The Adams Farm at Seven Pines Battlefield

The portion of the Seven Pines Battlefield protected through a Battlefield Land Acquisition Grant.

American Battlefield Trust

Recipient: Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation

Amount: $184,156.00
Acres: 11.78

The battle of Seven Pines was fought over several days in late May and early June 1862 in Sandston, Virginia, east of Richmond. The Union army, led by Major General George B. McClellan, was poised to capture Richmond, the Confederate Capital. Attempting to prevent that from happening, Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston led assaults aimed to drive back Union troops but was seriously wounded in the process. His injury had a profound influence on the course of the war, in that it led to the appointment of General Robert E. Lee as the commander of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. As a more aggressive leader, Lee then initiated what became known as the Seven Days Battles and drove Union forces into retreat.

On the first day of the battle, the Union IV Corps occupied an advanced and vulnerable position centered on the intersection of the Nine Mile and Williamsburg Roads at Seven Pines. After the Confederates attacked and shattered Union defenses, northern forces established a new defensive line on a rise of ground that bisected the Richmond Road, north of Fair Oaks Station. Part of that defensive line was situated on the land being protected today through a Battlefield Land Acquisition Grant, which at the time belonged to a local farmer, Francis Adams. A battery of the 1st U.S. Artillery occupied the property and helped repel several Confederate assaults on both sides of Richmond Road. Following the battle, the Adams House served as field hospital and treated hundreds of wounded soldiers and officers. Both knolls defended by the Union artillery on Adam’s Farm can also still be seen on the property today.

Battlefield Land Acquisition Grants from the NPS American Battlefield Protection Program empower preservation partners nationwide to acquire and preserve threatened Revolutionary War, War of 1812 and Civil War battlefields. In addition, the program administers three other grant opportunities: Preservation Planning Grants, which are open to all sites of armed conflict on American soil, and the Battlefield Restoration and Battlefield Interpretation Grant opportunities. This financial assistance generates community-driven stewardship of historic resources at the state, tribal and local levels.