George McClellan was a Union general during the American Civil War and one of the most controversial military figures in American history. He is best remembered for building the Army of the Potomac into a powerful and well-organized fighting force, but also for being too cautious and slow to attack the Confederate army. President Abraham Lincoln removed him from command twice because of this. McClellan later ran against Lincoln for president in the 1864 election and lost badly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
George Brinton McClellan was born on December 3rd, 1826 CE in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His family was well-off and he was a very strong student from a young age. He entered the United States Military Academy at West Point at the age of fifteen, which was younger than the usual age requirement of sixteen. He graduated second in his class in 1846 CE and went on to serve in the Mexican-American War under General Winfield Scott. He did well in that war and earned two promotions for bravery. After the war he returned to West Point as an instructor. In 1855 CE he was sent to Europe to study the Crimean War, which was a major conflict being fought in Russia at the time. He later left the army and worked as an engineer and president of a railroad company. As such, McClellan came to the Civil War with strong military training and experience but had spent several years away from active army service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the Civil War broke out in April of 1861 CE, McClellan was quickly brought back into the army. President Abraham Lincoln made him a major general and sent him to western Virginia, where he helped keep the region loyal to the Union. This area later became the state of West Virginia. After the Union army suffered a bad defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run in July of 1861 CE, Lincoln called McClellan to Washington to take command of the main Union army in the east. McClellan took on the job with great energy. He was an excellent organizer and worked very hard to turn the beaten and low-morale soldiers into a strong, well-trained army. He named this force the Army of the Potomac. The soldiers loved him. They called him Little Mac and cheered loudly whenever he rode past. He gave them smart uniforms, proper equipment and regular training. By the end of 1861 CE, the Army of the Potomac had become one of the best-organized armies in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The problem was that McClellan would not use it. Month after month he found reasons not to attack the Confederate army. He kept telling Lincoln and the government that his army was not ready and that he needed more men and more time. Lincoln grew more and more frustrated. He famously said of McClellan: “If he can’t fight himself, he excels in making others ready to fight.” In November of 1861 CE, Lincoln made McClellan General-in-Chief of all Union armies. But McClellan still refused to move. As such, his great skill at building an army was being wasted because he would not send it into battle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the spring of 1862 CE, under growing pressure from Lincoln, McClellan finally launched a major campaign. He came up with a plan to move the Army of the Potomac by ship to the Virginia Peninsula, the strip of land between the York and James Rivers southeast of Richmond. From there he planned to march up the peninsula and capture Richmond, the Confederate capital. The plan was bold and creative. He moved more than 120,000 men onto the peninsula and pushed toward Richmond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The campaign started well but soon ran into trouble. McClellan kept believing he was outnumbered, even though he actually had more soldiers than the Confederates facing him. He moved slowly and kept asking Lincoln for more men before he would attack. When Confederate General Robert E. Lee took command of the Confederate forces defending Richmond in June of 1862 CE, he went on the attack himself. Lee launched a series of aggressive attacks in the Seven Days’ Battles from June 25th to July 1st, 1862 CE. McClellan retreated all the way back to the James River. His army had come within a few miles of Richmond but had failed to take it. Lincoln ordered the army back to Washington. The Peninsula Campaign was a failure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the Peninsula Campaign, McClellan was briefly set aside while another general, John Pope, took command. Pope was beaten badly by Lee at the Second Battle of Bull Run in late August of 1862 CE. With Union forces in chaos, Lincoln turned back to McClellan to take charge and restore order. McClellan did this quickly and well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In September of 1862 CE, Lee invaded Maryland, taking the war into Northern territory for the first time. McClellan marched his army north to stop him. On September 13th, McClellan’s soldiers made an extraordinary discovery. They found a copy of Lee’s battle plans wrapped around some cigars in a field. McClellan now knew exactly where Lee’s army was and how it was split up. He had a rare chance to destroy the Confederate army piece by piece. He moved to attack but did so more slowly than the situation demanded, giving Lee time to bring his forces back together. The two sides met at the Battle of Antietam on September 17th, 1862 CE. It was the single bloodiest day of the entire Civil War. Both sides suffered very heavy losses. Lee’s army was badly hurt. But McClellan did not attack again the next day, even though he had more men and Lee was in a very weak position. Lee pulled his army back to Virginia and escaped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The battle was called a Union victory because Lee’s invasion of the North had been stopped. Lincoln used the outcome to announce the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared enslaved people in Confederate states to be free. However, Lincoln was furious that McClellan had let Lee get away. He kept urging McClellan to chase Lee and finish the job. McClellan said his army was too tired and needed rest. Lincoln lost patience. In November of 1862 CE, he removed McClellan from command for the last time. McClellan was sent to New Jersey to wait for orders that never came.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the next two years, McClellan had no military role. While he waited, the Democratic Party chose him as their candidate for president in the 1864 election. They wanted to run him against Abraham Lincoln. Many in the party, known as Peace Democrats, wanted to stop the war immediately and negotiate a deal with the Confederacy. McClellan himself was a War Democrat who believed the war should continue until the Union was saved. He did not agree with his own party’s platform, which called the war a failure. This made his campaign very confusing. He was fighting against his own party’s message at the same time as he was fighting against Lincoln.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The election took place in November of 1864 CE. By that time, Union armies had just captured Atlanta and the war was going much better for the North. Most people now believed the Union would win. Lincoln won the election easily, defeating McClellan 212 electoral votes to 21. McClellan resigned his army commission on election day and soon moved to Europe with his family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
McClellan returned to the United States in 1868 CE and went back to work as an engineer. He was elected Governor of New Jersey in 1877 CE and served one term until 1881 CE. He spent his later years writing his memoirs and defending his actions during the war. He died of heart failure on October 29th, 1885 CE in New Jersey at the age of fifty-eight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
George McClellan is one of the most debated figures in the history of the Civil War. His supporters point out that he built the Army of the Potomac from nothing and gave it the organization and spirit that made it a powerful fighting force for the rest of the war. His critics point to his slowness, his failure to destroy Lee’s army at Antietam and his poor relationship with Lincoln. For instance, Lincoln once said that McClellan had “the slows” as a way of describing how unwilling the general was to attack. Regardless, McClellan played a major part in the early history of the Civil War and his story is an important one for understanding how the war was fought and led.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
George McClellan was a Union general during the American Civil War best remembered for building the Army of the Potomac and for being too cautious to use it effectively, leading President Lincoln to remove him from command twice. This article details the life and significance of George McClellan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,58,100],"tags":[89,57,18,15],"class_list":["post-9405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-civil-war","category-american-history","category-biography","tag-american-civil-war","tag-american-history","tag-biography","tag-history"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9405"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9716,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9405\/revisions\/9716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}