Battle of Williamsburg

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Battle of Williamsburg
Part of the American Civil War

Battle of Williamsburg, by Kurz and Allison, 1893.
Date May 5, 1862
Location York County, James City County, and Williamsburg, Virginia
Result Tactical Union Victory
Combatants
United States of America Confederate States of America
Commanders
George B. McClellan James Longstreet
Strength
40,768 31,823
Casualties
2,283 1,560
Peninsula Campaign
Hampton Roads – Yorktown – Williamsburg – Eltham's Landing – Drewry's Bluff – Hanover Courthouse – Seven Pines – Seven Days Battles (Oak Grove – Beaver Dam Creek – Gaines' Mill – Garnett's & Golding's Farm – Savage's Station – White Oak Swamp – Glendale – Malvern Hill)

The Battle of Williamsburg, also known as the Battle of Fort Magruder, took place on May 5, 1862, in York County, James City County, and Williamsburg, Virginia, as part of the Peninsula Campaign of the American Civil War.

In the first pitched battle of the Peninsula Campaign, nearly 41,000 Federals and 32,000 Confederates were engaged. Following up the Confederate retreat from Yorktown, Major General Joseph Hooker's 2nd division of the III Corps, on the advance of the Union Army, encountered the Confederate rearguard near Williamsburg. Hooker assaulted Fort Magruder, an earthen fortification straddling the Williamsburg Road (from Yorktown), and a line of rifle pits and smaller fortifications that extended in an arc south-west from the fort, but was repulsed. Confederate counterattacks, directed by Maj. Gen. James Longstreet, threatened to overwhelm Hooker's division which had contested the ground alone since the early morning while waiting for the main body of the army to arrive.

Around noon, while Hooker continued to confront the Confederate forces in front of Fort Magruder, Brig. Gen. Winfield S. Hancock's 1st brigade of Brig. Gen. William F. Smith's second division of the IV Corps, which had marched a few miles to the Federal right and crossed Cub's Creek at the point where it was dammed to form the Jones' Mill pond, attacked the more lightly defended Confederate left flank. Hancock's brigade occupied two abandoned redoubts and while the Confederates counterattacked unsuccessfully, Hancock's failure to get reinforcements to hold the position meant that he was unable to exploit the localized success on this part of the line.

At about 2:00 p.m., Brig. Gen. John J. Peck's brigade of Brig. Gen. Darius N. Couch's 1st division of the IV Corps arrived to support and extend the right of Hooker's line, which had, by this stage, been pushed back from the cleared ground in front of Fort Magruder into the slashing and heavy wood about 600 - 1,000 yards from the Confederate fortifications. The morale of Hooker's troops had been effected terribly by the loss of Captain Charles H. Webber's Battery "H" of the 1st U.S. Light Artillery and and Captain Walter M. Bramhall's 6th Battery of the New York Light Artillery. Peck's arrival on the field and his brigade's recovery of Bramhall's battery came at a critical moment for Hooker's division, which was on the verge of retreat.

Around 2:30 p.m., Brig. Gen. Philip Kearny's 3rd division of the III Corps arrived to stabilize the position of Hooker's division, which was out of ammunition and finding it increasingly difficult to hold the left of the Federal line.

The Northern press portrayed the battle as a victory for the Federal army. However, the defense of Williamsburg was seen by the South as a means of delaying the Federal army, which allowed the bulk of the Confederate army to continued its withdrawal toward Richmond.

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