McClellan, George B. (George Brinton), 1826-1885

<p>George Brinton McClellan is often remembered as the great organizer of the Union Army of the Potomac. Nicknamed "Young Napoleon," "Little Mac" was immensely popular with the men who served under his command. His military command style, however, put him at odds with President Abraham Lincoln, and would ultimately upset his military and political fortunes.</p>

<p>McClellan began his military career after entering the United States Military Academy in 1842. He graduated second in a class of 59 in 1846, along with 20 others who would become full rank generals during the Civil War. He was appointed as a brevet second lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers and served under General Winfield Scott during the Mexican-American War, helping to construct roads and bridges for the army. The recipient of brevet promotions to both first lieutenant and captain, he returned to West Point as an instructor after the war, and helped translate a French manual on bayonet tactics. Other duties included service as an engineer at Fort Delaware, expeditions to explore the Red River, and the exploration possible routes for the transcontinental railroad. He was also a military observer during the Crimean War. In 1857, McClellan resigned from the military to take a position with the Illinois Central Railroad.</p>

<p>Upon the outbreak of the Civil War, Ohio governor William Dennison appointed McClellan major general of Ohio Volunteers on April 23, 1861. This promotion, along with the support of Governor Denison, encouraged Lincoln to commission McClellan a major general in the Regular Army, making him one of the highest ranked individuals in the service under only Winfield Scott. McClellan began his work swiftly, ensuring that Kentucky would not secede from the Union. He then commanded forces during the Rich Mountain campaign in what is now West Virginia to ensure that the portion of the state would not be fully taken by Confederates. This success, combined with the defeat of General Irvin McDowell at the battle of First Bull Run, led McClellan to become commander of the Army of the Potomac, and later General-in-Chief of all Federal armies upon the retirement of General Winfield Scott’s in November 1861.</p>

<p>It was during this time that McClellan cemented his bond with the men of the Union army. Although many politicians and generals harbored resentment toward McClellan, he was largely revered by his men. After the defeat at Manassas, much of the Army of the Potomac was unorganized, and its new commander set to work providing the men proper military training and instilling in them a remarkable esprit de corps. As he built his army, however, McClellan also became wary of Confederate forces, fearing that he faced numbers many times his own.</p>

<p>In the spring of 1862, McClellan was removed as General-in-Chief, though he retained command of the Potomac Army. Facing great pressure from Lincoln, he launched a campaign against the Confederate capital along the Virginia Peninsula, known as the Peninsula Campaign. Continually tricked by Confederate commander General Joseph E. Johnston that he was facing a large force, McClellan frequently delayed his attacks, allowing his opponent ample time to retreat slowly toward the Richmond defenses. A surprise attack by Rebels at the battle of Seven Pines (or Fair Oaks) blunted the already sluggish Federal advance. Although the Union army repulsed the attacks, McClellan to again delayed any further movement, hoping for more reinforcements to come from Washington. Seven Pines had another adverse impact on the campaign. During the battle, Confederate General Johnston was wounded, and Robert E. Lee was appointed to replace him. Taking advantage of McClellan's cautious streak, Lee hammered at the inert Army of the Potomac in a series of fierce and unrelenting assaults. Over the course of the bloody Seven Days' Battles, McClellan’s mighty host was forced to abandon its bid to seize Richmond and retreat to the safety of Washington. As a result of the failed campaign, Lincoln named Henry Halleck as General-in-Chief of the army, and the Army of the Potomac was given to General John Pope.</p>

<p>Following Pope's failure to capture Richmond the subsequent Union defeat at the battle of Second Manassas, McClellan was once again leading the army that had such strong affection for him. With Little Mac at its head, the Army of the Potomac moved to counter Lee's 1862 invasion of Maryland. The Union chief molded his campaign around a captured a document outlining Lee’s invasion plan. After a series of skirmishes along the Blue Ridge mountains, the two armies met in an epic contest at Antietam on September 17, 1862, the single bloodiest day of the war. Battle weary and bloodied, the Confederate Army retreated back into Virginia under the cover of darkness.</p>

<p>Though he had managed to thwart the Lee's plan to invade the North, McClellan's trademark caution once again denied the Northern cause a decisive victory, and the once-cordial relationship between the army commander and his Commander-in-Chief had been badly damaged by the former's lack of success and excessive trepidation. After the battle, a disappointed Lincoln visited McClellan in camp to express his frustration at the general's inability to capitalize on this most recent success. The general countered by saying the army needed time to rest and refit. In November of that year McClellan was relieved of command for the last time and ordered back to Trenton, New Jersey to await further orders, though none ever came.</p>

