Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

Following Grant’s successes in the West, McClellan writes Lincoln to tell him of his plans to undertake a campaign in the East, but Lincoln is “provided little comfort” (425), as McClellan has made similar assurances for many months and has not acted on any of them. Furthermore, Stanton does not get along well with McClellan, as he, “unlike Lincoln […] did not ignore the arrogance of the general in chief” (427).

After further prodding by Lincoln, McClellan finally undertakes what becomes known as the Peninsula Campaign, an attack in Virginia; however, after much delaying, McClellan allows for the Confederates to have time “to bring in additional forces from various theaters […] where they prepared for a counteroffensive” (433). Ultimately, McClellan is able to bring the Norfolk Navy Yard back into Union hands, but the broader campaign is a failure, and the Confederates gain a strategic advantage: “It would take nearly three more years and hundreds of thousands of deaths for the Union forces to come as close to Richmond as they had been in May and June 1862” (444).

Following the Peninsula Campaign, Lincoln’s cabinet is split as to what to do with McClellan. The campaign has proved to be a disaster, and Lincoln is hounded in the Northern press after another in what appears to be a series of defeats.