Episode 526: The Seven Days Battles

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Hello and welcome to Western Civ, Episode 526, The Seven Days Battles.

In March of 1862, in the grey waters where the James River meets the Chesapeake Bay, an ancient art came to an end.

For centuries, naval warfare had been conducted with ships built of oak and canvas.

Ships of the line, the latest military technology, bristling with cannon, traded broad sides at close range.

Even as steam power crept onto the seas in the early 19th century, the hulls of the ships were still wood, vulnerable to both fire and shot.

But on March 8th and 9th, 1862, at the Battle of Hampton Roads, two strange armored creatures met in combat,

destroying the world that came before them. This was the moment when the seas' iron age truly began.

When the Civil War began in 1861 in April, the Union Navy was small but powerful.

It possessed dozens of steam-powered warships, the industrial base to build more, and the advantage of existing naval yards.

The Confederacy, by contrast, had almost nothing.

One of the most valuable prizes the South gained in the opening weeks of the war, was the Gossport Navy Yard in Portsmouth, Virginia.

As the Union forces evacuated, they burned what they couldn't carry.

Among the ships that they scuttled, was a steam frigate named the USS Meramack.

The Confederates examined the wreck and they saw an opportunity.

The South did not have the industrial capacity to compete ship for ship with the Union.

Instead, Confederate Secretary of the Navy, Steven Mallory, pursued innovation.

He believed armor could neutralize Northern numerical superiority.

I regard the possession of an iron-plated ship as a matter of first necessity. He would later write.

Naval Constructor John L. Porter, an engineer William P. Williamson,

proposed raising the burned Hulk of the Meramack and converting her into something entirely new.

And this was how the CSS Virginia was born.

Workers cut the frigate all the way down to the waterline and built a top

her a massive sloped casemate. It looked like a floating roof barn,

covered in two layers of iron plating, each two inches thick.

Behind the armor were heavy timbers, up to two feet thick in places.

She mounted ten powerful guns, including a nine-inch Brook Rifle,

and at her bow was something even ominous, an iron ram.

That's right. Now going all the way back to tri-reams and the Roman Empire,

the south was reviving a truly ancient weapon.

Now the ship was slow, she was clumsy, she drew deep water,

but she was armored, and that changed everything.

Of course, throughout all of this, the Union did not sit idle.

Reports of Confederate iron-clad construction reached Washington almost immediately.

Congress authorized the building of armored vessels in August of 1861.

Among the proposals submitted was one from an eccentric Swedish-American engineer,

John Erickson. Erickson's design was revolutionary, but almost absurd, in appearance.

Rather than building a conventional hull with an armor added,

Erickson created a low raft-like vessel that barely rose above the waterline.

On his deck set a single rotating iron turret containing two massive 11-inch guns.

Now the idea for revolving turret was not entirely new,

but Erickson perfected it in iron and steam.

President Abraham Lincoln himself took an interest in the design.

He visited the model, he asked questions, and ultimately he overruled the skeptics.

The result? The USS Monitor.

She was only 172 feet long, tiny, by construction standards.

Her freeboard, which is the height of the deck above the water, was less than two feet.

Waves regularly washed across her deck. Sailors joked she looked like a, quote,

cheese box on a raft. But beneath that strange silhouette was innovation

that would reshape Navy's nationwide. Her turret, powered by steam, could rotate 360 degrees,

allowing her to fire in any direction without turning the ship.

Two iron clads conceived from desperation and imagination were now racing towards each other,

and the day they met would be March the 8th and 9th.

On March the 8th, 1862, the Navy's of the Confederacies and the Union met at Hampton Roads.

Hampton Roads is strategically vital waterway. The Union had now blockaded the Confederate

clothesline, effectively strangling Southern trade. A squadron of wooden warships was carrying

out those orders, laying anchored at Hampton Roads in early March 1862, including two powerful

frigates, the Cumberland and the Congress. Unless the Confederacy could clear the blockaded

Hampton Roads, none of the trade from Virginia could go to Europe.

Now, the frigates and their commanders had heard the rumors of the new-ired creation.

And indeed, on March the 8th, the CSS Virginia steamed out of the Elizabeth River into Hampton Roads.

She moved slowly five knots at best, but she proved unstoppable. The Union ships opened fire

as she approached. Shot and shell struck her iron sides and bounced off harmlessly.

