McClellan, George Brinton (1826–1885)

US soldier. In the Civil War he was made general in chief of the Union forces 1861–62, but was dismissed by President Abraham Lincoln when he delayed five weeks in following up his victory over the Confederate General Robert E Lee at Antietam (see under Civil War, American). He was the unsuccessful Democratic presidential candidate against Lincoln in 1864.

McClellan was dismissed twice by President Lincoln for various delays in following up and attacking the Confederate army. Early in the Civil War he was replaced by General John Pope, but after the rout at the Second Battle of Bull Run in 1862, Lincoln asked McClellan to rebuild and reorganize the Union's Army of the Potomac. He saved Washington, DC, from the threatening Confederate forces but delayed his counter-attack until the opportunity was lost.

In the winter of 1861, when McClellan was put in charge of the Union armies, he soon came into conflict with both the administration and public opinion. Lincoln wanted a direct advance on Richmond which would preclude any Confederate advance on Washington, but McClellan preferred to move upon the Confederate capital from the peninsula formed by the James and York rivers. He was allowed to have his way, but was removed from the supreme command of the armies, only having charge of the army of the Potomac.

McClellan was born in Philadelphia, graduated from West Point military academy, and served with distinction in the Mexican War. He then worked surveying for the railroads moving west and as a railroad executive until the Civil War. After the war he served as governor of New Jersey 1878–81.