A Thousand Words a Battle: Glendale
Battle of Glendale, The Seven Days
June 30, 1862
On June 30, 1862, during the Seven Days’ Campaign, Robert E. Lee had 72,000 men poised to cut the retreating Federal army in half and destroy as much of it as possible. At the Glendale intersection, Lee planned for 29,000 men under Benjamin Huger, James Longstreet, and A. P. Hill to break through hastily organized Union defenses, while Stonewall Jackson led his army and the division of D. H. Hill across White Oak Swamp to crush a large part of the enemy army. Theophilus Holmes was to lend support on the River Road. Unfortunately for the Confederacy, Huger, Holmes and Jackson all failed in their roles this day. Longstreet attacked, but owing to the difficult topography and poor communications, his assault became a series of broken actions, while A.P. Hill’s division was held in reserve. The fight was nonetheless brutal, often hand-to-hand, and was in many ways a precursor to Spotsylvania.
Late in the afternoon, Confederate Colonel Micah Jenkins led an attack near the batteries at the Union center. Captain John Cuthbertson of the Ninth Pennsylvania Reserves recalled the action:
This regiment was at the commencement of the action of June 30 placed in support of Cooper’s battery. The enemy consumed a couple of hours in a number of ineffectual attempts to take this battery, several times charging up within a few yards of the guns, but each time driven back with great slaughter. About 6 o’clock . . . we were moved to the rear of Cooper’s battery, which had just been taken by the enemy. The regiment was ordered to retake the battery, and the men advanced, cheering lustily to the attack., although it was in possession of a superior force and was defended with great vigor.
A hand-to-hand struggle ensued; muskets were clubbed and bayonets were used; the enemy was driven from the guns, fleeing in great confusion, our men after them to the road. Here our men were with difficulty halted, I having to catch hold of the color-bearer to stop him.
The regiment fell back. Soon afterward a body of the enemy several times our number came up and were at once engaged, our men behaving with a valor and heroism that could not be surpassed. Though not over 50 yards separated us and officers and men fell rapidly under the terrible fire, not a man faltered. In a few minutes a musket-ball passed through both my thighs. It was then nearly dark, and as I was carried off I could see my gallant comrades were still maintaining the unequal contest with at with a recklessness of life that astonishes me now when I calmly reflect upon it.[1]
A Confederate who attacked the batteries remembered the horror:
The sullen ‘thud’ of the grape shot as they bury themselves into the bodies of the men is an appalling sound—one that can never be forgotten… whole companies are decimated.”[2]
Thomas J. Goree, one of Longstreet’s staff officers, recalled Jenkins “weeping like a child” the slaughter of his men. Jenkins told Goree that he had prayed that he would share in their deaths. It was a day he would never forget.[3]
The division of A. P. Hill was brought in late in the day, with darkness falling close behind. While the Confederates held the field that night, Lee missed one of his greatest opportunities. His army lost about 3,500 men and gained little. The Federals casualties were nearly 2,800. The next day, the slaughter would continue at Malvern Hill.
— Doug Crenshaw
[1] Letter from Captain John Cuthbertson to General George McCall. OR, Series 1, Vol. 11, Part 2, p. 396.
[2] Baldwin, James J. III, Struck Eagle: A Biography of Brigadier Micah Jenkins and a History of the Fifth South Carolina Volunteers and the Palmetto Sharpshooters, 134. Baldwin cites the James R. Boulware Diary, June 18, 1862, from the Virginia State Library.
[3] Ibid, 141. Baldwin cites Goree’s letter to his mother of July 21, 1862; Supplement to the Official Records, Series 1, Vol. 2, 443.