One Confederate sailor later wrote, quote, the sound of the shot striking and glancing from our

sides was as the beating of Hale upon a roof, and she drove straight at the USS Cumberland.

The ram, the ancient innovation struck with crushing force.

Water poured into the wooden hull, and even as the ship sank, her cue continued to fire,

but it didn't matter, because the Cumberland while went down with colors flying couldn't make a

dent in the CSS Virginia. Next came the USS Congress. After pounding her with shell,

the Virginia Forster surrender. When Union shore batteries opened fire,

the Confederates set the ship ablaze. By nightfall, Congress exploded in a massive blast.

Panic gripped the remaining Union fleet. Wooden warships now seemed helpless.

So that night in Washington, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton reportedly cried,

the Mayor Mack will change the whole character of the war. He wasn't wrong, he just didn't understand

what he was saying. Because that very night in the darkness of March 8th, another vessel arrived.

The USS Monitor, having endured a rather perilous journey down the Atlantic coast,

slipped into Hampton roads under tow. That dawn, on March 9th, the Confederate ironclad of Virginia

returned to try to finish the job. Instead, she met her equal. And what followed was truly a scene

that the world had never seen. The two ironclads circled each other at close range, firing

repeatedly. Shell slammed into armor, iron dented and smoke poured from gunports. And at times,

the two ships got so close together that sailors could hear voices shouting across the decks.

A Union sailor wrote, quote, we could hear the iron plating of the Mayor Mack cracking

and the timbers crashing. But it didn't matter. Neither ship could penetrate the other's

armor decisively. And in the end, it was the monitor's rotating turret that proved crucial.

She could maneuver and fire without exposing her vulnerable sides. The Virginia,

larger and less agile, struggled in the shallow waters of Hampton roads.

It wasn't an easy Union victory, though. At one point, a shell struck the monitor's pilot house,

temporarily blinding her captain, John Warden. For a moment, it looked like the Confederates might

gain the advantage. But in the end, the battle ended rather inconclusively. After about four

hours of combat, both vessels withdrew. The Virginia steamed back up river to Norfolk.

The monitor remained to protect the Union fleet. Tactically, it had been a draw. But strategically,

it was a revolution. The significance of Hampton roads reverberated worldwide.

European observers followed the battle closely. Britain and France had already

experimented with iron clads. France launched Ligeloyet in 1859 and Britain responded with HMS

warrior. But never before had two armored ships fought each other in combat.

The age of the wooden warship ended almost overnight.

Navies across the globe began scrapping plans for wooden fleets. Iron and steel became the future.

The revolving torrent was now standard. Rams appeared on warships for decades,

inspired by the Virginia's dramatic sinking of the USS Cumberland.

Even naval architecture changed. Ships grew lower, heavier, more mechanized.

Sail power steadily gave way to steam. Within a generation,

the great wooden ships of the line that had dominated since Trafalgar were obsolete relics.

As one observer wrote quote, after the fight between the monitor and Merrimack,

wooden ships were as useless as pasteboard.

Now of course, the story didn't end at Hampton roads. The CSS Virginia would be destroyed by

her own crew in May 1862 when Union forces captured Norfolk. She couldn't navigate the shallow

waters to escape. The USS monitor didn't fare much better. It sank later that year in a storm,

off Cape Hatteras. Both iron clads were short lived, but their impact was immense.

The Union blockade tightened. The Confederacy would never break northern naval dominance.

And the industrial nature of war, its reliance on innovation, engineering and manufacturing,

was becoming ever clearer. Hampton roads, of course, was not a decisive battle in the Civil War.

It wasn't large. It didn't decide anything in the conflict, but it was a turning point in

military history. For centuries, men had hewn whole forests to build ships. After Hampton roads,

they would build them from iron and steel. And the ocean would never look the same again.

And in the smoke-filled waters of Virginia on two cold march days in 1862,

the future finally arrived, ringing of iron on iron.

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In the summer of 1862, the fate of the Confederacy

trembled in the humid air outside of Richmond, Virginia.

Union General George B. McClellan had matched his vast army of the Potomac right up the peninsula

of Virginia, edging closer and closer to the Confederate capital.

By late June, a federal siege guns can almost be heard from the city's church spires.

It seemed possible, but quite possible, that the war was going to end in one bold stroke.

But into that crisis, step to man who had not yet proven himself in high command,

but who would play a leading role for the rest of the American Civil War.

Robert E. Lee.

