During the summer and fall, McClellan brought a high degree of organization to his new army, and greatly improved its morale with frequent trips to review and encourage his units. McClellan's son, George B. McClellan Jr. (18651940), was born in Dresden in the Kingdom of Saxony during the family's first trip to Europe. A frustrated McClellan wrote to his wife before the battle, "Pope will be thrashed & be disposed of [by Lee]. [32] He reveled in his newly acquired power and influence:[30]. By August 19, he estimated 150,000 rebel soldiers on his front. He wrote a letter to Gen. Scott on April 27, four days after assuming command in Ohio, that presented the first proposal for a strategy for the war. Peninsula Campaign. The number of men McClellan was actually faced varies, with Joseph Harsh in Confederate Tide Rising placing Lee's army at 112,220 men compared with the 105,857 under McClellan. Glendale and Malvern Hill found him at the peak of his anguish during the Seven Days, and he fled those fields to escape the responsibility. MG George B. McClellan (1861-1862) MG Henry W. Halleck (1862-1864) . McClellan organized and led the Union army in the Peninsula Campaign in southeastern Virginia from March through July 1862. [84] Prior to his return in September 1868, the Democratic Party had expressed some interest in nominating him for president again, but Ulysses S. Grant became the Republican candidate in May 1868, and this interest died. George B. McClellan, Ambrose Powell Hill, Darius Nash Couch, George Edward Pickett, Cadmus Marcellus Wilcox, and George Stoneman. Ellen accepted Hill's proposal in 1856, but her family did not approve and he withdrew. Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the U.S. Confederate States presidential election of 1861, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=George_B._McClellan&oldid=1133191257, American military personnel of the MexicanAmerican War, Democratic Party (United States) presidential nominees, New York State Superintendents of Public Works, People of New Jersey in the American Civil War, Candidates in the 1864 United States presidential election, Commanding Generals of the United States Army, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles needing additional references from November 2021, All articles needing additional references, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. Even as they served their country, Black soldiers were subject to a number of discriminations. An English observer remarked that it was the "stride of a giant." However . Admirable self-denial! However, historians note that Lee's victory was in many ways pyrrhic as he failed to destroy the Army of the Potomac and suffered a bloody repulse at Malvern Hill. "[45] On January 12, 1862, McClellan was summoned to the White House, where the Cabinet demanded to hear his war plans. He had received intelligence reports on May 26 that the critical Baltimore and Ohio Railroad bridges in that portion of the state were being burned. McClellan revised his plans to have his troops disembark at Fort Monroe, Virginia, and advance up the Virginia Peninsula to Richmond, an operation that would be known as the Peninsula Campaign. He began to write another draft of what would be published posthumously, in 1887, as McClellan's Own Story. "George Brinton McClellan." "[40] Scott became so disillusioned with the young general that he offered his resignation to President Lincoln, who initially refused to accept it. Johnston saw that the Union army was split in half by the rain-swollen Chickahominy River and hoped to defeat it in detail at Seven Pines and Fair Oaks. Ellen, or Nelly, refused McClellan's first proposal of marriage, one of nine that she received from a variety of suitors, including his West Point friend, A. P. Hill. George McClellan was a U.S. Army engineer, railroad president and politician who served as a major general during the Civil War. Was general george b mcclellan union or confederate? With the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861, northern civilian leaders encouraged McClellan to re-enter federal military service. [74], The Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862, was the single bloodiest day in American military history. These include Fort McClellan in Alabama, McClellan Butte and McClellan Peak in the state of Washington, where he traveled while conducting the Pacific Railroad Survey in 1853, and a bronze equestrian statue honoring General McClellan in Washington, D.C. Another equestrian statue honors him in front of Philadelphia City Hall, while the McClellan Gate at Arlington National Cemetery is dedicated to him and displays his name. Beginning in 1872, he also served as the president of the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad. Despite significant advantages in manpower, McClellan was unable to concentrate his forces effectively, which meant that Lee was able to shift his defenders to parry each of three Union thrusts, launched separately and sequentially against the Confederate left, center, and finally the right. [109], Several geographic features and establishments have been named for George B. McClellan. Such a villain as he is ought to bring defeat upon any cause that employs him. Upon graduation, George McClellan was appointed 2nd Lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers. The governors of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York, the three largest states of the Union, actively pursued him to command their states' militia. [90], In addition to tax reduction, McClellan's economic agenda included the institution of a Bureau of Statistics of Labor and Industries and the creation of an agricultural experiment station to modernize growing and farming practices. As Swinton notes "It is possible, howeverand there is a considerable volume of evidence bearing upon this pointthat General McClellan, during all the earlier portion of the month before Yorktown, had it in his mind, even without McDowell's corps, to undertake the decisive turning movement by the north side of the York. It was a remarkable achievement, in which he came to personify the Army of the Potomac and reaped the adulation of his men. George Brinton Mcclellan Jr, McClellan, George B. McClellan, George B. [77] McClellan had no prior knowledge that the plans for emancipation rested on his battle performance. McClellan had hoped to use the 1st Corps to capture Glouchester Point and thus outflank the Confederate position. [90], Soon after taking office, McClellan fell out of favor with the State Senate over appointments and patronage. This caused him to decide on a siege of the city, which required considerable preparation. The surprise appearance of