...n's plan had been, if the works at Yorktown and Williamsburg offered a serious resistance, that General McDowell's corps should land on the left bank of the York, or on the Severn, so as to move upon Gloucester and West Point, in order to take in reverse whatever force the enemy might have on the Peninsula and compel him to abandon his positions. But, since McDowell's corps was withheld, this plan, of cou...