The Battle of Oak Grove was the first battle of the Seven Days but there is no interpretation of it perhaps because it was fought on the grounds of the current Richmond airport just west of where the battle of Seven Pines/ Fair Oaks Station was fought a little over three weeks earlier. Not a single marker or tablet memorializes the 134 men who died here. The National Part Service Markers that provide an overview of the Seven Days’ battles do not even mention the battle despite the casualties suffered on both sides. At the end of the day the Federals would suffer 68 men killed, 503 wounded, and 55 missing while the Confederate would lose 66 killed, 362 wounded and 13 missing. Total casualties for both armies were 626 for the Union and 441 for the Confederacy for a total of 1,067 casualties.

While Lee was planning his offensive so was McClellan. McClellan had received intelligence that Lee was preparing an attack and that Stonewall Jackson’s force was on the way to the area and planning to attack Porter’s right flank. McClellan sent scouting parties out north of Porter’s position to reconnoiter and obstruct the roads and ordered Porter to prepare for an attack from that direction. McClellan’s plan was to seize the area around Old Tavern on Nine Mile Road, which was about a mile and a half forward of his current lines, so that he could place his over 200 large siege cannons within range of Richmond. The problem was that the first two weeks of June were rainy and the roads were a quagmire. Heavy equipment could not be advanced over them. The Federals spent this time improving roads and bridges. As the roads dried he planned to do this in stages so that he could attack the Rebels there in their front and right flank. First he wanted to move forward along the Williamsburg Road south of Old Tavern to Oak Grove the area that D.H. Hill had initially attacked a few weeks earlier in the Battle of Seven Pines. If he could advance Heintzelman’s III and Sumner’s II Corps to that point they could attack the Confederates on their right flank while Franklin’s VI Corps launched a frontal assault, see the map below.

Casey’s redoubt, which was now called Redoubt #3, had been expanded and would serve as the jumping off point. Midway between the two armies was a densely forested area about 1,200 yards wide, bisected by the headwaters of White Oak Swamp. Two divisions of the III Corps would lead the assault, commanded by two hard fighting Brigadier Generals, Joe Hooker and Phil Kearny. A brigade from the II and IV Corps would act as reserves In front of them would be three Confederate brigades under General Benjamin Huger commanded by Brigadier Generals William Mahone, Ambrose Wright and Lewis Armistead. At 8:30 AM on the 25th Daniel Sickles’ and Cuvier Grover’s brigades were sent forward with Sickles on the right of the Williamsburg Road and Grover the left. A single brigade from Kearny’s division under John Robinson was to the left of Grover. The forces on the left of the road moved faster than Sickles brigade to the right. After passing through the woods into a clearing on the French farm Grover came under heavy fire from Ambrose Wright’s brigade. Casualties were high here with the 1st LA losing 135 of its 355 men. On the Union side Company B of the 2nd NH lost a third of its men. Robert Ransom’s 25th NC was marching toward the battlefield from Richmond when Wright moved them into action against Sickles Excelsior Brigade. They unleashed a volley into the 71st NY who fled the battlefield. Heintzelman sent a message back to headquarters at 10:30 AM for reinforcements and was given a surprising order from McClellan to withdraw. McClellan was managing the battle from three miles away at the Trent House by telegraph. McClellan also sent a message that he was coming to the front to take command. He arrived with his staff at Redoubt #3 two and a half hours later at 1:00 PM. After studying the battlefield he ordered the attack renewed and now the men had to retake the ground that they had just been ordered to withdraw from. The battle raged back and forth until it was ended by darkness. At the end of the day McClellan had managed to advance his skirmish line 600 yards further west while taking 626 casualties. Confederate commander Robert E. Lee also came to the front during the afternoon. There he met with General Huger telling him that the next day he must hold his line “at all costs”. Lee would attack Porter’s V Corps north of the Chickahominy River the next day.

Next- Chickahominy Bluff

Source

To the Gates of Richmond The Peninsula Campaign by Stephen W. Sears