4 6 The American Civil WarShenandoah valley campaign
Now just commander of the Army of the
Potomac, Little Mac changed his plans when
word arrived that Johnston had retreated to
the Rappahannock line. On 17 March, the
Army of the Potomac began a larger turning
movement towards Fort Monroe, situated at
the tip of the finger of land between the
York and James rivers known as the
Peninsula. By the end of April, Confederate
planners faced a range of threats in Virginia:
the bulk of the Army of the Potomac lay on
the lower Peninsula; another 30,000 Federals
under Irvin McDowell near Fredericksburg;
15,000 under Nathaniel P. Banks in the lower
Shenandoah valley, and nearly 10,000 under
John C. Fremont in the Allegheny
Mountains west of the valley.
The Confederates responded by
concentrating forces near Richmond and
mounting a diversion in the Shenandoah
valley. Johnston fell back to the Peninsula,
where he contested a slow Union advance
towards the capital. As the forces under
Johnston and McClellan sought to gain an
advantage over each other, the ironclad
CSS Virginia (popularly called the 'Merrimac')
was scuttled on 11 May. The Virginia had
raised hopes in many a Confederate breast
after its historic victories over several
wooden warships on 8 March, before
fighting the Union ironclad USS Monitor to a
draw at Hampton Roads the next day. 'No
one event of the war,' remarked Confederate
ordnance chief Josiah Gorgas from his post
in Richmond, 'created such a profound
sensation as the destruction of this noble
ship.' Heavy rains drenched the Peninsula
during May, adding to Confederate gloom
over the Virginia and affording McClellan a
good excuse for making little headway. The
end of the month found the two forces -
more than 100,000 Federals and about
70,000 Confederates - arrayed opposite one
another along the Chickahominy river just
east of Richmond.
By that time, the first major southern
response to McClellan's Peninsula offensive
had come in the Shenandoah valley. General
Robert E. Lee, acting as principal military
adviser to Jefferson Davis, proposed to
reinforce Stonewall Jackson's small force in
the valley with Richard S. Ewell's division,
bringing it to about 17,500 men. He wished
for Jackson to pin down all the troops
belonging to Banks and Fremont so that they
could not join in the advance against
Richmond. Jackson had gained attention
with an offensive movement in late March
that resulted in a sharp action at First
Kernstown. Although a tactical defeat, that
fight had prompted the Federals to hold
Banks and Fremont in the valley, which in
turn set up Jackson's subsequent campaign.Many civilians kept diaries that illuminate attitudes
and morale on the respective home fronts. From
her home in eastern North Carolina, Catherine Ann
Devereux Edmondston drew on newspaper accounts,
letters from friends and information gleaned from
conversations to compile an exceptionally revealing
diary. Like most Confederates, she preferred aggressive
military leaders. First published in 1979, her diary
merits the attention of anyone interested in the
Confederacy. (Capital Area Preservation at
Mordecai Historic Park, Raleigh, North Carolina)