Results for Peninsular campaign
On this page:
 
US Military Dictionary:

Peninsular Campaign

A big offensive planned and led by Union Gen. George B. McClellan, that took place from March to July 1862. McClellan, commander of the Army of the Potomac, hoped to seize Richmond, Virginia, a goal which he came within five miles of achieving. In the Seven Days' Battle, however, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee repelled McClellan's forces. Disillusioned by McClellan's apparent lack of progress and demands for additional manpower, President Abraham Lincoln withdrew McClellan and his army from the peninsula, and placed John Pope in charge of Union forces in northern Virginia.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

 
 
US History Encyclopedia: Peninsular Campaign

Peninsular Campaign (1862), an advance against Richmond, began on 4 April 1862, when Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan departed from Fortress Monroe with his Union army of approximately 100,000 to attack the Confederate capital by way of the peninsula formed by the York and James Rivers. McClellan had counted on a larger force and aid from the navy on the James River. The administration withheld 45,000 troops to protect Washington, D.C., and the navy was unable to help because of the menace of the Merrimack and Confederate shore batteries.

The campaign unfolded in three phases. The early Union advance was marked by Confederate resistance behind entrenchments across the peninsula from Yorktown. On 5 April McClellan besieged Yorktown, which was evacuated on 3 May. He then pushed slowly forward, fighting at Williamsburg on 5 May, reaching and straddling the Chickahominy River on 20 May and facing a strengthened Confederate force under Gen. Joseph E. Johnston.

Help expected from Union Gen. Irvin McDowell's 40,000 men was lost to McClellan in May when Confederate Gen. T. J. ("Stonewall") Jackson's Shenandoah Valley campaign scattered or immobilized the Union armies before Washington. The first phase of the campaign ended with the indecisive two-day Battle of Fair Oaks (or Battle of Seven Pines), 31 May and 1 June. Johnston was wounded on 1 June and Robert E. Lee succeeded to his command.

After Fair Oaks came the second phase, three weeks without fighting, marked by Confederate Gen. J. E. B. Stuart's spectacular cavalry raid around the Union army, from 11 to 13 June.

McClellan, reinforced, intended to retake the offensive, but Lee forestalled him and opened the third phase of the campaign by attacking the Union right at Mechanicsville on 26 June. This began the Seven Days' Battles, during which McClellan changed his base to the James River, fending off waves of Confederate attacks as the Union Army retreated to its base at Harrison's Landing. With the appointment on 11 July of Gen. Henry W. Halleck to command all land forces of the United States, the Army of the Potomac began its withdrawal from the peninsula.

Union casualties in the campaign were approximately 15,000, with 1,700 killed; Confederate losses were about 20,000, with 3,400 killed. The Union forces greatly outnumbered the Confederate at the start of the campaign; toward its close the opposing forces were nearly equal.

Bibliography

Catton, Bruce. The Army of the Potomac. Volume 1: Mr. Lincoln's Army. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday 1951.

Martin, David G. The Peninsula Campaign, March–July 1862. Conshohocken, Pa.: Combined Books, 1992.

Sears, Stephen W. To the Gates of Richmond: The Peninsula Campaign. New York: Ticknor and Fields, 1992.

Webb, Alexander Stewart. The Peninsula: McClellan's Campaign of 1862. New York: Scribners 1881.

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Peninsular campaign,
in the American Civil War, the unsuccessful Union attempt (Apr.–July, 1862) to capture Richmond, Va., by way of the peninsula between the York and James rivers.

The Plan

Early in 1862, Gen. George B. McClellan, who had kept the Army of the Potomac inactive through the winter, proposed a plan for transporting his troops by sea to Urbana, near the mouth of the Rappahannock River, and from there advancing on Richmond. This plan was soon rendered unfeasible by the advance of the Confederate army under Joseph E. Johnston to the Rappahannock, so McClellan chose Fort Monroe (at the tip of the peninsula between the York and James rivers) as the debarkation point for his offensive. President Lincoln, who preferred an overland advance, reluctantly agreed to McClellan's plan, provided that a force was left behind to protect Washington. The 1st Corps, under Irvin McDowell, was detached from the Army of the Potomac for that purpose.

