The Seven Days Battles

Judson Cheney
Born: May 11, 1838, Hopkinton, St. Lawrence County, New York
Died: September 29, 1864, Chaffin Farm, Virginia
Relation to Author: 2nd Great Grand Uncle

On this day 150 years ago, Judson Cheney and the rest of the Army of the Potomac were finishing a retreat from outside Richmond, ending the siege, and ready to recover from the Seven Days Battles. The retreat was costly in lives and perception. 

I was a month late posting about the battle of Seven Pines / Fair Oaks. But I wanted to take my time since it was a major battle and Judson's regiment was on the front and saw very heavy action. During the month of June, following that major battle, Judson's regiment was behind the front, camped and resting. There were no major battles during this time.

The end of June brought movement and more major battles. On June 25th, the first day of the Seven Days Battles, the US went on the offensive attempting to take a strategic hill. Then on June 26th, the second day, Lee and the Confederates went on the offensive. Though the Confederates lost the battle that day (Beaver Dam Creek), they scared General McClellan enough to cause him to retreat to the James River (or more charitably described as changing base) and give up the siege of the Confederate capital of Richmond.

Lee's attack on the 26th was risky - the attack left Richmond open for a Union attack against a smaller defending force. But maybe he knew McClellan would do no such thing. And he would have been right. 

While the US moved south over the next five days, General Lee and the Confederates stayed on the offensive, hoping to literally destroy the Army of the Potomac. Lee was unsuccessful and both sides suffered major casualties (16,000 for the US and over 20,000 for the Confederates).

Judson's regiment saw no major action during these battles (Beaver Dam Creek on 6/26, Gaines' Mill on 6/27, Garnett's and Golding's Farms on 6/28, Savage's Station on 6/29, Glendale and White Oak Swamp on 6/30, and Malvern Hill on 7/1) while retreating with the rest of the army. However, on June 30th, they were close enough to hear the fighting of the battles of Glendale and White Oak Swamp:

About 4 o'clock, p.m., of the 30th of June, we were two or three miles beyond and at the left of Glendale, and something more than four miles from the crossing of the swamp which the regiment had left the day before... Every volley was distinct; the reports of the rifles were fearfully near and terribly plain. Two momentous battles [Glendale and White Oak Swamp] were going on at the same time behind us; and, at intervals, the firing made one continuous roar. The earth shook and trembled; consternation seemed printed on every face. In many regiments a few men lost their senses. The noise of the contest ascended to heaven; and, as the night came on, the battle seemed to approach us nearer, clearer, deadlier than before.

Our situation was critical; for, should the enemy succeed in forcing those positions, the Army of the Potomac would cease to exist. At Glendale, Davis and Lee were present. They sought to concentrate there and throw upon the National line eighty thousand men; but [some units] did not appear in time. The battle was a succession of attacks; the attacks failed, and the line was not broken. 

Casualties from those two battles which Judson's regiment heard were 2,700 for the US and 3,600 for the Confederates. The next day as the regiment marched, they continued to worry:

After eleven, Peck's division, the 98th ahead, next to the general and his personal staff... Our road passes in a deep wood of oak and pine; we can see but one way - up; we know not what is behind us or about us. The terrible shock of that evening's battles has depressed our thoughts and dried the fountain of our spirits. Halting, marching, thinking, fearing, guessing, weary, exhausted, heavy, slow, we make but half a mile an hour. The night is full of fear, full or rumors, full or mystery and full of thought. Its apparitions, shadows, or suggestions, sometimes affright the bravest. After watching and marching incessantly for five days, with but little food, our nervous system was all unstrung, and the wildest thoughts gamboled in our minds unbridled and unbound. We look to the stars, we look to the ground; we observe every sound, even the rustle of leaves.

...

After 3am, July 1st, we stopped in a pine thicket below Malvern and a mile from the [James] river. We slept on the ground until and hour after sunrise, when we arose and drank a little coffee and ate a few pieces of hard bread. At 11, Colonel Durkee mustered the regiment for two months' pay, May and June. 

That day, they could see the lineup for the battle of Malvern Hill (casualties - US 3,000, CS 5,355): 

From our point of view, on Haxall's house, with our field glass, we could discern along it sun-seared sides and stretching to the right, along fences, ditches, ravines and hedges, our infantry hurrying into place and line. On the hill, three grim lines of battle visible on its slope, confronted the enemy.

And from July 2nd through July 4th Judson's regiment was the rear guard, waiting in case the Confederates made another attack.

Worn-out with fatigue, wet to the skin, covered with mud, hungry, sleepy, sick, we would draw up in a favorable position, wait until the last wagon, the last soldier, the last straggler had passed, and, then, we ourselves would sprawl along, few and faint, yet fearless still. 

The Confederates did not attack. At this point, both armies were retreating. The Confederates saw that the Union was safe and went back to Richmond. The Union, under McClellan, decided not to take any initiative and regroup at Harrison's Landing.

In fact, the battles over those seven days did much to give the South hope and the North distress. And McPhearson says this string of battles marked the end of the possibility of restoring the union as it was before the rebellion. After this, the North would have to ruin the south and bring it back into a different union. 

If you have been with me from the beginning dear reader, think on all that Judson's regiment went through, and for nothing. The goal was a siege and capture of Richmond. But one battle spooked General McClellan and sent him away. The march up the peninsula, the battles of Yorktown and Williamsburg, the blood at Seven Pines, did nothing but show that the blood would continue and grow.

There are three more years of this to come - lots of marching and lining up and fighting and dying with no resolution in sight.