George B. McClellan
U.S. Army officer and general of the Confederate Army
1826 CE to 1885 CE
George Brinton McClellan (December 3, 1826 – October 29, 1885) is a major general during the American Civil War and the Democratic Party candidate for President in 1864.
He organizes the famous Army of the Potomac and serves briefly (November 1861 to March 1862) as the general-in-chief of the Union Army.
Early in the war, McClellan plays an important role in raising a well-trained and organized army for the Union.
Although McClellan is meticulous in his planning and preparations, these characteristics may have hampered his ability to challenge aggressive opponents in a fast-moving battlefield environment.
He chronically overestimates the strength of enemy units and is reluctant to apply principles of mass, frequently leaving large portions of his army unengaged at decisive points.
McClellan's Peninsula Campaign in 1862 ends in failure, with retreats from attacks by General Robert E. Lee's smaller Army of Northern Virginia and an unfulfilled plan to seize the Confederate capital of Richmond.
His performance at the bloody Battle of Antietam blunts Lee's invasion of Maryland, but allows Lee to eke out a precarious tactical draw and avoid destruction, despite being outnumbered.
As a result, McClellan's leadership skills during battles are questioned by President Abraham Lincoln, who eventually removes him from command, first as general-in-chief, then from the Army of the Potomac.
Lincoln offers this famous evaluation of McClellan: "If he can't fight himself, he excels in making others ready to fight."
(McPherson, James M. Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief.
New York: Penguin Press, 2008., p. 122) Indeed, McClellan is the most popular of that army's commanders with its soldiers, who feels that he has their morale and well-being as paramount concerns.
General McClellan also fails to maintain the trust of Lincoln, and proves to be frustratingly derisive of, and insubordinate to, his commander-in-chief.
After he is relieved of command, McClellan becomes the unsuccessful Democratic Party nominee opposing Lincoln in the 1864 presidential election.
The effectiveness of his campaign is damaged when he repudiates his party's anti-war platform, which promises to end the war and negotiate with the Confederacy.
He serves as the 24th Governor of New Jersey from 1878 to 1881.
He eventually becomes a writer, defending his actions during the Peninsula Campaign and the Civil War.
The majority of modern authorities assess McClellan as a poor battlefield general.
However, a small faction of historians maintain that he was a highly capable commander, whose reputation suffered unfairly at the hands of pro-Lincoln partisans who needed a scapegoat for the Union's setbacks.
His legacy therefore defies easy categorization.
After the war, Ulysses S. Grant was asked to evaluate McClellan as a general.
He replied, "McClellan is to me one of the mysteries of the war."
(Rafuse, Ethan S. McClellan's War: The Failure of Moderation in the Struggle for the Union.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005., p. 384)
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Santa Anna formally assumes the Mexican presidency in March 1847.
Scott transports his twelve thousand-man army by sea to a beach south of Veracruz on March 10—11, using it to surround the city by March 15.
Scott orders a combined naval and land attack on March 22; the fortress-city, battered by naval guns, surrenders on March 28.
Scott had marched westward on April 2, 1847, toward Mexico City with eighty-five hundred healthy troops, while Santa Anna had set up a defensive position in a canyon around the main road about fifty miles (eighty kilometers) north-west of Veracruz, near the hamlet of Cerro Gordo.
Santa Anna has entrenched with twelve thousand troops, and artillery that are trained on the road, where he expects Scott to appear.
However, Scott has sent twenty-six hundred mounted dragoons ahead and they reach the pass on April 12.
The Mexican artillery prematurely fires on them and therefore reveal their positions, beginning the Battle of Cerro Gordo.
Although by now aware of the positions of U.S. troops, Santa Anna and his troops are unprepared for the onslaught that follows.
Using a trail found by US engineers, who include Robert E. Lee, George B. McClellan, Joseph E. Johnston and P. G. T. Beauregard (all destined to become generals in the U.S. Civil War), General William J. Worth leads units in an envelopment and ultimate rout of Santa Anna’s forces on April 18.
The U.S. Army suffers four hundred casualties, while the Mexicans suffer over one thousand casualties and three thousand are taken prisoner.
Disease continues to ravage the American ranks.
There is much opposition to Virginia's secession vote from the western counties of the state, which are economically tied closer to western Pennsylvania and Ohio than to eastern Virginia.
Following the secession vote in Richmond in April, John Carlile, a Unionist leader from northwest Virginia, leads a meeting at Clarksburg that calls for a convention to meet at Wheeling the next month for determining what steps "the people of Northwest Virginia should take in the present emergency."
The 1st West Virginia Volunteer Infantry Regiment is also raised the same month as Union infantry, participating in the first battle of the campaign at Philippi.
To organize Union forces in the area, George B. McClellan is appointed commander of the Department of the Ohio, covering Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, western Pennsylvania, and western Virginia.
He gathers several regiments raised in Ohio, Indiana, and western Virginia and moves into Virginia in early May, moving along the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and the Kanawha River.
West Virginia, both before and after it is granted statehood, will raise several infantry, cavalry and artillery regiments throughout the war to fight on the side of the Union.
The Confederates appoint several commanders to organize troops in western Virginia: Colonel George A. Porterfield in northwestern Virginia, and Brigadier Generals John B. Floyd and Henry A. Wise in the Kanawha Valley.
This divided command structure prevents the Confederates from coordinating their response to the Union invasion; in addition, General Robert E. Lee, commander of the Virginia militia forces, will underestimates the strength of Unionist support in western Virginia.
Some of the first hostilities of the American Civil War occur in western Virginia (now the state of West Virginia).
The region has closer ties to Pennsylvania and Ohio than to eastern Virginia and thus is opposed to secession; a pro-Union government will soon be organized and appeal to Lincoln for military protection.
Major General George B. McClellan, commanding the Department of the Ohio, orders troops to march from Grafton and attack the Confederates under Colonel George A. Porterfield.
The skirmish on June 3, 1861, known as the Battle of Philippi, or the "Philippi Races", is the first land battle of the Civil War.
George B. McClellan had moved his divisions from Clarksburg south against Lieutenant Colonel John Pegram's Confederates on June 27, reaching the vicinity of Rich Mountain on July 9.
Meanwhile, Brigadier General Thomas A. Morris's Union brigade has marched from Philippi to confront Brigadier General Robert S. Garnett's command at Laurel Hill.
On July 10–11, Brigadier General William Rosecrans leads a reinforced brigade by a mountain path to seize the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike in Pegram's rear.
A sharp two-hour fight ensues in which the Confederates are split in two.
Half escape to Beverly and on over the Shawnee Trail, but ...
...Pegram and the others (including the "Sydney Boys", a regiment formed from the students of Hampden-Sydney College) surrender on July 13.
Robert Garnett, hearing of Pegram's defeat, abandons Laurel Hill.
The Federals pursue, and, during fighting at Corrick's Ford on the Cheat River on July 13, Garnett is killed; he is the first general officer to be killed in the war.
By later standards the battle is a minor skirmish, often considered a final part of the Battle of Rich Mountain.
McClellan is ordered to Washington on July 22, and Rosecrans assumes command of Union forces in western Virginia.
The Union victory at Rich Mountain is instrumental in propelling McClellan to command of the Army of the Potomac.
Due to his victories in western Virginia, McClellan's reputation quickly grows in the North, where the newspapers call him the "Young Napoleon."
The shock of defeat at Bull Run galvanizes the Union, which calls for five hundred thousand additional recruits.
The defeated General McDowell is replaced on July 24 by Major General George B. McClellan as commander of the Union's Division of the Potomac; McClellan is tasked with forging the army into a competent fighting force.