Geoffrey Norman’s lovely piece on the Seven Days Battles of June 1862 in this week’s edition of the magazine needs no glossing, but the fights that brought Confederate General Robert E. Lee to the fore also marked the beginning of a period where the future of the United States was increasingly in doubt. From the moment George McClellan retreated from the gates of Richmond until the repulse of Lee’s final attack at Gettysburg on July 3 a year later, the course of the war, the fate of the American continent, and the prospects for human liberty hung by a thread.

The last shots of the Seven Days campaign rang over Malvern Hill about 10 p.m. on July 1, fittingly fired by the Union artillery that had finally overwhelmed the zeal of Lee’s infantry. But what followed in the immediate aftermath was a strategic stalemate. In Washington, Lincoln was furious at McClellan’s failure to smash his way into the Confederate capital; in Richmond, Lee despaired that McClellan had escaped, preserving the army that Lee was determined to destroy.