Compiled by Jim Hachtel, President
Gen. William T. Sherman Memorial Civil War Roundtable
June 24, 1862 - As the Army of the Potomac approaches Mechanicsville, Virginia, skirmishing breaks out. The Confederate forces abandon White House Landing.
June 24, 1862 - General Earl Van Dorn proceeds with the fortification of Vicksburg while about 3,000 Union soldiers camp directly across the river from the town.
June 25, 1862 - The Army of the Potomac is just six miles from Richmond, the closest they will get in the next 33 months. General McClellan orders cannons to be placed at Oak Grove, a swampy, wooded area in front of his army. The battle has an inconclusive value. General McClellan congratulates himself but only gained about 600 yards toward Richmond.
June 25, 1862 - The new Army of Virginia, made up of forces formerly under the command of Generals Irvin McDowell, John C. Fremont, and Nathaniel P. Banks is located in western Virginia under their new commander, General John Pope.
June 25, 1862 - At Pekin, (southern) Illinois, the Union League is founded to counter the growth of pro-Southern civic groups, to bolster Union morale, and to aid in the Union war effort.
June 26, 1862 - The battle planned by General Robert E. Lee to annihilate General Fitz John Porter's right wing pits 47,000 Confederates against 30,000 Union troops. The plan hinges on the arrival of General Thomas J. Jackson's army from the Shenandoah Valley. When General Jackson's exhausted army arrives at the assigned meeting point, no one is present with instructions so the army goes into bivouac. This first real battle of the Seven Days War is a technical Union win but the consequences are devastating to the Union. General McClellan orders General Porter to abandon the ground he just successfully defended and begins to move his own main army from the Pamunkey River to Harrison Landing on the James River. This move is ever after ridiculed by both sides as "the Great Skedaddle."
June 27, 1862 - President Lincoln receives a resignation letter from General Fremont and accepts the resignation of this controversial explorer, soldier, and politician.
June 27, 1862 - The Union V Corps moves about five miles to Gaines' Mill and establishes a defensive perimeter as General Lee's Confederates pursue. In spite of a series of blunders on both sides, an heroic charge by Union 2nd and 5th Cavalry troops covers the Union retreat and allows Porter's forces to escape the field. This is the bloodiest of the Seven Days Battles with 7,993 Confederate and 6,837 Union soldiers killed, missing, or wounded.
June 28, 1862 - Digging begins on the canal to skirt Vicksburg by altering a natural bend in the Mississippi River.
June 28, 1862 - General McClellan concludes that yet again he failed due to lack of requested reinforcements.
June 28, 1862 - Confederate forces under Colonel George T. Anderson are repulsed by Union troops at Garnett's and Golding's farms, Virginia. That night, General Robert Toombs, former Confederate Secretary of State, probes the Union line and also suffers defeat. These are the third and fourth battles of the "Seven Days Battles."
June 28, 1862 - Federal forces temporarily suspend the campaign on James Island and concentrate on the capture of Charleston, South Carolina.
June 28, 1862 - General Philip Sheridan moves Union Cavalry to Boonesboro, twenty miles south of Corinth, Mississippi and establishes a fortified outpost. General Braxton Bragg is believed to be in the area with a small Confederate force.
June 28, 1862 - General Earl Van Dorn arrives back in Vicksburg and continues the fortification of the town.
June 28, 1862 - The U.S. Navy vessels sail from Fortress Monroe to Harrison's Landing to secure communication for the Army of the Potomac, moving from Richmond.
June 29, 1862 - General John Magruder leaves Williamsburg, Virginia to look for Union forces moving north toward Richmond with the plan to attack the rearguard of any forces located. When the Union Army is found, Magruder is outnumbered; his 11,000 men to about 26,000 Union troops supported by 40 cannons. Even with these poor odds, Magruder attacks and Union General Edwin Sumner simply lobes shells toward the Confederate positions until a downpour brings the contact to a halt at 9:00 PM. Other than the substantial loss of men on both sides, little is accomplished and the II Corps moves on toward White Oak Swamp and Glendale.
June 29, 1862 - The Confederate Department of Alabama and West Florida disbands.
June 29, 1862 - The fifth major battle of the Seven Days Battles takes place at Savage's Station. Again, not much is gained by either side with General Jackson failing to properly execute the plan laid out by General Lee and General McClellan wonders why his forces can't work in the field the way it worked on the map. Both armies move toward Glendale.
June 30, 1862 - General McClellan's troops retreat after major action with General Lee's forces at White Oak Swamp or Glendale, the sixth of the "Seven Days Battles." Again, a very large casualty count, but no real victory for either side. The Union line of retreat is still open and they move to Malvern Hill, just two miles away and go into defensive positions. General Lee's Army prepares for another battle before the Union Army reaches Harrison's Landing; a spot General McClellan feels is defensible.
