A
fter an almost uninterrupted, four-month-long string of Union
successes beginning in early 1862, followed by the advance of a
100,000-man enemy army to the eastern outskirts of its capital
at Richmond, Virginia, the Confederacy suddenly found itself in
a life-or-death struggle for its very survival. By mid-June, Maj.
Gen. George McClellan had deployed five Union infantry corps
within six miles of the city, one north of the rain-swollen Chickahominy
River and four on the south side, backed by an imposing array of big guns.
On the Confederate side, General Robert E. Lee, benefitting from
McClellan’s sluggish advance up the Peninsula between the York and
James Rivers, had in a matter of weeks managed to concentrate his out-
numbered forces and improve the defenses around the city. Convinced
that he couldn’t win a war of attrition or mount a successful defense of
Richmond fighting from behind breastworks, the audacious Lee devised
an elaborate plan: he would shatter the Union right flank north of
the Chickahominy, threaten the Army of the Potomac’s line of supply—
the Richmond and York River Railroad running back to White HouseOn June 26, 1862, Robert E. Lee launched the
first of what would become known as the Seven
Days Battles, attacking Maj. Gen. George
McClellan’s exposed right flank at Mechanicsville.
Things did not go as planned. By John Walker
McClellan
’s
UNEXPLOITED
VICTORY
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