Battle of Glendale
Battle of Glendale | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of the American Civil War | |||||||
![]() Contest around McCall's Cannons | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
![]() |
![]() | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
![]() |
![]() | ||||||
Units involved | |||||||
![]() |
![]() | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
40,000[3] | 45,000[4] | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
3,797 total (297 killed 1,696 wounded 1,804 missing or captured)[5] |
3,673 total (638 killed 2,814 wounded 221 missing)[5] |
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
Following the Battle of Gaines' Mill, Union Major General George B. McClellan ordered his Army of the Potomac to withdraw from its positions along the Chickahominy River and redeploy to a new base along the James River, under the protective fire of Union gunboats.
After the enemy disappeared in his front,
The coordinated assault envisioned by Lee failed to materialize due to difficulties encountered by Huger and lackluster efforts made by Major General
The battle was Lee's best chance to cut off the Union Army from the safety of the James River, and his efforts to bisect the Federal line failed. The Army of the Potomac successfully retreated to the James, and that night, the Union army established a strong position on Malvern Hill.[7]
Background
Military situation
The
After Gaines' Mill, McClellan left his army with no clear instructions regarding routes of withdrawal and without naming a second-in-command. The bulk of the V Corps (less the Third Division), under Brigadier General 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, New Market/Long Bridge, and Quaker [or Willis Church] Roads, which led over Malvern Hill to the James River.)[9] After inspecting the line of march that morning, McClellan rode south and boarded the ironclad USS Galena on the James River.[10]
Leaving the White Oak Swamp and traveling westward on the Long Bridge/New Market Road, the units of the Army of the Potomac made a 90-degree southward turn near the Glendale crossroad toward the James River, and this vulnerable junction was therefore a target of primary defensive importance. To protect the Army of the Potomac in transit, McClellan's corps commanders deployed divisions north-south in a defensive position along the Quaker Road and Charles City Road to protect against an eastward thrust by Lee's Army of North Virginia until the Army of the Potomac had arrived safely at Malvern Hill.[11]
Lee ordered his Army of Northern Virginia to converge upon 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. 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 (3.2 km) southwest, splitting it in two. Huger's division was to strike first after a three-mile (5 km) march on the Charles City Road, supported by Longstreet and A. P. Hill, whose divisions were about 7 miles (11 km) to the west, in a mass attack. Holmes was ordered to cannonade retreating Federals near Malvern Hill.[12]
Opposing forces
Union
Key Union Commanders |
---|
|
Confederate
Battle
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Seven_Days_June_30.png/325px-Seven_Days_June_30.png)
Lee's intended simultaneous thrust against the entire flank of the Union Army of the Potomac in transit failed materialize on June 30; as with many of the Seven Days Battles, Lee's elaborate grand strategy was poorly executed by his commanders, who were unable to coordinate the intricate details in the field.
From the northwest, Major General Benjamin Huger was slowed by felled trees obstructing the Charles City Road, the result of the efforts made by
To the south, Major General Theophilus Holmes's inexperienced troops (from his Department of North Carolina, attached to the Army of Northern Virginia) made no progress against Porter at Turkey Bridge and Malvern Hill and were repulsed by artillery fire and by the Federal gunboats Galena and Aroostook on the James.[13]
By 4 p.m., Lee ordered Major General John B. Magruder's command first to join Holmes on the River Road and attack Malvern Hill to the south, on the left flank of the Union line, then later ordered him to assist Longstreet at the center; as a result, Magruder's division spent much of the day countermarching.
Major General Thomas Jackson approached slowly from the northeast and spent the entire day north of the White Oak Creek, making only indifferent efforts to cross and attack Franklin's
At the same time, the Union Army near Glendale also faltered in its initial deployment; on the evening of June 29, the Third Division of the V Corps, under command of Brigadier General George A. McCall, was ordered to take up a defensive position ahead of the Glendale intersection to head-off any Confederate thrust made in that direction. Moving slowly after dark on inadequate roads, the brigades of McCall's division became lost and overshot the crossroad, only realizing they had missed their objective sometime in the early morning hours of June 30. Backtracking toward Glendale, the division arrived near dawn,[11] where it halted on its march to rejoin Porter, awaiting new orders. The gap in the Union line created by Sedgwick was noticed and plugged by McCall's three brigades after McCall and his brigadiers soon realized, to their genuine surprise, that nothing stood between them and the advancing divisions of Longstreet and Hill coming from the direction of Richmond.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e9/Frayser%27s_Farm_artillery_engagement.jpg/325px-Frayser%27s_Farm_artillery_engagement.jpg)
At 2 p.m., while Longstreet and A.P. Hill waited for the sounds of Huger's expected opening assault, Longstreet interpreted distant unidentified cannon fire as the signal to begin the coordinated attack. He opened upon McCall's line with his artillery, and McCall's artillery soon returned counter-battery fire.
