Lincoln Reviews Troops at Bailey's Cross Roads

After the Union defeat on 21 July 1861 at the First Battle of Manassas, Pres. Abraham Lincoln appointed Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan as commander of the demoralized army. McClellan organized, trained, and equipped the troops, building a force known after August as the Army of the Potomac. On 20 Nov. 1861, McClellan staged a formal military review here, between Munson's Hill and Bailey's Cross Roads. Lincoln and members of his cabinet attended. Occupying about 200 acres, some 65,000 troops—including artillery, cavalry, and infantry units organized into seven divisions—took part in the review, at that time the largest ever held in America.