The Peninsula Campaign paired amphibious logistics with imagined threats

What stands out about the American Civil War's Peninsula Campaign?

Its amphibious logistics are important, but so is the way commanders magnified an imagined enemy and fought the battle in their heads.

The American rather than Iberian Peninsula Campaign offers useful examples of logistics and amphibious operations. It also exposes a command failure: leaders can fight the battle they imagine instead of the one actually in front of them. In this case, the enemy appeared more insurmountable in the commander's mental picture than in reality. Sound logistics cannot automatically compensate for distorted operational judgment.