The great Union offensive of 1862 did not only fail to capture Richmond, but also exposed the North to defeat at Bull Run, and after that to Lee’s first invasion of the north. Chapter 1 - The Significance of the Gallipoli Peninsula The 1915 Allied campaign at Gallipoli remains one of the most significant in our history. On the same day that the Monitor was fighting the Virginia, the Confederates inflicted another blow against McClellan’s plan. Once again, the Confederate attack was badly organised, but this time Lee finally managed to launch a coordinated attack, and Porter’s line collapsed. McClellan himself blamed sinister forces in Washington for failing to provide him with enough men or support, despite actually outnumbering his opponents for the entire campaign. General George B. McClellan’s army was the largest and most dangerous. He had a remarkable source of information about McClellan’s position. She sank two Union ships – the sloop Cumberlandand the frigate Congress – without suffering any significant damage. The other was to move west from White House Landing, cross the upper Chickahominy River and attack Richmond from the east. The political impact of the campaign was the enhanced relationships between New Zealand and other countries, specifically Britain and Australia, after participating in the campaign. Following the Union embarrassment at the First Battle of Bull Run, General George B. McClellan replaced Irvin McDowell. Organization was McClellan's specia… Despite that, Lee had succeeded in his main aim. There they had created a fortified line, based around Centreville. Peninsula Campaign. The Union army began its march up the Peninsula on 4 April. ", "Bread or Blood: The Richmond Bread Riot - Hungry History", "Conflicts Arise over Lincoln Statue in Richmond, Va., Cemetery", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Richmond_in_the_American_Civil_War&oldid=1014947320, Richmond, Virginia in the American Civil War, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. In this rotating turret, the Monitor carried two eleven-inch guns. in by Randall M. Miller and Harry S. Stout, eds., Titus, Katherine R. "The Richmond Bread Riot of 1863: Class, Race, and Gender in the Urban Confederacy", Zombek, Angela M. "Paternalism and Imprisonment at Castle Thunder: Reinforcing Gender Norms in the Confederate Capital. In 1864-5, General U.S. Grant laid siege to nearby Petersburg. He saw his army as too small, too poorly equipped, the weather too wet, the roads too poor. Federal losses were 790 killed, 3,594 wounded and 647 captured (total 5,031). They were heavily reliant on imported materials for their military, particularly oil from America. Although McDowell protested vigorously about this decision, McClellan became convinced that McDowell was yet another of his enemies. McClellan's response would set in motion one of the war's most pivotal events — the Peninsula Campaign. The Peninsula Campaign Animated Map. ISBN 978-1-108-05409-6. The Allied plan was to break through the straits, capture the Ottoman capital, Constantinople (now Istanbul), and knock the Ottoman Empire out of the war. He knew that the Union’s own ironclad, U.S.S. The Confederate States of America was formed in early 1861 from the first states to secede from the Union. The second day saw the first of Lee’s attacks (Mechanicsville, 26 June). However, on May 8, 1861, in the Confederate Capital City of Montgomery, Alabama, the decision was made to name the City of Richmond, Virginia as the new Capital of the Confederacy. Opposite Norfolk, anchored in the Hampton Roads, the United States Navy maintained a nervous blockade, dreading the day that the Virginiawould emerge. Things did not go entirely as Lee had planned. 92,000 Battles Involved Siege of Yorktown (April 5 – May Most of the strategic benefits McClellan had claimed for his plan disappeared with the Confederate troops. Despite McClellan’s slowness and the reduction in size of his army, in the days after Williamsburg the Federal army was able to take up a position so close to Richmond that the men could hear the city’s church bells. McClellan put forward a plan for an attack on Petersburg, but with so little confidence that Halleck came to the inevitable conclusion that the Peninsula Campaign had failed. The peninsula was important because it guarded the entrance to the Dardanelles Strait – a strategic waterway leading to the Sea of Marmara and, via the Bosphorus, the Black Sea. Gallipoli Campaign, in World War I, an Anglo-French operation against Turkey from February 1915 to January 1916 that was intended to force the 38-mile-long Dardanelles channel and to occupy Constantinople. As the fall of Petersburg became imminent, on Evacuation Sunday (April 2), President Davis, his Cabinet, and the Confederate defenders abandoned Richmond and fled south on the last open railroad line, the Richmond and Danville. series of battles, march-july 1862, McClellan is going after richmond. In the 1860 United States Census, Richmond was the 25th largest urban area in the United States, with a population of 37,910. Confederate losses were 980 killed, 4,749 wounded and 405 missing (total 6,134). Johnston at Manassas would be too far away to intervene effectively before the fall of the Confederate capital. However, the Monitor was far more manoeuvrable. The first is a great general, tragically let down by enemies in Washington and in the army, never supported properly, denied the men he required, given orders that destroyed his great plans and still the saviour of his country. Ironically, it was his own constant call for reinforcements that led to the events that he was to use to defend that failure. London: Greenhill. ", This page was last edited on 29 March 2021, at 22:00. This caused McClellan two problems. The C.S.S. Only Secretary of the Navy Welles was calm. In