[106] Third, that historians eager to jump on the bandwagon of Lincoln as America's greatest political icon worked to outdo one another in shifting blame for early military failures from Lincoln and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton to McClellan. McClellan supported continuation of the war and restoration of the Union, but not the abolition of slavery, although the party platform, written by Copperhead leader Clement Vallandigham of Ohio, was opposed to that position. This put him in opposition with officials of the administration who believed he was attempting to implement the policies of the opposition party. You have done your best to sacrifice this army. 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. With the assistance of his father's letter to President John Tyler, McClellan was accepted at the United States Military Academy in 1842 at the age of 15, with the academy waiving its usual minimum age of 16. [110] Camp McClellan, in Davenport, IA, is a former Union Army camp established in August 1861 after the outbreak of the Civil War. A sensational story had reached the press that the expedition had been ambushed by 2,000 Comanches and killed to the last man. Yet there was obvious disappointment that McClellan had not crushed Lee, who was fighting with a smaller army with its back to the Potomac River. Old ladies and men wept for joy, and scores of beautiful ladies waved flags from the balconies of houses upon the street, and their joyousness seemed to overcome every other emotion. George Brinton McClellan was an American soldier, Civil War Union general, civil engineer, railroad executive, and politician who served as the 24th Governor of New Jersey. McClellan was removed from his command of Ohio volunteer armies in less than six months, becoming the Union army's leader. The War Department was reluctant to publish his report because, just after completing it in October 1863, McClellan openly declared his entrance to the political stage as a Democrat. [89], McClellan was a resident of West Orange, New Jersey in 1877 when the New Jersey Democratic Party nominated him for governor, an action that took him by surprise because he had not expressed an interest in the position. In fact, the general-in-chief position was left unfilled. In so doing, he missed three greatly superior passes in the near vicinity, which were eventually used for railroads and interstate highways. It became standard issue for as long as the U.S. horse cavalry existed and is still used for ceremonies. He claimed to have defeated an attempt at vote fraud by Republicans by ordering the delay of a train that was carrying men to vote illegally in another county, enabling Douglas to win the county. Early in the campaign, Confederate General John B. McClellan Fitness Center is a United States Army gym located at Fort Eustis, Virginia near his Peninsula Campaign. [36] McClellan's writings after the war were typical of many Northerners: "I confess to a prejudice in favor of my own race, & can't learn to like the odor of either Billy goats or niggers. [102] His original draft was completed in 1881, but the only copy was destroyed by fire. Early in the war, McClellan played an important role in raising a well-trained and organized army for the Union. Lincoln's Cabinet met on October 18 and agreed to accept Scott's resignation for reasons of health.[41]. 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. "If I save this army now, I tell you plainly I owe no thanks to you or to any other persons in Washington. In 1853, he participated in the Pacific Railroad surveys, ordered by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, to select an appropriate route for the planned transcontinental railroad. [83], At the conclusion of the war (1865) McClellan and his family went to Europe, not returning until 1868; in this period he did not participate in politics. George Brinton McClellan (December 3, 1826 October 29, 1885) was an American soldier, Civil War Union general, civil engineer, railroad executive, and politician who served as the 24th governor of New Jersey. On August 8, believing that the Confederacy had over 100,000 troops facing him (in contrast to the 35,000 they had actually deployed at Bull Run a few weeks earlier), he declared a state of emergency in the capital. : Westholme Publishing, 2015. Instead, his subordinate officers testified, and their candid admissions that they had no knowledge of specific strategies for advancing against the Confederates raised many calls for McClellan's dismissal. In his inaugural address, he said the most urgent matter before the state was relief from the Panic of 1873. In a telegram to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, reporting on these events, McClellan blamed the Lincoln administration for his reversals. See more George B. McClellan George Brinton McClellan (December 3, 1826October 29, 1885) was an American soldier, civil engineer, railroad executive, and politician. Unlike some of his fellow Union officers who came from abolitionist families, he was opposed to federal interference with slavery. (1826-1885) George B. McClellan was a major general in the Union army during the American