<p>In 1864, McClellan became involved in politics when he was nominated to be the Democratic candidate for president against his former boss, Abraham Lincoln. McClellan ran on an anti-war platform, promising that he would negotiate peace terms with the Confederacy to help end the war as soon as possible. But by November of 1864, a string of Union successes had convinced many that the war was in its final phase. McClellan resigned his army commission on Election Day, but ultimately Lincoln was elected to a second term.</p>

<p>After the war, McClellan served as an administrator for a number of engineering firms and in 1878 was elected Governor of New Jersey. In his final years, the former general penned a defense of his tenure as commander of the Army of the Potomac, but died before he could see it published. George McClellan is buried in Trenton, NJ.</p>

<p>George B. McClellan was a prominent nineteenth-century American military and political leader.</p>

<p>George Brinton McClellan was born into an elite Philadelphia family on December 3, 1826. He attended the University of Pennsylvania but did not graduate. McClellan was admitted into West Point Academy in 1842, before his sixteenth birthday. He graduated in 1846, second in his class.</p>

<p>McClellan’s first combat experiences came during the Mexican-American War, in which he was enlisted as a lieutenant of engineers under General Winfield Scott. Described as fearless and gallant under fire, McClellan was awarded brevets to first lieutenant in Contreras-Churubusco, followed by a promotion to Captain at Chapultepec. After the Mexican-American War, McClellan returned to West Point as an assistant instructor until his reassignment to explore the western frontier, including Oregon and the Southwest. In 1855 then Secretary of War Jefferson Davis sent McClellan to travel throughout Europe to study the tactics being utilized in the Crimean War. Upon his return, McClellan released his military report, Armies of Europe, which detailed his analysis of what he saw while traveling.</p>

<p>In 1857 McClellan retired from the military and became chief engineer of the Illinois Central Railroad. Following his term as chief engineer he was promoted to president of the Ohio and Mississippi River Railroad, the headquarters of which was located in Cincinnati.</p>

<p>McClellan returned to the military because of the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. While he was opposed to the outright abolition of slavery, his allegiance ultimately resided with the preservation of the Union. McClellan accepted the position of commander of the volunteer army of Ohio in 1861. Governor of Ohio William Dennison dispatched McClellan and Jacob Cox to the state arsenal in Columbus to investigate the guns and other supplies that Ohio had on hand to help equip the state's militia units. The two men discovered a few crates of rusted smoothbore muskets, mildewed harness for horses, and some six-pound cannons that could not be fired. Despite the lack of equipment, Dennison encouraged Ohio communities to revive the militia system and to form units that they would send to Columbus, the state capital. Dennison entrusted McClellan with command of these units and asked him to create a professional force from the volunteers.</p>

<p>The exceptional training regimen McClellan demanded of these new recruits garnered him esteem in Washington and he soon became a Major General in the United States Army. He was placed in charge of the department of Ohio. McClellan’s first course of action was to disperse small units across the Ohio River into western Virginia to fragment Confederate divisions. Due to constant, successful support provided by his troops to the greater Union Army, McClellan was nicknamed “the Young Napoleon.” After the Union defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run, President Abraham Lincoln replaced General Irvin McDowell as commander of the Army of the Potomac with McClellan. McClellan spent the remainder of 1861 recruiting volunteers and training them to be professional soldiers.</p>

<p>When General Winfield Scott retired from his duties in 1861, McClellan was promoted to general-in-chief of the Union Army. However, McClellan quickly began to differentiate in tactical opinion from his commanding leaders, including President Lincoln. McClellan fell under the belief that the Confederate Army was superior to the Union Army and he therefore concluded that a massive offensive against the South would be inadvisable. Both President Lincoln and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton were concerned by McClellan’s hesitation to launch an invasion. As a result, they removed McClellan as general-in-chief and instructed him to focus on a southern advance.</p>

