Battle of Glendale

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Battle of Glendale


caption="Monday's fight. The battle of Charles City road."
Alfred R. Waud, artist, June 30, 1862.
partof=the American Civil War
date=June 30, 1862
place=Henrico County, Virginia
result=Inconclusive (Union withdrawal continued)
combatant1= flagicon|USA|1861 United States (Union)
combatant2= flagicon|CSA|1861 CSA (Confederacy)
commander1=George B. McClellan [Army of the Potomac commander in McClellan was not present at the battle and named no second-in-command. The highest-ranking corps commander was Maj. Gen. Edwin V. Sumner.]
commander2=Robert E. Lee
strength1=40,000 [Kennedy, p. 100.]
strength2=45,000 [Salmon, p. 113.]
casualties1=3,797 (297 killed, 1,696 wounded, and 1,804 missing or captured)Eicher, p. 293.]
casualties2=3,673 (638 killed, 2,814 wounded, and 221 missing)|

The Battle of Glendale, also known as the Battle of Frayser's Farm, Frazier's Farm, Nelson's Farm, Charles City Crossroads, New Market Road, or Riddell's Shop, took place on June 30, 1862, in Henrico County, Virginia, as the fifth of the Seven Days Battles (Peninsula Campaign) of the American Civil War.

The Confederate divisions of Maj. Gens. Benjamin Huger, James Longstreet, and A.P. Hill converged on the retreating Union Army in the vicinity of Glendale or Frayser's Farm. Longstreet's and Hill's attacks penetrated the Union defense near Willis Church, routing Brig. Gen. George A. McCall's division, and capturing McCall. Union counterattacks by Brig. Gens. Joseph Hooker's and Philip Kearny's divisions sealed the break and saved their line of retreat along the Willis Church Road. Huger's advance was stopped on the Charles City Road. The divisions led by Maj. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson were delayed by Brig. Gen. William B. Franklin's corps at White Oak Swamp. Confederate Maj. Gen. Theophilus H. Holmes made a feeble attempt to turn the Union left flank at Turkey Bridge but was driven back by Federal gunboats in the James River.

This had been Lee's best chance to cut off the Union army from the James River. That night, the Union army established a strong position on Malvern Hill.

Background

The Seven Days Battles began with a Union attack in the minor Battle of Oak Grove on June 25, 1862, but McClellan quickly lost the initiative as Lee began a series of attacks at Beaver Dam Creek on June 26, Gaines' Mill on June 27, the minor actions at Garnett's and Golding's Farm on June 27 and June 28, and the attack on the Union rear guard at Savage's Station on June 29. McClellan's Army of the Potomac continued its retreat toward the safety of Harrison's Landing on the James River. [Salmon, p. 64.]

After Gaines' Mill, McClellan left his army with no clear instructions on routes of withdrawal and without naming a second-in-command. The bulk of the V Corps, under Brig. Gen. Fitz John Porter, moved to occupy Malvern Hill, while the remaining four corps of the Army of the Potomac were essentially operating independently in their fighting withdrawal. Most elements of the army had been able to cross White Oak Swamp Creek by noon on June 30. About one third of the army had reached the James River, but the remainder was still marching between White Oak Swamp and Glendale. (Glendale was the name of a tiny community at the intersection of the Charles City Road and the Quaker Road, or Willis Church Road, which led over Malvern Hill to the James River.) [Burton, p. 165.] After inspecting the line of march that morning, McClellan rode south and boarded the ironclad USS "Galena" on the James. [Eicher, pp. 290-91; Kennedy, p. 98; Salmon, p. 113.]

Lee ordered his Army of Northern Virginia to converge on the retreating Union forces, bottlenecked on the inadequate road network. The Army of the Potomac, lacking overall command coherence, presented a discontinuous, ragged defensive line. Stonewall Jackson was ordered to press the Union rear guard at the White Oak Swamp crossing while the largest part of Lee's army, some 45,000 men, would attack the Army of the Potomac in mid-retreat at Glendale, about 2 miles southwest, splitting it in two. Huger's division would strike first after a three-mile march on the Charles City Road, supported by Longstreet and A.P. Hill, whose divisions were about 7 miles to the west, in a mass attack. Holmes was ordered to capture Malvern Hill. [Eicher, p. 291; Salmon, pp. 113-15.]

