The Art of Leadership and Command

A Study of McClellan and Lee and Their Contemporaries (1861-1865)

John Gibson

• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781642986457
• Topic: Arte
• Subtopic: Historia del arte

They say he was slow-yet McClellan assumed command and in two weeks combined two different forces into one, marched on Lee, and defeated him at Antietam. They say he was not a fighter. Antietam is the bloodiest day in American History.History has not treated General George McClellan kindly, but there is another side to the story-the soldiers' side. No US general of the Civil War was adored more by his troops than McClellan, and with good reason. He gave them confidence and success. He was

Chapter 1

George McClellan, the American Napoleon (December 1826–December 1861)

Early in the 1800s, the American dream was in its infancy. No one knew exactly how that child would grow and turn out as an adult. Could a nation founded on such lofty principals as “liberty and justice for all” and the “right to the pursuit of happiness” really survive in the cold, hard world? No one knew it yet, but that child would be severely tested before it reached maturity. What these words meant would be debated in fire and blood in an event that would define this nation and words like equality, liberty, and justice for all. In the years between 1800 and 1830, a number of men and women were born who would become forever famous in American history: Abraham Lincoln, R. E. Lee, Harriet Becher Stowe, Frederick Douglass, and another name which played a major role but is little known in America, George B. McClellan. Most Americans don’t know that McClellan won the most significant battle of the war and, in 1864, offered America an alternative to war by running for president on a peace ticket.

There is a saying that history is written by the side that wins, as the winners always want to believe they are right and the other side is wrong. However, as our view of history matures, we realize that truth is rarely on one side or the other. For a full understanding of history, we must admit our faults as well as our strengths. The story of George McClellan is well worth the study, as all these factors come into play, shedding light on a pivotal moment in American history where truth, honesty, justice, malice, deceit, and destruction all play their part in America’s greatest tragedy, the American Civil War.

On a bright winter day, December 3, 1826, young George Brinton (his mother’s maiden name) was born to Doctor George and Elizabeth McClellan, prominent citizens of Philadelphia. He was the middle of three sons and two daughters. The eldest, Frederica, wrote of him:

“He’s the brightest, merriest, most unselfish of boys…fond of books & study- also fun & frolic & always the ‘soul of honor’.”

This last description of young McClellan could well be said to describe his entire life. If Abe Lincoln was born in a log cabin and studied by the light of a log fire, then George Brinton McClellan was his exact opposite. Wellborn and educated, he was a child with the proverbial silver spoon. A Harvard graduate administrated his first private school, and at ten, he had a private tutor. “…A magnificent classical scholar & an excellent teacher. We were obliged to converse in Latin & French; at an early age I became a good scholar in the classics…” wrote McClellan.

Professor Schiffer, a Jewish German, gave young George his first appreciation and regard for all cultures and an idealistic outlook. By the age of fifteen, he was accomplished in several languages, including French, and had a complete education by the academic standards of the day. In spring of 1842, his father applied to the secretary of war, stating that young McClellan “desires to go through the West Point school for the serious purpose of devoting his life to the service of the Army of the U. States.” George McClellan had made the first important decision of his life; he would apply to West Point, the nation’s military academy1.

Young McClellan was given a special waver for his age and entered West Point at age fifteen. His first impression was one of loneliness, which he soon forgot in the excitement of uniforms and parades. His roommate and “oldest and closest friend” was Ambrose Powell Hill of Culpepper, Virginia. McClellan became fast friends with the well-mannered and colorful Hill, who would one day become his archrival in love and war2. Thomas Jonathan Jackson, also of Virginia, was another classmate. Jackson, at eighteen, was the backwoods bumpkin of the class. He slowly improved himself and reached the middle of his class by graduation. One of his professors said that if the class had lasted another year, Jackson would have reached the top3. U. S. Grant and William Rosecrans, destined to lead Union armies, were upperclassmen during McClellan’s first year. Here also, Little Mac met the eighteen-year-old Fitz John Porter of New Hampshire and sixteen-year-old Ambrose Burnside, who would remain a close friend and one day replace him as commander of the Army of the Potomac. Young McClellan graduated second in his class. In view of the sectionalism developing in the country, he urged, in his graduation speech, that these cadets always stand together as one in loyalty to their country. It was the most appropriate thing to say at the most appropriate place and time. Unfortunately, as with most of McClellan’s advice, it went, for the most part, unheeded4.

