On May 4, Johnston decided to pull his troops from Yorktown and withdraw them toward Richmond, and McClellan finally ordered his army to move up the peninsula. Though the bulk of Johnston’s army was some 80 miles away, McClellan continued to wait, defying Lincoln’s repeated orders to attack. Peninsula Campaign: From Yorktown to Seven Pinesīy early April, 60,000 of McClellan’s soldiers were facing Confederate lines near Yorktown, Virginia, defended by some 13,000 rebels. After finding that McClellan had not complied with the president’s order to leave enough troops to defend Washington, they ordered an entire large corps held back from the advance, and a furious McClellan traveled to Fort Monroe with some 100,000 troops instead of the 150,000 he had wanted. From there, the army would move up the peninsula towards Richmond, forcing Johnston to move quickly south to defend the Confederate capital. In particular, a number of the Confederate cannons were found to be only logs painted black, known as “Quaker guns.” From then on, McClellan’s continued demands for more troops to face a superior enemy force would fall on deaf ears in Washington.įoiled by Johnston’s move, McClellan now sought to move his Army of the Potomac by boat to Fort Monroe, located at the tip of the peninsula formed by the York and James Rivers in Virginia. ![]() The Union Army’s inspection of the abandoned Confederate works revealed that the enemy’s defenses had been far weaker than McClellan had claimed. In early March, Lincoln approved this plan (provided enough troops were left behind to safeguard Washington) but removed McClellan as the Union general in chief, leaving him in command only of the Army of the Potomac.Įven as McClellan won approval for his planned offensive, Johnston withdrew his army from Manassas to a more easily defensible position at Culpeper, some 40 miles south and on the other side of the Rappahannock. Instead of an overland offensive, McClellan wanted to move his army by boat down the Chesapeake Bay to the mouth of the Rappahannock River and get in between Johnston’s army and the Confederate capital of Richmond. Johnston’s Confederate army, then stationed at Manassas in northern Virginia (scene of July’s defeat). Issuing a long list of objections to the president’s plan, McClellan persuaded the skeptical Lincoln to further postpone the offensive against Joseph E. In 1864, antiwar Democrats backed McClellan in a failed run for president. Lee's defeated army there led Lincoln to relieve him of command. ![]() 1, calling for all armies to move forward.ĭid you know? A year after the failure of the Peninsula Campaign, George McClellan led the Union to the brink of victory at Antietam, but his failure to pursue Robert E. Lincoln soon grew frustrated with McClellan’s reluctance to take the initiative, and in late January 1862 he issued General War Order No. Though much loved by his men, McClellan was deliberate and cautious in the extreme, and from early in the conflict he consistently overestimated the strength of Confederate troops facing him. Army before the war, the West Point-educated McClellan had been summoned to Washington after the Union’s devastating defeat at Bull Run (Manassas) the previous July and had since managed to shape the mass of inexperienced volunteer troops into a disciplined fighting force, known as the Army of the Potomac. ![]() McClellan to replace the aging Winfield Scott as general in chief of all Union armies. In November 1861, President Abraham Lincoln named George B.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |