Qualla: Battle of Williamsburg

Battle of Williamsburg: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Muhranoff, CC BY-SA 4.0. The rain had been falling for days, and the roads east of Williamsburg were a soup of red Virginia clay. On May 5, 1862, regimental bands stood among the abatis playing Yankee Doodle, trying to slow troops who had begun to run. About 41,000 Federals and 32,000 Confederates were engaged across that single rainy day, fighting around the earthen walls of Fort Magruder, in pine woods studded with rifle pits, and through fields converted to mud by the boots of two armies. By nightfall, 2,283 Union and 1,682 Confederate soldiers had been killed, wounded, or captured. The battle settled nothing. That, for the Confederate command, was exactly the point.

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Image: Muhranoff | CC BY-SA 4.0

Battle of Williamsburg: The Retreat From Yorktown

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mathew Benjamin Brady, Public domain. On the night of May 3, 1862, Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston unexpectedly pulled his army out of the Warwick Line at Yorktown. Union Major General George B. McClellan, who had spent a month preparing a massive siege, woke to find empty trenches and Quaker guns - logs paint...

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Image: Mathew Benjamin Brady | Public domain

Battle of Williamsburg: Fort Magruder in the Rain

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Robert Underwood Johnson and Clarence Clough Buel (book authors). A list of artists and engravers can be found on p. 23 of the PDF., Public domain. Brigadier General Joseph Hooker's 2nd Division of the III Corps led the Union advance and ran straight into Fort Magruder around dawn. The fort was an elongated pentagon with walls 15 feet high and nine feet thick, ringed by a dry moat. Hooker's men attacked the fort and the line...

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Image: Robert Underwood Johnson and Clarence Clough Buel (book authors). A list of artists and engravers can be found on p. 23 of the PDF. | Public domain

Battle of Williamsburg: Kearny and His Sword

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Robert Underwood Johnson and Clarence Clough Buel (book authors). A list of artists and engravers can be found on p. 23 of the PDF., Public domain. Around 2:30 in the afternoon, Brigadier General Philip Kearny's division of the III Corps arrived. Kearny had lost his left arm in the Mexican War and rode his horse out in front of his picket lines to reconnoiter, flashing his saber with his only arm to urge the men forward. The...

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Image: Robert Underwood Johnson and Clarence Clough Buel (book authors). A list of artists and engravers can be found on p. 23 of the PDF. | Public domain

Battle of Williamsburg: What the Battle Bought

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Robert Underwood Johnson and Clarence Clough Buel (book authors). A list of artists and engravers can be found on p. 23 of the PDF., Public domain. The Northern press painted Williamsburg as a brilliant Federal victory. McClellan himself claimed it was a triumph over superior numbers. But the defense had done exactly what Johnston needed. During the night of May 5 and into the morning of May 6, the Confederate army slipped a...

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Image: Robert Underwood Johnson and Clarence Clough Buel (book authors). A list of artists and engravers can be found on p. 23 of the PDF. | Public domain

Battle of Williamsburg: What Survives

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Robert Underwood Johnson and Clarence Clough Buel (book authors). A list of artists and engravers can be found on p. 23 of the PDF., Public domain. Most of the Williamsburg battlefield has been swallowed by development - housing, the parkway, the modern city. But the American Battlefield Trust and its partners have steadily acquired and preserved more than 343 acres between 2010 and mid-2023, including a 29-acre parcel bough...

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Image: Robert Underwood Johnson and Clarence Clough Buel (book authors). A list of artists and engravers can be found on p. 23 of the PDF. | Public domain