Turning Points
Early Southern Victories
In 1862, Confederate Generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas E. “Stonewall” Jackson repeatedly outwitted and outmaneuvered Union generals. Lincoln and his advisors planned to hold Confederate forces in western Virginia while launching an amphibious invasion that would move up the peninsula from the Chesapeake Bay to Richmond, capturing the Confederate capital. But in the Shenandoah Valley, Stonewall Jackson deftly maneuvered his forces to defeat Union troops time and again. To the east, General Lee assumed command of the Confederate Army, stopped General George B. McClellan’s Union advance just miles from Richmond, then counterattacked and pushed him off the peninsula.