In Washington, General George McClellan, then in charge of all Union armies, looked at his maps and decided there was a better way of capturing the Confederate capital — Richmond — and thus ending the war. Instead of marching against a sizeable Rebel army in northern Virginia, roughly seventy miles from Richmond, he would transport the Union Army of the Potomac down Chesapeake Bay to near the mouth of the James River, on which Richmond was situated. He would then proceed up the north bank of the James River, past the Revolutionary War battlefield of Yorktown and the old Virginia capital at Williamsburg to Richmond. There, with superior numbers, he planned to besiege and capture the Confederate capital.

This plan won begrudging approval in Washington. President Lincoln and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton were fearful that with the Army of the Potomac gone, a swift Confederate army could overrun Washington, a triumph that might well lead to the ultimate victory of separation the Confederacy wanted. Lincoln and Stanton gave approval to McClellan's plan only if he left enough troops in front of and around Washington to protect the city.

Additionally, McClellan's duties were rearranged. He would no longer be in charge of all Federal armies, only its largest, the Army of the Potomac. In the west, Lincoln and Stanton put General Henry Halleck in charge.

The Start of the Campaign

McClellan began his campaign to the southern end of Chesapeake Bay in good form. He was disgruntled that the Army of the Potomac would have only 90,000 soldiers for the job, not the 130,000 he had planned on; much of the remainder was left guarding the capital under the command of General McDowell, leader of Union forces at the First Battle of Manassas. He landed his army at Fort Monroe on the tip of the peninsula between the York and the James rivers. At the same time, Confederate president Davis and his chief commander in the region, Joseph Johnston, concluded that they were spread too thin in northern Virginia and should pull Johnston's army back to Richmond.

McClellan's Methods

McClellan was a methodical commander. He did not like to move before all his preparations were made and all of his supplies and soldiers on hand. Eventually he got his men moving up the peninsula — in what later would be known as the Peninsula Campaign — toward Yorktown where the Southerners were establishing defensive lines. When McClellan saw these lines he stopped. In reality, there were not many Confederates there, but they all fell under the command of General John Magruder, who had had some theatrical experience before the war. Magruder marched his men in and out of trees and made such a fuss that McClellan believed he was facing a far larger force than he was. He stopped his march and called for heavy siege guns to be brought up. All of this and other preparations would take a month, until early April.