The Battle of Glendale was the fifth battle of the Seven Days’ Battles

The Seven Days Battles began on June 25, 1862, with a Union assault in the minor Battle of Oak Grove, but McClellan quickly lost the initiative as Lee launched a series of assaults at Beaver Dam Creek (Mechanicsville), Gaines' Mill, Garnett's and Golding's Farm, and Savage's Station on June 29. In order to reach Harrison's Landing on the James River, where it would be secure, McClellan's Army of the Potomac kept moving backward.

The Union Army of the Potomac was less than a day's march from the Confederate capital of Richmond on June 26, 1862, following an implacable advance across the Virginia Peninsula.

Then, for the next four days, the Confederates engaged in a series of lethal close-quarters fights in the swampy woodlands near Richmond. After the Gaines' Mill engagement on June 27, General George McClellan, the leader of the Union forces, lost contact with Washington and was forced to order a full-scale retreat towards Harrison's Landing on the James River. Robert E. Lee, who had just assumed command of the Confederate army, launched his subsequent significant attack at Glendale on June 30.