McClellan's Camp at Cumberland Landing

WO-23

In May 1862, during the Peninsula Campaign, the Union Army of the Potomac under Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan advanced up the Pamunkey River toward Richmond, while Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's army moved to defend the city. Cumberland Landing, just northeast of here, served as McClellan’s headquarters and supply depot from 13 to 16 May. Nearly 110,000 troops, possibly the largest American army assembled to that date, camped nearby. James F. Gibson, a pioneer in Civil War photojournalism, captured striking images of the sprawling tent city, ships on the river, and formerly enslaved African Americans called “contrabands.”

Department of Historic Resources, 2016

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

Garry E. Adelman, “Keys to a Mystery,” Civil War Times (vol. 53, Dec. 2014), 52-55. Garry E. Adelman, “Documentary Photography Comes of Age on the Peninsula,” http://www.civilwar.org/battlefields/gainesmill/documentary-photography-comes.html Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, ser, 1, vol. 11, part 1; ser. 1, part 6, vol. 1; ser. 1, vol. 6, part 3. Library of Congress photograph collection: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?q=cumberland%20landing Stephen W. Sears, To the Gates of Richmond: The Peninsula Campaign (New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1992). Richard E. Killblane, “White House Landing: Sustaining the Army of the Potomac during the Peninsula Campaign”: http://www.transportation.army.mil/historian/documents/White%20House%20Landing%20paper.pdf