on two occasions in the four years, we were within reach of military successes so great that we might have hoped to end the war with our independence. ... The first was at Bull Run [in] July 1861 ... This [second] chance of June 30, 1862 impresses me as the best of all." Lee would have only one more opportunity to intercept McClellan's army before it reached the safety of the river and the end of the Seven Days, at the Battle of Malvern Hill on July 1. Part of the battle took place on Gravel Hill, a community established for slaves freed by Quaker Robert Pleasants before 1800. Although what had once been the historic Gravel Hill School had been destroyed, it was replaced by Gravel Hill Baptist Church in 1866, and the community remains close-knit today. Battlefield preservation The American Battlefield Trust and its partners have acquired and preserved of the battlefield in more than 15 separate acquisitions from 1995 through November 2021. See also Troop engagements of the American Civil War, 1862 List of costliest American Civil War land battles Richmond in the Civil War Virginia in the American Civil War List of American Civil War battles List of Virginia Civil War units Notes References Alexander, Edward P. Fighting for the Confederacy: The Personal Recollections of General Edward Porter Alexander. Edited by Gary W. Gallagher. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1989. . Burton, Brian K. Extraordinary Circumstances: The Seven Days Battles. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001. . Eicher, David J. The Longest Night: A Military History of the Civil War. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001. . Esposito, Vincent J. West Point Atlas of American Wars. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1959. . Kennedy, Frances H., ed. The Civil War Battlefield Guide. 2nd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1998. . Longstreet, James. From Manassas to Appomattox: Memoirs of the Civil War in America. New York: J.B. Lippincott & Co., 1895. Meade, George Gordon, Jr., ed. The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade, vol 1. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1913. Rafuse, Ethan S. McClellan's War: The Failure of Moderation in the Struggle for the Union. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005. . Salmon, John S. The Official Virginia Civil War Battlefield Guide. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2001. . Sears, Stephen W. Controversies & Commanders: Dispatches from the Army of the Potomac. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.,