George Brinton McClellan

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George B. McClellan. (credit: Courtesy of the U.S. Signal Corps)

(born Dec. 3, 1826, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S. — died Oct. 29, 1885, Orange, N.J.) U.S. Army officer. After graduating from West Point, he served in the Mexican War and then returned to West Point to teach military engineering. In 1855 – 56 he undertook a mission to the Crimea to study European methods of warfare. In 1857 he resigned his commission to become chief of engineering for the Illinois Central Railroad (1857); he became president of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad in 1860. At the outbreak of the American Civil War he was commissioned in the regular army and placed in command of the department of the Ohio. Appointed general in chief of the army by Abraham Lincoln in 1861, he organized the army into an efficient fighting force but refused to take the offensive in the fall of that year, prompting Lincoln to issue his General War Order (1862) calling for forward movement of all armies. McClellan cautiously conducted the Peninsular Campaign but failed to take Richmond, and he fought indecisively in the Seven Days' Battles. At the Battle of Antietam he failed to destroy Robert E. Lee's army, and Lincoln removed him from command. In 1864 he was the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for president against Lincoln. From 1872 to 1877 he was president of the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad.

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McClellan, Maj Gen George Brinton (1826-85), Union commander in the American civil war. McClellan graduated second in his class from West Point and served as an engineer, winning two brevets in the Mexican war, before transferring to the cavalry. An observer in the Crimean war, he designed a new cavalry saddle on his return. He resigned in 1857 to become a railway engineer, and was president of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad when war broke out. Appointed a volunteer brigadier general in April 1861 and a regular major general a month later, he assumed command of the Department of the Ohio and quickly secured west Virginia. Posted to what was to become the Army of the Potomac, demoralized by defeat at first Bull Run, he reorganized it and restored its confidence.

McClellan succeeded Scott as general-in-chief in November, but proved reluctant to attack until pressed by Lincoln. His amphibious Jamestown peninsular campaign, brilliant in conception and potentially war-ending both in terms of the numbers under his command and their location so close to the Confederate capital, was undone by a caution bordering on paralysis. Extending a flank to reach out to a secondary Union advance from the north under McDowell, he was checked at Seven Pines, sat still for three weeks, and was then driven back to the water's edge by Lee during the Seven Days battles, showing a skill in retreat conspicuously absent from his hesitant advance to contact. His failure left Union hopes riding on the sagging shoulders of Pope, whose advance from the north was resoundingly repelled at second Bull Run. When Lee followed this by invading Maryland, a copy of his campaign plan fell into the hands of McClellan, now back from the peninsula with much of his army. Such was the Confederate commander's contempt for him that he offered battle at Antietam, outnumbered nearly two to one and with his back to the Potomac river. Once again McClellan let a golden opportunity slip through his fingers and an exasperated president replaced him with the even less competent Burnside.

He ran against Lincoln in the 1864 presidential election and was roundly defeated. Handsome and popular, McClellan was extremely self-regarding and was prematurely nicknamed ‘Young Napoleon’ by an enthusiastic press. In truth he was an excellent organizer and motivator of men; unfortunately for the Union, he seemed to believe that he could win the war mainly by manoeuvre and totally lacked the killer instinct.

— Richard Holmes

McClellan was born to a wealthy family in Philadelphia; at the age of fifteen, he entered West Point and eventually graduated second in his class. During the Mexican War, he won two promotions on the field for distinguished conduct under fire, but he resigned his commission (1857), becoming chief engineer and then president of railroad companies in Illinois and Ohio.

When the Civil War broke out, McClellan received an appointment as major‐general and commanded Union forces that drove the Confederates out of western Virginia in July 1861. After the Union disaster at the First Battle of Bull Run, President Abraham Lincoln brought him east to reorganize and command the Army of the Potomac. McClellan was greeted with widespread public enthusiasm as “the Young Napoleon” who would produce a swift and decisive victory over the Confederacy. Unfortunately, these expectations—partly of his own making but mostly a reflection of a conviction early in the war that “hard fighting” would lead to a quick and relatively painless victory—would haunt McClellan's tenure as a Union general as well as his historical reputation.

