Porter had defeated Lee’s forces at Beaver Dam Creek but when McClellan returned to his headquarters at the Trent house on the evening of the 26th he decided that it was too risky to maintain his supply base at White House Landing on the Pamunkey River and that he needed to abandon his plans for a siege of Richmond and change his base of supply to the James River. In order to accomplish this he would need Porter to remain in a more defensible position on the north side of the Chickahominy River where he could protect the bridges crossing the river and prevent Jackson from turning his flank for one more day. At 2:00 AM on the 27th Porter received the order to withdraw.

Porter’s Corp would head past the area of this sign before heading toward Boatswain’s Creek and Swamp.

The Jackson’s March to the Battlefield image shown below is taken from the Historical Marker Database. The marker has been removed as part of a road widening project on the Lee-Davis Road. I do not know if it will be replaced when the project is completed.

Lee, Jackson and A.P. Hill would meet at the Walnut Grove Church on the morning of the 27th. Signs located near the Walnut Grove Church and in the churchyard are shown below: Freeman monument- 37.6008056, -77.3338333; PA-10 37.6006784, -77.3337983.

A.P. Hill would turn right at the intersection below and head toward Gaines’ Mill. Jackson and D.H. Hill would continue straight and try and move around Porter’s right flank in the area of Old Cold Harbor.

As the Federals retreated, Longstreet and A. P. Hill advanced. The Confederates would now control the road that turned off to New Bridge and Lee would be able to move his troops freely across the Chickahominy River.

Porter would move down Cold Harbor Road past the area of the two signs below setting up an initial line near Gaines’ Mill.

Not satisfied with his position here Porter would find an even stronger one down the road another mile and establish his line on the other side of Boatswain Swamp on a high ridge. His left was anchored on the farm of Sarah Watt and extended two miles to the right near Old Cold Harbor. Lee expected to find Porter near Gaines’ Mill on the other side of Boatswain Creek where Porter had set up his first line but A.P. Hill met little resistance there. The Rebels continued down the road and encountered Boatswain Swamp which was not on any of their maps.

There they found the Federals arranged in three lines on a high ridge on the other side of the swamp. The first line was at the bottom of the ridge, the second line in the middle, and the third at the top with the artillery. It was terrible ground to attack over but Lee felt that he had no choice if he was to continue his offensive strategy. A. P. Hill coming down the Cold Harbor Road was the first to arrive and he struck the Union center in Griffin’s Woods shown on the sign below. Longstreet was moving down the River Road and would align on Hill’s right. D.H. Hill and Jackson were moving north in an attempt to get to Old Cold Harbor beyond Porter’s far right. Once again Lee’s plan involved Jackson getting to the proper location at the right time. This time Jackson would be given a guide who was a local cavalryman. Jackson told the guide he needed to go to Cold Harbor but what Jackson did not know was that there were two Cold Harbors, “Old” Cold Harbor and “New” Cold Harbor. As Jackson moved closer to the sound of the battle he realized there was a problem. When he questioned the guide further he learned they were headed toward “New” Cold Harbor and Gaines’ Mill. They would have to quickly move back to the correct road and Old Cold Harbor. A mistake that would set them back about an hour and a half!

A.P. Hill ordered his men to advance around 2:30 PM. Hill’s men tried multiple time to reach the Union line over several hours but the brigades of Lawrence O’Bryan Branch, James Archer, Dorsey Pender, Joseph Anderson and Charles Field were all driven back. Some men from Maxcy Gregg’s brigade reached the other side of the swamp. Of Hill’s 13,000 men engaged he suffered over 2,000 casualties. Hill’s men had fought hard but with no support from the other divisions he could not succeed.

Concerned that the Federals might launch a counterattack against A.P. Hill Lee sent his aide Walter Taylor to look for Jackson. Taylor first found Richard Ewell and instructed him to move his men closer to Hill. Lee found Ewell shortly thereafter and ordered him to attack the center of the Union line. Ewell sent the 1st LA (the Louisiana Tigers) forward but their attack faltered when their commanding officer was killed. D.H. Hill was at Old Cold Harbor and moved forward against Brigadier General George Sykes’ division. Longstreet’s division came up on the Confederate far right. Jackson also finally arrived at Cold Harbor. Lee rode out to speak to Jackson personally with orders for him to attack with the remainder of his division. As fast as Porter could feed his men into battle Lee could more than match him with the 58,000 men he was bringing down on Porter’s solitary Corps. Sykes was holding firm on the Union right. McClellan thinking he was outnumbered south of the river sent word to Porter that he would need to hold out until nightfall. It was now approaching 7:00 PM and all of Lee’s divisions were on the battlefield, with only an hour of daylight left they would make one final attack.

In the next post I will cover the the rest of the story of the battle and the Gaines’ Mill Breakthrough walking trail at the main battlefield. Shown below are two monuments just outside the trail.

Just down from the Texas monument is a parcel of land acquired by the Civil War Trust. This field was the area of the battlefield that Longstreet advanced over.

Next- Gaines’ Mill and the Breakthrough Trail

Source

Richmond Shall Not Be Given Up, The Seven Days’ Battles June 25- July 1, 1862 by Doug Crenshaw.