. The Civil War : the national view . and Johnston: the long,hopeless quarrel and mutual recrimination which continuedbetween them till death. At the time of General Lees appointment McClellanwas calling for reinforcements. The church spires of Rich-mond could be seen from the Union camps. But there wasa new force in the field against him; General Lee knewMcClellan better than McClellan knew himself: he divinedhis plans. After the battle of Fair Oaks the weather be-came fine; by June 13th McClellan had received 21,000men; he planned to give Lee battle on the 17th or i8th:he would possess himse
. The Civil War : the national view . and Johnston: the long,hopeless quarrel and mutual recrimination which continuedbetween them till death. At the time of General Lees appointment McClellanwas calling for reinforcements. The church spires of Rich-mond could be seen from the Union camps. But there wasa new force in the field against him; General Lee knewMcClellan better than McClellan knew himself: he divinedhis plans. After the battle of Fair Oaks the weather be-came fine; by June 13th McClellan had received 21,000men; he planned to give Lee battle on the 17th or i8th:he would possess himself of Old Tavern, push up to thecity already In sight, bring his heavy guns Into action andthen carry Richmond by assault. Several of the Confederategenerals expected McClellan to do this. General Lee formedhis plans: to attack McClellans communications, to trustto McClellans procrastination, and to leave the Army of thePotomac to fight the swamp fever, for Northern men com-pelled to Inaction and the perils of the climate of Virginia. General and Mrs. George Brinton McClellan. From a ivar timephotograph hy Brady. THE SECOND YEAR OF THE WAR 273 in July, along the banks of the Chlckahomlny, were prac-tically equivalent to reinforcements to the was already losing more men by the fever thanhe ever lost in battle. On Stonewall Jackson fell the taskof cutting off McClellans communications and General Lee, assuming that McClellans credu-lity was quite limitless, caused information, suitable for hispurposes, to be inserted in the Richmond papers—the chiefsource of McClellans information about the Confederates—that strong reinforcements had been sent to attack Fremontand Shields, and the political generals at large, in the Shen-andoah valley—confident that the news would quickly beinterpreted by McClellan as evidence of the military re-sources of the South. General Lee understood his man. Atthis critical moment McClellan was engaged in writ
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