In the late summer and fall of 1861, McClellan set out methodically to rebuild the Army of the Potomac. Despite public pressure for an immediate attack, McClellan prepared for an assault in the spring of 1862. His meticulous plans for one big offensive to seize Richmond, Virginia, the Confederate capital, resulted in the Peninsula Campaign from March to July 1862, in which the Army of the Potomac came within five miles of the city, but was thrown back by a determined counter‐attack by Robert E. Lee in the Seven Days' Battle (25 June–1 July 1862). Disillusioned by McClellan's apparent lack of progress and demands for additional manpower, Lincoln withdrew McClellan and his army from the peninsula, and placed John Pope in charge of Union forces in northern Virginia.

However, after humiliating Pope at the Second Battle of Bull Run, Lee invaded Maryland, and Lincoln recalled McClellan to lead the Army of the Potomac once again. “Little Mac” brought together the disorganized and dispirited Union army, and after Union troops discovered the “lost” plans to Lee's invasion, he moved rapidly to track Lee down. McClellan cornered Lee's forces near Sharpsburg in western Maryland: at the Battle of Antietam (17 September 1862), the two armies fought the bloodiest one‐day conflict of the war. Lee was forced to retreat back into Virginia. The battle has been described as a tactical draw, but a strategic victory. McClellan has been criticized by some historians for failure to commit his reserves at the end of the day to destroy the Rebels. Under substantial pressure himself, Lincoln once again relieved McClellan of command in November 1862.

Although he understood that the Confederacy had to be defeated, McClellan, a member of the Democratic Party, advocated military conduct under “the highest principles known to Christian civilization” and was generally conservative on slavery. Hence, he was never in favor with Radical Republicans, who demanded the immediate abolition of slavery and regarded McClellan as “soft” on military measures. McClellan's supposed moderation became a central issue when he ran for president in 1864. Although he strongly advocated continuing the war until victory was achieved, some historians have suggested that if McClellan had defeated the Republican Lincoln, the peace faction within the Democratic Party would have insisted that the war effort be suspended, and the Confederacy would thereby have achieved independence. Such assessments, however, are speculative.

McClellan was a brilliant organizer, who inspired devotion from the common infantryman. He could also be contemptuous of politicians, which has led some historians to describe him as vain, arrogant, and paranoid. A tragic failure, he had a Cassandra‐like quality in correctly warning that it would take substantial resources and repeated attempts to capture Richmond. For the first two years of the war, each time Lincoln replaced McClellan, the Union army, in less capable hands, went on humiliating debacles. George B. McClellan proved, and will probably remain, one of the most controversial generals of the American Civil War.

[See also Civil War: Military and Diplomatic Course; Civil War: Changing Interpretations.]

Bibliography

• Warren W. Hassler, Jr., General George B. McClellan: Shield of the Union, 1957.
• Joseph L. Harsh, On the McClellan‐Go‐Round, Civil War History, 19 (1973), pp. 101–18.
• Stephen W. Sears, George B. McClellan: The Young Napoleon, 1988.
• Eric T. Dean, Jr., “Rethinking the Civil War: Beyond‘Revolutions,’ ‘Reconstructions,’ and the ‘New Social History,’ Southern Historian, 15 (Spring 1994), pp. 28–50.
• Thomas J. Rowland, In the Shadows of Grant and Sherman: George B. McClellan Revisited, Civil War History, 40(3) (September 1994), pp. 202–25

McClellan, George B. (1826-85) Civil War general, general in chief of the Union forces (1861-62) and commander of the Army of the Potomac (1861-62), born George Brinton McClellan in Philadelphia. After his troops successfully drove Confederate forces from western Virginia (1861), McClellan was called to the capital by Abraham Lincoln to restore and command the Army of the Potomac, which had been demoralized by the defeat at First Bull Run (1861). Although McClellan successfully rebuilt the army, his late and ultimately indecisive Peninsular campaign culminating in the Seven Days' battles (1862) led Lincoln to replace him. Later recalled, he was once again relieved when despite the opportunity to do so, he failed to totally destroy the rebel forces at Antietam (1862). The general once dubbed the “Young Napoleon” never received another army assignment. Though recognized as an able organizer and motivator of troops, McClellan proved incapable of decisive and timely action. Further, his tendency toward delay and exaggeration of the opposition's strength fueled a suspicion that the pro-slavery Democrat was not fully committed to winning the war. In 1864 McClellan ran for president but was trounced by Abraham Lincoln. That same year he resigned from the army. After the war he obtained considerable wealth as a consulting engineer, and also served a single term as governor of New Jersey.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

A Union Army commander in the American Civil War, George Brinton McClellan (1826-1885) repelled Gen. Robert E. Lee's first invasion of the North. He was later a governor of New Jersey.

