nine o'clock
Anticipating his arrival , the Confederate general had hurled Hill 's corps against the Union right wing under Porter . Throughout the day of the 26th and until nine o'clock at night the battle raged with unabated fury . The losses on both sides were frightful and neither had gained a victory . But at nine o'clock the Federal Commander ordered his right wing to retreat five miles to Gaines Mill and cover his withdrawal of heavy guns and supplies . They were ordered at all hazards to hold Jackson 's fresh troops at bay until this undertaking was well under way . It was a job that called for all his skill in case of defeat . It involved the retreat of an army of one hundred thousand men with their artillery and enormous trains of supplies across the mud-scarred marshy Peninsula .