The Grand Army of the Potomac still lay on its original lines, and
McClellan had used every day in strengthening his entrenchments. Lee had
built defensive works to enable a part of his army to defend the city
while he should throw the flower of his gray soldiers on his enemy in a
desperate flank assault in cooeperation with Jackson.
On the arrival of his triumphant lieutenant from the Shenandoah Valley
Lee suddenly sprang on McClellan with the leap of a lion. The Northern
Commander fought with terrible courage, amazed and uneasy over the
discovery that Jackson had suddenly appeared on his flank.
Within thirty-six hours McClellan's right wing was crushed and in
retreat. Within seven days Lee drove his Grand Army of more than a
hundred thousand men from the gates of Richmond thirty-five miles and
hurled them on the banks of the James at Harrison's Landing under the
shelter of the Federal gunboats.
Instead of marching in triumph through the streets of the Confederate
Capital, McClellan congratulated himself and his Government on his good
fortune in saving his army from annihilation. His broken columns had
reached a place of safety after a series of defeats which had
demoralized his command and resulted in the loss of ten thousand
prisoners and ten thousand more in killed and wounded.
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