Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. II.djvu/327

ABRAHAM LINCOLN 263 Potomac, which was given in charge of Gen. George B. McClellan, a young officer who had dis tinguished himself by a successful campaign in western Virginia. In spite of the urgency of the government, which was increased -by the earnestness of the people and their representatives in congress, Gen. McClellan made no advance until the spring of 1862, when Gen. Johnston, in command of, the Confederate army, evacuated the position which, with about 45,000 men, he had held during the autumn and winter against the Army of the Potomac, amounting to about 177,000 effectives. Gen. McClellan then transferred his army to the peninsula between the James and York rivers. Although there was but a force of 16,000 opposed to him when he landed, he spent a month before the works at Yorktown, and when he was prepared to open fire upon them they were evacuated, and Gen. Johnston retreated to the neighborhood of Richmond. The battle of Seven Pines, in which the Confederates, successful in their first attack, were afterward repelled, was fought on May 31, 1862. Johnston was wounded, and the command devolved upon Gen. Robert E. Lee, who in the latter part of June moved out from his position before Richmond and attacked McClellan s right flank, under Gen. Fitz-John Porter, at Gaines s Mills, north of the Chickahominy. Porter, with one corps, resisted the Confederate army all day with