On the morning of the 28th when Lee surveyed the Gaines’ Mill battlefield Porter’s V Corps was gone. He had crossed the Chickahominy River overnight across the Grapevine and Alexander bridges and then they destroyed all the bridges over the Chickahominy River east of New Bridge. The signs below are all at where modern day Route 156 crosses the Chickahominy River shown below.

Lee was unsure what McClellan’s next move would be. There were two likely possibilities. He could retreat down the peninsula. Lee sent Stuart’s Cavalry and Ewell’s division east down the peninsula to look for this possibility but there was no activity in that direction. The second option would be for McClellan to change his base to the James River under the protection of Union gunboats. The problem for McClellan was that there were few good roads that moved in the north-south direction across the peninsula and McClellan had a lot of men, artillery and equipment to move. In Lee’s favor was that there were several roads that ran west to east to try and cut off or block McClellan’s path including the Williamsburg, Charles City, Darbytown and River Roads. From his study of area maps Lee could see McClellan would likely pass through Glendale, then called Riddell’s Shop, and down the road to Malvern Hill and high ground that would dominate any approach to the James River. Lee then devised a plan to try and prevent this shown on the map below. Major Generals Magruder and Huger would block McClellan from moving toward Richmond on the Williamsburg Road. Longstreet and A.P. Hill would cross at New Bridge and move down the Darbytown Road and attack the Federals at Glendale. Jackson would rebuild the Chickahominy River bridges and chase from the rear of the retreating Union. Major General Theophilus Holmes would come up from Petersburg and move down the River Road.

The map below outlines troop movements on June 28 and 29. Magruder met with Lee on the 29th. Magruder was under the impression he would be supported by Huger and Jackson giving him about 40,000 men. But this wouldn’t happen. Huger was sent down the Charles City Road and Jackson was slow in rebuilding the bridges. In addition, Jackson’s orders did not specify that he was to cross the river and support Magruder.

McClellan had ordered Edwin Sumner, Samuel Heintzelman and William Franklin’s Corps to position themselves near Savage’s Station and then left leaving no one in charge. Sumner was furthest west near Allen’s Farm. Franklin was further south as was Heintzelman. As a result, the battle of Savage’s Station became a battle between Magruder’s 13,000 men and Sumner’s Corps as shown in Robert Knox Sneden’s map below.

Magruder hesitated initially not knowing the size of the Union force he faced. Kershaw’s brigade advanced around 3:00 PM but were stymied by Brigadier General William Burns 72nd and 106th PA, 1st Minnesota, 82nd and 88th NY, and the 69th PA. McLaws sent Semmes’ brigade (10th GA, 32nd VA and 5th LA) south of the Williamsburg Road where they were stopped by William Smith’s 2nd Brigade (2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th VT). As darkness arrived the Federals had held their ground and had protected the rear of the Union column for now. Casualties were 444 Confederate and 929 Union. Sumner withdrew that evening and followed the rest of McClellan’s column toward White Oak Swamp. All of the signs below are clustered at 37.5282222, -77.2688611.

The original image from the sign above is shown below- photograph by James F. Gibson.

Other wartime images of Savage’ Station from the Library of Congress

Next- White Oak Swamp

Sources

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

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