Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. II.djvu/328

 264 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS great gallantry, unassisted by tKe main army under McClellan, but withdrew in the evening, and Mc- Clellan at once began his retreat to the James river. Several battles were fought on the way, in which the Confederates were checked ; but the retreat con tinued until the National army reached the James. Taking position at Malvern Hill, they inflicted a severe defeat upon Gen. Lee, but were immedi ately after withdrawn by Gen. McClellan to Har rison s Landing. Here, as at other times during his career, McClellan labored under a strange hal lucination as to the numbers of his enemy. He generally estimated them at not less than twice their actual force, and continually reproached the president for not giving him impossible re-enforce ments to equal the imaginary numbers he thought opposed to him. In point of fact, his army was always in excess of that of Johnston or Lee. The continual disasters in the east were somewhat com pensated by a series of brilliant successes in the west. In February, 1862, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant had captured the Confederate forts Henry and Donelson, thus laying open the great strategic lines of the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers, and, mov ing southward, had fought (April 6 and 7) the battle of Shiloh, with unfavorable results on the first day, which were turned to a victory on the second with the aid of Gen. D. C. Buell and his army, a battle in which Gen. Albert Sidney John-