Although belated and not initiated in the coordinated fashion as Lee planned, the combined assaults by the divisions of A. P. Hill and Longstreet (under Longstreet's overall command) would be the only units to follow Lee's order to attack the main Union concentration. Longstreet's 20,000 men were not joined by the Confederate divisions of Huger or Jackson, despite their concentration within a 3-mile (4.8 km) radius. Longstreet's troops assaulted the disjointed Union line of 40,000 men, arranged in a 2-mile (3.2 km) arc north and south of the Glendale intersection, but the brunt of the fighting centered on the position held by McCall's
Incidentally, of all the units of the Army of the Potomac present on the Peninsula, McClellan and his corps commanders had tasked the critical defense of this Glendale crossroad to units of the V Corps, the only corps heavily engaged north of the Chickahominy at Gaines' Mill; in particular, to McCall's Pennsylvania Reserves, which had been disproportionately engaged and suffered approximately 2,000 casualties during the fighting at Beaver Dam Creek and Gaines' Mill, consequently entering the fighting at Glendale in a greatly diminished capacity.[11] One historian of the Pennsylvania Reserves wrote of the division at Glendale, "Most of the men were fitter subjects for the hospital than for the battle-field."[18]
Three Confederate brigades were sent forward in the assault, from north to south: Brigadier General Cadmus M. Wilcox, Colonel Micah Jenkins (Anderson's Brigade), and Brigadier General James L. Kemper. Longstreet ordered them forward in a piecemeal fashion over several hours, and they were greatly hindered additionally by the difficulty of the terrain and overgrown forest. The 14th Alabama Infantry was one of the first units to advance and bore the brunt of the Union fire, after which they were "nearly annihilated." The 14th Louisiana also suffered many casualties and would thereafter refer to the battle as "the Slaughterhouse."[19] 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, Kemper's brigade conducted a disorderly but enthusiastic assault on the Whitlock Farm, which carried them through Seymour's two 1st New York Parrott rifle batteries on McCall's extreme left flank. This sudden disturbance caused McCall to deploy his reserve brigade under Simmons from the center to the left to answer the charge, leaving his right flank weakened and vulnerable. (Colonel Simmons, commanding the countercharge, was mortally wounded while driving Kemper back into the woods) Soon thereafter, the Confederates emerged opposite Meade's brigade and proceeded to break through the main line with Jenkins' support near the right center, followed up within a few hours by Wilcox's brigade of Alabamians in the center and right.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Monday%27s_fight._The_battle_of_Charles_City_road._Fought_by_Heintzelman_and_Franklin_LCCN2004660479.jpg/619px-Monday%27s_fight._The_battle_of_Charles_City_road._Fought_by_Heintzelman_and_Franklin_LCCN2004660479.jpg)
During the course of the battle, fighting gradually shifted from McCall's left (Kemper's assault at the Whitlock Farm) through the center (Jenkins' initial probing assault on Captain James H. Cooper and Lieutenant Frank P. Amsden's 1st Pennsylvania Artillery batteries) and to his right (Jenkins'/Wilcox's combined assaults on Meade's brigade where McCall's Division met Kearny's in the New Market Road). The Confederate brigades met stiff resistance from Meade and Seymour in bitter hand-to-hand combat where men stabbed each other with bayonets and used rifles as clubs. Officers even took to using their typically ornamental swords as weapons. Jenkins' brigade briefly captured Captain James H. Cooper's six 10-pounder Parrott rifles but were soon repulsed by the supporting infantrymen of the Pennsylvania Reserves regiments.[20]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c6/Charge_of_Confederates_Upon_Randol%27s_Battery.jpg/220px-Charge_of_Confederates_Upon_Randol%27s_Battery.jpg)
Wilcox enjoyed the most successful assault near dusk, when half of his brigade (the
McCall was captured when he mistakenly rode into the Confederate picket line after nightfall, looking for positions to place his rallied men. Seymour assumed command of the division, though he was also wounded. Generals Sumner and Heintzelman were both hit by stray bullets in the fighting; the former suffered no serious injury, but the latter was unable to use his right hand for a few weeks. Captain George W. Hazzard, commanding Battery A, 4th U.S. Artillery, was also mortally wounded.[23]
On McCall's northern flank, the division of Brigadier General Philip Kearny held against repeated Confederate attacks with reinforcements of Caldwell's brigade and two brigades from Slocum's division. On the southern flank, Brigadier General Joseph Hooker's division repelled and once pursued minor attacks. Sedgwick's division, whose brigades had returned from near 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.[24]
Aftermath
While the battle was tactically inconclusive, it was strategically a Federal victory: Lee failed to achieve his objective of preventing the Federal escape and crippling or destroying McClellan's army; conversely, in spite of heavy casualties, the Federal defenders withstood the Confederate assaults, allowing the bulk of the Army of the Potomac to pass safely through and successfully entrench at Malvern Hill.
