General War Order No. 1

On this day, 150 years ago, President Lincoln issues General War Order No. 1, in a desperate effort to push Little Mac into doing something - anything - against the South.

Two weeks earlier, in a tense meeting with various generals and cabinet members, General George McClellan claimed to have a plan for a campaign against Virginia, but he refused to provide any details of the plan. But in the two weeks that followed, Lincoln failed to see McClellan making any preparations for a campaign.

In his frustration, without consulting any members of his cabinet, he issues General War Order No. 1, ordering "a general movement" of all Union Land and Naval forces against the Confederacy to be launched on February 22, George Washington's birthday.

Lincoln's General War Order No. 1,
courtesy of the Library of Congress

McClellan will bristle at this mandate, and he will argue for more time. Nonetheless. this order will prompt him to begin concrete preparations for his Urbanna plan, which will eventually become the Peninsula Campaign, his epic incursion into Virginia in April 1862.