General Robert E. Lee Urgently Orders Up Reinforcements During the Momentous Seven Days Battles

The only Lee letter we can find from the Seven Days Battles to reach the market in over 30 years

Robert E. Lee is considered the very symbol of the Confederacy today, but interestingly was so considered even while the Civil War was ongoing. The rise of Lee from relative obscurity to the status of an icon was not the result of the slow, accumulated work of years of campaigns, but happened suddenly, explosively, as a result of his triumph in the Seven Days Battles.

When the war broke out, Lee was appointed to command all of Virginia’s forces in the newly formed Confederate Army. His first field assignment was commanding in western Virginia, where he was defeated at Cheat Mountain on September 11, 1861. He was widely blamed for the Confederate setback. Since he had experience as a military engineer, on November 5, 1861, he was named commander of the Department of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, and sent to organize the coastal defenses along the Carolina and Georgia seaboard. He did a fine job, but when Union forces captured Fort Pulaski in April 1862, and thus closed Savannah as a port usable by the Confederates, Lee was again blamed. At that point, Jefferson Davis, who has served with Lee in Mexico and knew his qualities, brought Lee to Richmond as his military adviser. While there Lee had extensive trenches dug around the city (that would play a pivotal role in battles near the end of the war), and was ridiculed as the ‘King of Spades’ for his efforts. Thus stood Lee and his reputation on June 1, 1862.

Meanwhile, Union General George B. McClellan intended to capture Richmond and end the war by attacking it from the east on the Virginia Peninsula. He brought the largest army in American history up till then, nearly 125,000 men, to the Peninsula in March 1862, and it outnumbered the Confederates almost two to one. His plan looked ingenious, and McClellan began moving his army westward towards Richmond. However, the Army of the Potomac struggled with an immense supply line and it moved slowly; nonetheless McClellan had momentum, and he and his army dictated the pace of events through May 1862. By June 1, despite its slow advance up the Peninsula, McClellan’s army was so close to Richmond that Union soldiers could hear the church bells ring in the city. The end of the war seemed as if it might be at hand.

On that day, June 1, the Battle of Seven Pines was fought. Both sides claimed victory with roughly equal casualties, but neither side’s accomplishment was impressive. McClellan’s advance on Richmond was halted, and the Army of Northern Virginia fell back into Richmond’s defensive works. However, the Confederate commander, Gen. Joseph Johnston, was seriously wounded during the action, and had to be replaced.

The wounding of Johnston signaled the start of a new era in the war – the Robert E. Lee years. Vigor replaced lethargy, aggressiveness supplanted caution. Lee would take to the offensive against McClellan and his mighty army, and would not only completely unnerve McClellan, but force the evacuation of the Union army from the region.

The activity began right away. Lee believed Richmond could not be held against the enormous Union army. The three options before the Confederate government, therefore, were to abandon Richmond, to fight a defensive battle for Richmond, or to attack. Lee personally rejected the first two alternatives and convinced Davis and his government to do likewise. He urged an attack as the best means by which to preserve Richmond. Within weeks of taking command Lee had his plan, had articulated it, and made ready to launch it. It would revolve around taking advantage of the extremely long and unwieldy Union supply lines, which McClellan would need to defend.

The major fighting began on June 26, when the Confederates struck at the Battle of Mechanicsville; and although they gained little that day, the presence of Gen. James Longstreet’s forces at his front and appearance of Gen. Stonewall Jackson’s men on his flank forced McClellan to abandon a major supply depot and fall back to high ground beyond Gaines’s Mill. For the next five days McClellan’s army moved back toward the James River, fighting a series of rearguard battles in a desperate effort to stave off the Confederates.

The Battle of Gaines’s Mill, on June 27, marked the first in that series of battles. Late that day, Lee hurled his force into an attack – the largest single attack he ever launched during the war. His infantry broke Union lines in at least two places, but insufficient daylight remained to completely overwhelm the foe. As their lines crumbled, entire Union regiments wandered through the smoky woods and fell into captivity at the hands of victorious Confederates. The Confederates had their first large, sweeping tactical victory in Virginia since Bull Run, and McClellan and his army made for the James.

Most of Confederate defenders of Richmond were stationed north of the Chickahominy River. On June 28, away from the main scene of action, Confederates forces attacked Union troops south of the Chickahominy. This was not a major assault, but one that helped to convince McClellan that he was being subjected to attacks from all directions, increasing his anxiety and his determination to get his army to safety on the James. The Army of the Potomac continued its retreat.

Both sides were suffering heavy losses, but Lee was determined to continue his attacks, and even to destroy McClellan’s force if possible. With the action moving away from Richmond, Lee sought to augment his depleted forces at the front by pulling many of the men manning the artillery guns guarding the Chickahominy. Col. Thomas Rhett was commander of batteries in the Richmond defenses, and Lee wrote him urgently instructing him to have these men sent to their regiments as reinforcements.

Letter signed, Headquarters Williamsburg Road, 28th June 1862, to Col. Thomas Rhett at Richmond. “I desire you to take charge of all the heavy guns on the Chickahominy Road, and relieve the companies now in charge of them, & order them to their regiments at once. It is not necessary to remove the guns at once, but a sufficient force should be sent to guard the guns and ammunition. Very respectfully, Your obt. servant, Robert E. Lee, General.” On the verso is an ANS of George Washington Randolph, Confederate Secretary of War, stating that in Rhett’s absence he himself ordered General Winder to implement the order. “Col. Rhett being absent, Genl. Winder have this order executed without delay. G.W. Randolph, Sec. of War.” Winder was a Confederate general who served as provost marshal of Richmond.

This is letter is unpublished. A search of public sale records indicates that this is one of only two Lee letters from the Seven Days Battles to reach the market in over 40 years, the other selling over 30 years ago.

On June 29, at the Battle of Savage’s Station, Lee attacked McClellan as he was pulling his army away from Richmond, ordering an assault on Union troops screening their army’s retreat. The Confederates inflicted serious damage on the foe but were not able to break its rear guard. The Confederates continued in pursuit, fighting on June 30 and July 1, when Lee’s attack at Malvern Hill resulted in a reverse. The next day, the Army of the Potomac arrived at Harrison’s Landing on the James River and commenced a six-week period of recovery and rehabilitation, before authorities in Washington transferred McClellan’s army back to the Potomac River in August.

Lee had out-thought and out-maneuvered McClellan, and inside of one week had heroically dispelled the gigantic Union threat to Richmond, encouraged the Confederacy, and spread dismay throughout the North. Lee was instantly the Civil War’s most consequential leader; in fact, seldom has one military man accomplished so much in so short a period of time.