Seven Days' Battles--Gaines's Mill

Just to the east was Gaines's Mill, a multistory grist mill that burned during the Civil War. Confederates under Maj. Gen. A. P. Hill encountered light Federal resistance there early on the afternoon of 27 June 1862. Heavy fighting took place later that day at Boatswain Creek, just to the southeast. There Union Brig. Gen. Fitz John Porter's V Corps established a defensive line to protect the rest of Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan’s Army of the Potomac as it moved toward the James River. Confederates under Gen. Robert E. Lee attacked in waves, sustaining heavy casualties. Reinforcements broke through the Union line just before sunset, and the Federals retreated across the Chickahominy River.