Seven Days' Battles | Summary, Location, Casualties, Significance ...

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External Websites

• Civil War Trust - The Seven Days Battles
• HistoryNet - Seven Days Battle
• History Central - Seven Days

Seven Days’ Battles American Civil War Ask Anything Homework Help Written and fact-checked by Britannica Editors Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree.... Britannica Editors History Britannica AI Ask Anything Table of Contents Table of Contents Ask Anything

Seven Days’ Battles, (June 25–July 1, 1862), series of American Civil War battles in which a Confederate army under General Robert E. Lee drove back General George B. McClellan’s Union forces and thwarted the Northern attempt to capture the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia. McClellan was forced to retreat from a position 4 miles (6 km) east of the Confederate capital to a new base of operations at Harrison’s Landing on the James River.

After the indecisive Battle of Oak Grove (June 25), Lee’s attack on the Union right at Mechanicsville (June 26) was repulsed with great losses, but Lee and General “Stonewall” Jackson combined to defeat General Fitz-John Porter’s V Corps in a bloody encounter at Gaines’s Mill (June 27). In the battles of Peach Orchard and Savage’s Station (June 29) and Frayser’s Farm (Glendale; June 30), the retreating Union forces inflicted heavy casualties on the pursuing Confederates. Reaching the James River, and supported by Union gunboats, the Northern troops turned back Lee’s final assaults at Malvern Hill (July 1). Lee later stated in his official report that “Under ordinary circumstances the Federal Army should have been destroyed.”

Quick Facts Date: June 25, 1862 - July 1, 1862 (Show more) Location: Richmond United States (Show more) Participants: Confederate States of America United States (Show more) Context: American Civil War Peninsular Campaign (Show more) Key People: A. P. Hill Robert E. Lee George B. McClellan Jeb Stuart (Show more) See all related content

McClellan’s failure to capture Richmond, and the subsequent withdrawal of the Union’s Army of the Potomac from the Yorktown Peninsula, signified the end of the Peninsular Campaign (q.v.). Northern casualties were estimated at 16,000 men and Southern at 20,000.

Britannica Quiz Pick Your Battles Quiz The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Adam Augustyn.