George B. McClellan
$3.50 By and UNIV. OF NORTH CAROLINA
As long as grass grows or water runs it will always be possible — indeed inevitable— that a scholarly discussion of our Civil War among dignified savants should be turned into a kind of gangsters’ shindig by introducing the controversial name of General McClellan. The trouble is that there are so many convincing arguments on both sides. To his supporters he was the outstanding organizer and the great military strategist of the Northern armies. His critics rather grudgingly admit this. Furthermore, the excellence of his strategical conception is justified by the fact that after two more years of bitter and dreadful war Grant was forced to start his final campaign from just the base from which McClellan was forced to withdraw — under orders from his hostile civilian superior, Stanton, at the close of the Peninsular campaign. A good case can be made for the statement that when he was recalled to command, after Pope’s failure, he reorganized the shattered Army of the Potomac and rolled back Lee’s invading forces at the bloody field of Sharpsburg, or Antietam. It is true also that he commanded such love and admiration on the part of his soldiers as no other commanding officer of a Northern army. And it is fair to add that he was always the victim of a vicious political cabal at Washington and — to a certain degree — among his subordinates, which spared no effort and shrank from no treachery in order to destroy him. General McClellan has said all this himself.
On the other hand, his critics point out certain vital military defects which, they think, disqualified him from ranking among the great commanders. He constantly magnified the forces opposed to him and was forever crying for reinforcements when he was actually stronger than the enemy. Sometimes he misread his victories as defeats. His style was cramped by these ghostly opponents and by a kind of military perfectionism until he suffered definitely from what Lincoln called ‘the slows.’ Moreover, he showed himself incompetent to deal with the civil authorities at Washington, whom he despised. He treated the long-suffering Lincoln with rudeness and contempt. He regarded himself as the predestined Savior of his Country, and the politicians and civilians in general as bumpkins and loons. Aut Cœsar, aut nullus.
In rebuttal, Messrs. Eckenrode and Conrad, with a rather specious candor, admit that he exaggerated his opposition, but only because he was vilely served by his intelligence:— the Pinkertons. True, he moved more slowly than the public, ignorant of military affairs, demanded. He was right and the public wrong. But, if he had been left to himself, he would have ended the Civil War in two years. And there are two sides to his quarrel with the civil government. He did regard himself as the Savior of the Union because, after all, he did save the Union — and so on.
I can only admire the way the authors present the case for McClellan as an ill-used and misunderstood man. Ill-used he was, but I doubt if he was really misunderstood. His treatment was shocking, but his character had definite and vital flaws. Lee and Jackson respected his cautious abilities; he was a better educated soldier than either of them. But they took chances, attacked against odds, maintained the offensive, and never waited for a sure thing.
General McClellan’s egotism was tremendous; he could not endure criticism but he could criticize everyone else. Perhaps his story should be written by a psychiatrist rather than an historian. If he had stood six foot one, instead of being always ’Little Mac,’ perhaps his inferiority-superiority complexes would have been less bewildering. Perhaps, in that case, he would have been a confident, fighting general, instead of the proud, sensitive little man whose opponent was always bigger than himself. There are many perhapses and only one certainty: he was almost a great soldier, a great man manqué — and that is a tragic story.
I recommend this book for its historical picture and its presentation of the case for McClellan.
R. E. D.