Battle of Beaver Dam Creek | |||||||
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Part of the American Civil War | |||||||
![]() Union troops repulsing a rebel charge | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
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Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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Units involved | |||||||
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Strength | |||||||
15,631[2] | 16,356[2] | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
361 total 49 killed 207 wounded 105 missing[3] | 1,484[4] |
The Battle of Beaver Dam Creek, also known as the Battle of Mechanicsville or Ellerson's Mill, took place on June 26, 1862, in Hanover County, Virginia. It was the first major engagement[5] of the Seven Days Battles during the Peninsula Campaign of the American Civil War and the start of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's counter-offensive against the Union Army of the Potomac, under Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, which threatened the Confederate capital of Richmond.
Lee attempted to turn the Union right flank, north of the Chickahominy River, with troops under Maj. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, but Jackson failed to arrive on time. Instead, Maj. Gen. A.P. Hill threw his division, reinforced by one of Maj. Gen. D.H. Hill's brigades, into a series of futile assaults against Brig. Gen. Fitz John Porter's V Corps, which occupied defensive works behind Beaver Dam Creek. Confederate attacks were driven back with heavy casualties. Porter withdrew his corps safely to Gaines Mill, with the exception of Company F ("The Hopewell Rifles") of the 8th Pennsylvania Reserve Regiment who did not receive the orders to retreat.