In the spring of 1862, Union Major General George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac launched a bloody offensive up the Virginia Peninsula in an effort to capture the Confederate capital of Richmond. This study chronicles the pivotal but often overlooked culmination of the Peninsula Campaign--the Battle of Fair Oaks, also known as Seven Pines. At Fair Oaks, Confederate troops succeeded in driving back Union forces from the edge of Richmond before the Union troops stabilized their position.