Evacuation of Yorktown

Early in Apr., 1862, McClellan had about 100,000 men at Fort Monroe. Instead of trying to break through the Confederate line across the peninsula, he prepared to besiege Yorktown, the strongest point in the line. General Johnston evacuated Yorktown (May 3) just as McClellan had completed his preparations. An indecisive, though severely contested, rear-guard action was fought at Williamsburg (May 5) as the Confederates retired toward Richmond. The evacuation of Yorktown opened up the York River to the Union fleet, and on May 16, McClellan established his base at White House Landing (c.20 mi/32 km east of Richmond) on the Pamunkey River.

Union Advance and Jackson's Diversion

At the same time as Yorktown, the Union advance into the interior forced the Confederates to abandon Norfolk (May 10) and to scuttle their formidable ironclad, the Virginia (see Monitor and Merrimack), thus opening up the James as far as Drewry's Bluff (9 m/14 km south of Richmond), where Confederate batteries repulsed them on May 15. McClellan soon had his army encamped on both sides of the Chickahominy River near Richmond: the 3d and 4th corps were on the south side; the 2d, 5th, and 6th on the north. Irvin McDowell's corps (now called the Army of the Rappahannock) was to march south from its position near Fredericksburg and unite with the right wing north of the Chickahominy. McClellan would then move against the inferior forces of Johnston. However, the brilliant campaign of Thomas (Stonewall) Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley caused the diversion of McDowell's corps from the army threatening Richmond.

The End of the Campaign

Late in May heavy rains swelled the Chickahominy so that communication between the two wings of McClellan's army became precarious. On May 31, Johnston moved against the left wing (on the south side of the river), where the lines extended to Fair Oaks, a railroad station c.6 mi (9 km) east of Richmond. In the ensuing battle of Fair Oaks, or Seven Pines (May 31–June 1, 1862), the Confederate attack, led by James Longstreet, was badly executed. With the help of some divisions of the 2d corps, which managed to cross the river, the Union left wing held its ground. Johnston, severely wounded on May 31, was succeeded on June 1 by Gen. Robert E. Lee, who withdrew the Army of Northern Virginia to Richmond. Lee's subsequent counteroffensive in the Seven Days battles led to McClellan's withdrawal and the close of the campaign. Union forces did not again come so close to Richmond until 1864.

Bibliography

See study by J. P. Cullen (1973).

 
Wikipedia: Peninsula Campaign

[[Image:McClellan+Johnston.jpg|thumb|350px|McClellan and Johnston of the Peninsula Campaign]]

For the campaign of the Napoleonic Wars, see Peninsular War.
Peninsula Campaign
Hampton Roads – Yorktown – Williamsburg – Eltham's Landing – Drewry's Bluff – Hanover Court House – Seven Pines – Seven Days Battles (Oak Grove – Beaver Dam Creek – Gaines' Mill – Garnett's & Golding's Farm – Savage's Station – White Oak Swamp – Glendale – Malvern Hill)

The Peninsula Campaign (also known as the Peninsular Campaign) of the American Civil War was 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, was an amphibious turning movement intended to capture the Confederate capital of Richmond by circumventing the Confederate States Army in northern Virginia. McClellan was initially successful against the equally cautious General Joseph E. Johnston, but the emergence of General Robert E. Lee changed the character of the campaign and turned it into a humiliating Union defeat.

McClellan landed his army at Fort Monroe and moved northwest, up the Virginia Peninsula. Confederate Brig. Gen. John B. Magruder had constructed three defensive lines across the narrow peninsula. The first, the Warwick Line, extending from Yorktown to Mulberry Island, caught McClellan by surprise. His hopes for a quick advance foiled, McClellan ordered his army to prepare for a siege of Yorktown. Just before the siege preparations were completed, the Confederates, now under the direct command of Johnston, began a withdrawal toward Richmond. The first heavy fighting of the campaign occurred in the Battle of Williamsburg, in which the Union troops managed some tactical victories, but the Confederates continued their withdrawal. An amphibious flanking movement to Eltham's Landing was 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 was repulsed.

