Why was McClellan not an effective military commander?

Answer 1

It would be easy to list the reasons why most historians and people in the North who were loyal to President Lincoln, believed that Union General George B. McClellan was an ineffective commanding officer. Yet by doing so, a problem appears immediately. To which Union leading general is McClellan to be compared to? Remembering the McClellan was general in chief as well as a commander of only one army large as the Army of the Potomac was, when not holding the general in chief position, only US General US Grant appears on the radar screen. If other top Union commanders had been successful, such as generals like Philip Sheridan, George Meade, Joseph Hooker, Ambrose Burnside, John Pope and Henry Halleck, it's quite possible that General Grant would have never had the chance to display his own military credentials on a national scale. Here the discussion is among Union Generals in charge of huge Union armies, before Lincoln came upon Grant. Perhaps William T. Sherman can be mentioned, however his talents are rated he served under Grant. Historians do not seem to play an "what if" game if Sherman had commanded the Army of the Potomac or was the Union general in chief.To not ignore the obvious, yes McClellan was slow to act, was never considered to be a great field general, and caused his own problems by always over estimated the South's strength. These faults are well noted.

With that said, what needs to be called to attention to are characteristics, no Union commander had compared to McClellan. No Union general has been claimed to be a better organizer of raw troops, nor better at overall military operations. Nor has any Union general, once again speaking on a large scale, had the loyalty of troops and officers that McClellan had.

This does not excuse McClellan from his faults. However, if we look at each major battle of the Civil War, look at it in detail, we will see Union generals that sacrificed the lives of their troops and had significant failures.

McClellan stands out because of the unused talents he had. It also cannot be ignored that his views on the war, and his politics play a major role in the manner by which his critics fault him.

Since the primary player in the Union's military effort was Abraham Lincoln, with no malice intended, he is where the "buck stops" in an awkward reference to US President Harry S. Truman's famous slogan.