Today in History, July 27 1861, Lincoln appoints General George B. McClellan head of Army of Potomac
Today in History, July 27, 1861,
General McClellan named head of the Army of the Potomac.
Replacing General McDowell, General George B. McClellan was appointed by Lincoln with the hope that he would more aggressively engage Lee's Army of Virginia, and put a quick end to the rebellion and set about the task of reuniting the Union. His appointment was based on his background in "Big War Science", and his experience in organizing Railroad projects which supposedly made him expert in logistics.
Unfortunately, McClellan did the opposite, in large part. After the Peninsula Campaign, McClellan dug in. There were questions about his commitment to prosecuting the War, as he was opposed to Emancipation. He was risk averse, and preoccupied with "spit and polish", endlessly practicing regimentation and maneuvers, marching assembling, etc. He had what Lincoln called a case of "the slows". Much of his strategy was based on the advice of his Secret Service Chief, Allen Pinkerton, who massively inflated enemy strength estimates, convincing McClellan he was outnumbered when be wasn't. This added to his overabundance of caution, despite having a 2 to 1 advantage in manpower for most of his command.
At a certain point, after a face to face meeting with McClellan, Lincoln was infuriated and referred to the Army of the Potomac as "McClellan's personal bodyguard". Also, McClellan refused to cooperate and share his War plans with General Winfield Scott, (who he described as a traitor in letters to his wife) thus antagonizing the Head of the Army. There were rumors that McClellan was organizing a Military coup as well.
On Nov 1, 1861, Scott retired and McClellan became General-in-Chief of all the Armies, because of his political backing from Ohio Republicans, but squandered a number of opportunities, including the Battle of Ball's Bluff. He also damaged his reputation by calling Lincoln "nothing more than a well meaning Baboon, a Gorilla, ever unworthy of his high position" in the presence of witnesses. When Lincoln went to his house for a fact to face meeting, he was forced to wait for 30 minutes, then told that McClellan had gone to bed early and could not receive him. Later, McClellan tried to play War Secretary Stanton against Lincoln, blaming his strategy for the difficulties in the War in telegrams sent to Stanton, which Lincoln never saw.
On January 10, Lincoln met with his other top Generals without McClellan, and directed them to formulate new War plans. In the meeting, Lincoln said, "if General McClellan does not want to use his Army, I would like to borrow it for a time".
There were episodes of insubordination which followed, in which McClellan refused to carry out orders from Lincoln. He let Confederate Johnston off the hook after the Peninsula Campaign, McClellan refusing to engage Johnston believing that Confederate artillery was amassed too greatly for an assault. He was fooled, they were "Quaker Guns", logs painted black and mounted on wheels!
Finally, it was the occasion of the emergence of a dire threat to Washington posed by the Confederate Ironclad CSS Virginia which necessitated McClellan's removal, on March 11, 1862.
After his firing, Lincoln resumed his quest to find some fighting Generals, which finally he did with Grant and Sherman. McClellan the egotist, seething with the desire for revenge against Lincoln, spent the next two months at home writing an extensive report to embellish his own leadership and glorify his successful battle deployments, in effect rewriting history, to issue as a propaganda piece against Lincoln. Subsequently, he announced his candidacy for the Democratic Nomination, to run for President against Lincoln, which he did and lost, thanks largely to the overwhelming vote of Union Soldiers. McClellan, had he won, would have started peace talks and negotiated with the Slaveowners to allow Slavery to continue, and States Rights for the rebellious States, in exchange for them rejoining the Union.
The big point of discussion among historians and academics has been whether McClellan has been treated unfairly, or was he a traitor, or somewhere in between. That isn't my concern, nor do I think it is at this point important. I write about this today for one reason only, which is to ask, who are the General McClellans today, in the DNC, the Biden Campaign, and Joe Biden's inner circle who are most likely to sabotage Biden's campaign? Who has divided loyalties? Who are the stubborn wrong headed egotists, cooking up strategies that are doomed to fail in light of the seriousness of the actual threat to our Democracy? Who are those misleading the Democratic party to overestimate the enemy's strength, and advising caution in Biden's conduct of the Campaign? Who are the "McClellans" telling Biden to wait so long to pick a VP, to stay in his basement and issue one statement a week, while Trump is destroying the Economy, spreading the Virus, and deploying Fascist shock troops to crush dissent, and steal the election? Who are the people he has to dump right now to do what is necessary to unseat Trump? The answers to these questions are open.
I'm not writing to entertain myself. These are the reasons why I read and write about history. That's what I'm interested in. Unless it's relevant to the crisis at hand, there is no point to doing this.
