Daily Archives: May 20, 2012

McClellan’s Union forces enter Yorktown 150 years ago today (1862)


Video: May 20, 1862 (at 1:00:30)

(Tuesday, May 20, 1862, part of the Peninsula Campaign of the American Civil War) — Federal Gen. George McClellan’s troops are now only nine miles from Richmond, the Confederate capital, but McClellan refused to attack and instead demanded 40,000 additional men even though he already outnumbered the rebels that he faced.