s divisions, with Magruder's, were
ordered around to join forces with Hill and Longstreet. The swamp
was impassable, except at the few crossings, and they were strongly
guarded, so they were considered not practicable of direct assault.
But in the long winding roads that intervened between the two wings,
Magruder and Jackson on the north and Longstreet and A.P. Hill on
the south, Magruder was misled by taking the wrong road (the whole
Peninsula being a veritable wilderness), and marched away from the
field instead of towards it, and did not reach Longstreet during the
day. But at 3 o'clock Longstreet, not hearing either Jackson's or
Magruder's guns, as per agreement, and restless of the delays of the
other portions of the army, feeling the danger of longer inactivity,
boldly marched in and attacked the enemy in his front.

Here was Frazier's Farm, and here was fought as stubbornly contested
battle, considering the numbers engaged, as any during the campaign.
Near nightfall, after Longstreet had nearly exhausted the strength
of his troops by hard fighting, A.P. Hill, ever watchful and on the
alert, threw the weight of his columns on the depleted ranks of the
enemy, and forced them from the field. The soldiers who had done such
deeds of daring as to win everlasting renown at Gaines' Mill and Cold
Harbor, did not fail their fearless commander at Frazier's Farm. When
the signal for battle was given, they leaped to the front, like
dogs unleashed, and sprang upon their old enemies, Porter, McCall,
Heintzelman, Hooker, and Kearny. Here again the steady fire and
discipline of the Federals had to yield to the impetuosity and valor
of Southern troops. Hill and Longstreet swept the field, capturing
several hundred prisoners, a whole battery of artillery, horses, and
men.

McClellan brought up his beaten army on Malvern Hill, to make one last
desperate effort to save his army from destruction or annihilation.
This is a place of great natural defenses. Situated one mile from
the James River, it rises suddenly on all sides from the surrounding
marshy lowlands to several hundred feet in height, and environed on
three sides by branches and by Turkey Creek. On the northern eminence
McClellan planted eighty pieces of heavy ordnance, and on the eastern,
field batteries in great numbers. Lee placed his troops in mass on the
extreme east of the position occupied by the enemy, intending to park
the greater number of his heaviest batteries