the late spring of 1862, a large Federal army under Major General George B. McClellan landed on the Virginia Peninsula. Hill finally launched an attack late in the day, Jackson was within a few miles, but failed to send any help, and the attack was repelled with ease. He examined the Confederate lines, and decided that they were too strong to risk an assault. All was not lost after the Seven Days’ Battles. He had two choices. McClellan was ordered to extend his right flank north to protect McDowell’s route and to prepare to supply him from White House Landing. during their campaign on the Iberian Peninsula (1808 -1814) has focused on the Irish regiments and their service with Wellington in Portugal, Spain and France. Just as the French forces entered Spain, moreover, matters reached crisis point: in brief, Godoy accused Ferdinand of plotting the overthrow of Charles IV and seeking the support of Napoleon to secure this goal. The Monitor was a truly revolutionary warship. what 3 things delay McClellan in drawing his plans? Ulysses S. Grant's 1864 Overland Campaign resulted in Robert E. Lee's Confederate army retiring to the vicinity of Richmond and Petersburg, where they checked Grant's progress. The following day, McDowell was about to move south when he received orders to move west instead. Other museums include the Virginia Historical Society. The event became known as the Evacuation Fire. However, many of the 19,000 men close to Washington were new recruits, badly led and inexperienced. The Confederacy hit its high-water mark at the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863. The reason for this is quite simple. On 12 June Jeb Stuart led 1,200 cavalry on a raid around McClellan’s entire army. This brought a major change in the … On both days Jackson’s contribution was negligible. As units from his army moved to block the Union advance, General Joseph Johnston took command of the forces defending Richmond. As the war progressed, the city's warehouses became the supply and logistical center for much of the Confederate forces within the Eastern Theater. Lincoln’s cabinet feared releasing the Em… He trained the Army of the Potomac so well that it could withstand repeated defeats under less able men. By the end of May, McClellan’s army straddled the river. Stuart, Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, Stonewall Jackson, and Matthew F. Maury. The Peninsula campaign (also known as the Peninsular campaign) of the American Civil War was a major Union operation launched in southeastern Virginia from March through July 1862, the first large-scale offensive in the Eastern Theater. Monument Avenue was laid out in 1887, with a series of monuments at various intersections honoring the city's Confederate heroes. This was the most direct route, and despite McClellan’s later statements he must have been planning to use this route. The Peninsula campaign was a sprawling military operation that had enormous significance in the greater sweep of the war. With the reinforcements came more senior officers. The next day a battle developed at Williamsburg (5 May 1862). The NZEF’s wait in Egypt ended in early April 1915, when it was transported to the Greek island of Lemnos to prepare for the invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula. Virginia had been prevented from destroying the Union fleet, she still lurked in the James River, effectively blocking that river to Union forces, and preventing McClellan from using that route. There, he offered McClellan 20,000 reinforcements. Thirdly, McClellan was removed from his post as general-in-chief, on the entirely correct grounds that he could not both command an army in the field, at some distance from Washington and with the potential for communications to be cut at any moment, and also be in effective overall command of all other operations. The Virginia could take as long as forty minutes to turn round, and needed relatively deep water. Peninsular War, Spanish Guerra de la Independencia (“War of Independence”), (1808–14), that part of the Napoleonic Wars fought in the Iberian Peninsula, where the French were opposed by British, Spanish, and Portuguese forces. Otherwise, as Lincoln pointed out, all he would find would be the same opponents, in similar fortifications. The invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula, which is known to have started the Gallipoli Campaign in World War One, is also known as Anzac Day. The city was shaken shortly thereafter by the March 2, 1864 Dahlgren Affair, a failed Union raid on the city. Montgomery, Alabama, was selected as the Confederate capital. "Civil War, Religion, and Communications: The Case of Richmond." Learn more about the Gallipoli Campaign in this article. Richmond, Virginia served as the capital of the Confederate States of America for almost the whole of the American Civil War. Ironically, Pope managed to hold off his Confederate opponents until the Army of the Potomac was beginning to reach him, before suffering a crushing defeat at the Second Battle of Bull Run or Manassas (29-30 August, 1862). From there, the Union army would be able to march to Richmond virtually unopposed. On 27 May Johnston received news that McDowell was on his way south, and decided that he had to attack McClellan’s three corps north of the Chickahominy before the two Federal armies could combine. One of the Civil War's most daring prison breaks, the Libby Prison escape, took place in February 1864 when more than 100 Federal captives escaped and fled into the night. Wise and William "Extra Billy" Smith, Tredegar Iron Works owner and Confederate Brigadier General Joseph Reid Anderson, and Major Generals George Pickett, Fitzhugh Lee, Henry Heth, and John Imboden. In the aftermath of the first battle of Bull Run/ Manassas (21 July 1861), the Confederates had remained in