George B. McClellan was an American soldier.
Background
George Brinton McClellan was born on December 3, 1826, in Philadelphia. He was the third child and second son of Dr. George McClellan, 1796-1847 and Elizabeth (Brinton) McClellan. The family had come from Scotland to New England early in the eighteenth century. His great-grandfather, Samuel McClellan, served through the Revolutionary War with the Connecticut militia, and reached the grade of brigadier-general. In the Civil War, several members of the family were in service. His younger brother, Arthur, was one of his aides-de-camp; a first cousin, Carswell McClellan, was on the staff of General Humphreys; another first cousin, Henry Brainerd McClellan, was chief of staff to the Confederate generals Stuart and Hampton, and wrote a biography of Stuart.
Career
Joining a company of sappers and miners that was being organized at West Point for service in Mexico, he assisted in training it, and went with it to Matamoros. In January 1847, the company formed part of the column that marched from the Rio Grande to Tampico, and was charged with the road and bridge construction. It then became a part of General Scott's command, landed with the first troops at Vera Cruz, and served throughout his campaign. McClellan at once attracted attention, and was often mentioned in dispatches. He received the brevet rank of first lieutenant for service at Contreras and Churubusco, and of captain for Chapultepec. He returned with his company to West Point in 1848, and for three years served there as assistant instructor in practical military engineering. During this time, he translated the French regulations on the bayonet exercise and adapted them to use in the American service; his regulations were tested in the company, and in 1852, were adopted for the army. He also became an active member of a group of officers formed for the study of military history. In the summer of 1851, he was relieved from duty at West Point and assigned as assistant engineer for the construction of Fort Delaware. In March of the next year, however, he went with the expedition of Capt. R. B. Marcy to explore the sources of the Red River, in Arkansas. This duty was completed in July.
He acted as chief engineer on the staff of Gen. Persifor F. Smith until October, and then took up river and harbor work in Texas. The next spring he was placed in command of an expedition to survey a route for a railway across the Cascade Mountains, which occupied him until the end of the year. His route did not ultimately prove the best; but Jefferson Davis, then secretary of war, was so much pleased with his work that he directed him to continue his study of railways, and report on the practicability of construction on the line selected. This study being completed, Davis sent him to report upon Samana Bay, in Santo Domingo, as a possible naval station. An increase in the regular army was made in 1855, and McClellan was appointed a captain in one of the new regiments of cavalry, resigning his commission as first lieutenant of engineers. He never joined his regiment, for in April 1855 he was detailed as a member of a board of officers to study the European military systems. The board spent a year in Europe, visiting most of the principal countries as well as the theatre of operations in the Crimea. McClellan was to observe particularly the engineers and cavalry, as well as to make a special study of the Russian army at large. The board arrived too late to see much of active operations in the Crimea, but was able to make a very complete study of the siege of Sevastopol. This was adopted. Alterations in the McClellan saddle have been few and slight, and the specifications of 1929 reverted very nearly to his original design. In January 1857, he resigned his commission to become chief engineer of the Illinois Central Railroad. The next year he was made vice-president, in charge of operations in Illinois; and in 1860, he became president of the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad, with his residence in Cincinnati.
At the outbreak of the Civil War his services were sought by both New York and Pennsylvania. He started for Harrisburg to consult with Governor Curtin, but stopped in Columbus to inform Governor Dennison as to conditions in Cincinnati. Here he was tendered appointment as major-general of Ohio Volunteers, with command of all the Ohio forces, militia and volunteer. He accepted, a special act was hastily passed by the legislature, empowering the Governor to appoint to this office one who was not an officer of the militia, and he entered upon his duties the same day, April 23, 1861. By reason of the rioting in Baltimore, mail connection with Washington was uncertain, and states in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys had to act largely on their own initiative. The work of organizing, equipping, and training the troops fell chiefly upon McClellan, under state authority only. On May 13, however, he received appointment (dated May 3) as a major-general in the regular army, and was placed in command of the Department of the Ohio, including the states of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, and later certain portions of western Pennsylvania and Virginia. During this period Grant called upon him, to ask for employment on his staff or with troops. McClellan happened to be absent, and before his return Grant had been offered an Illinois regiment; so the interesting experiment, McClellan in command with Grant as chief of staff, was never tried. McClellan's refusal to support the neutrality of Kentucky, when called upon by Simon B. Buckner to do so, had great influence in keeping that state in the Union. Western Virginia was chiefly Unionist in sentiment. To control this territory for the South, troops from eastern Virginia occupied Grafton, the junction point of the two branches of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. McClellan sent troops, which regained possession of the railways. This action led to further concentrations of troops on both sides and to the campaign of Rich Mountain, in which McClellan personally commanded, and by means of which that region was cleared of Confederate troops and kept in the Union. This success, just before McDowell's defeat at Bull Run, led to McClellan's appointment to command the Division of the Potomac, which included McDowell's department south of the river and Mansfield's in the city of Washington. He reached Washington on July 26, and found the troops in utter confusion. He plunged into his work with great energy, soon brought his command under discipline, and began reorganization and training. Spirit at once improved, and the army gained rapidly, both in strength and in efficiency. In a few months the troops became tired of inactivity and were anxious to take the offensive. McClellan, however, overestimating the strength of the enemy and underrating his own condition, refused to move. Meanwhile, his relations with General Scott became more and more strained. In November, Scott retired and McClellan became general-in-chief in his stead; this led to further delay, while he studied his enlarged problems. The President began to exhibit impatience. Not only did he feel that the army was strong enough for a move, but the financial situation, with the increasingly unfavorable rate of exchange, convinced him that some military risk was preferable to certain bankruptcy.
