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The Battle of Glendale (also known as Frayser’s Farm or White Oak Swamp) was an unsuccessful Confederate attack during the Seven Days’ Battles. Having been attacked north of the Chickahominy (Battle of Mechanicsville, 26 June), General McClellan, the Union commander, decided to move his base south to the James River, where he felt his supply lines would be more secure. This left the Union army vulnerable to attack while they made their move.
On the second day of the move (29 June) Lee had attempted to arrange a two pronged attack on the Federal rearguard at Savages Station. The next day he planned a much more ambitious seven pronged attack near the village of Glendale. The profusion of names for this battle shows just how scattered the eventual fighting actually was.
Once again Stonewall Jackson failed to make any contribution to the battle, this time stopping to build a bridge over a creek. Only two of the seven planned attacks went in (Longstreet’s and A. P. Hill’s), resulting in a battle between five Union and two Confederate divisions. As one would expect, the result was a Confederate defeat. The Confederates lost twice as many men as the Federals, suffering 3,500 casualties.
30 June was the last day of the great move. On the following day McClellan’s men reached the James, and were able to take up a much stronger position. Lee had succeeded in pushing them away from Richmond, but he still wanted to inflict a major defeat on the Union army. On 1 July he launched a final futile attack on the Union position on Malvern Hill
The Battle of Glendale - The Day the South Nearly Won the Civil War, Jim Stempel.
Looks at one of the more obscure of the Seven Day’s Battles, the least organised stage of the Union retreat and the best chance the Confederates had to inflict a heavy defeat on McClellan’s retreating forces, left without an overall commander while attempting to retreat south to a secure base, giving Lee a chance to attack from the west and potentially cut the Union line into two parts (Read Full Review)
