Synopses & Reviews
The Richmond campaign of April-July 1862 ranks as one of the most important military operations of the first years of the American Civil War. Key political, diplomatic, social, and military issues were at stake as Robert E. Lee and George B. McClellan faced off on the peninsula between the York and James Rivers. The climactic clash came on June 26-July 1 in what became known as the Seven Days battles, when Lee, newly appointed as commander of the Confederate forces, aggressively attacked the Union army. Casualties for the entire campaign exceeded 50,000, more than 35,000 of whom fell during the Seven Days.
This book offers nine essays in which well-known Civil War historians explore questions regarding high command, strategy and tactics, the effects of the fighting upon politics and society both North and South, and the ways in which emancipation figured in the campaign. The authors have consulted previously untapped manuscript sources and reinterpreted more familiar evidence, sometimes focusing closely on the fighting around Richmond and sometimes looking more broadly at the background and consequences of the campaign.
Contributors:
William A. Blair
Keith S. Bohannon
Peter S. Carmichael
Gary W. Gallagher
John T. Hubbell
R. E. L. Krick
Robert K. Krick
James Marten
William J. Miller
Review
No academic library should be without this volume.
Journal of Southern History
Review
All these essays enhance understanding of the Peninsular campaign.
Civil War History
Review
Another fine addition to the University of North Carolina Press's 'Military Campaigns of the Civil War' series.
American Historical Review
Review
Splendid.
Virginia Quarterly Review
Review
Gallagher's editorial efforts have once again added significantly to the literature of the Civil War.
Journal of American History
About the Author
Gary W. Gallagher is John L. Nau III Professor of History at the University of Virginia. He has published widely on the Civil War, including six previous titles in the Military Campaigns of the Civil War series.
Table of Contents
Introduction
A Civil War Watershed: The 1862 Richmond Campaign in Perspective / Gary W. Gallagher
The Seven Days of George Brinton McClellan / John T. Hubbell
I Only Wait for the River: McClellan and His Engineers on the Chickahominy / William J. Miller
Sleepless in the Saddle: Stonewall Jackson in the Seven Days / Robert K. Krick
The Great Paragon of Virtue and Sobriety: John Bankhead Magruder and the Seven Days / Peter S. Carmichael
A Feeling of Restless Anxiety: Loyalty and Race in the Peninsula Campaign and Beyond / James Marten
The Seven Days and the Radical Persuasion: Convincing Moderates in the North of the Need for a Hard War / William A. Blair
The Men Who Carried This Position Were Soldiers Indeed: The Decisive Charge of Whiting's Division at Gaines's Mill / R. E. L. Krick
One Solid Unbroken Roar of Thunder: Union and Confederate Artillery at the Battle of Malvern Hill / Keith S. Bohannon
Bibliographic Essay
Contributors
Index