McClellan, meanwhile, had decided that the proper way to take Richmond was to remove his army to Fortress Monroe and advance up the peninsula. The change of base was accomplished by April 3, 1862, and the advance began, the army encountering no obstacle save almost impassable mud. McClellan, however, firmly believed that an immense force of Confederates was massed before him and proceeded so cautiously that he scarcely moved at all, and the impatience of the people deepened into anger and disgust.
Back from the trebly crimsoned field
Terrible words are thunder-tost;
Full of the wrath that will not yield,
Full of revenge for battles lost!
Hark to their echo, as it crost
The Capital, making faces wan:
"End this murderous holocaust;
Abraham Lincoln, give us a MAN!
"Give us a man of God's own mould,
Born to marshal his fellow-men;
One whose fame is not bought and sold
At the stroke of a politician's pen;
Give us the man of thousands ten,
Fit to do as well as to plan;
Give us a rallying-cry, and then,
Abraham Lincoln, give us a MAN!
"No leader to shirk the boasting foe,
And to march and countermarch our brave,
Till they fall like ghosts in the marshes low,
And swamp-grass covers each nameless grave;
Nor another, whose fatal banners wave
Aye in Disaster's shameful van;
Nor another, to bluster, and lie, and rave;—
Abraham Lincoln, give us a MAN!
"Hearts are mourning in the North,
While the sister rivers seek the main,
Red with our life-blood flowing forth—
Who shall gather it up again?
Though we march to the battle-plain
Firmly as when the strife began,
Shall all our offering be in vain?—
Abraham Lincoln, give us a MAN!
"Is there never one in all the land,
One on whose might the Cause may lean?
Are all the common ones so grand,
And all the titled ones so mean?
What if your failure may have been
In trying to make good bread from bran,
From worthless metal a weapon keen?—
Abraham Lincoln, find us a MAN!
"Oh, we will follow him to the death,
Where the foeman's fiercest columns are!
Oh, we will use our latest breath,
Cheering for every sacred star!
His to marshal us high and far;
Ours to battle, as patriots can
When a Hero leads the Holy War!—
Abraham Lincoln, give us a MAN!"
Edmund Clarence Stedman.
Finally, after infinite preparation, McClellan's batteries were ready to open on the Confederate works at Yorktown, but on May 4, 1862, it was discovered that the works had been abandoned. Hooker's and Kearny's cavalry began a vigorous pursuit of the Confederates, caught up with them at Williamsburg and captured the works there, after a severe engagement.