac lay astride
the Chickahominy, two-thirds south of the
river and one-third north of it. Lee hoped to
crush the portion north of the river then
turn against the rest. Confederates repulsed a
strong Union reconnaissance against their
left on 25 June, opening what became
known as the Seven Days battles and setting
the stage for Lee's offensive.
Heavy fighting began on 26 June 1862 at
the Battle of Mechanicsville and continued
for the next five days. Lee consistently acted
as the aggressor, but never managed to land a
decisive blow. At Mechanicsville, he expected
Jackson to strike Union General Fitz John
Porter's right flank. The hero of the valley
failed to appear in time, however, and
A. P. Hill's Confederate division launched a
futile frontal assault about mid-afternoon.
Porter retreated to a strong position at
Gaines's Mill, where Lee attacked again on
the 27th. Once again Jackson stumbled, as
more than 50,000 Confederates mounted
Fitz John Porter, whose 5th Corps bore the brunt
of Union fighting at Mechanicsville. Gaines's Mill and
Malvern Hill. A conservative Democrat and supporter
of McClellan, Porter attracted the ire of congressional
Republicans. Court-martialed for his role in the
Second Bull Run campaign, he was stripped of
command and dismissed from the army in January- Sixteen years later a military board cleared
him of all charges. (Author's collection)
savage attacks along a wide front. Late in the
day, John Bell Hood's Texas Brigade
spearheaded an effort that broke Porter's lines
and pushed the Federals across the
Chickahominy to rejoin the bulk of
McClellan's army. Jackson's poor
performance, most often attributed to
exhaustion verging on numbness, joined
poor staff work and other factors in allowing
Porter's exposed portion of McClellan's army
to escape.
In the wake of Gaines's Mill, McClellan
changed his base from the Pamunkey river to
the James river, where northern naval power
could support the Army of the Potomac. Lee
followed the retreating McClellan, who
insisted that the rebels badly outnumbered
his army. He sought to inflict a crippling
blow as the Federals retreated southward
across the Peninsula. After heavy skirmishing
on 28 June, the Confederates launched