<p>McClellan and the Army of the Potomac set out to seize the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, in early 1862. Hoping to flank the defending Confederate armies and march into Richmond unopposed, McClellan transported his army by ship to Fortress Monroe, located on the Virginia Peninsula, beginning the Peninsula Campaign. McClellan, though initially successful in landing and moving his army toward Richmond, allowed the heavily-outnumbered Confederate defenders, under General Joseph E. Johnston, to withdraw into the city defenses and buy time for reinforcements to arrive. After minor encounters, Johnston was wounded and the Confederate army was placed under the command of General Robert E. Lee. McClellan, convinced that the Confederates outnumbered his soldiers, stalled his advance on the city to await reinforcements. The Army of the Potomac was then attacked by General Lee in a series of engagements known as the Seven Days Battles. President Lincoln refused to send more reinforcements and ordered the Army of the Potomac to return to Washington.</p>

<p>McClellan was relieved of command of the Army of the Potomac, but was reinstated after the Union defeat at the Second Battle of Bull Run. McClellan was ordered to halt Confederate advances into the North during Lee’s Maryland Campaign in September, 1862. The two armies met at Sharpsburg, Maryland. Prior to the battle, Union soldiers discovered copies of the Confederate battle plans, which were then relayed to McClellan. Despite this, the Battle of Antietam, as it is now known, ended in a draw. Though outnumbered, Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia was allowed to escape. While the battle blunted Lee’s first invasion of the North, President Lincoln believed McClellan had passed up an opportunity to destroy the Army of Northern Virginia. McClellan was removed from command of the Army of the Potomac and replaced with General Ambrose Burnside. McClellan would never receive another military command.</p>

<p>McClellan became one of Lincoln’s chief critics, and was nominated by the Democratic Party to run against Lincoln in the Presidential election of 1864. McClellan, a War Democrat, was not only battling against the Republican Party, but also against fellow Democrats who wanted to condemn the war effort, something McClellan was not willing to do. Thanks in part to Union successes on the battlefield, McClellan lost the election by some 400,000 popular votes and suffered a 212-21 vote defeat in the Electoral College. McClellan resigned his commission in the United States Army on the day of the election.</p>

<p>McClellan relocated to Europe for several years before returning to the United States in 1870. He settled in New York where he supervised the construction of a floating battery before being appointed the chief of New York’s department of docks as well as the President of the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad. In 1878 McClellan was elected to a term as Governor of New Jersey, his final place of residence, where he reformed the administration of the state and developed military programs. He died on October 29, 1885.</p>

<p>George Brinton McClellan (December 3, 1826 – October 29, 1885) was an American soldier, civil engineer, railroad executive, and politician who served as the 24th Governor of New Jersey. A graduate of West Point, McClellan served with distinction during the Mexican–American War (1846–1848), and later left the Army to work on railroads until the outbreak of the American Civil War (1861–1865). Early in the conflict, McClellan was appointed to the rank of major general and played an important role in raising a well-trained and organized army, which would become the Army of the Potomac in the Eastern Theater; he served a brief period (November 1861 to March 1862) as general-in-chief of the Union Army.</p>

<p>McClellan organized and led the Union army in the Peninsula Campaign in southeastern Virginia from March through July 1862. It was the first large-scale offensive in the Eastern Theater. Making an amphibious clockwise turning movement around the Confederate Army in northern Virginia, McClellan's forces turned west to move up the Virginia Peninsula, between the James and York Rivers, landing from the Chesapeake Bay, with the Confederate capital, Richmond, as their objective. Initially, McClellan was somewhat successful against General Joseph E. Johnston, but the emergence of General Robert E. Lee to command the Army of Northern Virginia turned the subsequent Seven Days Battles into a partial Union defeat. However, historians note that Lee's victory was in many ways pyrrhic as he failed to destroy the Army of the Potomac and suffered a bloody repulse at Malvern Hill.</p>

<p>General McClellan and President Abraham Lincoln developed a mutual distrust, and McClellan was privately derisive of his commander-in-chief. McClellan was removed from command in November in the aftermath of the 1862 midterm elections. A major contributing factor in this decision was McClellan's failure to actively pursue Lee's Army following the tactically inconclusive but strategic Union victory at the Battle of Antietam outside Sharpsburg, Maryland. McClellan never received another field command and went on to become the unsuccessful Democratic Party nominee in the 1864 presidential election against the Republican Lincoln's reelection. The effectiveness of his campaign was damaged when he repudiated his party's platform, which promised an end to the war and negotiations with the southern Confederacy. He served as the 24th Governor of New Jersey from 1878 to 1881; he eventually became a writer, and vigorously defended his Civil War conduct.</p>

<p>Most historians have judged that McClellan was a poor battlefield general. In recent decades, however, this view has been challenged by some historians.</p>