Battle of Malvern Hill
The Union Army of Potomac approached the Rebel Capital of Richmond Virginia by an unexpected route. The route was up the Peninsula between the James and York Rivers. The Union force was massive and consisted of 5 corps, cavalry and artillery and over 100,000 men in all. The confederates could only muster up 60,000 men to face the Union’s advance. Leading the Union Army was George B. McClellan while Robert E Lee led the Confederate Army.
McClellan had begun to advance upon Richmond on May 31, 1862. The seven-day campaign began on June 25, 1862. During the seven-day campaign, McClellan felt that his army was outnumbered by the Confederate army. He decided to pull his army back twenty miles towards the James River to Malvern Hill. Robert E Lee, realizing that McClellan felt defeated, wanted to provide one more blow to McClellan’s army. On the last day of the campaign, the Battle of Malvern Hill would take place.
Early morning July 1, 1862, McClellan set up his army on top of Malvern Hill. He feared that his army was not ready for battle and that Robert E Lee would defeat them. Meanwhile, Robert E Lee was planning just that. Robert E Lee met early in the morning of July 1, 1862 with his lieutenants. Two of his lieutenants, James Longstreet and Stonewall Jackson, planned to attack the Confederates' right and left flanks. They believed that after this attack they would make the Union army unsettled, opening up the way for their infantry unit to attack the Union army. After their plan was put in place, they believed they were ready for the attack. The problem was that they were not ready.
Although they tried this plan multiple times, it never worked. This is because the Confederates leaders planned poorly and they also had no batteries for their radios, which led to miscommunication. The Confederate army never worked together to deliver the final blow. Instead they tried three different times and their artillery unit was left out in the open. The Union army was able to use these problems to their advantage. They were able to kill many of the Confederates' artillery soldiers and horses. Next came the infantry. The Confederate infantry, which was advancing on the hill, were killed because the Union army was able to dart in and out of wheat stacks located on top of the Malvern Hill, which worked to their advantage. The Confederate army eventually retreated and the battle ended.
During this battle, many soldiers became wounded, including our soldier Horace Rice. He received a gunshot wound to his left hand, which led him to be hospitalized until April 1863. Although Horace Rice’s army were the winners of this battle, they still lost 3,000 men. His army leader McClellan felt defeated and returned his army to Harrison’s landing. Though the Confederate army lost a total of 5,650 men, they were elated because they felt that Robert E Lee had protected their capital of Richmond.