Hi Everyone -
Please join us for the next in our regular monthly series of free
Department of the Interior Library Park Ranger Speaker Series lectures,
entitled "The Civil War's Peninsula Campaign and Its Rebel Counterstroke"
on Tuesday, May 15th from 1:00 - 1:45 pm in the Department of the Interior
Library.
Union Major General George B. McClellan had transformed a Washington, DC
army of amateurs into a mighty host and in the spring of 1862 he desired to
hurl it against the political heart of the Confederacy—the capital at
Richmond, VA. To achieve this, McClellan sought to embark his 100,000-man
Army of the Potomac from Washington and Alexandria wharves and land it at
Fortress Monroe on the peninsula between the York and James Rivers.
President Abraham Lincoln approved his general’s bold move at a momentous
hour already enriched by recent Federal victories in the West and along the
Atlantic coast. By this point, the North clearly was winning the war and
Lincoln reasoned that McClellan’s Richmond strike just might conclude the
matter that year. Southern morale was low and independence seemed quite
unlikely despite the Confederacy’s impressive wins near Washington in 1861.
President Jefferson Davis and his military advisor, General Robert E. Lee,
quickly realized the need for bold aggressive action of their own. The two
sides stood poised to deliver the decisive blow. The fighting that raged
that spring on a peninsula outside Richmond and in a valley outside
Washington determined the outcome.
Please join Park Ranger Michael Kelly as he discusses the Peninsula
Campaign and its Rebel Counterstroke. See how this first large-scale Union
offensive in the Civil War’s Eastern Theater led to the emergence of Robert
E. Lee as major player in the conflict and turned the campaign into a
humiliating Union defeat.
All that are interested are invited. The DOI Library is located in the
Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street, NW, Room 1151 in
Washington. Space is limited so please contact the Library by phone at
(202) 208-5815 or by e-mail at [log in to unmask] to let us know you will be
coming. For more information about future DOI Library Park Ranger
Speaker Series programs, we encourage you to visit our new Park Ranger
Speaker Series website at http://www.doi.gov/library/programs/speaker.cfm.
We hope to see you on May 15th!
George Franchois
Director
U.S. Dept. of the Interior Library
1849 C Street, NW, MS 1151
Washington, DC 20240
[log in to unmask]
Phone: (202) 208-3796
Fax: (202) 208-6773
URL: http://www.doi.gov/library
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