place close to the battlefield. The Tredegar works were adjacent to the Richmond Arsenal, which was recommissioned in the lead-up to the war. The retreating soldiers were under orders to set fire to bridges, the armory, and supply warehouses as they left. Accordingly, plans were put in place for a joint offensive once Jackson reached Richmond. The conflagration was not completely extinguished until the mayor and other civilians went to the Union lines east of Richmond on New Market Road (now State Route 5) and surrendered the city the next day. On the Confederate side, the Peninsula Campaign saw the emergence of Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee as commanders of great stature and ability. In his later works, McClellan makes the amazing statement that ‘The question now arose as to the line of operations to be followed’. Richmond had looked about to fall, before Jackson and Lee combined to push them away. Convinced that he was now massively outnumbered, McClellan continued his retreat to the James. McClellan had left around 38,000 men to defend Washington and the approaches. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. On 18 May he was informed that McDowell’s corps was about to march south from Fredericksburg to join him. It was only on 11 May that the Virginia was destroyed by her own crew after the loss of Norfolk, opening the James River to Union ships. Numerous smaller factories in Richmond produced tents, uniforms, harnesses and leather goods, swords and bayonets, and other war material. He had responded with silence over the winter – one of his flaws was an inability (or unwillingness) to understand the political pressures that affected Lincoln. Some of the cabinet members were almost expected the Virginiato appear in the Potomac at any moment! The battle was badly handled on both sides, but especially on the Confederate side. That day came on 8 March. Peninsular Campaign. Start studying Peninsula Campaign. The fire in the largely abandoned city spread out of control, and large parts of Richmond were destroyed, reaching to the very edge of Capitol Square mostly unchecked. Stuart, and an unexpected appearance of General Stonewall Jackson's famous "foot cavalry" combined to unnerve the ever-cautious McClellan, and he initiated a Union retreat before Richmond. The Union defeat injured McClellan's standing with Lincoln, stalled the first campaign to take Richmond, and ultimately led to the evacuation of the Union army from the Richmond area. McClellan wanted to take advantage of Union sea power to bypass these defences. This was potentially a good plan, but for it to work, McClellan would have to demonstrate speed and daring. Finally, on 1 July, Lee launched an almost entirely futile assault on a very strong Federal position at Malvern Hill. A driving tour through Civil War sites in Richmond and its surrounding counties is maintained by Virginia Civil War Trails. Longstreet’s rear guard managed to hold off the Federal advance guard for long enough to allow the Confederate artillery and supply trains to retreat back to Richmond, before Brigadier-General Winfield Scott Hancock (commander of the First Brigade, Second Division of Keyes’s Fourth Corps) organised and led an attack that forced the Confederates to retreat from a defensive position that could have developed into another Yorktown. McClellan had been pushed away from Richmond, and for the moment the Confederate capitol was safe. However, we should remember that neither of them had any experience of running major military operations. In 1862 the Confederates fortified a line across the entire Peninsula, with 11,000 men and yet McClellan hesitated. McClellan was initially successful against the equally cauti… Lincoln called an emergency cabinet meeting the next morning. Where once the Confederacy had been on a moral decline in the Eastern Theater, Robert E. Lee’s appointment and overall strategic victory during the campaign secured Richmond for the short term and gave the Confederates the strategic initiative in the east. ", Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac Railroad, "POPULATION OF THE 100 LARGEST CITIES AND OTHER URBAN PLACES IN THE UNITED STATES: 1790 TO 1990 (Population Division Working Paper No. In addition, the James River and Kanawha Canal ran through it with access to the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. When McClellan arrived in Washington, he began building an army. In fact, Joseph Johnston had no more than 45,000 men to call on, and only half of them were around Centreville. Remains of a locomotive of the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad, Damage near the Armory. Peninsular Campaign, (April 4–July 1, 1862), in the American Civil War, large-scale but unsuccessful Union effort to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond, Va., by way of the peninsula formed by the York and the James rivers. On that day, Lincoln asked McClellan to call a meeting of his twelve divisional commanders to find out if they favoured the plan. His route between White House Landing and Richmond led across the swampy valley of the Chickahominy River. He created the great Army of the Potomac, saved Washington from imminent capture twice and defeated the great General Lee on northern soil. In order to outflank strong Confederate defences in northern Virginia, an army over 100,000 men strong would be transported by sea to the Peninsula between the James and York Rivers, to the east of the Confederate capitol of Richmond. On 4 May, just as he was about to begin his bombardment, McClellan found that the Confederate defenders of Yorktown were gone. President Lincoln, who had been visiting General Grant and staying nearby at City Point, toured the fallen city (April 4–7) by foot and carriage with his young son Tad, and visited the former