In the Spring of 1862 Virginia played host to a campaign fought between two generals who were not the most aggressively minded of souls.
On one side was the United States of America's first great hope for winning the war against their Southern adversaries, George B. McClellan. The Unions own Young Napoleon was held in great esteme in those early days and much hope lay on his shoulders but the pressures placed on those inexperianced shoulders were perhaps too much for that man to bare. Though showing moments of brilliance and daring unparralled at this time in the war he never quite managed to get the better of his opponents.
On the other side was the only General to leave the Union in favor of the Confederacy, Joseph Eggleston Johnston. The former Quartermaster General of the United States would soon gain the somewhat scornful nickname of "Retreating Johnston" for his refusal to fight a general engagement with an enemy that outnumbered him. Though a wise strategy it did not hold favor with his political masters and continuing arguement with his President over rank and strategies only serve to weaken his position with his own side.
The result of these two men clashing was a slow campaign up the James Peninsular until finally McClellan reached the Chickahominy River and straddled the river with his Army and waited for reinforcement he was sure were coming but that he was unaware had been diverted to the Shenandoah Valley to help fight Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson.
Johnston recognised the opportunity he had been presented with. For the entirety of the Peninsular Campaign he had been preaching concentration of manpower or else he would be unable to fight his enemy in a general engagement unless that enemy had made a mistake and McClellan had done just that.
The Army of the Potomac had split it's force and on the side of the Chickahominy that the Confederate occupied stood only two Corps of that Army while on the other side lay thre rest of that Army. This meant that only about 33,000 Union Soldiers were opposing Johnston Army of about 60,000 Confederate and around another 60,000 Union soldiers were seperated from the Confederates by the river itself.
Johnston jumped at the opening and quickly drew up a plan which, if all went well, would allow him to throw the bulk of his army against roughly a third of McClellans and thus cripple it in future engagements and turn the balance of the Campaign more to his favor.
The Battle of Fair Oak or Seven Pines followed.
Bad weather had proceeded the battle and turned Johnston's intended field of battle into a muddy bog and his plans were complex which made them harder to understand and confusion reigned supreme in the Army of Northern Virginia.
In the midst of the battle between the two inexperianced Armies, a well trained Union one and a Confederate one in training, General Johnston came up to Fair Oaks to check the condition of the battle and he judged it a winnable battle but one that would have to be fought the next moring. He gave a staff officer the necessary orders and turned to leave when suddenly a bullet tore into his right shoulder and a moment later he was hit by a shell fragment that threw him from his horse.
And so fell Joseph Johnston, wounded at the first major battle he had chosen to fight himself, and the command of the Army of Northern Virginia fell onto the shoulders of one of the greatest Generals of his time, Robert Edward Lee.
In the aftermath of Fair Oaks the Confederates were quick to send reinforcement to the Army of Northern Virginia. Upon learning that concentration of manpower was finally happening General Johnston remarked:
"Then, my wound was fortunate; it is concentration which I earnestly recommended, but had not the influence to effect. Lee had made them do for him what they would not do for me"
Lee subsequently launched on a series of battles that would become known as the Seven Days Battles and drove McClellan out of the Peninsular before turning his attention to John Pope in the Valley.
The rise of Robert E. Lee could not have happened without the wounding of Joseph E. Johnston. Though Johston might have been removed from command by Davis it is unlikely that Lee would have agreed to take command at the expense of his old friend.
So what if General Johnston is not wounded at Fair Oaks? How does the Peninsular Campaign end with McClellan and Johnston opposing each other instead of the wild card of the energetic and optimistic Lee? And what lays in store for the rest of Virginia with the prudent Johnston taking the roll that risk-taker Lee had in OTL?