General McClellan named head of the Army of the Potomac.
Replacing General McDowell, General George B. McClellan was appointed by Lincoln with the hope that he would more aggressively engage Lee's Army of Virginia, and put a quick end to the rebellion and set about the task of reuniting the Union. His appointment was based on his background in "Big War Science", and his experience in organizing Railroad projects which supposedly made him expert in logistics.
Unfortunately, McClellan did the opposite, in large part. After the Peninsula Campaign, McClellan dug in. There were questions about his commitment to prosecuting the War, as he was opposed to Emancipation. He was risk averse, and preoccupied with "spit and polish", endlessly practicing regimentation and maneuvers, marching assembling, etc. He had what Lincoln called a case of "the slows". Much of his strategy was based on the advice of his Secret Service Chief, Allen Pinkerton, who massively inflated enemy strength estimates, convincing McClellan he was outnumbered when be wasn't. This added to his overabundance of caution, despite having a 2 to 1 advantage in manpower for most of his command.
At a certain point, after a face to face meeting with McClellan, Lincoln was infuriated and referred to the Army of the Potomac as "McClellan's personal bodyguard". Also, McClellan refused to cooperate and share his War plans with General Winfield Scott, (who he described as a traitor in letters to his wife) thus antagonizing the Head of the Army. There were rumors that McClellan was organizing a Military coup as well.
On Nov 1, 1861, Scott retired and McClellan became General-in-Chief of all the Armies, because of his political backing from Ohio Republicans, but squandered a number of opportunities, including the Battle of Ball's Bluff. He also damaged his reputation by calling Lincoln "nothing more than a well meaning Baboon, a Gorilla, ever unworthy of his high position" in the presence of witnesses. When Lincoln went to his house for a fact to face meeting, he was forced to wait for 30 minutes, then told that McClellan had gone to bed early and could not receive him. Later, McClellan tried to play War Secretary Stanton against Lincoln, blaming his strategy for the difficulties in the War in telegrams sent to Stanton, which Lincoln never saw.
On January 10, Lincoln met with his other top Generals without McClellan, and directed them to formulate new War plans. In the meeting, Lincoln said, "if General McClellan does not want to use his Army, I would like to borrow it for a time".
There were episodes of insubordination which followed, in which McClellan refused to carry out orders from Lincoln. He let Confederate Johnston off the hook after the Peninsula Campaign, McClellan refusing to engage Johnston believing that Confederate artillery was amassed too greatly for an assault. He was fooled, they were "Quaker Guns", logs painted black and mounted on wheels!
Finally, it was the occasion of the emergence of a dire threat to Washington posed by the Confederate Ironclad CSS Virginia which necessitated McClellan's removal, on March 11, 1862.
After his firing, Lincoln resumed his quest to find some fighting Generals, which finally he did with Grant and Sherman. McClellan the egotist, seething with the desire for revenge against Lincoln, spent the next two months at home writing an extensive report to embellish his own leadership and glorify his successful battle deployments, in effect rewriting history, to issue as a propaganda piece against Lincoln. Subsequently, he announced his candidacy for the Democratic Nomination, to run for President against Lincoln, which he did and lost, thanks largely to the overwhelming vote of Union Soldiers. McClellan, had he won, would have started peace talks and negotiated with the Slaveowners to allow Slavery to continue, and States Rights for the rebellious States, in exchange for them rejoining the Union.
The big point of discussion among historians and academics has been whether McClellan has been treated unfairly, or was he a traitor, or somewhere in between. That isn't my concern, nor do I think it is at this point important. I write about this today for one reason only, which is to ask, who are the General McClellans today, in the DNC, the Biden Campaign, and Joe Biden's inner circle who are most likely to sabotage Biden's campaign? Who has divided loyalties? Who are the stubborn wrong headed egotists, cooking up strategies that are doomed to fail in light of the seriousness of the actual threat to our Democracy? Who are those misleading the Democratic party to overestimate the enemy's strength, and advising caution in Biden's conduct of the Campaign? Who are the "McClellans" telling Biden to wait so long to pick a VP, to stay in his basement and issue one statement a week, while Trump is destroying the Economy, spreading the Virus, and deploying Fascist shock troops to crush dissent, and steal the election? Who are the people he has to dump right now to do what is necessary to unseat Trump? The answers to these questions are open.
I'm not writing to entertain myself. These are the reasons why I read and write about history. That's what I'm interested in. Unless it's relevant to the crisis at hand, there is no point to doing this.
