Siege of Yorktown, 1862

Siege of Yorktown, 4 April to 4 May 1862

Today we add an article on the Siege of Yorktown, the first serious fighting during General McClellan's Peninsula Campaign of 1862. McClellan' failure to attack the Confederate lines around Yorktown when he first encountered them gave the Confederates a precious month in which to move troops back to defense Richmond.

Preparing this article also demonstrated the danger of making assumptions. As a British historian I am familiar with the Peninsular War against Napoleon's invasion of Spain. Following that pattern I've been refering to the Peninsular Campaign, only to find that McClellan's campaign lacked the final 'R'. Time to go make some corrections I think!