The seven-day battles fought between June 25th to July 1st, 1862

would not merely drive McClellan away from Richmond.

They would introduce the world to Lee as an aggressive,

risk-taking commander and transform the Eastern War.

To understand the seven-days battles, we must understand the man who took command at the

brink of this disaster, Robert E. Lee. Born in 1807 at Stratford Hall, Virginia,

Lee inherited a complicated legacy.

His father, Light Horse Harry Lee, had been a revolutionary war hero,

but died in debt and disgrace.

Young Robert grew up with the weight of both honor and failure on his shoulders.

Lee entered West Point in 1825 and graduated second in his class without a single demerit,

just an extraordinary feat. He served with distinction in the Mexican-American War

under General Winfield Scott, earning praise for his daring reconnaissance and calm under fire.

Scott later called him, quote, the very best soldier that I ever saw in the field.

For decades, Lee was a model officer in the United States Army.

He supervised engineering projects served as superintendent of West Point and commanded cavalry.

When secession tore the nation apart in 1861, Lee faced a very personal crisis.

He opposed secession in principle, writing,

I can't anticipate no greater calamity for the country than a disillusion of the Union.

But in the end, when Virginia seceded, he resigned his commission in the United States Army,

rather than fight against his home state. His early Confederate service was underwhelming.

In Western Virginia, he struggled with cautious subordinates and rugged terrain.

Sother newspapers mockingly called him, granny Lee, for his perceived timidity.

President Davis trusted him, but others privately doubted.

By June of 1862, the Confederate Army defending Richmond had suffered a severe blow.

General Joseph E. Johnston was wounded at the Battle of Seven Pines,

and the capital lay exposed, desperate for a commander who might be able to turn the tide.

Davis turned to Lee. It was a moment that would define both men and the war.

Opposing Lee was General Major, George B. McLellan, commander of the Army of the Potomac.

McLellan was a brilliant organizer and he was beloved by his troops.

He transformed raw volunteers into a disciplined fighting force of over 100,000 men.

But McLellan was cautious, deeply so. As he advanced up the Pennsylvania in the spring of 1862,

he consistently overestimated Confederate strength. Even when Union troops stood within a

few miles of Richmond, he somehow believed himself to be outnumbered. But Lee was different.

He saw an opportunity. The Confederate Army was smaller, roughly 90,000 men,

but it was also highly concentrated. McLellan's army was divided by the Chica harmony river,

swollen by summer rains. One portion of the Union Army sat on the North River,

the rest lay on the south, inching, and I do mean inching, ever closer to Richmond.

Lee decided this time he would not wait behind his earthwork fortifications. Instead,

he would attack. The seven days battles began on June the 25th with a limited Confederate

assault at Oak Grove initiated by McLellan. It achieved little but Lee's real plan unfolded

the next day. On June the 26th at Beaver Dam Creek, Lee attempted to strike the isolated

Union 5th Corps north of the Chica harmony. His plan was complex and required precise

coordination among several generals Stonewall Jackson included. But the plan quickly unraveled.

Jackson arrived too late, Confederate assault were piecemeal and poorly synchronized. Union

defenders held strong behind fortified lines. The Confederates suffered heavy casualties.

But there was a difference and it was a difference of attitude because once again Lee did not retreat.

The next day, June 27th, that gains mills, he attacked again. This time, the Confederates

massed their forces. Wave after wave of southern infantry charged across open fields into Union

lines. It was brutal and close range fighting. Confederate casualties quickly mounted.

But late in the day, their sheer numbers simply overwhelmed the Union position.

The 5th Corps was forced to retreat across the Chica harmony. It was the only clear tactical

victory of the seven days, but it shook McLellan to his corps. Though still numerically superior,

McLellan convinced himself that Lee's army was enormous and growing. He decided to abandon

his advance on Richmond and retreat towards the James River where Union gunboats could protect him.

But Lee saw the retreat and he seized the initiative again. What followed was a running series of

battles as the Union army tried to withdraw to the southeast. At Savage's station, on June 29th,

Confederate attacks again suffered from poor coordination. The fighting was fierce, but inconclusive.

Thousands of wounded Union soldiers were left behind in field hospitals, grim evidence of the chaos

of their retreat. On June 30th at Glendale, also sometimes in the history books referred to his

Frazier's farm, Lee saw perhaps his best chance to destroy McLellan's army in detail.