Maj. Gen. Stonewall Jackson's troops in the battle (when they had last been reported to be many miles away in the Shenandoah Valley) convinced McClellan that he was even more outnumbered than he had thought. He also wrote a manual on cavalry tactics that was based on Russian cavalry regulations. The men cheered him until they were hoarse and some broke ranks to swarm around the martial figure and indulge in the 'most extravagant demonstrations'. On January 31, he issued a supplementary order for the Army of the Potomac to move overland to attack the Confederates at Manassas Junction and Centreville. McClellan won the election by a large majority and Democrats gained a majority in both houses of the New Jersey legislature for the first time since 1870. George B. McClellan was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on December 3, 1826. . He marched toward Maryland with six of his reorganized corps. [90], Most likely due to his personal popularity and celebrity, McClellan's inauguration was held outdoors to accommodate the large crowd. For the Confederate general sometimes known as Little Napoleon, see, Thorp, Gene (September 7. [103], Robert E. Lee, on being asked (by his cousin, and recorded by his son) who was the ablest general on the Union side during the late war, replied emphatically: "McClellan, by all odds! "[31] On July 26, the day he reached the capital, McClellan was appointed commander of the Military Division of the Potomac, the main Union force responsible for the defense of Washington. The stubborn Confederate defenses gave Lee enough time to concentrate many of his men at Sharpsburg, Maryland. [1] He performed reconnaissance missions for Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott, a close friend of McClellan's father. The controversy was not that his proclamation was diametrically opposed to the administration's policy at the time, but that he was so bold in stepping beyond his strictly military role. This was a risky move for a smaller army, but Lee was counting on his knowledge of McClellan's temperament. There is no man in the Army who can man these fortifications and lick these troops of ours into shape half as well as he. Although Lincoln believed his plan was superior, he was relieved that McClellan finally agreed to begin moving, and reluctantly approved. Steven R. Stotelmyer in Too Useful to Sacrifice places it at about 60,000 men, noting that the 87,000 number includes non-combat soldiers and units not immediately available. Basing artillery on a strategic bluff high above a bend in the river, and sinking boats to create an impassable series of obstacles in the river itself, the Confederates effectively blocked this potential approach to Richmond. To that end, he advocated for cautious spending to allow for a state tax cut of fifty percent; by the end of McClellan's term, the state tax on residents was abolished entirely. He proposed that his army should be expanded to 273,000 men and 600 guns and "crush the rebels in one campaign". In so doing, he missed three greatly superior passes in the near vicinity, which were eventually used for railroads and interstate highways. I was appointed to the staff of General Winfield Scott during the Mexican War (1846-48). George B. McClellan was a prominent nineteenth-century American military and political leader. McClellan was unable to command the army personally because of a recurrence of malarial fever, but his subordinates were able to repel the attacks. General McClellan and President Abraham Lincoln developed a mutual distrust, and McClellan was privately derisive of Lincoln. George B. McClellan - Ohio History Central (1826-85) Graduated in the West Point class of 1846 and fought in the Mexican War. Numbers vary as to the size of McClellan's force with its paper strength at 87,164. The Battle of Williamsburg on May 5 is considered a Union victoryMcClellan's firstbut the Confederate army was not destroyed and most of their troops were successfully moved past Williamsburg to Richmond's outer defenses while the battle was waged and for several days thereafter. [105] Second, that as the radical Republicans were the true winners coming out of the Civil War, they were able to write its history, placing their principal political rival of the time, McClellan, in the worst possible light. It was a scene which no one could forgetan event of a lifetime. Lincoln won the election handily, with 212 Electoral College votes to 21, and a popular vote of 2,218,388 to 1,812,807 or 55% to 45%. A brilliant engineer and a great organizer, McClellan created the Army of the Potomac, the Union's . For the first time, he revealed his intentions to transport the Army of the Potomac by ship to Urbanna, Virginia, on the Rappahannock River, outflanking the Confederate forces near Washington, and proceeding 50 miles (80km) overland to capture Richmond. Randolph B. Marcy at Fort Smith, Arkansas, to serve as second-in-command on an expedition to discover the sources of the Red River. I almost think that were I to win some small success now I could become Dictator or anything else that might please mebut nothing of that kind would please metherefore I won't be Dictator. He traveled by special train on the main Pennsylvania line from Wheeling through Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, and on to Washington City, and was greeted by enthusiastic crowds that met his train along the way. Had the Army of the Potomac been wrecked on either of these fields (at Glendale the possibility had been real), that charge under the Articles of War would likely have been brought against him. "[63] Lee had gambled on removing significant units from the Peninsula to attack Pope, who was beaten decisively at Second Bull Run in August. Congress's joint committee visited the abandoned Confederate lines and radical Republicans introduced a resolution demanding the dismissal of McClellan, but it was narrowly defeated by a parliamentary maneuver. It was an armada that dwarfed all previous American expeditions, transporting 121,500 men, 44 artillery batteries, 1,150 wagons, over 15,000 horses, and tons of equipment and supplies. Despite his successes and lucrative salary ($10,000 per year), he was frustrated with civilian employment and continued to study classical military strategy assiduously. About 10 miles away from the capitol of the Confederacy, George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac was within striking distance of ending the year old Civil War. In fact, the general-in-chief position was left unfilled. I attended the University of Pennsylvania and then went on to study at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. 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