Peninsula campaign 1862
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Year | 1862 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
|---|---|---|
| Era | 19th century (1800–1913) | derived from year |
| Location | United States | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | North America | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | American Civil War | Wikidata P361 |
| Coordinates | 37.2572, -76.6094 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Peninsula campaign (also known as the Peninsular campaign) of the American Civil War was a major Union operation launched in southeastern Virginia from March to July 1862, the first large-scale offensive in the Eastern Theater. The operation, commanded by Major General George B. McClellan, was an amphibious turning movement against the Confederate States Army in Northern Virginia, intended to capture the Confederate capital of Richmond. Despite the fact that Confederate spy Thomas Nelson Conrad had obtained documents describing McClellan's battle plans from a double agent in the War Department, McClellan was initially successful against the equally cautious General Joseph E. Johnston, but the emergence of the more aggressive General Robert E. Lee turned the subsequent Seven Days Battles into a humiliating Union defeat.
McClellan landed his army at Fort Monroe and moved northwest, up the Virginia Peninsula. Confederate Brigadier General John B. Magruder's defensive position on the Warwick Line caught McClellan by surprise. His hopes for a quick advance foiled, McClellan ordered his army to prepare for a siege of Yorktown. Just before the siege preparations had been completed, the Confederates, now under the direct command of Johnston, began a withdrawal toward Richmond.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Peninsula campaign (revision 1380699789), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Nearby battles
- Battle of Williamsburg 1862 · 5 km
- Battle of Gloucester Point (1861) 1861 · 10 km
- Siege of Yorktown 1781 · 10 km
- Siege of Yorktown (1862) 1862 · 11 km
- Battle of Green Spring 1781 · 16 km
- Battle of Spencer's Ordinary 1781 · 18 km
Other battles of the American Civil War
- Battle of the Head of Passes 1861
- Bog Wallow Ambush 1861
- First Battle of Mesilla 1861
- Siege of Tubac 1861
- Skirmish at Blackwater Creek 1861
- Battle of Albuquerque 1862
- Battle of Antietam 1862
- Battle of Apache Pass 1862
- Battle of Augusta (1862) 1862
- Battle of Baton Rouge (1862) 1862
All 498 battles of the American Civil War →
Browse more: battles in United States · North America · 19th century battles