Battle

As with most of the Seven Days Battles, Lee's plan was poorly executed. Huger was slowed by felled trees obstructing the Charles City Road, a result of the efforts of pioneers from Brig. Gen. Henry W. Slocum's division. Huger had his men spend hours chopping a new road through the thick woods. He failed to take any alternative route, and, fearing a counterattack, failed to participate in the battle. Maj. Gen. John B. Magruder marched around aimlessly, unable to decide whether he should be aiding Longstreet or Holmes; by 4 p.m., Lee ordered Magruder to join Holmes on the River Road and attack Malvern Hill. Stonewall Jackson moved slowly and spent the entire day north of the creek, making only feeble efforts to cross and attack Franklin's VI Corps in the Battle of White Oak Swamp, attempting to rebuild a destroyed bridge, although adequate fords were nearby, and engaging in a pointless artillery duel. (Despite his stunning victories in the recent Valley Campaign, or perhaps due to the fatigue of that campaign, Jackson's contributions to the Seven Days were marred by slow execution and poor judgment throughout.) Holmes's relatively inexperienced troops made no progress against Porter at Turkey Bridge on Malvern Hill, even with the reinforcements from Magruder, and were repulsed by effective artillery fire and by the Federal gunboats "Galena" and "Aroostook" on the James. [ Kennedy, p. 100; Salmon, p. 115; Eicher, pp. 291-92.]

At 2 p.m., as they waited for sounds of Huger's expected attack, Lee, Longstreet, and visiting Confederate President Jefferson Davis were conferring on horseback when they came under heavy artillery fire, wounding two men and killing three horses. A.P. Hill, the commander in that sector, ordered the president and senior generals to the rear. Longstreet attempted to silence the six batteries of Federal guns firing in his direction, but long-range artillery fire proved to be inadequate. He ordered Col. Micah Jenkins to charge the batteries, which brought on a general fight around 4 p.m. [Burton, p. 275; Sears, p. 290; Kennedy, p. 100.]

Although belated and not initiated as planned, the assaults by the divisions of A.P. Hill and Longstreet, under Longstreet's overall command, turned out to be the only ones to follow Lee's order to attack the main Union concentration. Longstreet's 20,000 men were not reinforced by other Confederate divisions of Huger and Jackson, despite their concentration within a three-mile radius. They assaulted the disjointed Union line of 40,000 men, arranged in a two-mile arc north and south of the Glendale intersection, but the brunt of the fighting was centered on the position held by the Pennsylvania Reserves division of the V Corps, 6,000 men under Brig. Gen. George A. McCall, just west of the Nelson Farm owned by Nelson, north of Willis Church. (The farm was owned by R.H. Nelson, but its former owner was named Frayser and many of the locals referred to it as Frayser's, or Frazier's, Farm.) [Sears, p. 294.] McCall's division included the brigades of Brig. Gen. George G. Meade on the right and Brig. Gen. Truman Seymour on the left, with the brigade of Brig. Gen. John F. Reynolds (led by Col. Seneca G. Simmons since Reynolds's capture at Boatswain's Swamp after Gaines' Mill) in reserve. [Kennedy, p. 100; Salmon, p. 116.]

Three Confederate brigades were sent forward in the assault, from north to south: Brig. Gen. Cadmus M. Wilcox, Col. Micah Jenkins (Anderson's Brigade), and Brig. Gen. James L. Kemper. Longstreet ordered them forward in a piecemeal fashion, over several hours. Kemper's Virginians charged through the thick woods first and emerged in front of five batteries of McCall's artillery. In their first combat experience, the brigade conducted a disorderly but enthusiastic assault, which carried them through the guns and broke through McCall's main line with Jenkins's support, followed up a few hours later by Wilcox's Alabamans. The Confederate brigades met stiff resistance from Meade and Seymour in sometimes hand-to-hand combat. Meade was wounded in the fighting and one of his artillery batteries captured. McCall was captured when he mistakenly rode into the Confederate picket line, looking for positions to place reinforcements. [Sears, pp. 294-99; Kennedy, p. 100; Salmon, p. 116.]

