The Battle of Malvern Hill

Saturday was such a beautiful Fall day that it seemed almost a crime to go home again after visiting the farmers market. Instead, I just kept driving. Past Richmond and onto 5, where the landscape is pocked with markers and plaques about the various Civil War battles that took place.

If you live in Richmond long enough (and not very long at that) the meaning behind those signs can sometimes be forgotten. It's just another park. Another green space.

But today, I pulled over in a beautiful field East of Richmond and found myself at the site of the Battle of Malvern Hill. For once, I walked around, taking the time to read the history. I hope I remember these kind of things as I drive by in the future. It's not just land, it's land that an almost unfathomable number of Americans died to protect -- on both sides of the battlefield.

The Battle of Malvern Hill was the sixth and last of the Seven Days' Battles. On July 1, 1862, Gen. Robert E. Lee launched a series of disjointed assaults on the nearly impregnable Union position on Malvern Hill. The Confederates suffered more than 5,300 casualties without gaining an inch of ground. Despite his victory, McClellan withdrew to entrench at Harrison's Landing on James River, where his army was protected by gunboats. The Battle of Malvern Hill ended the Peninsula Campaign. When McClellan's army ceased to threaten Richmond, Lee sent Jackson to operate against Maj. Gen. John Pope's army along the Rapidan River, thus initiating the Northern Virginia Campaign of the Civil War.

http://www.civilwar.org/battlefields/malvernhill/maps/malvernhillhistoricmap.html