As McClellan's army reached the outskirts of Richmond, a minor battle occurred at Hanover Court House, but it was followed by a surprise attack by Johnston at the Battle of Seven Pines or Fair Oaks. The battle was inconclusive, with heavy casualties, but it had lasting effects on the campaign. Johnston was wounded and replaced on June 1 by the more aggressive Robert E. Lee, who reorganized his army and prepared for offensive action.

Although they are formally considered part of the Peninsula Campaign, the final battles of June 25 to July 1, with Lee in command and on the offensive against McClellan, are popularly known as the Seven Days Battles, and are described in their own article.

Background

McClellan spent the winter of 1861–62 training his new Army of the Potomac and fighting off calls from President Abraham Lincoln to advance against the Confederates. Lincoln was particularly concerned about the army of General Joseph E. Johnston at Centreville, just 30 miles (50 km) from Washington, D.C. McClellan greatly overestimated Johnston's strength and shifted his objective from that army to the Confederate capital of Richmond. He proposed to move by water to Urbanna on the Rappahannock River and then overland to Richmond before Johnston could move to block him.

Although Lincoln favored the overland approach because it would shield Washington from any attack while the operation was in progress, McClellan argued that the road conditions in Virginia were intolerable, that he had arranged adequate defenses for the capital, and that Johnston would certainly follow him if he moved on Richmond. This plan was discussed for three months in the capital until Lincoln approved McClellan's proposal in early March. By March 9, however, Johnston withdrew his army from Centreville to Culpeper, making McClellan's Urbanna plan impracticable. Little Mac then proposed to sail to Fort Monroe and then up the Virginia Peninsula (the narrow strip of land between the James and York Rivers) to Richmond. Lincoln reluctantly agreed.

Before departing for the Peninsula, McClellan moved the Army of the Potomac to Centreville on a "shakedown" march. He discovered there how weak Johnston's force and position had really been, and faced mounting criticism. On March 11, Lincoln's War Order No. 3 relieved McClellan of his position as general-in-chief of the Union armies, so that he could devote his full attention to the difficult campaign ahead of him. The Army of the Potomac began to embark for Fort Monroe on March 17.

Opposing forces

The Army of the Potomac had approximately 50,000 men at Fort Monroe when McClellan arrived, but this number grew to 121,500 before hostilities began. Transporting these men, almost 15,000 horses and mules, and 1,150 wagons was an enormous task. It required 113 steamships, 188 schooners, and 88 barges. The army was organized into three corps and other units, as follows:

On the Confederate side, Johnston's Army of Northern Virginia (newly named as of March 14[1]) was organized into three wings, each composed of several brigades, as follows:

However, at the time the Army of the Potomac arrived, only Magruder's 13,000 men faced them on the Peninsula. The bulk of Johnston's force (43,000 men) were at Culpeper, 6,000 under Maj. Gen. Theophilus H. Holmes at Fredericksburg, and 9,000 under Major General Benjamin Huger at Norfolk. In Richmond, General Robert E. Lee had returned from work on coastal fortifications in the Carolinas and on March 13 became the chief military adviser to Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

Forces in the Shenandoah Valley played an indirect role in the campaign. Approximately 50,000 men under Maj. Gens. Nathaniel P. Banks and Irvin McDowell were engaged chasing a much smaller force under Stonewall Jackson in the Valley Campaign. Jackson's expert maneuvering and tactical success in small battles kept the Union men from reinforcing McClellan, much to his dismay. He had planned to have 30,000 under McDowell to join him.

Battles

Peninsula Campaign, map of events up to the Battle of Seven Pines
Enlarge
Peninsula Campaign, map of events up to the Battle of Seven Pines
Battle of Hampton Roads (March 8 – March 9, 1862)
March 8 marked the first combat of ironclad ships as the new CSS Virginia made its entrance before the wooden Union warships blockading the entrance from the Chesapeake Bay to Hampton Roads and wreaked devastation upon them. However, the next day, Virginia was met by the new Union ironclad USS Monitor. The two ironclads fought an inconclusive battle, with each retreating at the end of the day.

