150-Year Anniversary ยท July 1862
The Seven Days Battles closed on July 1 at Malvern Hill, where massed Union artillery shattered Lee's attacks. Yet McClellan continued his retreat, and the campaign to take Richmond had failed.
On July 22, 1862, Lincoln read a draft of the Emancipation Proclamation to his cabinet. On Secretary Seward's advice he agreed to wait for a Union victory before issuing it, lest it seem an act of desperation.
On July 17 Congress passed the second Confiscation Act, striking harder at slavery, and Henry Halleck was summoned east as general-in-chief. The war was turning toward a sterner purpose.
July 1862 sits between the Peninsula and the later Maryland campaign. Those campaigns are collected on the Civil War archive home.