GAINES'S MILL, BATTLE OF. A battle fought on June 27, 1862, during the Civil War, between a Federal force of about 30,000 under General Fitz John Porter and a Confederate force of about 65,000 under General Lee, on the left or north bank of the Chickahominy River, eight miles northeast of Richmond, Va. It was the second of the famous Seven Days' Battles (q.v.) which marked the close of McClellan's Penin sular campaign. On the 27th of June, General Lee, having crossed the Chickahominy with the greater part of the army of Northern Virginia, • attacked Porter's position at 2 P.M., the Confed erate right, centre, and left being commanded by Longstrect, A. 1'. Hill, and Jackson respectively. Porter, though inadequately reinforced by Mc Clellan, offered a magnificent resistance, and stubbornly held his position in face of repeated assaults until 7 P.M., when his left centre at last gave way, and compelled a reformation at some distance to the rear of the whole line, under cover of two fresh brigades from the lett wing, commanded by French and Meagher. The main battle had been preceded by a sharp contest between the Confederate A. P. Hill, advancing from Mechanicsville, and the Ninth Massachu setts Volunteers at Gaines's Mill, slightly in advance of the main Federal position, and from this the whole battle takes its name. During the night of the 27th Porter joined the left wing south of the Chickahominy, and McClellan, com pelled to abandon his old base at White Horse on the York River, hastily made arrangements to transfer his army to the James. During the
progress of the battle McClellan, with the left wing, numbering fully 55,000 men, had been held in check by 25,000 Confederates under Ma gruder, and had been deceived into believing that a Confederate army, numbering over 100,000, lay between him and Richmond. Had he known the real state of affairs it seems probable that he could easily have overwhelmed Magruder and captured the city while Lee was occupied north of the river. On the other hand, Porter's stub born resistance gave Lee an erroneous impres sion of the Federal strength at this point. The total Federal loss in the battle of Gaines's Mill was 6387 men, besides 22 guns; while the Con federate loss, though never accurately deter mined, was probably as much as 1000 more. Two years later the battle of Cold Harbor (q.v.) was fought in this vicinity. Consult: Official Rec ords, vol. xi. (Washington, 1885) ; Johnson and Buel (editors), The Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, vol. ii. (New York, 1887) ; Ropes, The Story of the Civil War, vol. ii. (New York, 1894-98) ; Webb, The Peninsula (New York, 1881) ; and Nieolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln: A History, vol. v. (New York, 1890).