but he's still got to confront george clinton mcclellan and 105,000 union soldiers, who as we know have landed at fort monroe, have encountered the yorktown line. decided to approach it with, quote, regular defenses. that means slow. they're ready to move in early may, and, yes, they move. but this time joe johnston has begun a withdrawal up the peninsula and there's a not a dry sock in the union army. that's the way they describe the effect of the weather on troop movement. lee by this time has adopted, and actually jefferson davis as well, the strategy of the offensive defense, that is, allow the enemy to penetrate your soil. initially jefferson davis said we'll not give up a single inch of our soil. well, that's impractical. and it didn't work out that way either. so, you allow the enemy to penetrate, but then you -- in circumstance of your choosing when the enemy is lost or has made a mistake or can be numbered or you can attack the enemy's fractions with your mast, you attack, the offense. go on the offense. davis believed in that strategy i think, and this is gravely oversimplifie

george clinton mcclellan of philadelphia. i see we have some philadelphia fans in the audience. if you go over here to the virginia bookstore, you can buy the little napkins, you know, that says to be born in virginia is really something special. philadelphia, you can't buy them. your money's not good enough, you know? you have to have a pedigree. graduated number two in his class, west point, class of 1846. he was commissioned in the corps of engineers. not like people like george picket, vovshoveled into the in tray, the smartest guys typically went into the corps of engineers. in the decade following that war he was one of a group of young proteges of the very, very active, engaged secretary of war jefferson davis. because geoff davis hjeff davis bit of confidence in young captain mcclellan in the 1850s he was part of a handpicked group that he sent to the crimea in the siege of sebastopol. mcclellan established a reputation then as being very, very intelligent in his approach to dealing with british and french engineers and sent some excellent reports back to the united stat