2005-2-23
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VOICE ONE:
THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English.
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In any war, an important target is
the enemy's capital city. To capture the enemy's capital usually
means victory.
In America's Civil War, the north hoped for a quick victory by
capturing the southern capital at Richmond, Virginia. Northern
forces were strong enough. There were about
one-hundred-fifty-thousand Union soldiers in and around Washington.
General George McClellan led this army of the Potomac. His was
the biggest, best-trained, and best-equipped of the Union armies.
I'm Tony Riggs. Today, Larry West and I report on Mcclellan's
move against Richmond.
VOICE TWO:
For the first year of the Civil War, the army of the Potomac did
not fight. General McClellan kept making excuses for his failure to
act. He had a plan, he said. And he would not move until he was sure
his men were ready.
McClellan's plan was to put his army on boats in the Potomac
River. They would sail down the river to where it emptied into the
Chesapeake Bay. Then he would land the boats on the coast of
Virginia, east of Richmond.
President Abraham Lincoln wanted
to capture the Confederate capital. But he did not like the idea of
moving all of McClellan's men. That would leave the city of
Washington without protection.
McClellan tried to calm Lincoln's fears. He said that as soon as
he marched toward Richmond, any Confederate soldiers near Washington
would withdraw. They would be needed to defend their own capital.
VOICE ONE:
The army of the Potomac began to move on March seventeenth,
eighteen-sixty-two. Within two weeks, more than fifty-thousand had
reached Fort Monroe, southeast of Richmond. They were equipped with
one-hundred big guns and tons of supplies. Day by day, the Union
force at Fort Monroe grew larger.
McClellan had planned to move quickly to Yorktown, then push on
to Richmond. He would move along the finger of land between the York
River and the James River.
He soon learned, however, that he could not move as quickly as
planned. Heavy spring rains had turned the dirt roads into rivers of
mud. McClellan's men could push through. But there was no way they
could bring their big guns. McClellan decided to wait. He did not
want to attack Yorktown without artillery.
VOICE TWO:
President Lincoln was not pleased. He sent a message to
McClellan. "You must strike a blow," Lincoln said. "You must act."
But still McClellan delayed.
By the time his artillery had arrived and was in place,
Confederate troops had withdrawn. They moved to the woods outside
Williamsburg. McClellan chased them. For the first time, his army
went into battle.
The fighting was strange. The woods were so thick that the two
sides could not often see each other. Soldiers fired at the flash of
gunpowder, at noises, anything that moved. Their aim was good
enough. About four-thousand soldiers were killed.
VOICE ONE:
In his reports to Washington, McClellan claimed great victories
at Yorktown and Williamsburg. Yet he was worried. He believed the
Confederate force around Richmond was much larger than his. He
demanded more men.
The Confederate force was, in fact, much smaller than the Union
force. But it was deployed in a way to make it seem much larger.
The trick fooled McClellan. By the middle of May,
eighteen-sixty-two, his army was only fifteen kilometers from
Richmond. Still, he did not attack. He continued to wait for more
men and equipment.
Confederate President Jefferson
Davis was worried. He knew the Confederate army was smaller than the
Union army. Davis' military adviser, General Robert E. Lee, offered
a plan.
Lee proposed that General Stonewall Jackson lead his army up
Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. The north would see the move as a
threat to Washington. Union troops would be kept near Washington,
instead of being sent to Richmond. President Davis agreed. Orders
were sent to Jackson.
VOICE TWO:
Stonewall Jackson was one of the south's best generals. He was a
forceful leader. And he could make his men march until they dropped.
He got the name "Stonewall" at the battle of Bull Run in the
summer of eighteen-sixty-one. Southern soldiers were withdrawing. A
Confederate officer tried to stop them. He urged them to follow
Jackson's example, to stand and fight. He shouted, "There stands
Jackson -- like a stone wall."
General Jackson faced three large Union forces in and around the
Shenandoah Valley. Yet he struck hard and fast, and soon had control
of the valley's main towns.
His campaign is still studied at military schools around the
world. It is considered an excellent example of how to move troops
quickly to where they are most needed.
VOICE ONE:
Jackson's raids produced the exact effect Robert E. Lee had
wanted.
Everyone in Washington feared an immediate attack on the city.
Soldiers were hurried to the capital from Baltimore and other nearby
cities. And President Lincoln sent thousands of troops to chase
Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley, instead of helping McClellan at
Richmond.
The Union army outside Richmond was deployed on either side of
the Chickahominy River. The Chickahominy was not a big river. It
could be crossed easily at several places.
While McClellan waited to attack the Confederate capital, heavy
rains began to fall. The little river began to rise. The commander
of Confederate forces in Richmond saw this as a chance to smash a
large part of McClellan's army.
VOICE TWO:
The flooding river would soon cut the Union force completely in
two. When that happened, the Confederates would attack. They
expected to destroy at least half of McClellan's army.
The plan seemed good. And after the first few hours of battle,
the Confederates were close to victory. But one bridge remained over
the Chickahominy River. Union soldiers were able to cross it. The
Confederates were forced to withdraw to their earlier positions.
No ground was gained. And more than eleven-thousand men were
killed or wounded. Among the wounded was the commander of all
Confederate forces, General Joe Johnston. General Robert E. Lee
would take his place.
VOICE ONE:
Lee wasted no time. He wanted to push the Union army far away
from Richmond. First, however, he wanted more information about his
enemy. He sent a young officer -- Jeb Stuart -- to get it.
Stuart set off with more than a thousand men on horseback. Theirs
was a wild ride around the edge of the Union army. When they
reported back three days later, General Lee knew exactly where he
would attack.
It would be the first in a series of battles known as the Seven
Days Campaign.
VOICE TWO:
Lee took a big chance. He moved most of his men into position to
attack what he now knew was the weak, right side of the Union line.
He left only a few thousand men to defend Richmond.
He hoped the Union commander, McClellan, would be fooled by this
plan. For if McClellan discovered how few men were left behind, he
could smash through easily and capture the city.
With the help of Stonewall Jackson's army, Lee's plan worked.
McClellan was fooled. And after a day of fierce fighting, he was
forced to withdraw from the area.
VOICE ONE:
Lee chased McClellan for a while. They clashed at such places as
Mechanicsville, White Oak Swamp, and finally Malvern Hill. The south
won the Seven Days Campaign. The threat to Richmond was ended. The
Confederacy was saved.
But victory came at a terrible price. Twenty-thousand Confederate
soldiers were killed or wounded. As both the north and south were
learning quickly, the Civil War was becoming more costly than anyone
had imagined.
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VOICE TWO:
You have been listening to the Special English program, THE
MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Tony Riggs and Larry West.
Our program was written by Frank Beardsley.