Hampton Roads caused a newfound sense of concern because the Army's transport ships could be attacked by this new weapon directly in their path. And the U.S. Navy failed to assure McClellan that they could protect operations on either the James or the York, so his plan of amphibiously enveloping Yorktown was abandoned, and he ordered an advance up the Peninsula to begin April 4. On April 5, McClellan learned that McDowell's corps would not be joining him at Fort Monroe. In addition to the pressure of Jackson's Valley Campaign, President Lincoln believed that McClellan had left insufficient force to guard Washington and that the general had been deceptive in his reporting of unit strengths, counting troops as ready to defend Washington when they were actually deployed elsewhere. McClellan protested that he was being forced to lead a major campaign without his promised resources, but he moved ahead anyway.

Battle of Yorktown (April 5 – May 4)
The Union army advanced to Yorktown (site of the 1781 surrender of Lord Cornwallis to George Washington), where Magruder's 11–13,000 men had entrenched a line on both sides of the town and along the Warwick River, stretching almost completely across the Peninsula. McClellan decided to besiege Yorktown and spent almost a month assembling the heavy artillery and supplies he felt necessary for the task. Magruder, who was an amateur actor before the war, was able to fool McClellan by ostentatiously marching small numbers of troops past the same position multiple times, appearing to be a larger force. McClellan suspended the march up the Peninsula toward Richmond, ordered the construction of siege fortifications, and brought his heavy siege guns to the front. In the meantime, Johnston brought reinforcements for Magruder. On April 16, Union forces probed a weakness in the Confederate line at Lee's Mill or Dam No. 1. Failure to exploit the initial success of this attack, however, held up McClellan for two additional weeks, while he tried to convince the U.S. Navy to bypass the Confederates' big guns at Yorktown and Gloucester Point and ascend the York River to West Point, thus outflanking the Warwick Line. McClellan planned for a massive bombardment to begin at dawn on May 5, but the Confederate army slipped away during the night of May 3 toward Williamsburg. During McClellan's lengthy delay, caused in part by weather, logistical difficulties, and McClellan's apparent lack of nerve, Johnston had adequate time to redeploy his army in defense of Richmond. Elements of James Longstreet's wing, deployed as the rear guard for the withdrawal, occupied some of Magruder's entrenchments. On May 4, a minor skirmish occurred between the two armies. Stoneman's Union cavalry also skirmished with Jeb Stuart.
Battle of Williamsburg (May 5)
The first pitched battle of the campaign included nearly 41,000 Union men and 32,000 Confederates. McClellan was absent in the rear most of the day, and the operational command of the Union Army fell to Sumner, who employed only half of the army. Joseph Hooker's division encountered the Confederate rear guard near Williamsburg. Hooker assaulted Fort Magruder, an earthen fortification alongside the Williamsburg Road (from Yorktown), but was repulsed. Longstreet counterattacked and threatened to overwhelm the Union left flank, until Brig. Gen. Philip Kearny's brigade arrived to stabilize the Federal position. Brig. Gen. Winfield S. Hancock's brigade then moved to threaten the Confederate left flank, occupying two abandoned redoubts. The Confederates counterattacked unsuccessfully. Hancock's localized success was not exploited. The Confederate army continued its withdrawal during the night. Although the battle was essentially inconclusive—and a disappointment for the Union because it failed to destroy the much smaller force in front of it—McClellan cabled the War Department, claiming a victory.
Battle of Eltham's Landing (or West Point) (May 7)
McClellan's next plan was to move four divisions (Franklin's, Porter's, Sedgwick's, and Richardson's) one by one up the York River to Eltham's Landing, near West Point, Virginia, cutting off Johnston's retreat up the Peninsula. Johnston learned of the movement and sent the division of G. W. Smith to intercept Franklin, the first division to land. Smith won a tactical victory over Franklin in a heavy skirmish, dissuading McClellan from any further amphibious movements, despite the continued bad road conditions in the direction of Richmond.

