150 years ago today General George McClellan began the Union army advance up the Virginia Peninsula.The rebels say they are ready for a “second battle of Yorktown.”
From the Richmond Daily Dispatch April 4, 1862:
The army of the Peninsula.
Yorktown Naval Battery. March 31st, 1862.
To the Editors of the Dispatch:
In a late issue you are induced to promise the speedy prospect of stirring news from the Peninsula. You will then admit a correspondent this quarter, although not yet herald of the good news which your readers are eagerly looking for. Your information was doubtless correct as to the advance of the enemy in force; but the latest intelligence from below is to the effect that he has retreated in somewhat inglorious haste, and our army will probably be again consigned to disappointment and the every-day monotony which succeed those oft-repeated rumors of attack. Still, this sudden withdrawal of the enemy’s forces may be only a feint, and a few days may develop something more definite and satisfactory. Come when they may, they can never find the army of the Peninsula more ready and willing to receive them. Our defences are complete by sea and land, and our brave boys, of every corps of the service, have attained an efficiency of discipline and drill which renders them fit to cope with the best trained armies on the globe.
The enthusiastic spirit evinced by the various branches of the army, in responding to the call for re-enlistments, has been emulated here to a very satisfactory extent. A large portion of the troops of this command were originally recruited for the war, and within the last two months the twelve months volunteers have re-enlisted almost to a man — There are but few who have not gone in for the war, and with these few the delay is a mere question of time.
We, of the Naval Battery, were among the first companies to take position on this river, in May of last year, and we naturally reflect with some degree of pride that we are among the veterans of the Peninsula. The company is now being re-organized for the war by that accomplished officer and universal favorite, Lieut J. Hatley Norton, at present Adjutant of the Battery. In addition to old members, we are receiving volunteers from other twelve months companies, to augment our number to the maximum prescribed by law.
Should the long-looked-for advance of the enemy be a combined attack by land and water, we may safely promise you that the river batteries will give a good account of themselves. Prudence forbids my writing more definitely as to the strength of our position at the present juncture. But we are confident in the better that the chapter in our history which will record the second battle of Yorktown, will be one of the most glorious in the annals of Time.
G. W. F.
