Malvern Cliffs

The view from here illustrates the power of the Union position atop Malvern Hill. Late in the afternoon of July 1, two Confederate brigades attacked across the treeless flat terrain below. Union guns in the Crew yard and elsewhere pounded the Confederate lines long before the Southern infantrymen could open fire with their muskets. <br><br>Still, the Confederates reached the base of the hill, where they would cling to the safety of the slope. Finally at dusk, the Virginians and North Carolinians rushed up this knob, nearly reaching the yard of the Crew House. Only frantic resistance by the 14th New York infantry and several pieces of Union artillery halted them. Here as elsewhere, Confederate efforts to destroy McClellan's army had failed.