Harvey Hill's Division after Gaines' Mill

Joined
May 4, 2018
I'm having a difficult time finding first person accounts out of HARVEY Hill's Division after Gaines' Mill. I need to divine his order of march to Malvern Hill and more specifically where his brigades were and how they attacked. I have figured out that GB Anderson's brigade was leading the march on July 1, but I don't know the order after that. I've been thru all of the DH Hill stuff and NC Troops. Any help on this would be appreciated. I could also use any first person accounts out of regiments in the brigades of Rodes/Gordon, Ripley, Colquitt, and Garland. Also any first person staff accounts. Ratchford, Hill's ADC, does not say much about it. I have generally figured out that GB Anderson's brigade was closest to the Yankees, and that the rest of the brigades were to his right and to the north. Contrary to the established history, there was a road running along Western Run that gave them cover while deploying. To get into the fight, some went down this road by the flank, and then deployed into line of battle to their right, but others speak of wheeling into line. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. I must say that I really have received excellent help from the folks on this board!
 
Are you talking about published works? I'll have to look further for that.

Until then, on this site I found someone who belonged to D.H. Hill's division and kept a diary, so there may be entries on Gaines' Mill too:
Calvin Leach, 1st North Carolina Infantry, D.H. Hill’s Division (Diary, Southern Historical Collection, UNC)

His diary has apparently been digitalized. Here's volume 1 which seems to go up to around June 1862 (PDF file, May 1862 is around page 70). Volume 2 starts with 1st July but hasn't apparently been combined into one PDF file. You can find the individual page scans here (if it doesn't lead you to the right place, just scroll down to "contents list", click on Folder 2 and then view each page).

If I find more, I'll post them.
 
I'm having a difficult time finding first person accounts out of HARVEY Hill's Division after Gaines' Mill. I need to divine his order of march to Malvern Hill and more specifically where his brigades were and how they attacked. I have figured out that GB Anderson's brigade was leading the march on July 1, but I don't know the order after that. I've been thru all of the DH Hill stuff and NC Troops. Any help on this would be appreciated. I could also use any first person accounts out of regiments in the brigades of Rodes/Gordon, Ripley, Colquitt, and Garland. Also any first person staff accounts. Ratchford, Hill's ADC, does not say much about it. I have generally figured out that GB Anderson's brigade was closest to the Yankees, and that the rest of the brigades were to his right and to the north. Contrary to the established history, there was a road running along Western Run that gave them cover while deploying. To get into the fight, some went down this road by the flank, and then deployed into line of battle to their right, but others speak of wheeling into line. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. I must say that I really have received excellent help from the folks on this board!

Stephen Sears provides some information on Confederate troop movements before Malvern Hill in "To the Gates of Richmond - The Peninsula Campaign." See pages 279, 310-315. There are first hand accounts listed in his references.

As to Rodes/Gordon's Brigade, I can offer the following:
Rodes/Gordon's Brigade was not involved in the next of the Seven Day’s battles, Savages’ Station. Instead, they recrossed the Chickahominy as part of Lee’s plan to bring his armies together at Glendale and crush the Yankees there. Jackson, who was now in command of the Confederate left, lead the troops across the York River Railroad and down the Charles City Road to White Oak Swamp. However, the bridge had been burnt by the retreating Federals, some of whom could be seen waiting across the creek. Confederate artillerists cleared out the Federals, and after the “Pioneer Corps” repaired the bridge, the Confederates crossed. The delay in crossing prevented Rodes/Gordon's Brigade from reaching Glendale in time to participate in the battle. The fight there was bloody, with the Rebels suffering twice as many casualties as their enemy. The day was arguably the most decisive of the campaign, for Lee lost his opportunity to crush McClellan.

Captain Eugene Blackford of the 5th Alabama wrote, “ Sunday morning (June 29th ) we set off in pursuit and I never saw, nor can I describe the scene. There was one mass of plunder of the most valuable description. Clothes, blankets, haversacks, canteens, overcoats. Everything that you can imagine that would make a soldiers’ life comfortable was there besides every variety of nice eatables, prepared vegetables, solidified milk, some coffee, and all manner of notions. Their knapsacks astonished me they are furnished by the government with everything that one can need, and full well we enjoyed them. I stopped and taking off my old pants dressed anew in an elegant pair perfectly new, also new gaiters and underclothes. Besides I got several elegant portfolios full of fine paper, envelopes, and every variety of stationary. Whole brigades had thrown aside their knapsacks in piles. Every ten feet we would meet prisoners coming to the rear in squads of from 4 to 100 without guards they being to a man delighted at being out of the scrape. On every side there were tents and wagons without number. The most elegant ambulances I ever conceived of and many hospital wagons, and whole pontoon trains.”[1]

Quartermaster Sergeant James J. Hutchinson left a similar report. “Our division was posted on the battle field for two days after, near enough to McClellan, still between us and Richmond, to see the smoke of his burning stores, and hear the explosion and view the singular beautiful pillar of smoke when he blew up his ammunition.”[2] At three o’clock in the morning of June 30, the Brigade re-crossed Chickahominy at Grapevine Bridge[3], and marched southward, passing many Yankee camps, and great piles of debris of burned stores, boxes of clothing, carefully ruined. They reached the Williamsburg Road beyond Seven Pines, on the field of battle where General Magruder had defeated the Federals on the previous day, leaving the ground thickly dotted with their dead and wounded. They continued passed Camp Lincoln, McClellan’s headquarters, eleven miles from Richmond where there were thousands of tents, a beautiful and commodious camp, around a pleasant farm house on an eminence. Great numbers of knapsacks, overcoats, blankets, etc., were lying on the parade grounds hastily abandoned. Along the way the men passed many abandoned wagons, one or two burned pontoon trains, and numerous loose United States horses. Prisoners in twos, threes, or groups without guards, of perhaps 40 or 50, with a single cavalry man to guard them, were all along the road, quietly walking towards the city. The men generally passed with the derisive question: “Well boys, on your way to Richmond at last?” They generally replied good humouredly. Every house was full of sick and wounded Federals. When the Brigade reached White Oak Swamp the Federal artillery held the crossing and they halted until Confederate batteries drove them back and the pioneers repaired the bridge. This kept the men there all night, and they crossed early the next morning, Tuesday, July 1st)”[4]

[1] Letter of Eugene Blackford dated July 2nd, 1862

[2] “The Beacon”, August 8, 1862, Letter of J. J. Hutchinson dated July 14, 1862

[3] “Third Alabama! The Civil War Memoirs of Cullen Andrews Battle, CSA” edited by Brandon H. Beck, page 32

[4] “The Beacon”, August 8, 1862, Letter of J. J. Hutchinson dated July 14, 1862
 
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