On March 24, 1862, Union General George B. McClellan wants to make every effort to have his planned Peninsula campaign be a success. This requires the coordination of other Union forces in the Eastern Theater of the war. Therefore, McClellan advised General Banks to push the forces of Confederate General Jackson backwards far beyond the city of Strasburg and if possible all the way to Woodstock. Jackson's forces should be held in check to allow for the repair of the railway bridge over the Shenandoah River. Banks was to then defeat Jackson, and march on to Manassas.General Banks was to have forces under Shields and even Sedgwick guard Strasburg and Winchester until the Manassas Gap Railway was fully repaired.
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Union General George B. McClellan had plans for General Totten in the 1862 Peninsula campaign. Late in March of 1862, McClellan had requested that General Totten be made available to build fortifications on the peninsula leading to Richmond. He was an experienced engineer. McClellan understood that the experience of the Army's chief engineer, Totten would be invaluable in this campaign.
General McClellan believed he had good reasons for his ideas that Washington DC was set about to damage his plans for the Peninsula campaign. He resented his battle plans being questioned, having his army reorganized against his will, and to read in newspapers about his removal from the general in chief title he had. From that point on, he began his campaign of blaming Washington DC for his failures in the Peninsula campaign.
As the Union's Peninsula campaign was in its early stages, General McClellan was certain that President Lincoln was hampering McClellan's war operations. Lincoln had stepped in and retained the corps under General McDowell to defend Washington DC. Lincoln believed this was a necessity.
President Lincoln appointed Major General George B. McClellan to general in chief on November 1, 1861. He replaced the retiring General in Chief Winfield Scott. Lincoln relieved McClellan of his title on March 11, 1862. McClellan was not in Washington DC at this time. He was in the process of organizing the Peninsula campaign. It is written that Lincoln did not believe that McClellan could hold his position as general in chief and conduct the Peninsula campaign at the same time.
The failed Peninsula Campaign in July 1862 was frustrating for Lincoln. One result of this was Lincoln's appointment of General Halleck as general in chief. Halleck was thus appointed at this time to handle General George B. McClellan's problems.
A respected Union general, Erasmus D. Keyes, one of McClellan's corps commanders in the Peninsula campaign, sided with his commanding officer. He wrote that Lincoln's decision to take away McDowell's corps from the Peninsula campaign forced McClellan to now execute a plan that was different than the one originally agreed upon before the move to Fort Monroe.
General McClellan blamed President Lincoln for the Union disaster in the Peninsula campaign. On June 28, 1862, as he begins his retreat back to Harrison's Landing, he sent a telegraph to Lincoln, accusing him and Secretary of War Stanton of sabotaging his campaign. Lincoln returns the message that he will support McClellan, ignoring McClellan's hostility. Realizing the unstable military position of the North, Lincoln began to call for 300,000 new recruits from the Northern state governors.
A more cautious Confederate general was replaced by the more aggressive Robert E. Lee.
Because his Peninsula campaign had failed, and some of Lincoln's cabinet thought he might even be a Confederate spy.
On April 4, 1862, General McClellan decided that the best way to force the Confederates out of Yorktown, was to lay it to siege. This caused a serious delay in McClellan's advance westward towards Richmond.
Union General George Meade still believed that a "peninsula campaign" was the best way to assault Richmond. Meade did not press his ideas because of the 1862 failed Peninsula campaign of General George B. McClellan.