Why Did McClellan Attack the Peninsula?

today is the 160th anniversary of a fascinating debate between president abraham lincoln and his top general of the time general george b mcclellan on february 3rd 1862 these two men exchanged a series of personal telegrams debating when and where the army of the potomac should attack the confederate army in virginia and this private discussion between lincoln and mcclellan had in fact been raging for months full of passive aggressive tension in congress and in northern newspapers the debate over mcclellan's inaction was less passive and more straight-up aggressive republicans in congress demanded action and the political pressure was at a boiling point for the army of the potomac to do something anything to avenge the embarrassment of first bull run today on february 3rd lincoln and mcclellan exchange proposals for exactly what should be done before we explain the competing strategies it may be helpful to study a map and see the situation for yourself the position of the armies in the east was virtually unchanged from the aftermath of bull run in july 1861 with over a hundred thousand federal troops defending washington dc against fewer than fifty thousand confederates the armies were practically on top of each other nervously anxiously waiting for the other to make a move but no one did which is not to say that the confederate troops were idle right now i am standing in centreville virginia where johnston's army had spent the better part of six months fortifying and developing a semi-permanent encampment today centreville is a maze of highways strip malls and suburban sprawl one of the few natural tracks of ground left in this town is the very small historic centerville park 160 years ago these fields were covered in tents wooden huts trenches and earthworks bristling with emplaced cannons some of the cannons were real and some were logs painted black but we'll talk more about that in a later video this small section of earthworks that you can see today is one of the only visible remnants of the confederate occupation at centreville and as you can tell it's awkwardly nestled right into the middle of a suburban housing community there's no question that the confederate position here was formidable general johnston's headquarters was in an elegant home about five miles to my southwest on the edge of what is today manassas battlefield park confederate defenses across this region stretched for miles given the nature of the formidable position the question in february 1862 was what should the army of the potomac do about it i could explain the opposing strategies myself but why do that when you can hear it directly from the two men who were in the best position to answer it let's start with a telegram sent by lincoln today on february 3rd my dear sir you and i have distinct and different plans for a movement of the army of the potomac yours to be done by the chesapeake up the rappahannock to urbana and across land to the terminus of the railroad on the york river mine to move directly to a point on the railroad southwest of manassas if you'll give satisfactory answers to the following questions i shall gladly yield my plan to yours does not your plan involve a greatly larger expenditure of time and money than mine wherein is a victory more certain by your plan than mine in case of disaster would not a retreat be more difficult by your plan than mine yours truly abraham lincoln mcclellan received this telegram and on the same day composed a very very long reply so here are just a few select passages of the reply that mcclellan sent back to the president today on february third the lower chesapeake bay affords the shortest possible land route to richmond and strikes directly at the heart of the enemy's power in the east the country now alluded to is much more favorable for offensive operations than that in front of washington a movement in that direction obliges the enemy to abandon his entrenched position at manassas in order to hasten to cover richmond and norfolk he must do this should we be beaten in a battle we have a perfectly secure retreat down the peninsula upon fort monroe with our flanks perfectly covered by the fleet the point of landing which promises the most brilliant result is urbana a rapid movement from urbana would probably cut magruder off in the peninsula and enable us to occupy richmond before it could be strongly reinforced should circumstances render it not advisable to land at urbana worst coming to worst we can take fort monroe as a base and operate with complete security this movement if adopted will not at all expose the city of washington to danger my judgment as a general is clearly in favor of this project i am very respectfully your obedient servant george b mcclellan major general commander one of the reasons that i love studying the american civil war is that we have these telegrams we have photographs we have letters we have a wealth of source material that allows us to penetrate into the minds of these leaders who were making decisions that would decide the outcome of the war and what you heard here is just the smallest taste of the increasingly contentious debate between military and political leaders in washington over what to do next now if you know your history then you know this is a debate that mcclellan will ultimately win but not without some important caveats and limitations placed by the president this spring here on little wars tv we're going to cover the 160th anniversary of mcclellan's peninsula campaign in incredible detail with a series of videos battlefield tours interviews and war games our onto richmond series will be the most extensive ambitious series we've ever done on little wars tv so if you're a fan of the american civil war hit that subscribe button join us in early march less than a month from now when we will follow the army of the potomac on the road to richmond it's a campaign that begins with sky-high hopes but you know what they say richmond is a hard road [Music]

Channel: Little Wars TV

Views: 22,093

Keywords: little wars tv, richmond national battlefield park, civil war peninsula campaign, mcclellan 1862, peninsula campaign 1862, was the peninsular campaign successful, why was the peninsula campaign important

Id: 2NU7AiARJtE

Length: 6min 33sec (393 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 03 2022