Malvern Hill Research Paper

The Battle of Malvern Hill It was spring 1862, and tensions were high between the Union and the Confederate Armies. The Union Commander Major General George B. McClellan schemed an adaptive plan to siege Richmond, Virginia from the Confederate Army. With a joint force of 120,000 plus Soldiers and over 42 artillery batteries, his forces would board battle ships and set sail up to Fort Monroe, tactical debark on arrival and attempt to take this valuable piece of Confederate stronghold. His plan was execute brilliantly with few instances or deaths, but these forces were halted for almost for a month because of the ongoing Siege of Yorktown. The Confederate Army gathered intelligence during the Union Halt and began to fortify positions along
Lee, decided to make his way over to Richmond to lead the repel of the Union attack. General Lee, mustered up around 55,000 thousand ground troops and around 14 artillery batteries. Once Gen. Lee got to Malvern Hill, he surveyed the land for his main priority, artillery positions. Gen. Lee used fellow Confederate Gen. James Longstreet to compare observed land survey for artillery positions. They agreed two grand battery with additional other artillery pieces in support, positions would be place at the left and right sides of Malvern Hill, and conspired to weaken the Union frontal attack with artillery crossfire so that the exhausted Confederate attack would push back the Union forces. The Generals also would use the artillery fire as suppression to redraw forces if the main plan had no success, both plans were base off of artillery, not ground forces. The Union Army, commanded by Gen. McClellan, also survey Malvern hill, and was aided by Henry Hunt, a Union Chief Artillerist, who provided expert advice on current capabilities and deployment of the artillery systems in the current Union forces. With both armies using artillery as its base for both offenses, the army with the best artillery guns and plan, stand to win. The stage is set for a good old fashion artillery
There were many lifting and shifting of artillery fires from both sides, concentrating of each General’s decision on the situations that were coming in from the battlefield. The Union totally overwhelmed the Confederate army with massing fires, and concentrated frontal attacks that day, causing huge loses on the Confederate side. The major shortcomings of the Confederate lost was due to solely planning of the artillery crossfire, but poorly executed that plan. The secondary plan of suppression fire was hindered also by the bombardment of the Union massing counter-fire taking much of the Confederate artillery off the battlefield. Even though the Union Artillery had an almost 3:1 odds on the Confederate Army, the first initial volleys of Confederate fire primary stunned the Union army and if continued to could have changed the entire outcome with the Confederate crossfire plan executed successfully. This battle will go down as one of the most notable artillery exchanges from American artillery, and with proper artillery planning/execution, artillery can and will always be the deciding factor on a decisive win or a major