Malvern Hill
The actual Malvern Hill didn't really figure into the battle, the fighting took place on a ridge to the north.
Malvern Hill, oh goody, finally, now finally I get to rant!
I know, Lee is supposed to be the greatest general ever, even greater that that famous Russian, Gen. Winter, who defeated Napoleon and that German Paulus; if that's true, then explain Malvern Hill to me. George McClellan was clearly the worst general ever or at least in the running for the title, but he whipped Lee’s butt at Malvern Hill. Spanked actually, if it had have been anyone in charge of the Union Army except McClellan, Lee would have been done for that very day and Richmond would have been occupied by nightfall. If you think about it, Lee had been throwing his army against the Union cannon for a week. Fortunately for the rebels McClellan was the man in charge, so in a situation where anyone, I mean anyone, else would have attacked, he marched his army back to the James, boarded boats and sailed away.
Union - Army of the Potomac 80,000 strong / 3,200 casualties
Maj. Gen. George McClellan
Brig. Gen. Fitz John Porter
Brig. Gen. Darius Couch
Brig. Gen. Morell
Brig.Gen. Sykes
Brig. Gen. McCall
250 cannon on the line plus two gunboats.
Confederate - Army of Northern Virginia 80,000 strong / 5,300 casualties
Gen Robert E. Lee
Maj. Gen. Jackson
Maj. Gen. Ewell
Maj. Gen. Magruder
Maj. Gen. Huger
Maj. Gen. Longstreet (in reserve)
Maj. Gen. A. P. Hill (in reserve)
The blue dots are Union artillery and the red dot are Confederate. The flags are the relative positions of the units involved.
Click the map for a link to DeLorme.
View of the Parsonage from the Union guns.
Two view of the Confederate Guns. The guns were so over matched they had to be rolled back down the hill to be reloaded then rolled back up to fire.
Two view from the Confederate Guns of the Union position. The white house cenetr right is the West House.
I’ve never heard anybody else say it, but Malvern Hill was the Army of Virginia’s Fredericksburg. Lee threw his army against the Army of the Potomac entrenched upon the high ground and covered by artillery and his men were slaughtered. They didn’t get any closer than 200 yards of the main Union line.
There isn’t a lot of strategy to talk about here, Lee ordered everyone to attack straight ahead and they did. You can see in the pictures that the Confederates had to advance over 800 yards of wide open ground. It’s not surprising that they couldn’t pull it off. I’m just shocked they tried; I’m even more shocked that Lee tried the same move again at Gettysburg to no better effect. You would think that after Malvern Hill and Fredericksburg Lee would have looked out across the field at Gettysburg and said, ‘I don’t think so.’ Longstreet did.
I will say though that between Malvern Hill and Gettysburg Lee did change his strategy, he became an expert at arriving to the battlefield early, picking his spot, and digging in. The string of victories that would establish Lee reputation and place in history were all fought that way. In those battles Lee positioned himself in such a way that the Army of the Potomac attacked him in fortified his positions.
The only exception was Chancelorsville where Hooker came up against Lee's trenches and froze. Hooker sat there long enough that Lee sent Jackson out to flank the Federal position. But that was the exception not the rule.
Who would order men to advance over this open ground into the teeth of artillery? The Union artillary was in a line along the top of the ridge mid-picture.
The West House. Seen in the two pictures above.
The Union artillery.
I like the way this shot and the one bellow show the rolling nature of the ground.
That little hill out there is the Confederate atillery position.
All they had to do was sit up here and wait, the Confederates marched right up and were slaughtered.
What was Lee thinking?
McCellan, harrumph.