On May 1,1862, the Army of the Potomac’s quest to take Richmond by way of the Peninsula had been stalled for nearly a month, time in which Maj. Gen. George McClellan’s Federals had labored building siege trenches and other works in front of the Confederate position at Yorktown, Va. Hampering McClellan’s intentions was the so-called “Warwick Line,” which ran almost the entire width of the Peninsula, the stretch of land below the Confederate capital between the James and York rivers. In most places, the line followed the normally unimposing Warwick River and was anchored at Yorktown on the northeast and by swampland on its southwest. While some Union officers considered it to be of little consequence, the always-cautious McClellan had decided upon a siege, confident his heavy artillery would reduce enemy positions ahead of any general assault.
Confederate Maj. Gen. John Magruder oversaw the design and construction of the Warwick Line, as well as his army’s other defenses farther up the Peninsula toward Richmond. Should Confederate troops be forced from Yorktown, this layered defense would allow him to put up a stubborn retreat. The most elaborate of these defenses lay about 12 miles beyond Yorktown, south of the historic town of Williamsburg. As April turned to May, however, Magruder was no longer in charge; General Joseph E. Johnston was, and he considered the line untenable. Resolved to withdraw the army closer to Richmond, Johnston would not delay in planning his retreat.
A retreat, of course, would inevitably call for a Yankee pursuit. That meant the 2nd Division under Brig. Gen. Joseph Hooker, in Maj. Gen. Samuel Heintzelman’s 3rd Corps, would be in the van.
Although Joe Hooker was a recognizable enough name among Army of the Potomac commanders, at the outset of McClellan’s Peninsula Campaign in April 1862 his contributions to the war effort had been limited. An 1837 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, he earned praise and valuable experience in the Mexican War but resigned his Army commission in 1853 to seek his fortune in California. With the start of the Civil War in April 1861, Hooker returned east, eventually receiving divisional command under Heintzelman.
Hooker was fortunate to field three veteranladen brigades during the Yorktown siege. Undeniably the most prominent of those was the Excelsior Brigade featuring five New York