The war with Mexico began in March of 1846, the same year McClellan graduated. It is not within the realm of this book to discuss the cause of the war, but U. S. Grant wrote that he felt the Civil War was punishment for the war of aggression we forced upon Mexico. These opinions were written long afterward. We don’t really know how Grant felt as he joined Zachary Taylor’s army along the Texas border. Lieutenant “Sam” Grant, twenty-five years old, made a lifelong friend during the war—a tall twenty-six-year-old lieutenant named James “Pete” Longstreet, a former classmate who would also be the best man at his wedding and who, one day, would fight against him as a rebel general5.

The U.S. President, James Polk, was jealous of the fame and popularity political rival, General Zachary Taylor, was winning as Taylor marched south into Mexico6. In order to sabotage Taylor’s political ambition, Polk ordered most of Taylor’s veteran troops to join with General Winfield Scott in an expedition by sea to Vera Cruz. Zachary Taylor was left with 5,000 troops to face the full force of Generalissimo Santa Anna’s veteran Mexican army of 14,000. A fierce battle broke out at Buena Vista on February 23, 1847. Colonel Jefferson Davis’s Mississippi Rifles were hard pressed by Santa Anna’s regulars, and the battle hung in the balance when a stunning artillery barrage saved the day. Thirty-year-old Captain Braxton Bragg’s “flying artillery” battery had come to the rescue. “A little more grape (shot), Bragg,” became a slogan for Taylor’s presidential campaign. The friendship between Davis and Bragg, begun at Buena Vista, would bear bitter fruit as Southern President Davis would rely far too long on his comrade in arms to save him a second time.

Winfield Scott’s armada sailed for Vera Cruz, arriving March 6, 1847. The landing, three days later, could not have gone more smoothly. Lieutenant George McClellan, twenty years old, was in the first wave of specially built “surfboats” as they rowed for shore. “It was a grand spectacle!” claimed an eyewitness. “On, on went the long range of boats, loaded to the gunwales with brave men. The rays of the slowly departing sun resting upon their uniforms and bristling bayonets and wrapping the far inland and fantastic mountains of Mexico in robes of gold.”7 The US fleet stood at anchor in a semicircle as the rows of boats made for the shoreline. U.S. troops dashed across the dunes, expecting fire to ring out at any moment. The landing was unopposed, and the U.S. force of 13,000 established a beachhead just south of Vera Cruz. Dapper Captain Joseph Eggleston Johnston of the topographical engineers was one of McClellan’s superiors and took the young McClellan under his wing. Lieutenant Thomas Jonathan Jackson, McClellan’s old classmate, commanded an artillery battery. McClellan was ordered to establish a position from which to bombard Vera Cruz into submission. McClellan made a night reconnaissance and located a position from where their guns could level Vera Cruz. The dashing forty-year-old captain, Robert E. Lee, from General Scott’s headquarters staff, inspected the positions and gave approval for work to begin8.

The siege of Vera Cruz lasted twenty-three days. This was fortunate for Scott as the “vomito,” a deadly illness, would strike the coastal area, and Scott’s army had to be clear of the area before summer. Moving into the hills where healthier conditions prevailed, Scott’s army was confronted by General Santa Anna’s formidable positions at Cerro Gordo. Captain Lee and lieutenant of engineers, twenty-nine-year-old Pierre Beauregard, made a successful reconnaissance around the enemy’s left flank. Finding a route barely able to accommodate artillery, Lee mounted a battery behind the enemy and guided infantry into position on the enemy flank. McClellan was assigned to a volunteer brigade and was to accompany them in a frontal attack, as Lee’s hidden battery dislodged the Mexican force from the rear. McClellan’s disdain for undisciplined volunteers stems from this experience. The politically appointed Brigadier General Gideon Pillow, the president’s former law partner, didn’t follow his orders correctly. His volunteers came under heavy fire and broke and ran. These men had only volunteered for the amount of booty they could loot from the despoiled Mexicans. McClellan despised these undisciplined troops because under fire, they would break, leaving the fighting to the regular troops, who were more disciplined and steadier in combat. McClellan never forgot this lesson and always kept his troops firmly disciplined, creating regular soldiers out of volunteers. Lee’s cannon won the battle of Cerro Gordo, April 18, and Scott had a brilliant victory to his credit. One would think this was the time to reinforce Scott’s good fortune, but such were not the fortu...

Table of contents

• Chapter 1
• Chapter 2
• Chapter 3
• Chapter 4
• Chapter 5
• Chapter 6
• Chapter 7
• Chapter 8
• Chapter 9
• Chapter 10