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at
Harrison's Landing in search of that solution.
There he found: the remains of that splendid army greatly disheartened.
Sadly and wearily it had waded through the mud and been pelted by a pitiless storm while marching from the field of its victory on
Malvern Hills to its present humiliating position, during the night succeeding the contest.
It had been covered from an attack on its march by a rear-guard of all arms under
Colonel Averill, and menaced continually by
Stuart and his cavalry, and columns of infantry pushed forward by
Lee. These found the
National army too strongly posted to make a repetition of the blunder before
Malvern Hills a safe experiment, and on the 8th
Lee ceased pursuit and withdrew his army to
Richmond, having lost, as nearly as now can be. ascertained, since he took the command less than forty days before, about, nineteen thousand men.
The President found the Army of the Potomac “present and fit for duty” nearly forty thousand souls stronger than its commander had reported on the 3d, and his hopes were revived to the point of belief that it might speedily march against
Richmond.
But he was unable then to get a reply to his question, Where are the seventy-five thousand men yet missing?
1 While he was there, the future movements of the Army of the Potomac was the subject of serious deliberation.
It was known that the
Confederates, aware of the weakness of the force left in defense of
Washington, were gathering heavily in that direction; and the withdrawal of
Lee's army to
Richmond, on the day of the
President's arrival at
McClellan's Headquarters, indicated an abandonment of the pursuit, and a probable heavy movement northward.
In view of the possible danger to the capital, and the fact that
McClellan did not consider his army strong enough by “one hundred thousand men more, rather than less,” to take
Richmond, it was thought advisable by the
President, and by several of the corps commanders of the Army of the Potomac, whose sad experience before the
Confederate capital had shaken their confidence in their leader, to withdraw the army from the
Peninsula and concentrate it in front of
Washington.
To this project
McClellan was opposed, and at once took measures to defeat it.
Here we will leave the army on the
Peninsula for a little while, and observe events nearer the
National capital, with which its movements were intimately connected.
To give more efficiency to the troops covering
Washington, they were formed into an organization called the
Army of Virginia, and placed under the command of
Major-General John Pope, who was called from the
West for the purpose.
The new army was arranged in three corps, to be commanded respectively by