McClellan's plan was, not to move frontally upon the Confederate force at Manassas, and thence upon Richmond, but to transport his army by water to the lower Rappahannock or to Fortress Monroe, and advance on Richmond from the east. To this Lincoln demurred, fearing that Washington would not be sufficiently protected. Finally, on January 27, 1862, the President issued his General War Order No. 1, prescribing an advance of all the armies on February 22, and on the 31st his Special War Order No. 1, requiring that the move of the Army of the Potomac should be upon Manassas. This brought matters to a head. McClellan again urged his own plan, and Lincoln consented to a move by way of Fortress Monroe, but reluctantly and doubtfully, imposing conditions in regard to the security of Washington. The Confederate force at Manassas was withdrawn to the Rappahannock early in March, somewhat relieving this anxiety. A few days later the Army of the Potomac began embarking at Alexandria. McClellan, having taken the field with it, was relieved as general-in-chief and left only that army, reporting, as did the other independent commanders, direct to the secretary of war. Jackson's activity in the Shenandoah Valley now caused renewed alarm, and McDowell's corps and other troops intended for the expedition were held back for the defense of Washington.
Advancing from Fortress Monroe, McClellan encountered the Confederates at Yorktown and approached the lines there by regular siege operations, which delayed him for a month. He then moved up the Peninsula toward Richmond. Upon his urgent representations that he was outnumbered, McDowell's corps was ordered to march by way of Fredericksburg to join him; but Jackson's renewed activity caused these orders to be countermanded. Finally, over McDowell's protest, the corps was withdrawn from the Army of the Potomac and constituted a separate command. On the Chickahominy there was another long delay. Heavy rains had set in; the streams were up, and the roads almost impassable. The first troops to cross had heavy fighting at Seven Pines and Fair Oaks on May 31 and June 1; a position almost at the gates of Richmond was occupied and entrenched, and work was begun on bridges to bring the rest of the army across. Meanwhile, lingering hopes of McDowell's arrival made McClellan reluctant to relinquish his hold on the left bank of the river, where he expected to effect the junction. Instead of McDowell, Jackson came. Having drawn as many Union troops as possible to the Valley, he had secretly moved his own force out by rail, and come down to join the army at Richmond. Upon his approach, on June 26, Lee launched a powerful attack upon the part of McClellan's army on the left bank of the river, and defeated it at Gaines's Mill. The bridges, just finished and ready to take that wing to the right bank for an attack upon Richmond, had to be used to bring supports across, the other way; and then, the immediate emergency having been met, to take them all back to the right bank, not now for an advance, but for a flank march to the James.
The Confederate pursuit was finally checked at Malvern Hill on July 1, ending the Seven Days' Battles, and the army established itself at Harrison's Landing. McClellan, in his dispatches, attributed his reverses to lack of support from Washington, and insisted, as he had throughout the campaign, that he was outnumbered. He still contemplated a further offensive, south of the James, but he demanded for it a greater reinforcement than the President or Halleck, who became general-in-chief late in July was willing to provide. Finally, on August 3, the Army of the Potomac was ordered withdrawn. McClellan established his headquarters at Alexandria. His troops, as they arrived, were detached from him and assigned to General Pope's Army of Virginia. After Pope's defeat at Manassas, McClellan was again called upon to reorganize the army and prepare the defense of Washington. Orders from General Halleck to this effect reached him on September 1; the next morning the President called upon him in Washington and personally requested him to undertake the task. He immediately rode out to meet Pope, took over the command from him, and went on to join the retreating troops, who received him with enthusiasm. Their spirits rose, and they forgot their defeat. Lee did not pursue in the direction of Washington, but moved toward the upper crossings of the Potomac. McClellan assembled the incoming troops at Rockville and Leesburg, assuming personal command for an advance, although his orders were simply to provide for the defense of Washington. Pending further information of the enemy, he directed his right upon Frederick, and kept his left on the Potomac. On the morning of September 13, he learned, through a copy of one of Lee's orders which fell into his hands, that the Confederates were much scattered. He moved to take advantage of this, but too slowly; Lee succeeded in concentrating, and was able to avoid destruction in the battles of South Mountain and the Antietam. After these battles, McClellan did not press, and Lee accomplished the withdrawal of his army across the Potomac. McClellan did not follow until late in October. Early in the month he had been ordered by Lincoln to give battle, and on October 13, he was asked by the President: "Are you not overcautious when you assume that you cannot do what the enemy is constantly doing?". At Warrenton, on November 7, he received an order to turn over his command to General Burnside and to proceed to Trenton, New Jersey, to await orders. He was never again employed in the field.
