On March 17, 1862, Abraham Lincoln at last got some good news: General George McClellan's mighty Army of the Potomac was finally on the move. One hundred and twenty-one thousand men, 14,000 horses and mules, 1,100 wagons were heading South. It would take three weeks to get it all to their jumping-off point -- Fort Monroe, Virginia. McClellan promised "great, heroic exertions, rapid and long marches, desperate combats..." all leading to the capture of the Confederate Capital at Richmond -- just 70 miles away.
