General George B. McClellan
Summarized
by D. A. Sharpe
George Brinton McClellan is my sixth cousin, once removed. Our
common ancestors are through Plymouth
Colony Governor William Bradford and his second wife, Alice Carpenter
Southworth Bradford, his sixth great grandparents. They are my seventh great
grandparents.
The reader might recall the infamous
military character, Major General George Armstrong Custer of "Custer's Last Stand." Custer was a contradiction in terms. Brilliant in battle though he was
(expect for his last one), he was last in his class at West Point Academy. He was court martialed for a minor
dereliction of duty, but the need for officers was so pressing when the War
Between the States broke out, that this infraction was somehow overlooked. He served the North in many brilliant
ways, including being an Ade to General George B. McClellan!
Source: ÒWebsterÕs American
Biographies," Charles Van Doren, Editor, Merriam-Webster Inc., Publishers,
1984, pages 245-246
"George Brinton McClellan was a
major general (and briefly the general-in-chief of the Union Army on November
5, 1861 - March 11,1862) during the American War Between the States. Trained at
the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, he served under General Winfield Scott in the Mexican War. In 1857, he left the military to
work with railroads, but rejoined the U.S. Army in 1861 as the Civil War
erupted."
"General McClellan also seemed
never to grasp that he needed to maintain the trust of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, and proved to be frustratingly insubordinate to the
commander-in-chief. After he was relieved of command, McClellan became the
unsuccessful Democratic nominee opposing Lincoln in the 1864 presidential
election.
"After the War, he later was
elected as a Governor of New Jersey, headed a railroad, and became a writer in
his later years. Much of his writing was in defense of his actions during the
Peninsula Campaign and the early part of the Civil War."
Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_McClellan
A stinging hot condemnation of
George McClellan is seen in Ann Coulter's best seller, "Godless: The Church of Liberalism."
"Perhaps the Democrats should
resuscitate George McClellan as the original anti-war combat veteran of their
party. McClellan was appointed
commander of the Union Army by President Abraham Lincoln. But he was constantly
carping about the war -- he complained it was being fought against slavery,
instead of against the Confederate Army. McClellan repeatedly refused to go on
the attack, saying Lincoln hadn't planned or provided the Union Army with
sufficient armor. Finally, Lincoln fired McClellan in a letter that read, 'My
dear McClellan: If you don't
want to use the Army, I should like to borrow it for a while. In 1864, McClellan ran against
Lincoln as an anti-war Democrat. Lincoln
faced huge internal opposition within the Union from people who didn't care
about slavery, and had grown weary of the war. Should people have backed McClellan
over Lincoln because of McClellan's demonstrably superior military service? He would have allowed the dissolution
of the Union and the continuation of slavery. But who could speak with greater
certainty of the honors of war than General George McClellan?"
Source: Coulter, Ann, "Godless: The Church of Liberalism,"
published by Crown Forum, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division
of Random House, Inc., New York, www.crownpublishing.com, 2006, ISBM10:
-4000-5420-6, ISBN 13: 978-1-4000-5420-6, page 138
"After the war, McClellan and
his family departed for a lengthy trip to Europe (from 1865 to 1868), during
which he did not participate in politics. When he returned, the Democratic
Party expressed some interest in nominating him for president again, but when
it became clear that Ulysses S. Grant would be the Republican candidate, this
interest died. McClellan worked on engineering projects in New York City and
was offered the position of president of the newly formed University of
California.
"McClellan was appointed chief
engineer of the New York City Department of Docks in 1870. Evidently the position did not demand his
full-time attention, because, starting in 1872, he also served as the president
of the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad. He and his family returned to
Europe from 1873 to 1875.
"In 1877, McClellan was
nominated by the Democrats for Governor of New Jersey, an action that took him
by surprise, because he had not expressed an interest in the position. He was
elected, and served a single term from 1878 to 1881, a tenure marked by
careful, conservative executive management, and minimal political rancor. The
concluding chapter of his political career was his strong support in1884 for
the election of Grover Cleveland. He hoped to be named secretary of war in
Cleveland's cabinet, a position for which he was well suited, but political
rivals from New Jersey wer blocked his nomination.
"McClellan's final years were
devoted to traveling and writing. He justified his military career in "McClellan's Own Story," published posthumously in 1887. He died
unexpectedly at age 58 at Orange, New Jersey, after having suffered from chest
pains for a few weeks. His final words, at 3 A.M., October 29, 1885, were, 'I
feel easy now. Thank you.' He is buried at Riverview Cemetery in Trenton.
