When General Joseph E. Johnston withdrew from the Warwick–Yorktown
Line, he established a rear guard position along a series of redoubts
built by Major General John Bankhead Magruder. The key position was Fort
Magruder, which commanded the junction of two roads leading up the
Peninsula to Williamsburg. Major General James Longstreet’s division
took up positions in Fort Magruder and the nearby redoubts during the
evening of May 4 under pressure from Federal cavalry.
The next morning, May 5, 1862, Union troops commanded by Major
General Joseph Hooker attacked Fort Magruder, but were repulsed. The
Union line was driven back by a strong Confederate counterattack until
Brigadier General Philip Kearny’s division arrived to stabilize the
Federal position. Kearny led his men onto the field shouting, "I am
a one–armed Jersey Son–of–a–Gun, Follow me!" The
Confederates fell back into their defenses.
Meanwhile, Brigadier General Winfield Scott Hancock’s brigade had
marched behind the Confederate left flank and occupied two vacant
redoubts along Cub Creek. Hancock’s men then began shelling the
Confederate flank and rear.
Longstreet sent elements of Major General D. H. Hill’s division to
dislodge the Federals. Hill and Brigadier General Jubal A. Early hastily
prepared a flank attack, but the assault was misdirected and disjointed,
resulting in a bloody repulse. Early was wounded and D. H. Hill called
the scene "one of the most awful things I ever saw." The
Confederates suffered 1,603 casualties and the Federals 2,239.
That night, successful in delaying the Union advance, the
Confederates abandoned their redoubts and continued their withdrawal
toward Richmond. Major General George McClellan telegraphed to
Washington, "The victory is complete." Confederate General
Johnston would later rebut, "Had the enemy beaten us on the fifth,
as he claims to have done, our army would have lost most of its baggage
and artillery."
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