Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 14.djvu/88

 82 Southern Historical Society Papers.

Lee assumed command. Its effective strength, using round num- bers (as I shall continue to do), was fifty-six thousaiid men. Mc- Clellan, an able commander, who, in the first year of the war, adopted that route to Richmond, the return to which, after many- disasters, at last led to its capture, at that moment lay, possibly within sight of the spires, certainly within sound of the bells of the churches of Richmond, with a present effective force of one htindred and five thousand. McDowell, with forty thousand men, the flower of the Federal Army, was en route to reinforce McClel- lan, while strong forces under Banks and Fremont were operating in the Valley. Jackson, with a force never exceeding sixteen thou- sand, was still engaged in that wonderful series of operations in the Valley, which resulted in the successive defeats of Banks, Fre- mont and Shields, and in the utter paralysis of the movement of McDowell to reinforce McClellan. It was still evident, however, that this paralysis was but temporary, and that with renewed con- centration of the vast, though shattered forces of the enemy, Jack- son, with his little army reduced by forced marching and constant fighting, would have no alternative but to retire to the defenses of Richmond, which would be reduced to a state of siege by the com- bined and overwhelming Federal armies.

Nothing less than the genius of Lee could have relieved such a situation. To await the tardy attack of McClellan, while the move- ment for the annihilation or forced retreat of Jackson and the rein- forcement by McDowell was resumed, would be fatal.

With additional troops already received, and by calling Jackson to him, Lee would have a force of eighty thousand men with which to engage the one hundred and five thousand of McClellan. While the latter General was clamoring for reinforcements and maturing his plans of assault, Lee determined to order Jackson to his support, and with the bulk of his army to march rapidly out of his lines, cross the Cliickahominy, gain McClellan's right and there assault him on his flank.

The brilliant audacity of this plan may be appreciated when you remember that in its execution he left but twenty-five thousand men between the army of McClellan and Richmond, and exposed his own rear without a man intervening between it and the large force of Mc- Dowell.

Its profound strategic wisdom is demonstrated by the result of the glorious seven days' battle which followed, at the end of which we find the grand army of McClellan, its dream of triumphal entry into