george brinton mcclellan
general
biography
George Brinton McClellan, born in Philadelphia, Dec. 3, 1826, after attending preparatory schools and the University of Pennsylvania, McClellan entered West Point in 1842, graduating second in his class in 1846. As a second lieutenant in the Engineer Corps, he immediately saw service in the Mexican war with General Winfield Scott. As such he was in the victorious campaign against Mexico City and was twice cited for brivets.
After the war, he served as an assistant instructor at West Point and in the Southwest. In 1855, now a captain, McClellan was appointed to a board of officers to study European military systems, observing the siege of Sevastopol in the Crimean War. In this report, McClellan proposed a new type of saddle, later becoming known as the McClellan saddle. He became chief engineer and later vice president of the Illinois Central Railroad and president of the eastern division of the Ohio and Mississippi railroad.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, McCellan accepted a commission as a major general of the Ohio volunteers and commander of Ohio’s forces. Then the national government appointed him a major general in the Regular Army, in command of the Department of Ohio. Troops under his direction cleared western Virginia of Confederates. In July 1861, President Lincoln called McClellan to command the forces around the capital, which he trained into the Army of the Potomac. In November 1861, he became the general in chief of all Federal armies.
During the winter McClellan began to demonstrate traits that aroused impatience in Lincoln; he refused to attack the Confederates at Manassas, insisting he needed a larger army. He consorted with Democratic politicians and opposed emancipation of the slaves, thereby stirring up the Radical Republicans.
McClellan finally met defeat at Bull Run. In the spring and summer of 1862 he led the massive Penninsula campaign against Richmond but, riven by overcaution, forfeited victory. McClellan was not in command when his army suffered the Union's second defeat at Bull Run, but his obsessive caution at the Battle of Antietnam on Sept. 17, 1862, reduced the outcome of that slaughter to a draw. Persuaded that McClellan was a general who wouldn't fight, President Lincoln ordered him relieved of command on November 5.
McClellan's growing opposition to the Lincoln administration led the Democrats to nominate him to run against the president in 1864. An advocate of continuing the war, he was embarrassed by the platform’s call for a cessation of hostilities. He resigned his commission on election day. His campaign crippled by a peace-at-any-price platform, McClellan was soundly defeated in November.
In the postwar years he was a successful engineering consultant and traveled the world. His only civilian public service before his death at 58 was as governor of New Jersey (1878-81).
