The Peninsula Campaign of 1862: A Military Analysis

Log in or sign up to add this lesson to a Custom Course. Login or Sign up. In the summer of , Union forces made a bold move to capture Richmond, Virginia, and win the Civil War. This offensive is known as the Peninsular Campaign, and it was a major turning point in the American Civil War. McClellan had achieved several battlefield victories. At 34 years old, he was an impressive figure. When McClellan arrived in Washington, he began building an army.

Organization was McClellan's specialty, and his creation in the second half of became one of the most famous armies in American history: Yet, while McClellan built this army, many began to wonder if it would ever see fighting in the field. In November of , McClellan was promoted to general-in-chief, commander of all Union forces.

Lincoln, McClellan, 1862, and the Great Mistake

However, this did not prompt any quick movements. By early , the pressure on McClellan to move was too great. In February, Lincoln ordered McClellan to take the army out into the field. Confederate forces under the command of General Joseph Johnston were still camped near Manassas , the site of their victory the summer before. McClellan's desire was not to simply achieve a victory at Manassas. He wanted to capture Richmond , the Confederate capital. McClellan viewed the war as a chess match of sorts. His opponent's king was Richmond. By capturing this city, McClellan believed he could end the war quickly and without any great loss of life or bloodshed.

He was terribly wrong. McClellan's initial plan was to transport his army on boats along the Atlantic Coast to Urbanna, Virginia. There, he would disembark behind Joseph Johnston's army, allowing him to march the rest of the way to Richmond unmolested by the Confederates. Once Johnston caught wind of this, he quickly began to fall back toward Richmond, complicating McClellan's intended movement. Now, McClellan would have to take his men along the coast all the way to the Virginia Peninsula , disembarking at Fort Monroe and advancing up the Peninsula against Richmond from the east.

On March 11, Lincoln removed McClellan from his post as general-in-chief so as to prevent him from being distracted from the task at hand; namely, defeating the Confederates and taking Richmond, not overseeing all Union armies. Once McClellan arrived in Virginia, he found Johnston's army standing in his way. Johnston was the highest ranking officer in the U. He had a long and distinguished military career before the war broke out, and thus was one of the most experienced generals on either side. Johnston was a defensively-minded general who would do everything possible to stop the Union advance.

The movement began in March, with Federal forces landing and beginning their advance by April 4.

The Anaconda Plan of Winfield Scott: a Rejected Strategy

Moving up the Peninsula proved problematic in several ways. McClellan tried to proceed by advancing along the York River. This first led his army to Yorktown , where instead of trying to attack through Confederate defenses, a siege began, taking several weeks for Federal forces to get past the obscuring Confederates.

By early May, Union forces reached Williamsburg , where on May 5 a pitched battle was fought, leading to several thousand casualties and further delaying McClellan's advance. After several more weeks of cautiously advancing up the Peninsula, McClellan found his army just seven miles away from Richmond by the end of May. However, it was at this moment, when success appeared most likely, that everything changed. Under great pressure from Jefferson Davis and the Confederate government in Richmond, Joseph Johnston decided to launch an attack against McClellan's forces at the crossroads of Seven Pines , just outside of the Confederate capital.

Both armies were spread out on both sides of the Chickahominy River at this point, and Johnston wanted to hit Union forces who were relatively isolated south of the river. On May 31, he launched his assault. The fighting took place almost exclusively on the southern side of the Chickahominy River. While there were no major breakthroughs for the Confederates, the attack did cause heavy losses on both sides. Among those was Johnston himself, who was wounded late in the day and taken into Richmond.

On June 1, the fighting continued for several hours until Confederates withdrew from the field. The battle was inconclusive, costing over 10, combined casualties.

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Lee was given command of the army defending Richmond, the Army of Northern Virginia. Under Lee's command, the campaign took a dramatic turn in favor of the Confederates. This was an embarrassment for Union forces. At the end of June, after strengthening the defenses of Richmond, Lee was ready to strike. From June 25 to July 1, Lee attacked McClellan at various places on his lines, causing heavy losses on both sides.

These are known as the Seven Days' Battles , none of which were conclusive victories. Yet, their combined effect was to further unnerve George McClellan. He withdrew his army to the James River , south of Richmond. There, Federal forces stayed for several weeks. In July, Lincoln visited the army to prod McClellan to attack again, but to little avail.

