General McClellan
George McClellan joined West Point in 1842 and graduated 2nd in his class of 59 in 1846. He was commissioned as a brevet second lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers under Winfield Scott and helped build bridges and roads in the Mexican War. He returned to West Point after the war and assisted in the translation of a French bayonet manual. He helped as an engineer at Fort Delaware, explored possible routs for the transcontinental railroad, and served as a military observer for the Crimean War. In 1857, he resigned from the army for the railroad. When the war broke out, the governor of Ohio, William Dennison swiftly appointed him major general of volunteers, and Lincoln appointed him major general in the regular army (a more permanent rank that stays after the war is over), leaving Winfield Scott his only superior officer. He quickly began work helping Kentucky not secede from the union and commanding a campaign in West Virginia. His victories contrasted against McDowall’s failure at Bull Run Helped him secure the seat as commander of the Army of the Potomac. He developed the nicknames, “Little Mac,” and “The Young Napoleon,” being an efficient organizer of the Army of the Potomac, and later General-in-Chief of northern armies after Scott’s forced retirement in November 1861. He was revered by his men despite resentment from politicians and other generals. However, in his battlefield, he was ever conscious of the “vastly superior,” resources of his enemy. He did not hold the title general-in-chief long, removed in the spring of 1862, and pressured by Washington and Lincoln, set about his Peninsula Campaign with the Army of the Potomac that he still commanded. The army traveled by boat to the Virginia Peninsula, and then they attempted to trek up to Richmond. He was sluggish and allowed Joseph E Johnston to constantly fall back to better defenses, blaming Washington all the while for insufficient resources. Seven Pines switched the command from Johnston to Lee, further inconveniencing and battering at him during the Seven Day’s Battles. He then retreated back to Washington and was replaced by John Pope. Following Pope’s failure, Lincoln reluctantly restored the sluggish and uncooperative McClellan to command. During Lee’s subsequent campaign, McClellan obtained a detailed plan of Lee’s operation, and moved (still slowly) to destroy him. But once again he misused his army and was conscious of Confederate phantoms at Antietam, creating the bloodiest single day of the war, and a stalemate. Lincoln visited him with his frustration that he did not capitalize on this perceived success, and he was removed from command again, never to receive further orders or commands to the end of the war. He resigned his commission on election day of his anti-war presidential campaign against Lincoln in 1864, which he lost.
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