On this date 150 years ago, movements by Confederate General Joseph Johnston and McClellan's Army of the Potomac resulted in the Battle of Seven Pines/Fair Oaks. The somewhat delayed offensive by Johnston was only marginally effective strategically, causing the Federal troops to pull back the next day, but did little to lessen the threat posed to the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia. In all, Confederate losses were 6134 while the Union loss was 5031. General Johnston was wounded during the battle, which resulted in the promotion of General Robert E. Lee to the command of the Army of Northern Virginia.

We are given the following account by Private Purifoy of the Artillery: “As the smoke cleared away, and there was a lull in the firing, the picture that presented itself to this writer was awe inspiring. This field and its carnage were more vividly impressed on his mind than any other he saw during his service. ...He had seen pictures on canvas and paper that were intended to present battle fields as they appeared. No picture previously seen by him came near showing what he gazed on here and now. Spread out before him were the bodies of nearly four thousand men, dead, no picture men, but men of real flesh and blood. Several thousand wounded Confederates were being taken from the field. As many as were hobbling away on one foot, the other leg or foot dangling by their side, a gun or stick being used as an improvised crutch. Others were carrying broken arms, tenderly held with the sound hand. And still others, though whole of limb, were making their way to a place of safety and comfort, their pallid faces indicating that they received severe wounds in some part of their body. The harrowing picture completed a scene that no language can describe.” Another witness gives us the following: “It was a night of drizzling rain and inky darkness. All were wet to the hips, many had lost their shoes in the mud and the bodies of the dead and wounded were lying on every side. You could not move without falling over them - the air was filled with shrieks and groans.” Everywhere one looked there were also dead horses in various states of mutilation, many with their legs or head completely blown off.