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NED HARRISON specializes in military history. He writes about the Civil War and the involvement of Virginia and Roanoke people in it. If you know the stories of ancestors who were part of the war years, either as soldiers or on the home front, you can write Harrison in care of The News & Record, P. O. Box 20848, Greensboro, N.C. 27420.

Lee proves himself with Seven Days' Battle

By NED HARRISON

How'd the North ever win with a general like George McClellan?

Richmond was in mortal danger when May turned into June in 1862.

The 105,000-man Union juggernaut that had landed at Fort Monroe on April 1 had bulled its way up the Peninsula between the York and James rivers to a place called Seven Pines, only 6 miles from the Confederate capital.

The Southern Army attacked May 31 and was repulsed by Federal troops. This was the period in warfare when the goal of every army was to capture the enemy's capital city; it was assumed by all sides that if that happened, the war would be decided. The Battle of Seven Pines seemed only the forerunner of a Northern victory and so was considered a tragedy in the South.

If that were not enough to dishearten the Confederacy, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, commander of all Confederate forces defending Richmond, was severely wounded by a bullet through the shoulder and a shell fragment, and was knocked out of the war for six months.

President Jefferson Davis promptly appointed Gen. Robert E. Lee, his personal military adviser, to replace Johnston.

The appointment was not greeted with universal acclaim. Richmond citizens forgot that Lee was the officer who had led the Federal detachment in the capture of John Brown at Harper's Ferry in October 1859. Nor did they consider that President Abraham Lincoln had invited Lee to command all Federal armies after the Confederacy fired on Fort Sumter and war had become inevitable.

What they did remember was that Lee had a poor record early in the war. His first Confederate command was defending the western regions of Virginia. Although not actually on the scene, he could not prevent his former subordinate, Union Gen. George McClellan, from winning the Battle of Rich Mountain in July 1861. McClellan became an instant war hero.

Davis then ordered Lee to oversee the coastal defenses along the Georgia and South Carolina coasts; he feared Union raids in both states. By May 1862, Lee was back in Richmond advising Davis, whose confidence in him did not waver.

When Lee was appointed to replace Johnston, the Richmond Examiner referred to him as "Evacuating Lee," a reference to what had happened in Western Virginia, even though Lee had been in Richmond when the battle was fought.

The newspaper thought so little of Lee that they reminded readers Lee had "never risked a single battle with the invader."

Clearly pleased by Lee's appointment was Gen. McClellan, in command of the Union Army trying to capture Richmond. He commented that Lee was apt to be "cautious and timid and irresolute in action."

Lee ignored the criticism and set about reorganizing the army and defending his capital. His first action was to dig trenches and fortifications around Richmond, which only earned him the nickname "king of spades" from his critics. But he satisfied Davis when he explained that far from being on the defensive, his intention was to build an army that could protect the city with one part of his forces, and go on the attack with the other.

As usual, McClellan believed himself outnumbered by the enemy; he bombarded Washington with calls for additional troops and claimed he had proof that Lee commanded a force of 200,000 soldiers, while he commanded only 105,000. (The actual numbers were 85,000 Confederates, including Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson's unit from the Shenandoah, against McClellan's 105,000.)

McClellan also disclaimed any responsibility should he be defeated: "I shall have to contend with vastly superior odds." He made a further disclaimer that if his army were defeated "by over-whelming numbers . . . the responsibility cannot be thrown on my shoulders."

By the end of June 1862, Lee was ready; he attacked on the 26th, actually the second day of what has become known as the Seven Days' Battle.

The locations of the fighting that week are now a roster of American bravery and loss: June 25, Oak Grove; June 26, Mechanicsville; June 27, Gaines Mill; June 29, Savage Station; June 30, Glendale; and July 1, Malvern Hill. On July 2, the Federal Army retreated to Harrison's Landing on the James River under the protection of Union navy guns. McClellan referred to this as a "strategic retreat." Less generous observers called it "the great skedaddle."

The threat to Richmond had evaporated. Just as significant, the Seven Days' Battle had changed the course of the war. Lee now had the initiative in the east, and sustained it until the terrible day at Antietam Creek the following September.

But the price was brutal, and seared both nations. The week of the Seven Days' Battle cost McClellan more than 15,000 casualties. Lee lost more than 20,000 men, his most precious and limited commodity. But after the Seven Days' Battle, the South knew it had found its leader, a man it could love, a man to whom it could pledge its lives, its fortunes and its honor.

It would take the North almost two more years before it found a similar leader.

Virginia and the Civil War

Walter Hendrick of Marion wrote to say:

"My great-grandfathers on both sides of my family were in the Civil War. Moses Hurt Hendrick, who lived southeast of Lynchburg, Va., at Concord Station (also near Appomattox) served in the 42nd Virginia Infantry, Company I.

"My great grandfather on my mother's side, Thomas Ogle, who lived in the Little Vine Section . . . Carroll County, Va., served in the 63rd Virginia Infantry, Company I."

The 42nd Virginia Infantry Regiment "consisted of 10 companies, which came from seven counties south and southwest of Lynchburg . . . a mobilization center. Companies A, F, and G came from Henry County, B from Floyd, C from Bedford, D and I from Campbell, E from Roanoke, H from Patrick, and K from Franklin County."

Hendrick adds with pride:

"The 42nd Virginia Infantry . . . was one of the original units in 'Jackson's Foot Cavalry' in the Army of the Valley, and was in 'Jones' brigade,' Jackson's Division of the II Army Corps in the Army of Northern Virginia."

Hendrick's letter describes the hardships suffered by the men of the 42nd Virginia Infantry: inadequate food, forced marches, lack of clothing and poor medical care.

In the Valley Pike Battle, March 23, 1862, "Moses Hurt Hendrick was left on the field and was reported as 'killed in action.' 'Hurt,' as he was called, was wounded in the left cheekbone area of his face. He was picked up by Federal forces, which probably saved his life due to their better medical facilities."

The service of the 42nd was typical of all who fought for their independence. Their battles are a history of the Civil War: Chancellorsville, Winchester, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Bethesda Church and Cold Harbor - to name only a few.

And they suffered tragic casualties. Company I was typical:

"Of the four officers and 80 enlisted men [who] joined the 42nd Infantry . . . on July 11, 1861, only five returned to lay down their arms, three years and nine months later, at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865."

Hendrick adds a footnote:

"During their service, the 42nd had marched over 3,300 miles, exclusive of travel by rail." Perhaps the most important part of Walter Hendrick's letter notes, "I have tried to document the stories before they are lost, for the family record. The information was pieced together from news sources, published data, muster slips from the archives, letters from soldiers, and information passed down from my aunts and uncles, some of whom still survive and are in their 80s and 90s."