To the gates of Richmond :

the peninsula campaign /
Stephen W. Sears.
Bibliographic Details
Main Creator: Sears, Stephen W.
Contributors: Griffin, Stephen, donor.
Summary:The Peninsula campaign of 1862 was the largest campaign of the Civil War. More men were assembled on the Virginia Peninsula for this battle for the capital of the Confederacy than for any other operation of the war. Now Stephen Sears, the award-winning author of Landscape Turned Red, provides the first complete, full-length account of the campaign ever written, a masterly narrative by one of our foremost historians. The Peninsula campaign was General George McClellan's.


Grand scheme to advance from Yorktown up the Virginia Peninsula and destroy the Rebel army in its own capital. Though initially successful, McClellan's plans fell through at the gates of Richmond. Assuming command of the Confederate forces, Robert E. Lee split his army and proceeded to deliver a series of hammer blows against the Federals. Though the Confederates were not invariably victorious on the field, Lee's will to fight so surpassed McClellan's that in the end the.

Union forces were expelled from the Peninsula. Weaving together narrative, military analysis, and firsthand testimony from the diaries and letters of Union and Confederate soldiers, Stephen Sears has crafted a magisterial history. It is at once a ground-breaking study of the great Civil War engagement, an unforgettable picture of men at war, and a sobering reflection of the role of individuals on the outcome of events.
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In collection: Stephen Griffin Collection
Format: Book
Language:English
Published / Created: New York : Ticknor & Fields, 1992.
Subjects:
Notes:Includes bibliographical references (pages 437-450) and index.

In 1862, General George McClellan launched the largest campaign of the war thinking that if he could advance up the Virginia Peninsula and destroy the Rebel army in its own capital he could end the war in short order. At first, his plan met with some success but his indecisiveness and caution led to an eventual retreat. During the campaign a unit of the Irish Brigade was pinned down at Malvern Hill by the fierce resistance from a Confederate company firing from a clump of trees. Captain David Conyngham observed to a sergeant names Driscoll that they had to knock out the daring Confederate officer who was leading the resistance. Driscoll said he would. When the valiant Rebel officer stepped out again, Driscoll dropped him. When they got close to the officer, lying face down, Conyngham told Driscoll to turn over the body of the brave young man. When he did, the man looked Driscoll in the face and said : "Father" and then died. Mere words are completely inadequate to describe the grief of the poor man. Later, the deranged sergeant attacked the Confederate company alone and was killed in a hail of bullets. In another context, Bruce Catton refers to such tales of suffering as taking the "romantic gloss off a war taht has at times been made to look like a picturesque pageant; they pull a curtain aside and let us see that this fabled 'war between brothers' was a matter of agony and death and bleak hopelessness for the people who were actually involved in it."

Physical description: xii, 468 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

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Contained in: To the gates of Richmond.
ISBN:0899197906
9780899197906
0395701015
9780395701010
Call Number View In Collection
GR 5653
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