(8-85) Richmond Battlefields Visitor Center
 
Any visit to the battlefields of the Peninsula Campaign or other battles fought around Richmond should start here at the Visitor Center of the Richmond Battlefields. To cover the area of the Seven Days battles requires a drive of approximately 80 miles along an arc to the east of Richmond
 
The 1862 Peninsula Campaign

(8-85) Seven Days Battles: Beaver Dam Creek
  
Advancing on Richmond, the bulk of McClellan's army was south of the Chickahominy River; however, the corps of General Fitz-John Porter was on the north side. Porter's corps was too tempting a target for the newly appointed commander of the Confederate forces, General Robert E. Lee. Lee struck Porter here at Beaver Dam Creek (also called the Battle of Mechanicsville or Battle of Ellerson's Mill)

Porter was to have been attacked in the flank by the troops of Stonewall Jackson, newly arrived from the Shenandoah Valley, but Jackson was late and the attack never came off. Porter's Federal troops beat off the Confederate attacks and withdrew to Gaine's Mill
 
This photo illustrates the type of terrain that typifies the battlefields of the Seven Days

(8-85) Seven Days Battles: Gaines' Mill
 
Built around 1835, the Watt House served as the headquarters of Union General Fitz-John Porter during the Battle of Gaines' Mill ( also known as the Battle of Boatswain's Creek or Battle of First Cold Harbor)

Gaines' Mill nearly had the same outcome as the Battle of Beaver Dam Creek; however, late in the afternoon, troops from Georgia and Hood's Texas Brigade cracked the Federal line. McClellan then began the movement he termed a "change of base". In reality, it began the retreat of McClellan's army from the Peninsula

(8-85) Seven Days Battles: Malvern Hill
 
After sharp battles at Glendale (Frayser's Farm), White Oak Swamp and Savage's Station, McClellan withdrew to Malvern Hill near the James River

This was Lee's last chance to snare the Union Army, but it was not to be. Successive waves of Confederate attackers were mown down by massed Federal artillery fire and the fire from supporting Union gunboats on the James

This 12-pounder Union Napoleon looks across the fields where Lee's men tried again and again in a vain attempt to crush McClellan's Union army. After the battle "Little Mac" withdrew to his base at Harrison's Landing