31 May 1862: Friday (Battle of Seven Pines, Virginia)

Confederacy - Military/Government
Major General T. C. Hindman assumes command of the Trans-Mississippian District.

Union - Military
Virginia
General McClellan on the Chickahominy had split his large army, putting three corps on the northeast side of the river, reportedly to enable him of took up with General McDowell's troops, expected from the north. Only two corps were on the south side of the Chickahominy.

Realizing this, General Joseph E. Johnston of the Confederates attacked the corps of Erasmus Keyes and S. P. Heintzelman at Fair Oaks (aka Seven Pines), east of Richmond.

In a series of failures to move at appointed times, the Confederates did not get their attack going until about 1 pm,, and the the fighting was done by separate units, with others failing to get into action. Nevertheless, the Confederates made some inroads on the defenders. President Davis himself toured the battle area.

McClellan, hearing the firing, ordered Edwin V. Sumner's corps to cross the Chickahominy to aid his compatriots. Sumner had not waited for orders but moved quickly over the shaky bridges and swampy bottom lands. The reinforcements blunted the Confederate drive and, as the day ended, the impetus was gone from the Southern assault.

General Joseph E. Johnston was severely wounded, and was succeeded for a few hours by G.W. Smith, and shortly afterward by Robert E. Lee. For the first time, Lee took over a major army (an army that would soon be heralded as the Army of Northern Virginia.)

At the end of the day little had been decided except that Johnston had failed to rout or destroy the two isolated corps. During the night Union positions were considerably strengthened.

In the Shenandoah, Stonewall Jackson hurried his troops south of Winchester through heavy rain with about 15,000 men, squeezing between converging Fremont and McDowell. There was some skirmishing near Front Royal, but the troops were too late to halt the Confederates or destroy them as President Lincoln had wished.

Missouri
There is skirmishing at Salt River near Florida, also near Neosho and Waynesville.

Mississippi
There is skirmishing at Tuscumbia Creek.

Bibliography
The Civil War Day By Day: An Almanac 1861-1865. E.B. Long with Barbara Long, De Capo, 1971