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. Instead of attacking, both generals merely kept their divisions on the north side of White Oak Swamp and launched no action other than an occasional artillery exchange. 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.[25] Union Generals Meade, Heintzelman, Sumner and Confederate Generals Joseph R. Anderson, Dorsey Pender, and Winfield S. Featherston were wounded.[5]
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."[26] McClellan has received significant criticism from historians about his detachment from the battle, sailing on the Galena out of touch while his men fought.
Ethan Rafuse wrote that after McClellan supervised the deployment of three corps near the Glendale crossroads, what he did next "almost defies belief. ... Even though his men were at the time engaged in a fierce battle near Glendale ... he spent the afternoon on board the Galena, dining with [Captain] Rodgers and traveling briefly up river to watch the gunboat shelling of a Confederate division that had been spotted marching east along the River road toward Malvern Hill."
Brian K. Burton wrote, "more than on any other day, McClellan's judgment on [June 30, 1862] is suspect. He had arranged for signal communications between Malvern Hill and the river but that is a poor substitute. To leave units from five different corps at a vital point with no overall commander is to court disaster."
After the battle, Lee wrote, "Could the other commands have cooperated in this action, the result would have proved most disastrous to the enemy."[28]
Confederate Major General
After the war, Confederate Brigadier General Edward Porter Alexander (present at Glendale) wrote, "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."[30]
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.[31]
Part of the battle took place on Gravel Hill, a community established for slaves freed by Quaker Robert Pleasants before 1800. Although what had once been the historic Gravel Hill School had been destroyed, it was replaced by Gravel Hill Baptist Church in 1866, and the community remains close-knit today.[32]
Battlefield preservation
The American Battlefield Trust and its partners have acquired and preserved 726 acres (2.94 km2) of the battlefield in more than 15 separate acquisitions from 1995 through November 2021.[33]
See also
- Troop engagements of the American Civil War, 1862
- List of costliest American Civil War land battles
- Richmond in the Civil War
- Virginia in the American Civil War
- List of American Civil War battles
- List of Virginia Civil War units
Notes
- ^ (Union successfully withdrew to Malvern Hill)
- ^ Rafuse, p. 227; Sears, Gates of Richmond, pp. 280–81; Burton, pp. 241–42. Army of the Potomac commander McClellan was not present during the battle and named no second-in-command. The highest-ranking corps commander present was Maj. Gen. Edwin V. Sumner. Sears, Young Napoleon, p. 219, quotes Samuel P. Heintzelman as saying that McClellan's generals fought their troops "entirely according to their own ideas."
- ^ Kennedy, p. 100.
- ^ Salmon, p. 113.
- ^ a b c Eicher, p. 293.
- ^ The NPS battle summary Archived February 21, 2006, at the Wayback Machine lists the alternative names for the battle, although most other sources do not mention Riddell's Shop. Riddell's blacksmith shop was located at the Glendale crossroads (Sears, Gates of Richmond, p. 278) and was an alternative name for the Glendale Cross Roads (Welcher, p. 825). Another engagement took place in this area on June 13, 1864, during the Overland Campaign, and the name Riddell's Shop is usually used for that.
- ^ NPS Archived February 21, 2006, at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ Salmon, p. 64.
- ^ Burton, p. 165.
- ^ Eicher, pp. 290–91; Kennedy, p. 98; Salmon, p. 113.
- ^ a b c d e ""Stirring the Blood of Friend and Foe to Admiration" (Part One)". History Radar. 2020-08-18. Retrieved 2021-06-28.
- ^ Eicher, p. 291; Salmon, pp. 113–15; Burton, pp. 268–69; Sears, Gates of Richmond, p. 291.
- ^ Burton, pp. 257–58, 273–75; Kennedy, p. 100; Salmon, p. 115; Eicher, pp. 291–92.
- ^ Longstreet, James (1896). From Manassas to Appomattox: Memoirs of the Civil War in America. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company. p. 135.
- ^ Burton, p. 275; Sears, Gates of Richmond, p. 290; Kennedy, p. 100.
- ^ Sears, Gates of Richmond, p. 294.
- ^ Kennedy, p. 100; Salmon, p. 116.
