Civil War Photographs:
Battlefields and Vicinity

Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-B8171-2369 DLC

Confederate fortifications at Yorktown, Virginia. They are reinforced with cotton bales. At this fortification, 15,000 Confederate soldiers under Major General John Magruder kept General McClellan's troops at bay, giving the Confederacy needed time to recruit troops. General Magruder used a ruse of marching his troops around to make McClellan think his force was larger. Magruder eventually abandoned Yorktown on May 4, 1862, but the time gained had been invaluable.
June, 1862.