 The human toll of the Battle of Malvern Hill and the Seven Days Battles was shown clearly as both capitals , Washington and Richmond , set up numerous provisional hospitals to care for the dead , wounded and missing . Ships sailed from the Peninsula to Washington carrying the wounded . Richmond was nearest to the battlefields of the Seven Days , and the immense number of casualties meant that graves could not be dug quickly enough , overwhelming hospitals and doctors . People from about the Confederacy descended upon Richmond to care for the conflict 's casualties . 
