Battle of Malvern Hill The Battle of Malvern Hill , also known as the Battle of Poindexter ' s Farm , took place on July 1 , 1862 , in Henrico County , Virginia , on the seventh and last day of the Seven Days Battles ( Peninsula Campaign ) of the American Civil War . 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 , Maj . Gen . George B . McClellan withdrew to entrench at Harrison ' s Landing on the James River , where his army was protected by gunboats , ending the Peninsula Campaign . Background . The final battle of the Seven Days was the first in which the Union Army occupied favorable ground . For the preceding six days , McClellan ' s Army of the Potomac had been retreating to the safety of the James River , pursued by Lee ' s Army of Northern Virginia . Up to this point , the major battles of the Seven Days had been mostly inconclusive , but McClellan was unnerved by Lee ' s aggressive assaults and remained convinced that he was seriously outnumbered , although in fact the two armies were roughly equal . Malvern Hill offered good observation and artillery positions , having been prepared the previous day by the V Corps , under Brig . Gen . Fitz John Porter . McClellan himself was not present on the battlefield , having preceded his army to Harrison ' s Landing on the James , and Porter was the most senior of the corps commanders . The slopes were cleared of timber , providing great visibility , and the open fields to the north could be swept by deadly fire from the 250 guns placed by Col . Henry J . Hunt , McClellan ' s chief of artillery . Three gunboats on the James River , the USS " Galena " , USS " Jacob Bell " , and USS " Aroostook " , added even more firepower . Beyond this space , the terrain was swampy and thickly wooded . The entire Army of the Potomac occupied the hill , with the exception of Brig . Gen . Silas Casey ' s Division , now commanded by Brig . Gen . John J . Peck , of the IV Corps , which had proceeded to Harrison ' s Landing and , while not engaged , formed the extreme right of the Federal line . The Federal line extended in a vast semicircle from Harrison ' s Landing on the extreme right to Brig . Gen . George W . Morell ' s division of Porter ' s Corps on the extreme left , which occupied the geographically advantageous ground on the northwestern slopes of the hill . Adjoining the right of Morell ' s command was Brig . Gen . Darius N . Couch ' s division , which had been detached from the IV Corps , now at Harrison ' s Landing , and occupied the effective center of the Federal position . Although Porter commanded the portion of the field on which Couch ' s troops were positioned , he elected to allow Couch to act in command independently , not bringing his detached division under the command of one of the other corps commanders . Extending the Federal line on Couch ' s right were the divisions of Brig . Gens . Philip Kearny and Joseph Hooker of Brig . Gen . Samuel P . Heintzelman ' s III Corps . To the right was Brig . Gen . Edwin Vose Sumner ' s II Corps , consisting of the divisions of Brig . Gens . Israel B . Richardson and John Sedgwick , which were anchored to Peck ' s Division of the IV Corps at Harrison ' s Landing . For the most part however , the Union infantry were passive spectators in the battle . Rather than flanking the position , Lee attacked it directly , hoping that his artillery would clear the way for a successful infantry assault ( just as he would plan the following year in Pickett ' s Charge at Gettysburg ) . He also believed that his soldiers were in better fighting shape than their Union counterparts , despite the six preceding days of hard fighting and marching . ( A number of the Union Corps had in fact not yet participated in direct combat . ) Lee ' s plan was to attack the hill from the north on the Quaker Road , using the divisions of Maj . Gens . Thomas J . " Stonewall " Jackson , Richard S . Ewell , D . H . Hill , and Brig . Gen . William H . C . Whiting . Maj . Gen . John B . Magruder was ordered to follow Jackson and deploy to his right when he reached the battlefield . Maj . Gen . Benjamin Huger ' s division was to follow as well , but Lee reserved the right to position him based on developments . The divisions of Maj . Gens . James Longstreet and A . P . Hill , which had been the most heavily engaged in the Battle of Glendale the previous day , were held in reserve . Seeing how strong the Union position was , D . H . Hill opposed the idea of a direct attack , but Lee was confident that one final push would work . Battle . As with most of the battles in the Seven Days , Lee ' s complex plan was poorly executed . The approaching soldiers were delayed by severely muddy roads and poor maps . Jackson arrived at the swampy creek called Western Run and stopped abruptly . Magruder ' s guides mistakenly sent him on the Long Bridge Road to the southwest , away from the battlefield . Eventually the battle line was assembled with Huger ' s division ( brigades of Brig . Gens . Ambrose R . Wright and Lewis A . Armistead ) on the Confederate right and D . H . Hill ' s division ( brigades of Brig . Gen . John Bell Hood and Col . Evander M . Law ) on the Quaker Road to the left . They awaited the Confederate bombardment before attacking . Unfortunately for Lee , Henry Hunt struck first , launching one of the greatest artillery barrages in the war from 1 p . m . to 2 : 30 p . m . The Union gunners had superior equipment and expertise and disabled most of the Confederate batteries , which were concentrated on a hill north of the Crew House and at Poindexter ' s farm to the northeast . The advancing columns of Confederate infantry were blasted to pieces by the massed artillery . Even more terrifying were the huge 50 - pound shells lobbed from the three gunboats . Despite the setback , Lee sent his infantry forward at 3 : 30 p . m . and Armistead ' s brigade made some progress through lines of Union sharpshooters . By 4 p . m . , Magruder arrived and he was ordered forward to support Armistead . His attack was piecemeal and poorly organized . Meanwhile , D . H . Hill launched his division forward along the Quaker Road , past Willis Church . Across the entire line of battle , the Confederate troops reached only within of the Union Center and were repulsed by nightfall with heavy losses . As the sun was going down , Brig . General Isaac Trimble of Ewell ' s division began to move his troops forward . Jackson stopped him and asked " What are you going to do ? " Trimble replied " I ' m going to charge those batteries , sir ! " " I guess you ' d better not try it . " Jackson said . " General [ D . H . ] Hill has just tried with his entire division and been repulsed . I guess you ' d better not try it . " Aftermath . D . H . Hill wrote afterward in a postwar article , " It wasn ' t war ; it was murder . " Lee ' s army suffered 5 , 650 casualties ( versus 2 , 214 Union ) in this wasted effort , but continued to follow the Union army all the way to Harrison ' s Landing . On Evelington Heights , part of the property of Edmund Ruffin , the Confederates had an opportunity to dominate the Union camps , making their position on the bank of the James potentially untenable ; although the Confederate position would be subjected to Union naval gunfire , the heights were an exceptionally strong defensive position that would have been very difficult for the Union to capture with infantry . Cavalry commander Maj . Gen . J . E . B . Stuart reached the heights and began bombardment with a single cannon from Capt . John Pelham ' s artillery . This alerted the Federals to the potential danger and they captured the heights before any Confederate infantry could reach the scene . 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 . After reporting to the Union authorities in Washington that a further advance on Richmond was hopeless , McClellan ' s army was slowly transferred to northern Virginia to reinforce Pope . Battlefield preservation . Malvern Hill is credited by the National Park Service as being “ the best preserved Civil War battlefield in central or southern Virginia . ” Most recent preservation efforts there have been the consequence of cooperative efforts between Richmond National Battlefield Park and the Civil War Trust . The Trust purchased 952 acres at the heart of the battlefield in 2000 . This effort was bolstered by the Virginia Land Conservation Fund , the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities , and officials from Henrico County . Most of this tract wraps around the intersection of Willis Church Road and Carter ’ s Mill Road . The land includes the Willis Church Parsonage , which served as the starting point of the Confederate assaults on the day of the battle and the ruins of which remain visible there today .