"McClellan's son, George B. McClellan, Jr. (1865 - 1940), was born in Dresden, Germany, during
the family's first trip to Europe. Known within the family as Max, he was also
a politician, serving as a United States Representative from New York State and
as Mayor of New York City from 1904 to 1909. McClellan's daughter, Mary ('May')
(1861- 1945), married a French diplomat, and spent much of her life abroad. His
wife, Ellen, died in Nice, France, while visiting May at 'Villa Antietam.'
Neither Max nor May gave the McClellan's any
grandchildren.
"The New York Evening Post
commented in McClellan's obituary, ÔProbably no soldier who did so little
fighting has ever had his qualities as a commander so minutely, and we may add,
so fiercely discussed. This fierce
discussion has continued for over a century. McClellan is usually ranked in the
lowest tier of Civil War generals. However, the debate over McClellan's ability
and talents remains the subject of much controversy among Civil War and
military historians. He has been universally praised for his organizational
abilities and for his very good relations with his troops. They referred to him
affectionately as 'Little Mac'; others sometimes called him the 'Young Napoleon.' It has been suggested that his
reluctance to enter battle was caused in part by an intense desire to avoid
spilling the blood of his men. Ironically, this led to failing to take the
initiative against the enemy and therefore passing up good opportunities for
decisive victories, which could have ended the war early, and thereby could
have spared thousands of soldiers who died in those subsequent battles.
Generals who proved successful in the war, such as Lee and Grant, tended to be
more aggressive and more willing to risk a major battle even when all
preparations were not perfect. McClellan himself summed up his cautious nature
in a draft of his memoirs: 'It has always been my opinion that the true course
in conducting military operations, is to make no movement until the
preparations are as complete as circumstances permit, & never to fight a
battle without some definite object worth the probable loss.'
"McClellan's reluctance to
press his enemy aggressively was probably not a matter of personal courage,
which he demonstrated well enough by his bravery under fire in the
Mexican-American War. Stephen Sears wrote, 'There is indeed ample evidence that
the terrible stresses of commanding men in battle, especially the beloved men
of his beloved Army of the Potomac, left his moral courage in tatters. Under
the pressure of his ultimate soldier's responsibility, the will to command
deserted him. 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.
At Antietam, where there was nowhere for him to flee to, he fell into a
paralysis of indecision. Seen from a longer perspective, General McClellan
could be both comfortable and successful performing as executive officer, and,
also, if somewhat less successfully, as grand strategist; as battlefield
commander, however, he was simply in the wrong profession.'
"One of the reasons that
McClellan's reputation has suffered is because of his own memoirs. His original
draft was completed in 1881, but the only copy was destroyed by fire. He began
to write another draft of what would be published posthumously, in 1887, as
"McClellan's Own Story." 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.
"While McClellan's reputation
has suffered over time, especially over the last 75 years, there is a small but
intense cadre of American Civil War historians who believe that the general has
been poorly served on at least four levels. First, McClellan proponents say
that because the general was a conservative Democrat with great personal
charisma, radical Republicans, fearing his political potential, deliberately
undermined his field operations. Second, that as the radical Republicans were
the true winners coming out of the American Civil War, they wrote its history,
placing their principal political rival of the time, McClellan, in the worst
possible light. Third, that historians eager to jump on the band wagon 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.
And fourth, that Lincoln and Stanton deliberately undermined McClellan because
of his conciliatory stance towards the South, which would have resulted in a
less destructive end to the war, had Richmond fallen at the Peninsula Campaign.
Proponents of this school claim that McClellan is criticized more for his
admittedly abrasive personality than for his actual field performance.
"Several geographic features
and establishments have been named for George B. McClellan. These include Fort
McClellan in Alabama, McClellan Butte in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, where he traveled while conducting the Pacific
Railroad Survey in 1853, McClellan Street in North Bend, Washington, McClellan
Street in South Philadelphia, McClellan Elementary School in Chicago, and a
bronze equestrian statue honoring General McClellan in Washington, D.C."
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_B._McClellan
The reputation of General George B.
McClellan is a mixture of acclaim and of criticism. Regardless of which side one falls in
viewing this well-known American General, he certainly was a complex and
internationally-known personality on the world stage. It is a pleasure to share a remote
family relationship with this man.
Report Compiled by:
Dwight Albert (D. A.) Sharpe
805 Derting Road East
Aurora, TX 76078-3712
817-504-6508
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