The Union found to its chagrin that John Pope and the war in the east were not a good fit. Spring 1862 had begun with such promise for the North. The “Young Napoleon,” Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, had methodically organized and, by April, launched an 80-mile thrust by the Army of the Potomac up the Virginia Peninsula to capture the Confederate capital of Richmond and thereby, he hoped, end the year-old war in one stroke. McClellan’s grand effort, however, would be slowed and eventually halted by miserable weather, his own overly cautious leadership, and an admirably stubborn defense by the outnumbered Confederates.