The Richmond Campaign of 1862: The Peninsula and the Seven Days / Edition 1

by Gary W. Gallagher

Overview

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

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807859193
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	09/01/2008
Series:	Military Campaigns of the Civil War
Edition description:	1
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Gary W. Gallagher is John L. Nau III Professor of History at the University of Virginia and author or editor of numerous books, including Causes Won, Lost, and Forgotten: How Hollywood and Popular Art Shape What We Know about the Civil War (from the University of North Carolina Press).

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

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

No academic library should be without this volume, and no American military historian should overlook the insights offered by Gallagher and these authors into one of the most important campaigns of the conflict.—Journal of Southern History

All these essays enhance understanding of the Peninsular campaign. Whether read separately or collectively, they form a volume that will find a welcome home in individual and institutional libraries on the Civil War.—Civil War History

It is refreshing to find that even on a campaign that has been so frequently researched one can find new and insightful material in The Richmond Campaign of 1862. Well conceptualized and well written, Gallagher's editorial efforts have once again added significantly to the literature of the Civil War.—Journal of American History

Another fine addition to the University of North Carolina Press's 'Military Campaigns of the Civil War' series.—American Historical Review

No where else is so deep a consideration of these and other ponderable aspects of this campaign so conveniently or compellingly condensed as in this splendid volume.—Virginia Quarterly Review

Offers a series of solidly researched and easily readable essays written by well-known professional and amateur historians.—Richmond Times Dispatch

Offers some refreshing new perspectives on [this] extremely important campaign. . . . [Provides] a deeper understanding of the campaign's importance and its place in the larger framework of the war.—America's Civil War

The essays are well written and offer interesting insights.—North & South

These essays probe longstanding questions and flesh out credible answers relative to the first major offensive of Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia. This is a necessary reference for any study of the 1862 Peninsula Campaign.—James I. Robertson Jr., author of Stonewall Jackson: The Man, the Soldier, the Legend

The Richmond Campaign of 1862 adds valuable new information and insights into some old subjects and presents useful information and interpretations about subjects that never have been adequately dealt with before. It is, therefore, a book from which all serious students of the Civil War can benefit. Highly recommended.—Albert Castel, author of Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign of 1864

Editorial Reviews

Splendid.

"Virginia Quarterly Review"

All these essays enhance understanding of the Peninsular campaign.

"Civil War History"

Another fine addition to the University of North Carolina Press's 'Military Campaigns of the Civil War' series.

"American Historical Review"

Gallagher's editorial efforts have once again added significantly to the literature of the Civil War.

"Journal of American History"

No academic library should be without this volume.

"Journal of Southern History"

These essays probe longstanding questions and flesh out credible answers relative to the first major offensive of Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia. (James I. Robertson Jr., Virginia Tech)

From the Publisher

No where else is so deep a consideration of these and other ponderable aspects of this campaign so conveniently or compellingly condensed as in this splendid volume.

Virginia Quarterly Revie

Offers a series of solidly researched and easily readable essays written by well-known professional and amateur historians.

Richmond Times Dispatch

The essays are well written and offer interesting insights.

North & South

[Provides] a deeper understanding of the campaign's importance and its place in the larger framework of the war.

America's Civil War

These essays probe longstanding questions and flesh out credible answers relative to the first major offensive of Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia.

James I. Robertson Jr.