Bay there was nothing to oppose the Union navy. General Benjamin
Butler, threatening Richmond in flank, along the lower
Chesapeake, was watched by the Confederates Huger and Magruder.
Meanwhile, as eve have seen already, the West Virginian campaign
was in full swing, with superior Federal forces under McClellan.

Thus the general situation in July was that the whole of
northeastern Virginia was faced by a semicircle of superior
forces which began at the Kanawha River, ran northeast to
Grafton, then northeast to Cumberland, then along the Potomac to
Chesapeake Bay and on to Fortress Monroe. From the Kanawha to
Grafton there were only roads. From Grafton to Cumberland there
was rail as well. From Cumberland to Washington there were road,
rail, river, and canal. From Washington to Fortress Monroe there
was water fit for any fleet. The Union armies along this
semicircle were not only twice as numerous as the Confederates
facing them but they were backed by a sea-power, both naval and
mercantile, which the Confederates could not begin to challenge,
much less overcome. Lee was the military adviser to the
Confederate Government at Richmond as Scott then was to the Union
Government at Washington.

Such was the central scene of action, where the first great
battle of the war was fought. The Union forces were based on the
Potomac from Washington to Harper's Ferry. The Confederates faced
them from Bull Run to Winchester, which points were nearly sixty
miles apart by road and rail. The Union forces were fifty
thousand strong, the Confederate thirty-three thousand. The Union
problem was how to keep "Joe" Johnston in the Winchester position
by threatening or actually making an invasion of the Shenandoah