Peninsula Campaign
1862 CE
The Peninsula Campaign (also known as the Peninsular Campaign) of the American Civil War is a major Union operation launched in southeastern Virginia from March through July 1862, the first large-scale offensive in the Eastern Theater.
The operation, commanded by Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, is an amphibious turning movement against the Confederate States Army in Northern Virginia, intended to capture the Confederate capital of Richmond.
McClellan is initially successful against the equally cautious General Joseph E. Johnston, but the emergence of the more aggressive General Robert E. Lee turns the subsequent Seven Days Battles into a humiliating Union defeat.
McClellan landshis army at Fort Monroe and movs northwest, up the Virginia Peninsula.
Confederate Brig. Gen. John B. Magruder's defensive position on the Warwick Line catches McClellan by surprise.
His hopes for a quick advance foiled, McClellan orde his army to prepare for a siege of Yorktown.
Just before the siege preparations are completed, the Confederates, now under the direct command of Johnston, begin a withdrawal toward Richmond.
The first heavy fighting of the campaign occurs in the Battle of Williamsburg, in which the Union troops manage ome tactical victories, but the Confederates continue heir withdrawal.
An amphibious flanking movement to Eltham's Landing is ineffective in cutting off the Confederate retreat.
In the Battle of Drewry's Bluff, an attempt by the U.S. Navy to reach Richmond by way of the James River is repulsed.
As McClellan's army reachea the outskirts of Richmond, a minor battle occurs at Hanover Court House, but it is followed by a surprise attack by Johnston at the Battle of Seven Pines or Fair Oaks.
The battle is inconclusive, with heavy casualties, but it has lasting effects on the campaign.
Johnston is wounded by a Union artillery shell fragment on May 31 and replaced the next day by the more aggressive Robert E. Lee, who reorganizes his army and prepares for offensive action in the final battles of June 25 to July 1, which are popularly known as the Seven Days Battles.
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McClellan's army reaches the gates of Richmond in the Peninsula Campaign.
General Lee and top subordinates James Longstreet and Stonewall Jackson defeat McClellan in the Seven Days Battles and force his retreat.
Employing audacity and rapid, unpredictable movements on interior lines, Jackson's seventeen thousand men march six hundred and forty-six miles (one thousand and forty kilometers) in forty-eight days and win several minor battles as they successfully engage three Union armies (fifty-two thousand men), including those of Nathaniel P. Banks and John C. Fremont, preventing them from reinforcing the Union offensive against Richmond.
The swiftness of Jackson's men earn them the nickname of "foot-cavalry".
McClellan launches a long-awaited offensive with one hundred thousand men in another attempt to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia, by way of the peninsula formed by the York and the James rivers.
Opposed by General Lee and his able lieutenants Jackson and J. E. Johnston, McClellan moves cautiously, besieging Yorktown, Virginia, on April 5.
Union forces occupy Norfolk on May 10.
By the following day, the Confederates have burned the Merrimac to keep it out of Union hands.
McClellan's Army of the Potomac reaches the Pamunkey River, twenty miles from Richmond, on May 14.
Despite his preponderant forces, he moves no further, waiting for reinforcement from General Irvin McDowell.
“Stonewall” Jackson opens the Shenandoah Valley campaign with a force of eighteen thousand men.
He strikes Union Major General Nathaniel P. Banks at Front Royal on May 23, and ...
...two days later, at Winchester, routing Union troops there.
Jackson's force now poses a clear threat to Washington.
At Big Bethel, near Fort Monroe, Colonel John B. Magruder wins the first Confederate victory.
Opposing forces of Generals Robert E. Lee and George B. McClellan fight a series of battles for seven days between June 26 and July 2 in a struggle for control over the strategic Virginia peninsula between James and York rivers.
After the indecisive Battle of Oak Grove on June 25, ...