George B. McClellan was born in Philadelphia, Pa., on Dec. 3, 1826, the son of a prominent physician. He attended the University of Pennsylvania Preparatory School and, by special action, was permitted to enter West Point two years before attaining the minimum age. He graduated second in the 1846 class of 59 cadets.

McClellan won two brevets in the Mexican War in 1847 "for gallant and meritorious conduct." He was named to the American military commission which observed the siege of Sevastopol in the Crimean War (1853-1856). McClellan then studied military organizations, weapons, and systems in several European countries and wrote an excellent, comprehensive report on his observations (1857). Resigning his commission in the army Jan. 16, 1857, he became an executive with the Illinois Central Railroad. He was president of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad when the Civil War erupted in 1861.

Early Civil War Services

McClellan immediately volunteered his services on behalf of the Union and was commissioned a major general in command of the Department of the Ohio in May 1861. In this capacity he led the Federal forces into the pro-Union northwestern area of Virginia to confront Confederate troops ordered there by Robert E. Lee. McClellan soundly trounced the enemy at the battles of Philippi (June 3, 1861), Rich Mountain (July 11), and Carrick's Ford (July 13), paving the way for the creation of the new state of West Virginia (admitted to the Union in 1863). Called to Washington, D.C., to assume command of the army that had been routed at First Bull Run, McClellan was named head of the Department of the Potomac. On Nov. 1, 1861, he became general in chief. He delayed an advance until 1862 in order to train, equip, and perfect his army but, as a result, he clashed with President Abraham Lincoln and the difficult secretary of war, Edwin M. Stanton.

Finally permitted to advance into Virginia via the peninsula between the York and James rivers, McClellan overcautiously laid siege to Yorktown in April 1862 and fought a drawn battle at Williamsburg on May 5. With his army of some 95,000 men - smaller by one-third than that which had been assured him - he inched to within 4 miles of Richmond through unusually heavy rains. When attacked by Confederate general Joseph E. Johnston in the Battle of Fair Oaks (Seven Pines), May 31-June 1, he essentially repulsed the enemy assaults and maintained his position. Endless bickering with the Lincoln administration continued. In the sprawling Seven Days Battle initiated by Lee (June 25-July 1) McClellan lost only one engagement - at Gaines's Mill - and succeeded, in a brilliant change-of-base operation, in checking Lee's continued attacks. At Malvern Hill on July 1 McClellan administered one of the bloodiest repulses the Confederate commander ever suffered. Though the Army of the Potomac was safe at Harrison's Landing, Lincoln nonetheless withdrew it to Washington, against McClellan's protests, and gave it to another commander.

Later Civil War Actions

After the severe defeat of John Pope's Union army at Second Bull Run in August 1862, McClellan was renamed to command the army. Meanwhile Lee was pressing his advantage by invading Maryland. Plagued by contradictory orders from his superiors and obliged to reorganize his army on the march, McClellan pursued Lee into western Maryland, winning the important Battle of South Mountain (September 14) and wresting the initiative from him. Finally, at Antietam (Sharpsburg), McClellan attacked the Confederates in the bloodiest single-day battle of the war, gaining a strategic victory that forced Lee to retreat into Virginia. However, when he failed to follow up his success to the satisfaction of Lincoln, McClellan was fired on Nov. 5, 1862. He never held another Civil War command and resigned his commission on Nov. 8, 1864, to run unsuccessfully as the Democratic candidate for president against Lincoln.

