While this battle was being fought, another at Fair Oaks Station, only a short distance away, was also being fought, in which General Joseph E. Johnston was seriously wounded by a bursting shell, and was carried from the field. He was succeeded in command by General Robert E. Lee, who was afterwards made the commander in chief of all the Southern forces, although the immediate command fell upon G. W. Smith.
Early Sunday morning, June 1st, the battle was renewed and the attack was again made by the Confederates, led by General Smith, supported by Longstreet, but they were pushed back with great slaughter. The Union lines were also broken and a brief lull ensued. Both sides were gathering themselves for another onslaught. Presently the Federals were reënforced by the division of General Hooker. They marched upon the field in double quick time, and were met by a withering artillery fire. Both attacking divisions were ordered forward with fixed bayonets. The Confederates finally gave way and fell back toward Richmond, and the Federals again withdrew to their entrenchment along the river.
It is thought by many that McClellan's failure to follow up the Confederates proved to be the final failure of his Peninsula campaign, for it gave the Confederates time to readjust their army under their new commander.
The forest paths were strewn with the dead and dying. Many of the wounded were compelled to lie in the hot sun for hours before help could reach them. Many of the Federal wounded were placed upon cars and taken across the Chickahominy. The Confederate wounded were carried to Richmond, which was only seven miles away. And many of the Confederate dead at Seven Pines were buried in the Holly Wood cemetery at Richmond, where there are 16,000 Confederate dead. At Oak Wood cemetery, which is near by, there is another 16,000, which makes 32,000 buried at Richmond.
At this time the defense of Washington was giving McClellan, as well as other Federal authorities, considerable concern, for Jackson with his army had previously taken possession of Winchester and was advancing down the valley. The Federals opposed to Jackson were commanded by Generals Shields and Banks. Jackson made an attack on Shields' army at Kernstown and drove the Federals back, but presently fell back to wait reënforcements under Ewell. The Federals were reënforced by General Fremont. Jackson's activity in the valley caused the president to fear that his goal was Washington. The two armies fought a series of battles in the valley, namely: Front Royal, Strausburg, Newtown and Port Republic, the last-named being the far more important and destructive to life. These were a series of victories for Jackson, for he drove the Federals from place to place, and 3,000 of Banks' men fell into his hands as prisoners. Banks retreated across the Potomac and Jackson joined Lee before Richmond.
Jackson's activity and strategy in the movement of his army surprised both the North and the South. Banks reported to the government at Washington that "Jackson aimed at nothing less than the capture of our entire force."
[THE SEVEN DAYS' BATTLES]
Early in the summer of 1862, General Lee proceeded to increase his fighting force so as to make it more nearly equal in number to that of McClellan, and to that end every man that could be spared from other sections in the South was called to Richmond. Numerous intrenchments were thrown up along the roads and in the fields about Richmond, thus giving it the appearance of a fortified camp. General Lee, in an address to his troops, said that the army had made its last retreat.