May 30, 1862

May 30, 1862: Eastern Theater, Shenandoah Valley Campaign - Col. Connor and the 12^th Georgia awake to find Gen. Shields and his 11,000-man division advancing into Front Royal from the east.  The Rebels set fire to $300,000.00 worth of captured Federal supplies, and withdraw to the west.  Connor send word to Jackson (who already knows) that the Federals are closing in on his escape route.  Jackson begins his withdrawal from Harper’s Ferry and begins marching south.  Jackson’s challenge: to reach Strasburg, where the Valley Pike passes, before Fremont or Shields do---and both of them are closer to it than Jackson is.

---Near Richmond, Gen. McClellan has positioned his army slowly so that they lay along the northern bank of the Chickahominy River, the main barrier between them and Richmond.  He leaves two corps—Heintzelman’s and Keyes’—south of the river, somewhat isolated.  Gen. Joseph Johnston plans to strike at these two isolated corps. 

The Peninsula Campaign, up to May 30, 1862

—At Corinth, Mississippi, where Gen. Halleck has taken over a month to approach the town and maneuver into position, the Federal troops waited with anticipation for the attack that the Confederates were sure to launch at dawn: all night, Gen. Pope had been hearing trains arrive, and gales of cheering sweeping through the Southern camps.  AT 6:00 AM, Halleck orders a cautious advance, and the Yankees find empty entrenchments.  Beauregard and his army push southward across the Tuscumbia Rver, and assume a defensive position.  Halleck pursues, but without conviction.  Meanwhile, Gen. Pope send cavalry raiding behind the Confederate lines down to Boonville, where Col. Philip Sheridan and the 2^nd Michigan Cavalry destroy Beauregard’s rear supply base.  Halleck hails his anti-climax as a great victory.