give the impression that a substantial army was blocking the way to
Richmond. McClellan's advance was, therefore, made with the utmost
"conservatism," enabling General Johnston to collect back of Magruder
the army that was finally to drive McClellan back to his base. It is
further in evidence from the later records that when some weeks later
General Johnston concentrated his army at Gaines's Mill upon Porter, who
was separated from McClellan by the Chickahominy, there was but an
inconsiderable force between McClellan and Richmond.

At the close of the seven days' retreat, McClellan, who had with a
magnificent army thrown away a series of positions, writes to Lincoln
that he (Lincoln) "had sacrificed the army." In another letter,
McClellan lays down the laws of a national policy with a completeness
and a dictatorial utterance such as would hardly have been justified if
he had succeeded through his own military genius in bringing the War to
a close, but which, coming from a defeated general, was ridiculous
enough. Lincoln's correspondence with McClellan brings out the infinite
patience of the President, and his desire to make sure that before
putting the General to one side as a vainglorious incompetent, he had
been allowed the fullest possible test. Lincoln passes over without
reference and apparently without thought the long series of impertinent
impersonalities of McClellan. In this correspondence, as in all his
correspondence, the great captain showed himself absolutely devoted to
the cause he had in mind. Early in the year, months before the
Peninsular campaign, when McClellan had had the army in camp for a
series of months without expressing the least intention of action,
Lincoln had in talking with the Secretary of War used the expression:
"If General McClellan does not want to use the army just now, I
would like to borrow it for a while." That was as far as the
Commander-in-chief ever went in criticism of the General in the field.