On May 9, the isolated Confederate force at Norfolk, facing the large Union force across Hampton Roads, evacuated the city and naval base. On May 11, the CSS Virginia was blown up to prevent its capture by the U.S. Navy. President Lincoln witnessed this part of the campaign, having arrived at Fort Monroe on May 6 in the company of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton and Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase on the Treasury Department's revenue cutter Miami. Lincoln believed that the city of Norfolk was vulnerable and that control of the James was possible, but McClellan was too busy at the front to meet with the president. Exercising his direct powers as commander in chief, Lincoln ordering naval bombardments of Confederate batteries in the area on May 8 and set off in a small boat with his two Cabinet secretaries to conduct a personal reconnaissance on shore. Troops under the command of Maj. Gen. John E. Wool, the elderly commander of Fort Monroe, occupied Norfolk on May 10, encountering little resistance.[2]

Battle of Drewry's Bluff (May 15)
With Yorktown in Union hands and Virginia scuttled, the James River was now open to Federal gunboats. On May 15, five gunboats of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, including the ironclads USS Monitor and USS Galena, steamed up the James to test the defenses of Richmond. Upon reaching a bend in the river above Dutch Gap, about 7 river miles (11 km) from Richmond, the five gunboats encountered submerged obstacles and fire from the batteries of Fort Darling at Drewry's Bluff, which inflicted severe damage on the Galena. The Confederate guns, situated 600 feet (180 m) above the river, were so high that the naval guns could not be elevated enough to engage them. The Navy suffered at least 14 dead and 13 wounded and was turned back. Commander John Rodgers of the Galena reported to McClellan that they would be able to land the Union troops within 10 miles (16 km) of the Confederate capital, but McClellan never took advantage of that ability during the campaign.

Denied his coveted approach to Richmond via the James River, McClellan established a supply base on the Pamunkey River (a navigable tributary of the York River) at White House Landing where the Richmond and York River Railroad extending to Richmond crossed the river. He commandeered the railroad, transporting steam locomotives and rolling stock to the site by barge.

Over the next three weeks. he edged cautiously toward Richmond. On May 18, he reorganized the Army of the Potomac in the field and promoted two major generals to corps command: Fitz John Porter to the new V Corps and William B. Franklin to the VI Corps. The army had 105,000 men in position northeast of the city, outnumbering Johnston's 60,000, but faulty intelligence from the detective Allan Pinkerton on McClellan's staff caused the general to believe that he was outnumbered two to one. Numerous skirmishes between the lines of the armies occurred from May 23 to May 26. Tensions were high in the city, particularly following the earlier sounds of the naval gun battle at Drewry's Bluff.

Battle of Hanover Court House (May 27)
As the Union Army drew towards the outer defenses of Richmond, it became divided by the Chickahominy River, weakening its ability to move troops back and forth along the front. On May 27, elements of Brig. Gen. Fitz John Porter's V Corps extended north to protect the right flank of the Army of the Potomac. Porter's objective was to deal with a Confederate force near Hanover Court House, which threatened the avenue of approach for Union reinforcements under McDowell that were marching south from Fredericksburg. The smaller Confederate force, under Col. Lawrence O'Bryan Branch, was defeated at Peake's Crossing after a disorganized fight. The Union victory was moot, however, for McDowell was recalled to Fredericksburg upon word of Banks's rout in the Shenandoah Valley at First Winchester. During the absence of Porter, McClellan was reluctant to move more of his troops south of the Chickahominy, making his left flank a more attractive target for Johnston.
Battle of Seven Pines (or Fair Oaks) (May 31 – June 1)
On May 31, Johnston attempted to capitalize on the Union Army's straddle of the rain-swollen Chickahominy River by attacking the two corps (Heintzelman's III Corps and Keyes's IV Corps) south of the river, leaving them isolated from the other three corps north of the river. The Confederate attack plan was complex and not well coordinated, resulting in misdirected movements and delayed attacks, but it succeeded in driving back the IV Corps and inflicting heavy casualties. Both sides fed more troops into the action, although the Confederates never achieved the concentrated mass necessary to prevail; of the thirteen brigades on their right flank, no more than four were engaged at once. Supported by the III Corps and John Sedgwick's division of Edwin V. Sumner's II Corps (which crossed the river on Sumner's initiative), the Federal position was finally stabilized before the IV Corps could be routed. Gen. Johnston was seriously wounded during the action, and command of the Army of Northern Virginia was assumed temporarily by G.W. Smith; Gen. Robert E. Lee soon assumed permanent command. On June 1, the Confederates renewed their assaults against the Federals who had brought up more reinforcements, but they made little headway. Both sides claimed victory with roughly equal casualties, but neither accomplished much in the battle. George B. McClellan's advance on Richmond was halted, and Johnston's army fell back into the Richmond defensive works.

