COMMAND GIVEN TO McCLELLAN--HIS PLANS--APPOINTMENT OF SECRETARY STANTON--ON THE PENINSULA--BATTLE OF WILLIAMSBURG--ON THE CHICKAHOMINY--THE BATTLE OF FAIR OAKS--EFFECT OF THE SWAMPS--LEE IN COMMAND--STUART'S RAID--NEAREST APPROACH TO RICHMOND--ACTION AT BEAVER DAM CREEK--BATTLE OF GAINES'S MILLS--BATTLE OF SAVAGE'S STATION--BATTLE OF CHARLES CITY CROSS-ROADS--BATTLE OF MALVERN HILL--CRITICISMS OF PENINSULA CAMPAIGN. Within twenty-four hours after the defeat of McDowell's army at Bull Run (July 21, 1861), the Administration called to Washington the only man that had thus far accomplished much or made any considerable reputation in the field. This was Gen. George B. McClellan. He had been graduated at West Point in 1846, standing second in his class, and had gone at once into the Mexican war, in which he acquitted himself with distinction. After that war the young captain was employed in engineering work till 1855, when the Government sent him to Europe to study the movements of the Crimean war. He wrote a report of his observations, which was published under the title of "The Armies of Europe," and in 1857 resigned his commission and became chief engineer of the Illinois Central Railroad, and afterward president of the St. Louis and Cincinnati. He had done good work in Northwestern Virginia in the early summer, and now, at the age of thirty-five, was commissioned major-general in the regular army of the United States, and given command of all the troops about Washington. [Illustration: MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE B. McCLELLAN AND WIFE.]