The Peninsula Campaign of 1862

Fort Monroe, located at Old Point Comfort at the end of the Virginia Peninsula was only eighty miles from the Confederate capital at Richmond.  On March 17, 1862, the Union Army of the Potomac under Union Major General George McClellan began embarking in Alexandria for the journey to Fort Monroe and Newport News Point.  General McClellan had outflanked the Confederates in Northern Virginia, but his plans were altered due to the Battle of Hampton Roads.  The CSS Virginia blocked the U.S. Navy’s advance up the James River to Richmond, and the York River was protected by shore batteries at Yorktown and Gloucester Point.  McClellan was now forced to make an overland march toward Richmond without reliable maps.  Moreover, Confederate Major General John Bankhead Magruder used the Peninsula’s geography to his advantage for delaying any Union advance up the Virginia Peninsula.  The April 5 – May 4, 1862 Siege of the…