On McCall's flanks, the divisions of Brig. Gen. Joseph Hooker (to the south) and Brig. Gens. Philip Kearny and Henry W. Slocum (to the north), held against repeated Confederate attacks. Brig. Gen. John Sedgwick's division, which had units both in reserve and around White Oak Swamp, came up to fill a gap after a brutal counterattack. Heavy fighting continued until about 8:30 p.m. Longstreet committed virtually every brigade in the divisions under his command, while on the Union side they had been fed in individually to plug holes in the line as they occurred. [Sears, pp. 300-06; Kennedy, p. 100; Salmon, p. 116.]

Aftermath

The battle was tactically inconclusive, although Lee failed to achieve his objective of preventing the Federal escape and crippling McClellan's army, if not destroying it. Longstreet's performance had been poor, sending in brigade after brigade in a piecemeal fashion, rather than striking with concentrated force in the manner for which he would be known later in the war. He also was not supported by Huger and Jackson, as Lee had planned. Union casualties were 3,797 (297 killed, 1,696 wounded, and 1,804 missing or captured). Confederate casualties were comparable in total—3,673 (638 killed, 2,814 wounded, and 221 missing)—but more than 40% higher in killed and wounded. Longstreet lost more than a quarter of his division. [Sears, p. 307.] Union generals Meade and Edwin V. Sumner and Confederate generals Joseph R. Anderson, Dorsey Pender, and Winfield S. Featherston were wounded.

On the evening of June 30, McClellan, who had witnessed none of the fighting, wired the War Department: "My Army has behaved superbly and have done all that men could do. If none of us escape we shall at least have done honor to the country. I shall do my best to save the Army." He later requested 50,000 reinforcements (which the War Department had no chance of providing). "With them, I will retrieve our fortunes." [Wert, pp. 116-17.]

After the battle, Lee wrote, "Could the other commands have cooperated in this action, the result would have proved most disastrous to the enemy." [Lee's battle report, Official Records, Series I, Vol XI/2 [S# 13] .] Confederate Maj. Gen. D.H. Hill was even more direct: "Had all our troops been at Frayser's Farm, there would have been no Malvern Hill." [Alexander, p. 98.] Confederate Brig. Gen. Edward Porter Alexander wrote after the war that, "Never, before or after, did the fates put such a prize within our reach. It is my individual belief that on two occasions in the four years, we were within reach of military successes so great that we might have hoped to end the war with our independence. ... The first was at Bull Run [in] July 1861 ... This [second] chance of June 30, 1862 impresses me as the best of all." [Alexander, pp. 109-110.]

Lee would have only one more opportunity to intercept McClellan's army before it reached the safety of the river and the end of the Seven Days, at the Battle of Malvern Hill on July 1. [Salmon, p. 66.]

References

* Alexander, Edward P., and Gallagher, Gary W. (editor), "Fighting for the Confederacy: The Personal Recollections of General Edward Porter Alexander", University of North Carolina Press, 1989, ISBN 0-8078-4722-4.
* Burton, Brian K., "Extraordinary Circumstances: The Seven Days Battles", Indiana University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-253-33963-4.
* Eicher, David J., "The Longest Night: A Military History of the Civil War", Simon & Schuster, 2001, ISBN 0-684-84944-5.
* Esposito, Vincent J., [http://www.dean.usma.edu/history/web03/atlases/american_civil_war/index.htm "West Point Atlas of American Wars"] , Frederick A. Praeger, 1959.
* Kennedy, Frances H., ed., "The Civil War Battlefield Guide", 2nd ed., Houghton Mifflin Co., 1998, ISBN 0-395-74012-6.
* Salmon, John S., "The Official Virginia Civil War Battlefield Guide", Stackpole Books, 2001, ISBN 0-8117-2868-4.
* Sears, Stephen W., "To the Gates of Richmond: The Peninsula Campaign", Ticknor and Fields, 1992, ISBN 0-89919-790-6.
* U.S. War Department, [http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/moa/browse.monographs/waro.html "The War of the Rebellion"] : "a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies", U.S. Government Printing Office, 1880–1901.
* Wert, Jeffry D., "The Sword of Lincoln: The Army of the Potomac", Simon & Schuster, 2005, ISBN 0-7432-2506-6.
* [http://www.cr.nps.gov/hps/abpp/battles/va020b.htm National Park Service battle description]

Notes

External links

* [http://www.historyanimated.com/Peninsulah.html Animated History of The Peninsula Campaign]
* [http://www.civilwar.org/travelandevents/t_vs_glendalemalvernhill.htm Glendale and Malvern Hill battlefields] at the Civil War Preservation Trust