- ^ Sypher, Josiah (1865). History of the Pennsylvania Reserve Corps. Lancaster, PA: Elias Barr & Co. p. 261.
- ISBN 9780817357740.
- ^ ""Stirring the Blood of Friend and Foe to Admiration" (Part Two)". History Radar. 2020-08-18. Retrieved 2021-06-28.
- ^ McCall, George A. (1884). "Report of George A. McCall, August 12, 1862". War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. 1. Vol. 11. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.
- ^ ""Stirring the Blood of Friend and Foe to Admiration" (Part Three)". History Radar. 2020-08-18. Retrieved 2021-06-28.
- ^ Burton, pp. 289, 295–96; Sears, Gates of Richmond, pp. 294–99; Kennedy, p. 100; Salmon, p. 116.
- ^ Sears, Gates of Richmond, pp. 300–306; Burton, pp. 282–86; Kennedy, p. 100; Salmon, p. 116.
- ^ Sears, Gates of Richmond, p. 307.
- ^ Wert, pp. 116–17.
- ^ Rafuse, p. 227; Burton, p. 243; Sears, Controversies and Commanders, p. 17.
- Official Records, Series I, Vol XI/2 [S# 13].
- ^ Alexander, p. 98.
- ^ Alexander, pp. 109–110.
- ^ Salmon, p. 66.
- ^ "The Descendants".
- ^ [1] American Battlefield Trust "Saved Land" webpage. Accessed November 30, 2021.
References
- Alexander, Edward P. Fighting for the Confederacy: The Personal Recollections of General Edward Porter Alexander. Edited by Gary W. Gallagher. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1989. ISBN 0-8078-4722-4.
- Burton, Brian K. Extraordinary Circumstances: The Seven Days Battles. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001. ISBN 0-253-33963-4.
- Eicher, David J. The Longest Night: A Military History of the Civil War. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001. ISBN 0-684-84944-5.
- Esposito, Vincent J. West Point Atlas of American Wars. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1959. OCLC 5890637.
- Kennedy, Frances H., ed. The Civil War Battlefield Guide. 2nd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1998. ISBN 0-395-74012-6.
- Longstreet, James. From Manassas to Appomattox: Memoirs of the Civil War in America. New York: J.B. Lippincott & Co., 1895.
- Meade, George Gordon, Jr., ed. The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, vol 1. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1913.
- Rafuse, Ethan S. McClellan's War: The Failure of Moderation in the Struggle for the Union. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-253-34532-4.
- Salmon, John S. The Official Virginia Civil War Battlefield Guide. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2001. ISBN 0-8117-2868-4.
- Sears, Stephen W. Controversies & Commanders: Dispatches from the Army of the Potomac. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1999. ISBN 0-395-86760-6.
- Sears, Stephen W. George B. McClellan: The Young Napoleon. New York: Da Capo Press, 1988. ISBN 0-306-80913-3.
- Sears, Stephen W. To the Gates of Richmond: The Peninsula Campaign. New York: Ticknor and Fields, 1992. ISBN 0-89919-790-6.
- War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Series 1, Vol. 11, Part 2. Washington, D.C.: G.P.O., 1884.
- Reports of Brigadier General Joseph Hooker (No. 36)
- Report of Captain James Thompson (No. 64)
- Reports of Lieutenant A.M. Randol (No. 102)
- Reports of Brigadier General George A. McCall (No. 154)
- Report of Brigadier General Truman Seymour (No. 155)
- Report of Colonel Albert L. Magilton (No. 163)
- Report of Major General James Longstreet (No. 300)
- Report of Brigadier General James L. Kemper (No. 302)
- Reports of Brigadier General Cadmus M. Wilcox (No. 304)
- Report of Major General Theophilus H. Holmes (No. 352)
- Welcher, Frank J. The Union Army, 1861–1865 Organization and Operations. Vol. 1, The Eastern Theater. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989. ISBN 0-253-36453-1.
- Wert, Jeffry D. The Sword of Lincoln: The Army of the Potomac. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005. ISBN 0-7432-2506-6.
- National Park Service battle description
- CWSAC Report Update
Further reading
- Crenshaw, Douglas. The Battle of Glendale: Robert E. Lee's Lost Opportunity. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2017. ISBN 978-1-62619-892-0.
- "Stirring the Blood of Friend and Foe to Admiration": Lieutenant Alanson Randol’s Battery E & G, 1st U.S. Artillery at the Battle of Glendale, June 30, 1862 Article and bibliography.
External links
- Battle of Glendale: Maps, histories, photos, and preservation news (Civil War Trust)
- Battle of Glendale in Encyclopedia Virginia
- Animated history of the Peninsula Campaign