That afternoon President Jefferson Davis appointed his chief military advisor, Gen. Robert E. Lee, as commander of the Southern forces. Lee promptly named his new command the Army of Northern Virginia—a name destined for fame in the annals of the Civil War.
McClellan’s troops repairing Grapevine Bridge. Courtesy, Library of Congress.
Although the battle itself was indecisive, the casualties were heavy on both sides. The Confederates lost 6,184 in killed, wounded, and missing; the Federals, 5,031. Undoubtedly the most important result of the fight was the wounding of Johnston and the resultant appointment of Lee as field commander.
Lee Takes Command
Lee immediately began to reorganize the demoralized Southern forces, and put them to work digging the elaborate system of entrenchments that would eventually encircle Richmond completely. For this the troops derisively named him the “King of Spades.” But Lee was planning more than a static defense. When the time came these fortifications could be held by a relatively small number of troops, while he massed the bulk of his forces for a counteroffensive. He was familiar with and believed in Napoleon’s maxim: “* * * to manoeuver incessantly, without submitting to be driven back on the capital which it is meant to defend * * *.”
On June 12 Lee sent his cavalry commander, Gen. J. E. B. (“Jeb”) Stuart, with 1,200 men, to reconnoiter McClellan’s right flank north of the Chickahominy, and to learn the strength of his line of communication and supply to White House. Stuart obtained the information, but instead of retiring from White House the way he had gone, he rode around the Union army and returned to Richmond on June 15 by way of the James River, losing only one man in the process.
Gen. Robert E. Lee. Courtesy, National Archives.
