McClellan, GEORGE Brinton

McClellan, GEORGE Brinton, an American general, was born at Philadelphia, 3d December 1826, graduated at West Point with 'Stonewall' Jackson and others in 1846, and served with the engineers through the Mexican war, where repeated gallantry in action gained him a captain's brevet. He was afterwards employed as an instructor at West Point and on engineer duty in Texas, Oregon, and Washington, and in 1855 was one of three American officers sent to observe the campaign in the Crimea. In 1857 he resigned his commission, and engaged in railroad business until the outbreak of the civil war in 1861. In April he was appointed major-general of Ohio volunteers, and in May a major-general in the United States army. By the middle of July he had driven the enemy out of West Virginia, which entered the Union as a separate state the year after. McClellan was now called to Washington to reorganise the Army of the Potomac, which was made up of either raw recruits or regiments fresh from the defeat at Bull Run; of these he received the command in August, and in November he was made commander-in-chief. But the authorities at Washington were too nervous to rest content with so slow and careful an organiser as McClellan; and when, in April 1862, he landed at Old Point Comfort, for the invasion of Virginia by the peninsula of the James River, he had already been deprived of the command-in-chief. His peninsular campaign lasted till July, and ended disastrously, partly from want of support, and partly from over-caution. He advanced near to Richmond, but was compelled to retreat, fighting the 'seven days' battles' (June 25 to July 1) as he did so, and finally to evacuate the peninsula. He was now relieved of his command; but after the disastrous second battle of Bull Run (August 29-30), which was followed by a Confederate invasion of Maryland, he reorganised the army at Washington, marched rapidly north, met the forces of General Lee at Antietam (q.v.), and compelled him to recross the Potomac. This short campaign was McClellan's most brilliant achievement, but he undoubtedly failed to pursue his advantage as rapidly as he should. He followed the Confederates into Virginia, but with too great deliberation for the taste of the impatient cabinet, and in November he was superseded by General Burnside (q.v.). Here his share in the war ended. In 1864 he resigned his commission, and unsuccessfully opposed Lincoln for the presidency (see p. 640). He was then in Europe till 1868, and in 1877 was elected governor of New Jersey. He died at Orange, New Jersey, 29th October 1885. McClellan was the idol of his soldiers, and deserved their love by his care for them; but his caution in the field was excessive, and he was slow in preparing fresh plans or in meeting unexpected combinations. See his Report on the Organisation and Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac (1864); and McClellan's Own Story, edited by W. C. Prine (1886).