The Gun Boat Candidate, At the Battle of Malvern Hill

Probably after Louis Maurer American, born Germany
 Publisher Currier & Ives American
 Sitter General George B. McClellan

Not on view

Showing General George McClellan perched on a boom of "Galena," one of the Union's ironclad battleships, Currier & Ives reminds viewers of that leader's signal failures in an 1862 Union campaign against Richmond. In May, a flotilla of ironclads led by Galena were repulsed by Confederate guns, with the general refusing to call in a nearby troops for backup. This was followed by the Seven Battles, concluding on July 1 with the disastrous Battle of Malvern Hill, seen here in the distance. Surveying the action through a telescope, McClellan says "Fight on my brave Soldiers and push the enemy to the wall, from this spanker boom your beloved General looks down upon you." The battle concluded with a Union retreat to the river for gunboat protection, ending any chance that the Army of the Potomac might take the Confederate capital in 1862.

The Gun Boat Candidate, At the Battle of Malvern Hill, Probably after Louis Maurer (American (born Germany), Biebrich 1832–1932 New York), Lithograph

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