558 



McCLELLAN, GEORGE B. 



and less effective plan of campaign ; it made 

 rapid and brilliant operations impossible; it 

 was a fatal error." 



On April 5 the Army of the Potomac, which 

 had begun its advance up the Peninsula the 

 previous day, was brought to a stop before the 

 enemy's fortified position from Warwick creek 

 to Yorktown. The position was at first held 

 by Magruder with about 15.000 men ; but he 

 was afterward strengthened by the main Con- 

 federate army under Gen. Joseph E. Johnston. 

 On April V McClellan wrote to the Secretary 

 of War, protesting against McDowell's with- 

 drawal. He had depended upon the co-opera- 

 tion of the naval commander in an attack upon 

 Yorktown ; but the naval commander could 

 do nothing to carry that place. He had also 

 depended upon turning the Confederate posi- 

 tion at Gloucester Point across York river by 

 the movement of McDowell's corps, and then 

 rendering the Peninsula untenable for the Con- 

 federates by the advance of that force up the 

 left bank of the river to West Point ; but Mc- 

 Dowell's troops were beyond his control, and, 

 in his judgment, nothing remained but to be- 

 gin what is known as the siege of Yorktown, 

 though it was not strictly a siege. As it pro- 

 gressed, Franklin's division of McDowell's corps 

 was sent to aid in it by an attack on Gloucester 

 Point. On May 3 the Confederates abandoned 

 their position, having blocked the advance of the 

 Army of the Potomac for nearly a month ; and 

 on May 4 McClellan pushed on his troops in pur- 

 suit, and the battle of Williamsburg was fought 

 May 5, a tierce and successful but scrambling 

 fight, managed mainly by two of the corps com- 

 manders. McClellan sent four divisions of his 

 army from Yorktown to West Point by water, 

 and moved the rest by land along the Penin- 

 sula. On May 7 the advance divisions repelled 

 a sharp attack near West Point. May 16 head- 

 quarters were at White House, on Pamunkey 

 river, and May 22 at Cold Harbor. On May 

 20 the advance of the army had reached the 

 Chickahominy, and the work of bridging that 

 stream began. On May 26 the railroad from 

 White House, the new base, to the Chicka- 

 hominy was finished. McClellan had written 

 to the Secretary of War, May 10, urging the 

 necessity of re-enforcements, and asserting that 

 the decisive struggle of the war would be for 

 "Richmond. On May 14 he appealed directly 

 to the President in the same strain. The Secre- 

 tary of War, May 17, ordered McDowell, then 

 stationed at Fredericksburg, to advance and 

 co-operate with the attack on Richmond, and 

 on May 18 McClellan was directed to prepare 

 to connect his right wing with McDowell's 

 left. McClellan wished to have all re-enforce- 

 ments sent by water, and aimed at making the 

 James river his base of operations as soon as 

 the Union navy could dominate that stream ; 

 but this order determined his position along the 

 Chickahominy. On May 21 he telegraphed, 

 asking about his authority over McDowell's 

 command after it should join him, as the de- 



partments were so divided that part of his ob- 

 jective, the city of Richmond itself, lay outside 

 of the Department of the Potomac. On May 

 24, in the forenoon, the President sent word 

 that McDowell, re-enforced by Shields, would 

 march for Richmond on the 26th ; but in the 

 afternoon he telegraphed that this movement 

 would have to be suspended, that McDowell's 

 forces might be diverted against Jackson, who 

 had advanced up the Valley. On May 25 the 

 President sent details in regard to Jackson's 

 movement, and said, "I think the time is 

 near when you must either attack Richmond 

 or give up the job and come, to the defense of 

 Washington." The same day McClellan an- 

 swered, " The object of the movement is 

 probably to prevent re-enforcements being sent 

 to me." He added that two of his arnuy corps 

 were across the Chickahominy, within six 

 miles of Richmond. May 27 McClellan cleared 

 his right wing by the brilliant combat at Han- 

 over Court-House, and so opened the way for 

 re-enforcements from Fredericksburg whenev- 

 er it should be thought safe to send them. In 

 announcing this success, he repeated his assur- 

 ance that the enemy's plans were to concen- 

 trate to defend their capital, and the President 

 replied that the indications were all the other 

 way. The Army of the Potomac then lay on 

 the north and south banks of the swampy 

 Chickahominy, across which eleven bridges 

 had been built with great labor. On May 31 

 Johnston, the Confederate general, made an 

 attack upon the Federal advance at Fair Oaks 

 and Seven Pines, with the design of destroy- 

 ing the two corps on the right or south bank 

 of the river ; but the attempt was foiled in a 

 furious battle of two days. The Chickahominy 

 had been so swollen by continuous rains that 

 it was with difficulty re-enforcements were got 

 over and communication between the parts of 

 the army preserved. The advance remained 

 about five miles from Richmond. 



On June 1 McClellan's command was ex- 

 tended over Fortress Monroe, and on June 2 

 the Secretary of War sent word that McDowell 

 would be at his service as soon as Jackson was 

 disposed of. In a letter written June 7, the 

 general described the Chickahominy bottoms 

 as a great bog, but promised "to move for- 

 ward and take Richmond" the moment re- 

 enforcements then on the way should join him 

 and the condition of the ground permit of an 

 advance. He was strengthened by McCall's di- 

 vision of McDowell's troops, June 13 and 14, 

 and was promised the rest in due time. As 

 early as June 11, Lee, who had succeeded John- 

 ston, wounded at Fair Oaks, in command of the 

 Confederate army at Richmond, began to ar- 

 range for the secret withdrawal of Stonewall 

 Jackson from the Valley for a combined attack 

 upon the Army of the Potomac. As early as 

 June 18 McClellan began to arrange for a 

 probable change of base from White House on 

 the Pamunkey to Harrison's Landing on the 

 James, as he was gradually massing his whole 