Aftermath and the Seven Days

General McClellan chose to abandon his offensive operations, to lay siege and await reinforcements he had requested from President Lincoln. He never regained his strategic momentum (for his involvement in the entire war, in fact).

Lee used the month-long pause in McClellan's advance to fortify the defenses of Richmond and extend them south to the James River at Chaffin's Bluff. On the south side of the James River, defensive lines were built south to a point below Petersburg. The total length of the new defensive line was about 30 miles (50 km). To buy time to complete the new defensive line and prepare for an offensive, Lee repeated the tactic of making a small number of troops seem larger than they really were. McClellan was also unnerved by Jeb Stuart's audacious (but otherwise militarily pointless) cavalry ride completely around the Union army (June 13–June 15).

The second phase of the Peninsula Campaign took a negative turn for the Union when Lee launched fierce counterattacks just east of Richmond in the Seven Days Battles (June 25 – July 1, 1862). Although none of these battles were significant Confederate tactical victories (and the Battle of Malvern Hill on the last day was a decisive Confederate defeat), the tenacity of Lee's attacks and the sudden appearance of Stonewall Jackson's "foot cavalry" on his western flank unnerved McClellan, who pulled his forces back to a base on the James River. Lincoln later ordered the army to return to the Washington, D.C., area to support General John Pope's army in the Northern Virginia Campaign and the Second Battle of Bull Run. The Virginia Peninsula was relatively quiet until May 1864, when Benjamin Butler again invaded as part of the Bermuda Hundred Campaign.

See also

References

  • Bailey, Ronald H. and the Editors of Time-Life Books, Forward to Richmond: McClellan's Peninsular Campaign, Time-Life Books, 1983, ISBN 0-8094-4720-7.
  • Eicher, John H., and Eicher, David J., Civil War High Commands, Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.
  • Eicher, David J., The Longest Night: A Military History of the Civil War, Simon & Schuster, 2001, ISBN 0-684-84944-5.
  • Esposito, Vincent J., West Point Atlas of American Wars, Frederick A. Praeger, 1959.
  • Sears, Stephen W., To the Gates of Richmond: The Peninsula Campaign, Ticknor and Fields, 1992, ISBN 0-89919-790-6.
  • National Park Service battle descriptions

Notes

  1. ^ Eicher, High Commands, pp. 323, 889; Sears, p. 46.
  2. ^ Sears, pp. 89-92.

External links


This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 

Join the WikiAnswers Q&A community. Post a question or answer questions about "Peninsular campaign" at WikiAnswers.

 

Copyrights:

US Military Dictionary. The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military. Copyright © 2001, 2002 by Oxford University Press, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
US History Encyclopedia. © 2006 through a partnership of Answers Corporation. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Peninsula Campaign".  Read more

Search for answers directly from your browser with the FREE Answers.com Toolbar!  
Click here to download now. 

Get Answers your way! Check out all our free tools and products.

On this page:   E-mail   print Print  Link  

 

Keep Reading

Mentioned In:

 |  More >More >

Related Topics

 

Do you have the answers?