Articles · 1862 Campaigns
From June 25 to July 1, 1862, Robert E. Lee launched a relentless series of attacks against McClellan's army outside Richmond—Mechanicsville, Gaines' Mill, Savage's Station, Glendale, and Malvern Hill—known together as the Seven Days Battles.
Lee's assaults were often disjointed and bloody, and at Malvern Hill on July 1 his army was repulsed with heavy loss. Yet the cumulative effect was decisive: McClellan abandoned his campaign and retreated to the James River.
The Seven Days saved Richmond and transformed the war in the East. Lee had seized the initiative, and within months he would carry the fighting north toward Antietam.
The Seven Days belong to the Eastern Theater campaigns documented throughout this archive. For maps of the wider war, see the American Civil War hub.