This was undertaken with great energy, the Congress cooeperating with the Executive in every manner.

The city of Washington resounded with the wheels of artillery and the tramp of cavalry; the workshops were busy night and day to supply arms and ammunition; and the best officers devoted themselves, without rest, to the work of drilling and disciplining the mass.
By the spring of 1862 a force of about two hundred thousand men was ready to take the field in Virginia.

General Scott was not to command in the coming campaigns.

He had retired in the latter part of the year 1861, and his place had been filled by a young officer of rising reputation--General George B.McClellan, who had achieved the successes of Rich Mountain and Carrick's Ford in Western Virginia.
General McClellan was not yet forty, but had impressed the authorities with a high opinion of his abilities.

A soldier by profession, and enjoying the distinction of having served with great credit in the Mexican War, he had been sent as United States military commissioner to the Crimea, and on his return had written a book of marked ability on the military organizations of the powers of Europe.