The first campaign in the Civil War in which Robert E. Lee led the Army of Northern Virginia, the Seven Days Battles were fought southeast of the Confederate capital of Richmond in the summer of 1862. Lee and his fellow officers, including Stonewall Jackson, James Longstreet, A. P. Hill, and D. H. Hill, pushed George B. McClellans Army of the Potomac from the gates of Richmond to the James River, where the Union forces reached safety. Along the way, Lee lost several opportunities to harm McClellan. The Seven Days have been the subject of numerous historical treatments, but none more detailed and engaging than Brian K. Burtons retelling of the campaign that lifted Southern spirits, began Lees ascent to fame, and almost prompted European recognition of the Confederacy.
A Selection of the History Book Club2011 AAUP Public and Secondary School Library SelectionA welcome addition to scholarship that should be the standard work on its subject for some time to come.
Brian K. Burton is Dean and Professor of Management at the College of Business and Economics, Western Washington University. He is author of The Peninsula and Seven Days: A Battlefield Guide.
1. The Nation Has Been Making Progress
2. How Are We to Get at Those People
3. The Responsibility Cannot Be Thrown on My Shoulders
4. Charging Batteries Is Highly Dangerous
5. Little Powell Will Do His Full Duty To-Day
6. Were Holding Them, But Its Getting Hotter and Hotter
7. I Have A Regiment That Can Take It
8. You Have Done Your Best to Sacrifice This Army
9. His Only Course Seemed to Me Was to Make for James River
10. But What Do You Think? Is the Enemy in Large Force?
11. He Has Other Important Duty to Perform
12. Why, Those Men Are Rebels!
13. Weve Got Him
14. He... Rose and Wl“&