Postwar Services

After Appomattox, McClellan pursued his varied literary and cultural tastes in America and abroad. He was fond of mountain climbing, and he moved in high-society circles. Service in several large engineering enterprises was followed by his election as governor of New Jersey - a position he held with distinction from 1878 to 1881. He died of coronary trouble on Oct. 29, 1885, at Orange, N.J.

McClellan was powerfully built, handsome, and graceful. On May 22, 1860, he married the vivacious Ellen Mary Marcy, and his personal life was without blemish. Despite a tendency to magnify difficulties, his achievements during the Civil War were substantial, and some were masterful.

Further Reading

A scholarly, fully documented study is Warren W. Hassler, Jr., General George B. McClellan: Shield of the Union (1957). A strongly pro-McClellan treatment is H. J. Eckenrode and Bryan Conrad, George B. McClellan: The Man Who Saved the Union (1941), while the leading anti-McClellan biography is Peter S. Michie, General McClellan (1901). Clarence E. Macartney, Little Mac: The Life of General George B. McClellan (1940), is popularly written. More sophisticated is William Starr Myers, A Study in Personality: General George Brinton McClellan (1934). No student of the Civil War should neglect the general's memoirs, McClellan's Own Story (1887), which, while persuasive and containing the invaluable letters written by McClellan to his wife, is painfully defensive in tone.

(1826-1885), Civil War soldier and political leader. In 1861, at the outbreak of the Civil War, George B. McClellan was considered the most promising general in the Union ranks and by training and experience ideally suited for the role of military executive. His subsequent erratic military conduct made him instead the most controversial general of the war. A West Point graduate, ranked second in the class of 1846, he had performed creditably in the Mexican War. His antebellum service was climaxed by an assignment in 1855 to study European military establishments and to observe the Crimean War, which cemented his reputation for military scholarship. He resigned from the army in 1857 to become one of the nation's leading railroad executives.

A month into the Civil War McClellan was appointed major general in the Regular Army and commander of the Department of the Ohio. After efficiently managing a campaign in western Virginia, he was summoned to Washington late in July 1861, following the Bull Run debacle, to take command of the main Union army in the East. Over the next eight months he trained and organized the Army of the Potomac, serving for four of those months as general-in-chief of all the Union armies.

In April 1862 McClellan took the field to direct the largest campaign of the war, an advance against Richmond via the Virginia peninsula. For three months he inched his way cautiously toward the Confederate capital, but in the Seven Days' Battles (June 25-July 1) he was driven into retreat by Robert E. Lee's smaller Army of Northern Virginia. Ordered to evacuate the peninsula in August, McClellan was slow to send reinforcements to the embattled Union forces at Second Bull Run, and Lee was again victorious. When the Confederate army invaded Maryland early in September, President Abraham Lincoln reluctantly turned once again to McClellan, a general stained by defeat but the only general capable of restoring shattered Union morale. On September 17, along Antietam Creek near Sharpsburg, McClellan finally brought Lee to battle. Despite his greatly superior force, McClellan's cautious generalship gained only a draw in the bloodiest single day's fighting of the war. He refused to pursue Lee back into Virginia and was reluctant to renew the campaign in the weeks that followed. On November 5, 1862, Lincoln ordered him relieved of command.

McClellan's failings stemmed from deeply rooted insecurities that led him to clothe reality in delusions--delusions that in battle he was invariably outnumbered, that his government conspired to see him defeated, that he bore no responsibility for his actions. He was a general afflicted with "the slows" (as Lincoln put it), too fearful of losing to risk winning.

During the next eighteen months McClellan, a conservative Democrat, became increasingly involved in political opposition to the Lincoln administration. At their convention in August 1864 the Democrats named him their presidential candidate but saddled him with a peace-at-any-price platform. Although he campaigned as a War Democrat, he could not overcome this handicap and was defeated in November by over 400,000 votes. McClellan did not return to national politics in the postwar years but instead earned a comfortable living as an engineering consultant and traveled widely. His last public service was as governor of New Jersey in 1878-1881.

Bibliography:

Stephen W. Sears, The Civil War Papers of George B. McClellan (1989); Stephen W. Sears, George B. McClellan: The Young Napoleon (1988).

Author:

Stephen W. Sears

See also Civil War; Elections: 1864.