FAIR OAKS (SEVEN PINES), Battle of. After the battle of Williamsburg (5 May 1862) the Army of the Potomac, under General McClellan, advanced cautiously up the Penin sula, established a base at White House and 20 May his advance crossed the Chickahominy at Bottom's Bridge, and the entire Fourth Corps under Gen. E. D. Keyes crossed on the 23d, taking position 25 May at Seven Pines, on the main road to Richmond, about five miles distant. The Third Corps, under Gen. S. P. Heintzelman, crossed 25 May. This left on the north bank the Second, Fifth and Sixth Corps, commanded respectively by Gens. E. V. Sum ner, Fitz John Porter and Wm. B. Franklin. McClellan began to rebuild destroyed bridges and to perfect communication between the two wings of his army astride the Chickahominy. The movements of McClellan north of the Chickahominy and information from his cav alry convinced Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, the Confederate commander, that General Mc Dowell with a strong corps was about to join McClellan from Fredericksburg, upon which, 28 May, he ordered up General Huger's divi sion from Petersburg and Drewry's Bluff and suggested to General Lee that every available command should be concentrated at Richmond. On 25 May General Casey's division of the Fourth Corps advanced from Seven Pines to Fair Oaks, about three-fourths of a mile, and threw up works covering the road, and on 30 May two brigades of Kearny's division, Third Corps, were advanced about a fourth of a mile in front of Savage Station to within support ing distance of Casey. General Couch's divi sion, Fourth Corps, was at Seven Pines and General Hooker's division, Third Corps, on the border of White Oak Swamp. Johnston, from his works, three miles in front of Richmond, watched McClellan's cautious advance. A recon noissance 30 May developed the fact that Keyes had advanced his lines to Fair Oaks; Johnston saw his opportunity and issued orders for an attack next day. The Army of the Potomac, 31 May, had 127,166 officers and men, of whom 98,008 were present for duty, and it had 280 guns. Johnston had about 63,000 effectives and was not well supplied with artillery. John ston purposed to throw 23 of his 27 brigades against Keyes and Heintzelman and with four brigades along the line of the river from New Bridge to Meadow Bridge prevent the rest of McClellan's army from crossing the stream. He purposed to move the 23 brigades by the Charles City, Williamsburg and Nine Mile roads, crush Keyes' corps and drive it back in disorder on Heintzelman and capture or des troy those two corps before any assistance could reach them from the north bank of the stream. There was some misunderstanding of orders on the morning of the 31st and much consequent delay, but at noon Gen. D. H. Hill's division of four brigades deployed in double line on either side of the Williamsburg Road, advanced on Casey's division at Fair Oaks and after a severe fight of two hours drove it back upon Couch's division at Seven Pines. Hill now received a reinforcement of one brigade, and two brigades of Keamy's division came to the assistance of Couch and Keyes, and the struggle was renewed at Seven Pines, with the result that the entire Union force was driven back to a line of entrenchments about a mile in the rear, which position was held. Three Union divisions had been engaged and suffered severely, and a part of Couch's division had been cut off. Gen. G. W. Smith, with several Confederate brigades, was observing the Chicka hominy, under orders to engage any troop that might cross the stream to assist Keyes and Heintzelman, or, if none came, he was to fall upon the right flanks of the Union lines en gaged. After waiting some time and belieying
that no Union troops would cross to the south bank of the stream, Smith put some of his troops in motion to make the flank attack, But it miscarried from the timely arrival of Sumner on the south bank of the Chickahominy. Sum ner, who was nearest Keyes and Heintzelman, heard the sound of battle at 1 o'clock and was at once in the saddle and ordered his troops under arms. A little later orders came from McClellan that he should be prepared to march at a moment's notice. Without waiting another moment he marched his two divisions to the Chickahominy and paused upon the two bridges, waiting orders to cross them. At 2.30 P.M. the order came to cross. Richardson could Let but one brigade of his division over the lower bridge and was obliged to move up and follow Sedgwick's division over the Grapevine Bridge, which swayed and tossed in the river. But the solid colum of Sedgwick's infantry, loading it with a weight with which even the angry Chickahominy could not trifle, soon pressed and held it down among the stumps of the trees, which in turn prevented its lateral motion. Once across, Sumner pressed forward on the road, deep with mud, toward Fair Oaks, and came up to Couch, who with four regiments and a bat tery had been cut from his division and was holding ground about a half mile from Fair Oaks, with Smith approaching to make his flank attack. But four of Sumner's regiments had formed on Couch when Smith attacked, two more soon followed, and these six regiments, with Couch's checked all efforts of Smith's four brigades to dislodge them and saved the day at Fair Oaks. Richardson's division came up at nightfall and formed on Sedgwick's left extend ing toward a brigade of Heintzelman's corps, while Hooker coming to the support of the de feated troops on the Williamsburg road filled vacant spaces in the line. There were now three corps across the Chickahominy in continuous order, ready for action when day should dawn. Near the close of the day General Johnston, the Confederate commander, was severely wounded and relinquished command to Gen. G. W. Smith. On the morning of 1 June, the Union army awaited attack, which was delivered by the Con federates, and on some parts of the line the fighting was severe, but the advantage remained with the Union troops, who regained most of the ground lost the previous day. On 1 June Gen. R. E. Lee was placed in command othe Army of Northern Virginia, but did not take direction of affairs on the field until the fighting was over, and 2 June withdrew to the fortifi cations around Richmond from which Johnston had advanced 31 May. The Union forces en gaged at Fair Oaks numbered about 36,000; the Confederates about 32,000. The Union loss ',vas 4,384 lcilled and wounded and 647 missing; the Confederate loss was 5,729 killed and wounded and 405 missing. Consult Alexander, (Military Memoirs of a Confederate) (1907) ; Allan, (The Army of Northern Virginia in 1862' ; (Battles and Leaders of the Civil War' (Vol. II) • McClellan, (My Own Story' ; Michie, (Life of General McClellan' ; (Official Records' (Vol. XI) • Walker, (History of the Second Army Corps;; Webb, (The Peninsula.)