The Maryland and Fredericksburg Campaigns 1862-1863 (The U.S. Army Campaigns of the Civil War)
Although 1862 began with promise elsewhere, Federal armies failed to make substantial gains in Virginia. Between March and June, Confederate forces defeated troops of Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks’ Department of the Shenandoah and Maj. Gen. John C. Fremont’s Mountain Department for control of the Shenandoah Valley. From March to May, Gen. George B. McClellan sluggishly advanced the Army of the Potomac, the principal U.S. land force in the Eastern Theater, to the outskirts of the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia, but faltered on the verge of success. After General Robert E. Lee assumed command of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia from the wounded General Joseph E. Johnston on 1 June, he took advantage of McClellan’s hesitation. In the Seven Days’ Battles from 25 June to 1 July, Lee launched a series of fierce attacks that forced McClellan to retreat the Virginia Peninsula to his bases on the James River.
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