White House of the Confederacy and the Virginia State Capitol. It was a vital source of weapons and supplies for the war effort, and the terminus of five railroads. First, it meant that he had to abandon his preferred plan of a landing at Urbana, and adopt his fallback plan of a landing at Fort Monroe on the Peninsula between the James and York Rivers. The British government led by Prime Minister Herbert Asquith declared war on Germany on August 4th, 1914. The company also manufactured railroad steam locomotives in the same period. Britain had guaranteed the neutrality and independence of Belgium since 1839 and Germany had not responded to the ultimatum to get out of Belgium by midnight on August 3rd. At the fall of Richmond in April 1865, all but the Richmond and Danville Railroad and the canal had effectively been cut off by Union forces. He was wrong, and on 1 July his army suffered 5,500 casualties, twice the federal numbers. Despite winning a clear victory at Mechanicsville, McClellan now decided to move his base from White House Landing south to the James River. One of McDowell’s three divisions had already joined McClellan, the other two played no part in the Peninsula campaign. Vimeiro to Corunna: 1808-1809: The Peninsular War of 1808-14 looms large in British history for two reasons: it is the only significant involvement of British troops on land in the Napoleonic wars until the final campaign of 1815; and it is the stage on which the duke of Wellington rises to prominence as a national figure. Accordingly, at the start of April Lincoln ordered it to remain close to the capitol. Although the C.S.S. After the Confederate Army fired on Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, on April 12, 1861, beginning the Civil War, additional states seceded. Virginia voted to secede from the Union on April 17, 1861, and existed briefly there after as a republic before joining the Confederacy on June 19, 1861. His intention was to ship the army from the Potomac River to Urbana on the Rappahannock River. McClellan was a superb organiser. He moved _____troops by sea to … The retreating Confederates chose to burn military supplies rather than let them fall into Union hands; the resulting fire destroyed much of central Richmond. Faulty information was partly to blame. Although the Confederate position looked appalling, in fact the initiative was about to pass into their hands. 100,000; Richmond. Of the six separate engagements that made up the Seven Days’ Battles, only Gaines’s Mill was a Confederate victory. In 1969 The Band released "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down", which features the lyric, '...by May the 10th (1865) Richmond had fell, it was a time I remember oh so well'. McClellan’s map of the Peninsula showed the Warwick River running parallel to the James, but instead it cuts almost completely across the Peninsula, providing an excellent defensive line. The second McClellan is paranoid, sluggish, possibly even a traitor. Her deck was almost level with the water. ANZAC day, 25 April 1915, is commemorated by Australians and New Zealanders due to the numerous lives lost. The Seven Days The city has a number of markers and monuments commemorating the Civil War and the city's role in the Confederacy. PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN. Ideally, he could reinforce McClellan and the Army of the Potomac would resume its campaign against Richmond. On Brown's Island, the Confederate States Laboratory was established to consolidate explosives production to an isolated setting in the eventuality of an accidental explosion. McDowell’s corps, which had originally been intended to move first, was still close to Washington. When A.P. McClellan, who had enjoyed early publicity from a series of successes in western Virginia, was assigned the task of seizing and occupying Richmond. At the start of August, General Halleck, the newly appointed General in Chief, visited McClellan. However, he was slow to move. Albumen print, 1865. At this point, Magruder had around 10,000 men and McClellan over 50,000. Tredegar is also credited with the production of approximately 10,000 artillery pieces during the war which was about half of the South's total domestic production of artillery between the war years of 1861–1865. A planned attack at Savage’s Station (29 June) was virtually a non-event. Stout, Harry S., and Christopher Grasso. The Confederate army might not have been the Union army, but Lee had certainly beaten McClellan. One attack was launched, at Lee’s Mills (16 April), although that was more of a reconnaissance in force that developed into a minor attack after it appeared that an artillery bombardment had forced the Confederates from their positions. "Harlots or Heroines? (MA Thesis, Virginia Commonwealth University, 2007). Richmond was also a transportation hub. The threat was only lifted when the Virginiawas scuttled by her crew on 10 May, after the fall of Norfolk left her without a base. As McClellan built up in preparation for his bombardment, Johnston prepared to fall back towards Richmond. Merrimac, a 3,200 ton frigate, into the ironclad C.S.S. After the events of the last few weeks, that was no longer certain. The problem with this order was that McClellan found out that he had been removed from this post in a newspaper. At Harrison’s Landing the army was able to recover from its exertions, resupply and reorganise after the strains of the last few weeks. Introduction Thomas Jackson had command of the second major Confederate army in Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley. In preparation for his bombardment, McClellan is paranoid, sluggish, possibly even a traitor ( battle Gettysburg. S Seven Days ’ Battles, only Gaines ’ s original plan General Edward Ord army had! 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