Civil War (1861-1865). Her father was of English origin, while her mother was Pennsylvania Dutch. [51], McClellan had also placed hopes on a simultaneous naval approach to Richmond via the James River. However, he died before it was half completed and his literary executor, William C. Prime, editor of the pro-McClellan New York Journal of Commerce, included excerpts from some 250 of McClellan's wartime letters to his wife, in which it had been his habit to reveal his innermost feelings and opinions in unbridled fashion. McClellan's army began to sail from Alexandria on March 17. [90], Most likely due to his personal popularity and celebrity, McClellan's inauguration was held outdoors to accommodate the large crowd. In this event, it would not only be in the direction of his plan to make no attack, but it would play into his hands that his opponent should accumulate his forces on the Peninsula. [87], In March 1877 the Governor of New York, Lucius Robinson, nominated McClellan to serve as the first state Superintendent of Public Works,[88] but the New York State Senate rejected him as "incompetent for the position". It was a scene which no one could forgetan event of a lifetime. George Brinton McClellan was born into an elite Philadelphia family on December 3, 1826. The stubborn Confederate defenses gave Lee enough time to concentrate many of his men at Sharpsburg, Maryland. [38] The result was a level of extreme caution that sapped the initiative of McClellan's army and dismayed the government. As Lee recounted, McClellan was attempting to make "this a battle of posts" which would lock the Confederate army in an attritional battle with superior Union firepower. 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. 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. George McClellan was a U.S. Army engineer, railroad president and politician who served as a major general during the Civil War. 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. George B. McClellan. McClellan continued to believe intelligence reports that credited the Confederates with two or three times the men they actually had. [44], On January 10, 1862, Lincoln met with top generals (McClellan did not attend) and directed them to formulate a plan of attack, expressing his exasperation with General McClellan with the following remark: "If General McClellan does not want to use the army, I would like to borrow it for a time. The General had his head uncovered, and received gracefully the salutations of the people. Admirable self-denial! Despite being a tactical draw, Antietam is considered a turning point of the war and a victory for the Union because it ended Lee's strategic campaign (his first invasion of the North) and it allowed President Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, taking effect on January 1, 1863. [16], Returning to the East, McClellan began courting his future wife, Mary Ellen Marcy (18361915), the daughter of his former commander. But he made no secret of his opposition to the Radical Republicans. george brinton mcclellan (december 3, 1826 - october 29, 1885) was an american soldier, civil war union general, civil engineer, railroad executive, and politician who served as the 24th governor of new jersey.a graduate of west point, mcclellan served with distinction during the mexican-american war (1846- 1848), and later left the army to serve [20], Before the outbreak of the Civil War, McClellan became active in politics, supporting the presidential campaign of Democrat Stephen A. Douglas in the 1860 election. Scott rejected both plans as logistically unfeasible. [3] His mother was Elizabeth Sophia Steinmetz Brinton McClellan (18001889), daughter of a leading Pennsylvania family, a woman noted for her "considerable grace and refinement." This plan, which would require considerable patience of the Northern public, was derided in newspapers as the Anaconda Plan, but eventually proved to be the outline of the successful prosecution of the war. [113], 1864 Democratic National Convention:[114], New Jersey gubernatorial election, 1877:[115], "George McClellan" redirects here. By delaying the Union army for almost a month, the Confederates had obtained valuable time to assemble and organize the forces that eventually beat McClellan back from the gates of Richmond and thwarted the Union's Peninsula Campaign. [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. [30], Carl Sandburg wrote, "McClellan was the man of the hour, pointed to by events, and chosen by an overwhelming weight of public and private opinion. In December, the Congress formed a Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, which became a thorn in the side of many generals throughout the war, accusing them of incompetence and, in some cases, treason. [1], Because of his political connections and his mastery of French, McClellan received the assignment to be an official observer of the European armies in the Crimean War in 1855. The Union defeat at the minor Battle of Ball's Bluff near Leesburg in October added to the frustration and indirectly damaged McClellan. In June 1862, Union soldiers could spot the steeples of Richmond off to the distance. Randolph B. Marcy at Fort