The Peninsula Campaign and the Seven Days Battles

What happened

General George McClellan landed the Union Army of the Potomac at Fort Monroe, Virginia in March 1862 and marched up the peninsula between the York and James Rivers toward Richmond, the Confederate capital. Confederate forces under John Magruder delayed McClellan for nearly a month at Yorktown, and Joseph Johnston fell back fighting until he was wounded on May 31 at Seven Pines. Robert E. Lee then took command of the Army of Northern Virginia, reorganized it, and, once Stonewall Jackson's troops arrived from a diversionary campaign in the Shenandoah Valley, launched a counteroffensive on June 26 known as the Seven Days Battles. Over a week of fighting that included Gaines' Mill, Savage's Station, and the costly Confederate assault at Malvern Hill on July 1, Lee drove McClellan's larger army away from Richmond and back to the James River.

How we know

The National Park Service's Richmond National Battlefield Park history reconstructs the campaign's day-by-day movements from official reports and Lee's own correspondence with Confederate President Davis.

Sources

• Richmond National Battlefield Park, National Park Service. 1862 Seven Days' Battles · Reputable sourcenps.gov · The domain "nps.gov" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
• American Battlefield Trust. Malvern Hill Battle Facts and Summary · Reputable sourcebattlefields.org · The domain "battlefields.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)