The American Nation A History of the United States, Combined Volume (14th Edition)

382 Chapter 14 The War to Save the Union

Before that date McClellan had possessed clear
numerical superiority yet had only inched ahead; now
the advantage lay with Lee, and the very next day he
attacked. From June 25 to July 1 (the Seven Days’
Battles) Lee repeatedly struck different parts of
McClellan’s lines. The full weight of his force never hit
the northern army at any one time. Nevertheless, the
shock was formidable. McClellan, who excelled in
defense, fell back, his lines intact, exacting a fearful toll.
Under difficult conditions he managed to transfer his
troops to a new base on the James River at Harrison’s

Landing, where the guns of the navy

could shield his position. Again the

loss of life was terrible: Northern

casualties totaled 15,800, and those of

the South nearly 20,000 in the Seven

Days’ Battle for Richmond.

Lee Counterattacks: Antietam

McClellan was still within striking dis-

tance of Richmond, in an impregnable

position with secure supply lines and

86,000 soldiers ready to resume battle.

Lee had absorbed heavy losses without

winning any significant advantage.

Yet Lincoln was exasperated with

McClellan for having surrendered the

initiative and, after much deliberation,

reduced his authority by placing him

under General Henry W. Halleck.

Halleck called off the Peninsular cam-

paign and ordered McClellan to move

his army from the James to the

Potomac, near Washington. He was

to join General John Pope, who

was gathering a new army between

Washington and Richmond.

If McClellan had persisted and

captured Richmond, the war might

have ended and the Union been

restored without the abolition of slav-

ery, since at that point the North was

still fighting for union, not for free-

dom for the slaves. By prolonging the

war, Lee inadvertently enabled it to

destroy slavery along with the

Confederacy, though no one at the

time looked at the matter this way.

For the president to have lost

confidence in McClellan was under-

standable. Nevertheless, to allow

Halleck to pull back the troops was a

bad mistake. When they withdrew, Lee seized the ini-

tiative. With typical decisiveness and daring, he

marched rapidly north. Late in August his

Confederates drove General Pope’s confused troops

from the same ground, Bull Run, where the first

major engagement of the war had been fought.

Thirteen months had passed since the first failure

at Bull Run, and despite the expenditure of thousands

of lives, the Union army stood as far from Richmond

as ever. Dismayed by Pope’s incompetence, Lincoln

turned in desperation back to McClellan. When his

secretary protested that McClellan had expressed

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PENNSYLVANIA

VIRGINIA

MARYLAND

DELAWARE

Hagerstown

Frederick

Baltimore

Washington DC

Richmond

Norfolk

Harpers

Ferry

Antietam

(Sept 17,1862)

Bull Run

Manassas

(July 21,1861 and

Aug 29–30, 1862)

Cedar

Mountain

(Aug 9, 1862)

Fredericksburg

(Dec 13, 1862)

Seven Days

(June 25–July 1, 1862)

Yorktown

(May 4, 1862)

Four Oaks

(May 31–June1, 1862)

Fortress Monroe

Burnside

1862

Area controlled by Union

Area controlled by Confederacy

Union advance

Union retreat

Confederate advance

Confederate retreat

Union victory

Confederate victory

(May 4,1862)Date of victory

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1862

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61
Porter
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Le
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1862
Le
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(^1862)
Mc
Cle
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(^18)
(^62)
Jack
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McDowell
1861
McC
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n
War in the East, 1861–1862In the spring of 1862, McClellan seized Yorktown on the
Virginia Peninsula (Peninsular Campaign). But he failed to take Richmond and his army was
recalled to the Potomac. That fall, McClellan halted Lee’s northern advance into Maryland at
Antietam. By the end of 1862, the situation in the East was much as it had been a year earlier,
except for the nearly 100,000 casulaties.