In 1863, he prepared a report covering his period of command of the Army of the Potomac. In 1864, he was nominated as the Democratic candidate for the presidency. The country seemed weary of the war, and the leaders of the Democratic party thought they could see an opportunity to win on a platform calling for immediate cessation of hostilities. McClellan seemed the logical candidate. He could be represented as a victim of the injustice of the administration a general who had accomplished much and would have accomplished more if he had been fairly treated. He accepted the nomination, although it placed him in a most embarrassing position; he had always stood for vigorous prosecution of the war, and had recently reaffirmed this attitude in an oration at West Point. In his letter of acceptance he tried to harmonize the inconsistency, but without conspicuous success. On election day he resigned his commission in the army. The returns showed that he had carried only New Jersey, Delaware, and Kentucky, with 21 electoral votes against Lincoln's 212.
The next three years he spent abroad. Upon his return he was placed in charge of construction of a new type of steam war-vessel, designed by Edwin A. Stevens of Hoboken, and being built with money left for that purpose in his will. The funds were exhausted before the ship was completed, and the project was abandoned in 1869. He was invited to become president of the University of California in 1868, and of Union College in 1869, but declined both offers. In 1870, he was appointed chief engineer of the New York City Department of Docks, but resigned in 1872. In 1871, he declined appointment as comptroller of the city. From January 1878 to January 1881, he served as governor of New Jersey. McClellan died of heart trouble, at Orange, New Jersey, October 29, 1885.
Personality
McClellan was slightly under the middle height, but very squarely and powerfully built, with exceptional strength and endurance. His features were regular and pleasing, his hair and moustache red. His tastes were quiet and scholarly. An excellent linguist, he knew and used all the principal languages of western Europe, ancient and modern.
As a soldier, he fell barely short of conspicuous success. He took the best of care of his men and had the happy faculty of inspiring confidence and loyalty. His knowledge and comprehension of military affairs was great, and he was able to select from foreign systems features that were appropriate to the American service, and adapt them to its requirements. His ideas of organization, strategy, and tactics were clear and sound. But he was never satisfied with what he had, nor willing to make the best of an imperfect tool. He could always see wherein he might make improvements, given time; and he took the time, at the expense of losing his opportunities.
He could not be content with a plan that took into account all apparent factors, and trust to the inspiration of the moment to take care of the unforeseen; his plan must be complete. His reasoning powers carried him up to contact with the enemy; at that moment, when an independent will entered the problem, he became hesitating. Knowing accurately his own numbers, and knowing also the weaknesses and defects of his own force, he allowed for these and discounted the numbers. For the enemy's strength, he accepted too readily the estimates of his intelligence service, directed by Allan Pinkerton, and these estimates were usually too high. Further, not knowing the enemy's troubles, he failed to make the discounts. Hence he always believed himself outnumbered, when in fact he always had the superior force. While he had seen much field service, he had never held even the smallest command in war, until he conducted the operations in West Virginia as a major-general. Except for the campaign in Mexico, his only knowledge of warfare was gained at Sevastopol, and the siege technique observed there controlled his action in the Peninsula. In the Antietam campaign he showed that he was beginning to learn to attack. Under a good teacher had there been such a teacher he might have mastered the lesson. He probably came to the supreme command too early. In his Own Story he hints that such was the case. But at the time, possibly through a half recognition of his deficiencies, he expressed the utmost confidence, and always took the attitude that his superiors, through ignorance or jealousy, were not properly supporting him. Thus his successes were only half successes; at the same time, his failures were not disasters. Lee, who should have known, set him down as the best commander who ever faced him.
Quotes from others about the person
"McClellan is to me one of the mysteries of the war. "