In early August, McClellan was ordered to bring his army back to Washington. While the Confederates had not achieved any major tactical victories during the Peninsular Campaign, the entire campaign was a Confederate success. McClellan's massive army had been stymied and Richmond had been saved. Lee's audacious attacks in late June and early July were exactly what was needed. McClellan had never commanded a force of over , men before, and the task of advancing up the Peninsula against Richmond was too much for him to bear.

He would receive a second chance at command in September , when he led Union forces to victory at Antietam. It would not be for another two years that Union forces again came so close to taking Richmond. Lee's successful counterstrike ensured that the war would go on, and it represented a major swing in momentum. Two months after the Seven Days' Battles, Lee would be thirty miles outside of Washington, having defeated Pope at Second Manassas , finding himself poised to win the war.

The Peninsular Campaign is but one reminder of just how many turning points there were during the American Civil War. To unlock this lesson you must be a Study. Login here for access. Did you know… We have over college courses that prepare you to earn credit by exam that is accepted by over 1, colleges and universities. You can test out of the first two years of college and save thousands off your degree.

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The Campaign Begins

To learn more, visit our Earning Credit Page. Thus, shortly after the Seven Days Battles, the main force of the Army of the Potomac withdrew back to Washington to block any potential approach. Of course General Lee, realizing that Richmond was no longer under threat, immediately undertook the very attack that the Union was guarding against, leading to his victory at the Second Bull Run.

Lincoln had myriad political considerations in this period. To gain the largest possible support for the war, he had sold it as a limited campaign. Union Army units were all volunteer.

Many generals were selected based on political power they held in their respective states. Strategically, the Union was simply trying to meet the Confederate army in the field and defeat it. There was not yet the maneuvering in place to gradually wear down the Confederate forces and bring them to terms, because the very idea of a gradual victory was still anathema. Lincoln's opponents -- border state men, peace Democrats , and so on -- were waiting to pounce on any sign of Confederate success so they could discredit the war effort.

Any rebel march on Washington D. In Congress the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War watched over the Union's every move from the radical Republican perspective, evaluating generals based on their political beliefs.

The Peninsula Campaign of 1862 : a military analysis

All of these political considerations were counterproductive. They held the Union back from exploiting its natural advantages in men and resources, and caused it to undertake an overly cautious strategy. Lee was given the freedom to maneuver his army into offensive positions. This state of tactical flux was a huge asset for Lee's smaller army and his creative mind. Over the next year he ran through several fantastic victories, culminating in Chancellorsville and the invasion of Pennsylvania in It was only after Lee was stopped at Gettysburg and Ulysses Grant took command of the Union Army, that the Union regained its initiative and pressed down again upon the heart of Virginia.

In this interval the war had escalated into full scale mobilization, a military draft, the deaths of tens of thousands of soldiers, and much destroyed countryside. Lincoln and McClellan's decision to have the Union forces withdraw from the vicinity of Richmond shows, even a year after the war began, how alluring the idea of a decisive Union victory on the battlefield was to the Union establishment. They were simply unprepared to accept a long, "anaconda-like" siege of Richmond as a route to victory.

In this they were in line with the overwhelming sentiment of the North in the early days of the Civil War. Ironically, by holding out hope of winning a single, ultimate battle, Lincoln and McClellan gave up their real strategic advantage and ensured that the war would last much longer than it needed to.

Library of Virginia : Civil War Research Guide - Battles

The fact that the war in the east was ultimately won, in early , after a prolonged entrenchment at Petersburg and Richmond only underscores this point. There was little that could have prevented the Union from undertaking this identical strategy in , and much loss of life and rancor might have been saved in the process. There is a lesson in this that can be applied to other areas of military strategy, politics, or even life in general. The failure to be realistic about the full extent of a problem -- in this case, the actual strength and viability of the Confederacy -- led to half-measures and ultimately to a much greater cost than would have been suffered with an immediate, vigorous effort.

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He has created this site to empower Americans of all backgrounds to increase their historical literacy. Abraham Lincoln and George McClellan are photographed in after a meeting. The Peninsula Campaign, click for source.

Sears - To the Gates of Richmond: Michael Moore - The Peninsula Campaign of A Military Analysis Stephen W. Sears - George B. Related Topics Robert E. Lee , Abraham Lincoln. Quotes of American History: Grant on Unconditional Surrender Next: For informational purposes only.