Johnston is wounded at Seven Pines; Davis hands command to Robert E. Lee

Two Federal corps had been left straddling the flooded Chickahominy River, one third of McClellan's army cut off from the rest by a May 30 thunderstorm that had washed out nearly every bridge. Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston saw his chance and struck on May 31, 1862, hurling roughly 51,000 men against 33,000 Union troops south of the river at a crossroads named for seven large pine trees. The assault was botched from the first hour — Longstreet marched down the wrong road, Huger received no start time, and an acoustic shadow kept Johnston himself from knowing the battle had begun until 4 p.m. — but it still drove Silas Casey's green division back through two lines of earthworks and inflicted 5,031 Union and 6,134 Confederate casualties over two days. At dusk on May 31, a bullet struck Johnston in the right shoulder and a shell fragment hit him in the chest; Jefferson Davis replaced him the next day with Robert E. Lee…