Battle of Oak Grove The Battle of Oak Grove , also known as the Battle of French ' s Field or King ' s School House , took place on June 25 , 1862 , in Henrico County , Virginia , the first of the Seven Days Battles ( Peninsula Campaign ) of the American Civil War . Maj . Gen . George B . McClellan advanced his lines with the objective of bringing Richmond within range of his siege guns . Two Union divisions of the III Corps attacked across the headwaters of White Oak Swamp , but were repulsed by Maj . Gen . Benjamin Huger ' s Confederate division . McClellan , who was in the rear , initially telegraphed to call off the attack , but ordered another attack over the same ground when he arrived at the front . Darkness halted the fighting . Union troops gained only , at a cost of over a thousand casualties on both sides . Background . Following the stalemate at the Battle of Seven Pines on May 31 and June 1 , 1862 , McClellan ' s Army of the Potomac sat passively in their positions around the eastern outskirts of Richmond . The new commander of the Army of Northern Virginia , General Robert E . Lee , used the following three and a half weeks to reorganize his army , extend his defensive lines , and plan offensive operations against McClellan ' s larger army . McClellan received intelligence that Lee was prepared to move and that the arrival of Maj . Gen . Thomas J . " Stonewall " Jackson ' s force from the Shenandoah Valley was imminent . McClellan decided to resume the offensive before Lee could . Anticipating Jackson ' s reinforcements marching from the north , he increased cavalry patrols on likely avenues of approach . He wanted to advance his siege artillery about a mile and a half closer to the city by taking the high ground on Nine Mile Road around Old Tavern . In preparation for that , he planned an attack on Oak Grove , south of Old Tavern and the Richmond and York River Railroad , which would position his men to attack Old Tavern from two directions . Known locally for a stand of tall oak trees , Oak Grove was the site of Maj . Gen . D . H . Hill ' s assault at Seven Pines on May 31 and had seen numerous clashes between pickets since that time . The attack was planned to advance to the west , along the axis of the Williamsburg Road , in the direction of Richmond . Between the two armies was a small , dense forest , wide , bisected by the headwaters of White Oak Swamp . Two divisions of the III Corps were selected for the assault , commanded by Brig . Gens . Joseph Hooker and Philip Kearny . Facing them was the division of Confederate Maj . Gen . Benjamin Huger . Battle . At 8 : 30 a . m . , June 25 , three Union brigade s stepped off in orderly line of battle . From right to left , they were commanded by Brig . Gen . Daniel E . Sickles ( the Excelsior Brigade ) , Brig . Gen . Cuvier Grover , both of Hooker ' s division , and Brig . Gen . John C . Robinson from Kearny ' s division . Although Robinson and Grover made good progress on the left and in the center , Sickles ' s New Yorkers encountered difficulties moving through their abatis , then through the upper portions of the swamp , and finally met stiff Confederate resistance , all of which threw the Federal line out of alignment . Huger took advantage of the confusion by launching a counterattack with the brigade of Brig . Gen . Ambrose R . Wright against Grover ' s brigade . Adding to the confusion , one of Wright ' s Georgia regiments wore red Zouave uniforms . Many of Grover ' s men believed that only the Union Army had Zouave units , so were reluctant to fire on their own men . When they finally realized that Union troops would not be approaching from the direction of Richmond , they opened fire . At a crucial moment in the battle , the 25th North Carolina of Brig . Gen . Robert Ransom ' s brigade , in their first combat engagement , delivered a perfectly synchronized volley of rifle fire against Sickles ' s brigade , breaking up its delayed attack and sending the 71st New York into a panicked retreat , which Sickles described as " disgraceful confusion . " Informed of Sickles ' s reverse , corps commander Heintzelman ordered reinforcements sent forward and also notified army commander McClellan , who was attempting to manage the battle by telegraph from away . McClellan , unaware of most details of the engagement , became alarmed and at 10 : 30 a . m . ordered his men to withdraw back to their entrenchments , an order that mystified his subordinates on the scene . He telegraphed that he would be arriving at the front in person , which caused a 2 . 5 hour lull in the action . At 1 p . m . , seeing that the situation was not as bad as he had feared , McClellan ordered his men forward to retake the ground for which they had already fought once that day . The fighting lasted until nightfall . Aftermath . The minor battle was McClellan ' s only tactical offensive action against Richmond . His attack gained only at a cost of over 1 , 000 casualties on both sides and was not strong enough to derail the offensive planned by Robert E . Lee , which already had been set in motion . The next day , Lee seized the initiative by attacking at Beaver Dam Creek north of the Chickahominy River , near Mechanicsville , the first major battle of the Seven Days , and the beginning of a strategic retreat by the Union Army .