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The Incredible American Generals that Defined their Eras

Khalid Elhassan May 4, 2022 36 min

10. Timidity Kept This General From Seizing Richmond and Winning the Civil War in 1862

The Warwick River line and the 1862 Siege of Yorktown. Wikimedia

On April 5^th, 1862, General George B. McClellan ordered a halt on his side of the Warwick River, had his men dig in, and set out to conduct a siege. Unbeknownst to him, he could have simply bulled through, swatted Magruder aside, and seized Richmond as it was his for the taking. For a month, McClellan methodically prepared for a huge attack to break through Magruder’s “strong defenses”. He concentrated men, guns, and munitions for a massive bombardment scheduled for May 5^th, 1862, followed by an overwhelming attack.

Having already bought his side a month to prepare for the defense of Richmond, Magruder slipped away on the night of May 3^rd, and left behind empty trenches for the enemy to occupy. McClellan resumed his advance on Richmond, but by then the Confederates had concentrated sufficient forces to thwart him. McClellan was halted at the gates of Richmond, then pushed back to his starting point with furious attacks during the Seven Days Battles. The Peninsula Campaign thus came to an ignominious end.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.