[Sidenote:  McClellan’s plan of campaign, 1862.]

[Sidenote:  Objections to it.]

390.  Plan of the Peninsular Campaign.—­The country between the Potomac and the James was cut up by rivers, as the Rappahannock, the Mattapony, and Pamunkey, and part of it was a wilderness.  McClellan planned to carry his troops by water to the peninsula between the James and the York and Pamunkey rivers.  He would then have a clear road to Richmond, with no great rivers to dispute with the enemy.  Johnston would be obliged to leave his camp at Bull Run and march southward to the defense of Richmond.  The great objection to the plan was that Johnston might attack Washington instead of going to face McClellan.  General Jackson also was in the Shenandoah Valley.  He might march down the Valley, cross the Potomac, and seize Washington.  So the government kept seventy-five thousand of McClellan’s men for the defense of the Federal capital.

[Illustration:  THE “MONITOR.”]

[Sidenote:  The Monitor and the Merrimac. Hero Tales, 183, 195.]

391.  The Monitor and the Merrimac.—­On March 8 a queer-looking craft steamed out from Norfolk, Virginia, and attacked the Union fleet at anchor near Fortress Monroe.  She destroyed two wooden frigates, the Cumberland and the Congress, and began the destruction of the Minnesota.  She then steamed back to Norfolk.  This formidable vessel was the old frigate Merrimac.  Upon her decks the Confederates had built an iron house.  From these iron sides the balls of the Union frigates rolled harmlessly away.  But that night an even stranger-looking ship appeared at Fortress Monroe.  This was the Monitor, a floating fort, built of iron.  She was designed by John Ericsson, a Swedish immigrant.  When the Merrimac came back to finish the destruction of the Minnesota, the Monitor steamed directly to her.  These two ironclads fought and fought.  At last the Merrimac steamed away and never renewed the fight.

[Sidenote:  Battle of Fair Oaks, May, 1862.]

[Sidenote:  The Seven Days.]

[Sidenote:  Malvern Hill.]

392.  The Peninsular Campaign, 1862.—­By the end of May McClellan had gained a position within ten miles of Richmond.  Meantime, Jackson fought so vigorously in the Shenandoah Valley that the Washington government refused to send more men to McClellan, although Johnston had gone with his army to the defense of Richmond.  On May 31 the Army of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia fought a hard battle at Fair Oaks.  Johnston was wounded, and Lee took the chief command.  He summoned Jackson from the Valley and attacked McClellan day after day, June 26 to July 2, 1862.  These terrible battles of the Seven Days forced McClellan to change his base to the James, where he would be near the fleet.  At Malvern Hill Lee and Jackson once more attacked him and were beaten off with fearful loss.