Siege of Yorktown (1862)

Siege of Yorktown (1862)
	Part of the American Civil War
	; Pursuit of the flying rebels from Yorktown Sunday morning.; Alfred R. Waud, artist.
Date	April 5 – May 4, 1862
Location	York County and Newport News, Virginia
Result	Inconclusive
Belligerents
United States (Union)	Confederate States
Commanders and leaders
George B. McClellan	John B. Magruder; Joseph E. Johnston
Strength
121,500	35,000
Casualties and losses
182	300

The Battle of Yorktown or Siege of Yorktown was fought from April 5 to May 4, 1862, as part of the Peninsula Campaign of the American Civil War. Marching from Fort Monroe, Union Major general George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac encountered Maj. Gen. John B. Magruder's small Confederate force at Yorktown. McClellan suspended his march up the Virginia Peninsula toward Richmond and settled in for siege operations.

On April 5, the IV Corps of Brigadier general Erasmus D. Keyes made initial contact with Confederate defensive works at Lee's Mill. This was an area McClellan expected to move through without resistance. Magruder's movement of troops back and forth convinced the Union that his works were strongly held. As the two armies fought an artillery duel, reconnaissance indicated to Keyes the strength of the Confederate fortifications, and he advised McClellan against assaulting them. McClellan ordered the construction of siege fortifications and brought his heavy siege guns to the front. In the meantime, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston brought reinforcements for Magruder.

On April 16, Union forces probed a point in the Confederate line at Dam No. 1. The Union failed to exploit the initial success of this attack, however. This lost opportunity held up McClellan for two additional weeks while he tried to convince the U.S. Navy to bypass the Confederates' big guns at Yorktown and Gloucester Point and ascend the York River to West Point and outflank the Warwick Line. McClellan planned a massive bombardment for dawn on May 5. But the Confederate army had slipped away during the night of May 3 toward Williamsburg.

The battle took place near the site of the 1781 Siege of Yorktown, the final battle of the American Revolutionary War in the east.

Siege Of Yorktown (1862) Media

Siege of Yorktown, April–May 1862* Confederate* Union
In Front of Yorktown, 1862–1863, by Winslow Homer
The skirmish near Dam Number One
Union battery with 13-inch (330 mm) seacoast mortars, Model 1861, during siege of Yorktown, Virginia 1862.
McClellan's guns and gunners near the lower wharf at Yorktown after the Confederate evacuation
Dam No. One Battlefield Site Plaque 1
Dam No. One Battlefield Site Plaque 2
Dam No. One Battlefield Site Obelisk South Face
Dam No. One Battlefield Site Obelisk West Face
Dam No. One Battlefield Site Obelisk North Face

References

↑ Stephen W. Sears, To the Gates of Richmond: The Peninsula Campaign (New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1992), p. 24
↑ John S. Salmon, The Official Virginia Civil War Battlefield Guide (Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2001), p. 76
↑ ^3.0 ^3.1 The Civil War Battlefield Guide, 2nd Edition, ed. Frances H. Kennedy (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1998), p. 90

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[Sears24-1] Stephen W. Sears, To the Gates of Richmond: The Peninsula Campaign (New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1992), p. 24

[2] John S. Salmon, The Official Virginia Civil War Battlefield Guide (Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2001), p. 76

[K90-3] 3.0 ^3.1 The Civil War Battlefield Guide, 2nd Edition, ed. Frances H. Kennedy (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1998), p. 90

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