Union forces were strung out along narrow roads. A coordinated Confederate assault might have

split them apart. But once again, timing failed, generally. Orders were misunderstood,

generals hesitated. Stonewall Jackson was strangely passive, interestingly enough,

there's a story where he simply refused to rest on a Sunday instead of being in prayer all day.

Returning him exhausted and unable to actually coordinate the attacks like he normally would have,

whether or not that's true. That's just one of the parts of the history here.

In the end, only parts of the Confederate army actually engaged in the attack.

The fighting was still savage. Artillery roared at close range, infantry clashed, and wouldn't

think it's. But without the full force of the Confederate army, the Union line could hold on

long enough for the retreat to continue. Lee had pruned himself to be bold, but boldness alone

did not guarantee coordination. The final act of the seven days battle came at Malvern Hill on July

the 1st, 1862. The Union army had reached a strong defensive position, a high plateau protected

by artillery, and supported by navy guns from the James River. It was in military terms,

and almost ideal, ident defensive position. And some, Confederate commanders urged caution in the

face of such overwhelming positional tactical superiority. But Lee, instead once again, chose

assault. And what followed was one of the most disastrous frontal attacks of the war.

Confederate Union's advanced piecemeal across open ground into devastating Union artillery fire.

Federal guns expertly positioned, tore gaps into the attacking ranks.

One Union officer later wrote that, quote, it was not war, it was murder.

Still, Lee pressed. Repeated assaults failed. Confederate casualties soared. Nightfall ended the slaughter.

Tactically, Malvern Hill was a Union victory. Strategically, it did not matter.

McClellan continued retreating towards Harrison landing on the James River. The peninsula

campaign was over and Richmond was safe. But the cost had been enormous. In seven days of near

continuous fighting, both sides suffered staggering losses. Roughly 20,000 Confederate casualties

to 16,000 Union. Lee had taken enormous risks in the end. His attacks were often poorly coordinated

and costly. But he had honestly, in the end, accomplished something remarkable. He had done what

few had expected. He had driven a larger army away from the Confederate Capitol. And the psychological

impact was immense. Richmond rejoiced. Southern morale soared. Lee was no longer granny Lee.

He was a commander willing to strike. Meanwhile, in Washington, the attitude was different.

Frustration quickly mounted. McClellan blamed inadequate reinforcements. President Abraham Lincoln

grew impatient. The war in the east shifted from cautious maneuver to now aggressive confrontation.

The seven days battles revealed Lee's defining characteristics. He would always prefer offensive

action even against superior numbers. He trusted in audacity. He was willing to accept high

casualties for strategic gain. He delegated complex tasks and plans to subordinates, sometimes with

mixed results. In the months that will follow, as we will see, Lee would continue to refine his

style. At second, Minasus, Fredericksburg, Chancellor'sville, he would continue over and over again

to stun larger Union armies with bold maneuvers. The seven days were not perfect victories. In fact,

many of Lee's attacks were tactically flawed and horrifically backfired. But he had changed the war.

Lee, for the moment at least, had saved Richmond. He now could seize the momentum,

and he transformed himself from an uncertain commander into the Confederacy's central military figure.

When the seven days began, the Confederacy stood on the brink of total collapse.

When it ended, the Union army of the Potomac was licking its wounds along the James River,

and Lee was preparing to carry the war north into Maryland. The campaign proved something

critical. The war could not be one quickly. It would be fought not only with numbers and resources,

but with will, aggression, and risk. Of course, Lee had not yet met his match on the field,

with grants still in the West. That event was still years away.

But in those seven sweltering days outside Richmond, a mid-tangled forest and artillery smoke,

Robert E. Lee announced himself as the Confederacy's most formidable weapon. The Capitol had been

saved, but the war had only just begun.

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Work moves fast, from emails and reports to proposals and updates. You're expected to think

clearly, write confidently, and get it right the first time, and every message counts. That's where

Grammarly comes in. It gives you everything you need to think, write, and finish in one place,

or anywhere you type in text. You'll never have to switch tools or tabs.

Grammarly's AI agents are built for how you work and where you work,

so you can find the right words, adjust your tone, and predict how your message might land

before you hit send. Your ideas will get a boost, while still sounding natural, credible,

and just the way you want. For nearly 17 years, Grammarly has been the standard for responsible AI.

It's the premier writing tool that 93% of users trust to get more work done.

In a world of generic AI, don't sound like everyone else, with Grammarly, you never will.

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