Live and Let Hike breaks the trip in two along these lines: this post covers the Battle of Hampton Roads and the arrival of McClellan’s forces at Fort Monroe in March 1862 through the Battles of Williamsburg and Eltham’s Landing in early May a subsequent post will cover the battles closer to Richmond, from Drewry’s Bluff (May 15, 1862) through Malvern Hill (July 1, 1862). 1 and the Williamsburg Line, for example-while museums in Richmond, Hampton, and Newport News offer interpretation of the events of spring and summer 1862, a pivotal period in the Civil War.Īlthough possible to squeeze into a weekend trip, visitors will get a far richer experience if they allot 4-5 days-two on the Peninsula covering the battles of March-May 1862, with at least another two covering the Richmond area and the Seven Days’ Battles (June 25-July 1, 1862). Today, visitors can retrace the Army of the Potomac’s march up Virginia Peninsula on a multi-day driving tour from Hampton Roads to the outskirts of Richmond. Despite greatly outnumbering Confederate defenders, the months-long Union offensive-known as the Peninsula Campaign (March-July 1862)-would end in failure, owing in large part to McClellan’s consistent reticence to take battlefield risks. In November, he tapped a young major general, George McClellan, to head the Union Army it took another five months to ready the Army of the Potomac, the largest force ever built on the continent. Yet with the two sides’ capitals-Washington and Richmond-just over 100 miles apart, Virginia was fated to see more bloodshed.Īs winter gave way to spring, President Lincoln faced tremendous public pressure to mount an assault on Richmond. Following the Battle of Bull Run in July 1861, both sides played defense: strengthening their fortifications, bolstering their ranks, and eyeing the enemy with caution. Nearly a year after the onset of the conflict at Fort Sumter in April 1861, the Civil War had seen very few significant military engagements in the Eastern Theater. Civil War Cemetery at Yorktown, Colonial National Historical Park, January 2017 – Civil War Series –
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