April 30, 1862---McClellan closes in on Richmond

APRIL 30, 1862:         

Despite General George B. McClellan’s snail-like pace up the Virginia Peninsula, the overwhelming mass of Union troops and materiel is beginning to have an impact. And though McClellan is chary of open battle, and chary of a sea-borne assault because of the C.S.S. VIRGINIA, which had developed a legendary  (if exaggerated) reputation as a destroyer of ships, he has no such compunctions about siege engines---the Union’s big guns are moving into position and a massive bombardment of Yorktown is scheduled for May 8^th.  

General Joseph E. Johnston, in command of the Confederate Army of The Potomac (soon to be renamed the Army of Northern Virginia) writes to General Lee:

“GENERAL: 

We are engaged in a species of warfare at which we can never win. 

It is plain that General McClellan will adhere to the system adopted by him last summer, and depend for success upon artillery and engineering. 

We can compete with him in neither. We must therefore change our course, take the offensive, collect all the troops we have in the East and cross the Potomac with them, while Beauregard, with all we have in the West, invades Ohio. Our troops have always wished for the offensive, and so does the country. 

Please submit this suggestion to the President. We can have no success while McClellan is allowed, as he is by our defensive, to choose his mode of warfare.

    

Most respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. E. JOHNSTON, 

General.”