Smith, Arkansas, to serve as second-in-command on an expedition to discover the sources of the Red River. McClellan selected Yakima Pass (.mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}472011N 1212557W / 47.3365N 121.4324W / 47.3365; -121.4324) without a thorough reconnaissance and refused the governor's order to lead a party through it in winter conditions, relying on faulty intelligence about the depth of snowpack in that area. In doing so, Lee had assumed that the Union army would withdraw to the east toward its existing supply base and McClellan's move to the south delayed Lee's response for at least 24 hours. He sought the position of Secretary of War in Cleveland's cabinet, but Senator John R. McPherson, who had opposed McClellan for governor in 1877, succeeded in blocking his nomination. [9] He was commissioned a brevet second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. His closest friends were aristocratic southerners including George Pickett, Dabney Maury, Cadmus Wilcox, and A. P. Hill. I have never witnessed such a scene. Thank you." Well, one of these days history will I trust do me justice. McClellan immediately replied with a 22-page letter objecting in detail to the president's plan and advocating instead his Urbanna plan, which was the first written instance of the plan's details being presented to the president. Bouquets, beautiful and fragrant, in great numbers were thrown at him, and the ladies crowded around him with the warmest good wishes, and many of them were entirely overcome with emotion. By June the expedition reached the source of the north fork of the river and Marcy named a small tributary McClellan's Creek. This placed him in great demand as the Union mobilized. George B. McClellan, Ambrose Powell Hill, Darius Nash Couch, George Edward Pickett, Cadmus Marcellus Wilcox, and George Stoneman. When he discovered that the Confederates had fortified a line across the Peninsula he hesitated to attack and instead played it safe. General McClellan and President Abraham Lincoln developed a mutual distrust, and McClellan was privately derisive of Lincoln. Lincoln, Stanton, and a group of officers who formed the "War Board" directed the strategic actions of the Union armies that spring. 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. McClellan's plan for a rapid seizure of Yorktown was foiled by the removal of 1st Corps from the Army of the Potomac for the defense of Washington. Peninsula Campaign. Back in Washington, a reorganization of units created the Army of Virginia under Maj. Gen. John Pope, who was directed to advance toward Richmond from the northeast. On May 31, as McClellan planned an assault, his army was surprised by a Confederate attack. Bailey, Ronald H., and the Editors of Time-Life Books. George Brinton Mcclellan Jr, McClellan, George B. McClellan, George B. He accomplished this by marching small groups of men repeatedly past places where they could be observed at a distance or were just out of sight, accompanied by great noise and fanfare. That approach failed following the Union Navy's defeat at the Battle of Drewry's Bluff, about 7 miles (11km) downstream from the Confederate capital, on May 15. Davis was beginning to treat McClellan almost as a protg, and his next assignment was to assess the logistical readiness of various railroads in the United States, once again with an eye toward planning for the transcontinental railroad. 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. He created a false impression of many troops behind the lines and of even more troops arriving. He served as the 24th Governor of New Jersey from 1878 to 1881; he eventually became a writer, and vigorously defended his Civil War conduct. In doing so, he demonstrated a tendency for insubordination toward senior political figures. [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. Ohio Governor William Dennison was the most persistent, so McClellan was commissioned a major general of volunteers and took command of the Ohio militia on April 23, 1861. He graduating second in his class of 59 in 1846. [90], McClellan also applied his military experience to improve the discipline, organization, and armament of the New Jersey National Guard. In the fall of 1852, McClellan published a manual on bayonet tactics that he had translated from the original French. Despite his successes and lucrative salary ($10,000 per year), he was frustrated with civilian employment and continued to study classical military strategy assiduously. With the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861, northern civilian leaders encouraged McClellan to re-enter federal military service. The day before, at the Battle of Antietam, Lee's force had engaged in the bloodiest one-day battle of the Civil War against the army of General George B. McClellan. [68], Meanwhile, Union soldiers accidentally found a copy of Lee's orders dividing his army, wrapped around a package of cigars in an abandoned camp. This was a risky move for a smaller army, but Lee was counting on his knowledge of McClellan's temperament. For other people with the same name, see, "Little Napoleon" redirects here. 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