264 
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Washington and other points in its vicinity. At the same time 
Joseph E. Johnston, tho holding a strong position at Centre- 
ville and at various points on the Potomac, could not take 
the offensive partly because of lack of supplies and support, 
and partly because his army was connected with Richmond by 
a single track railroad which might be cut at any moment.^® 
The history of the Peninsular campaign is a long-drawn-out 
affair filled with charges and countercharges by the com- 
manders of the two armies and their respective govern- 
ments.^^ While the conflict was still undecided Johnston was 
replaced by Robert E. Lee, who conceived the idea of recall- 
ing Jackson from the Shenandoah Valley and taking the offen- 
sive against McClellan. He at once sent Whiting by rail with 
a strong detachment to help Jackson drive the Union forces 
out of the valley and asked Jackson to move with his forces 
toward Richmond to aid in the attack.®^ Jackson hastened 
ahead to confer with Lee, leaving his army to follow him by 
rail. His forces did not get in position on the north side of 
the Chickahominy on June 26 in time to help in the attack on 
Fitz-Hugh Porter, who with the Fifth Corps was guarding 
McClellan’s communications with his base of supplies at White 
House on the Richmond and York River Railroad and Pa- 
munky River.^® The next day the combined forces of Jack- 
son, the Hills, and Longstreet beat Porter, who had fallen back 
to Gaines Mill, and demoralized McClellan’s plan.^^ Thus by 
making the best possible use of his transportation facilities 
Lee skilfully mobilized his forces, saved Richmond from grave 
danger, and broke up the Union plan of campaign. On the 
other hand, in April, 1862, the wholesale destruction by the 
Confederates of the Fredericksburg line, connecting Richmond 
and Washington, prevented the union of the Federal armies 
of the Potomac and the Rappahannock, neither of which could 
act without the other, while neither could join the other with- 
out rail communication.^^ 
Following the failure of the campaign on the Peninsula, 
James D. McCabe, Jr., Life and Campaigns of General Robert E. Lee, 551. 
Before Joseph E. Johnston was severely wounded and relieved from command he 
quarreled incessantly with Jefferson Davis, and it is well known that McClellan and the 
authorities at Washington were suspicious of each other. 
Rhodes, History of the Civil War, 1861-1865, 135 ; also Jefferson Davis, A Short 
History of the Confederate States of America (New York, 1890). 
Woodrow Wilson, History of the American People (New York, 1902), IV, 228. 
Rhodes, History of the Civil War, 1861-1865, 138, 139. 
Pratt, Rise of Rait-Poiver in War and Conquest 29. 
