56 "What meaneth this burning of the President in effigy by citizens who have hitherto sincerely and enthusiastically supported the war? . . . Why this sudden check to enlistments? .. The public consider that Frémont has been made a martyr of. . . . Consequently he is now, so far as the West is concerned, the most popular man in the country. He is to the West what Napoleon was to France; while the President has lost the confidence of the people.' Meanwhile, McClellan was at work with energy and talent, erecting fortifications around Washington and organizing the "Army of the Potomac." He had good executive ability, and aptitude for system, and, being in robust health, an immense capacity for work. All these qualities were devoted without stint to the service. In the saddle from morning to night, he visited the several camps, mixed with the different brigades and regiments and came to know his officers and men thoroughly. Himself a gentleman of sterling moral character, having come to Washington with the respect and admiration of these soldiers, he soon gained their love by his winning personality, and inspired a devotion such as no other Northern general of a large army, with one exception, was ever able to obtain. Overrating his successes in western Virginia, he was called "the young Napoleon," for he was believed by the army, the administration and the country to have military genius of the highest order. And at first he seemed to have an adequate idea of what was required of him, for he wrote to the President on August 4: "The military action of the Government should be prompt and irresistible. The rebels have chosen Virginia as their battle field, and it seems proper for us to make the first great struggle there." 2 1 Oct. 20, Nov. 7, III; N. & H., IV; O. R., III; C. W., Pt. III; J. Hay, I; Nicolay; Pierce; Grimes. 2 O. R., V, 6. CH. II] MCCLELLAN 57 Not only was McClellan working with diligence but everyone else was coöperating with him in a way to give his talent for organization the widest scope. The President, the Treasury and the War departments, the Secretary of State, the governors of the Northern States assisted him faithfully with their full powers. The officers under him displayed zeal and devotion. He had the sway of a monarch. And at the outset this complete harmony yielded results of a most encouraging nature. Troops poured in from the enthusiastic North, swelling the army of 52,000 of July 27 to one of 168,000 three months later. One of McClellan's limitations, however, came early into view. Although personally courageous, he feared reverses for his army. Moreover, either his intelligence of the enemy was defective or his inferences from such accurate information as he possessed were radically unsound. In August, he was haunted by the notion that the Confederates largely outnumbered him; that they would attack his position on the Virginia side of the Potomac and also cross the river north of Washington. At this time, however, Johnston did not purpose either movement; he was chafing at the smallness of his force, the lack of food and ammunition, the disorganization and sickness amongst his troops. During the month of September and well into October, he was encamped about Fairfax Court-house with strong outposts on hills six and a half miles from Washington, where the Confederate flag could be plainly seen by the President and his General. On October 19, he withdrew his army to Centreville and Manassas Junction, farther from Washington but a much stronger position. "The great object to be accomplished," wrote McClellan to the Secretary of War shortly after October 27, "is the crush 58 MCCLELLAN [1861 ing defeat of the rebel army now at Manassas." The Union troops were sufficient in number and fighting quality to accomplish it. All the authorities agree that McClellan's organization of the Army of the Potomac was little short of magical. The training to fit men for active service generally required six months; under McClellan it had been accomplished in three. The change from the "grand army" before the battle of Bull Run to McClellan's Army of the Potomac, according to William H. Russell, was marvellous. The soldiers of July, who, in his opinion, could have been overcome by one-third their number of British regulars, were in September perhaps as fine "a body of men in all respects of physique" as had ever "been assembled by any power in the world." 2 When McClellan and McDowell rode together from camp to camp on the south side of the Potomac, McClellan used to point toward Manassas and say, “We shall strike them there." What might have been is doubtless as unprofitable a subject of speculation in war as in the other affairs of life; but it is a fact of importance that during the autumn the President and the country rightly began to lose confidence in McClellan's military ability. They had good reason for this distrust. His apology in his report of August 4, 1863,3 and in his “Own Story" receive little justification from the pitiless contemporary record and from other facts since brought to light. On October 27, according to his own account, his effective force was 134,000; "the number disposable for an advance," 76,000: Johnston had 41,000. The Union artillery was superior; the infantry had better The health of the Union army was good, that of the Confederate bad. The weather was fine and dry; up to arms. CH. II] MCCLELLAN 59 Christmas the roads were in suitable condition for military operations. On the other hand, the Confederates had an immense advantage in the moral effect of their victories at Bull Run and Ball's Bluff.1 Nevertheless, the officers and men of the Army of the Potomac were devoted to McClellan and eager to fight. They would have been glad to follow if he would lead; it only remained for him to give the word. The Confederate were little, if any, better disciplined than the Union soldiers; but their cautious general was willing to take the offensive. Give me 19,000 more men as good as the 41,000 that I have with the necessary "transportation and munitions of war," said Johnston to President Davis on October 1, and I will "cross the Potomac and carry the war into the enemy's country":2 at that time he knew that the Union force was superior in number. When McClellan wrote as military critic he condemned by implication his own inactivity as commander. "I am induced to believe," he wrote to General Scott from Washington on August 8, "that the enemy has at least 100,000 men in front of us. Were I in Beauregard's place,3 with that force at my disposal, I would attack the positions on the other side of the Potomac and at the same time cross the river above this city in force." Yet McClellan him 1 On Oct. 21, occurred on the Potomac above Washington the affair of Ball's Bluff in which, owing to mismanagement, the Union forces were defeated. Measured by subsequent battles, the casualties were not large; but the death of Colonel Baker, a dear friend of Lincoln's and a popular senator and officer, and the loss to New York, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania of some of "the very pride and flower of their young men caused a profound feeling of discouragement all over the North; still there was little tendency to impute this disaster to McClellan, although it occurred in his department. III, 496. The victory greatly elated the Confederate soldiers. 2 O. R., V, 884. 3 McClellan supposed Beauregard to be in command of the Confederate army, while he commanded only its first corps. 4 O. R., XI, Pt. III, 3. 60 MCCLELLAN [1861 self, with at least 76,000 to 41,000 of the enemy, would not make in November a movement similar to, but not so extended as, the one he laid down for the Confederates in August. I am "not such a fool," he said to the President, "as to buck against Manassas in the spot designated by the foe." 1 To judge from McClellan's private letters at this time, he seemed to think that the men in authority were endeavoring to add difficulties to his task. "I am thwarted and deceived by these incapables at every turn," he wrote." As a matter of fact, everybody "from the President to the humblest orderly who waited at his door" 3 was helping him according to his means. The fault was not of the President, the Cabinet, General Scott or the senators; it was entirely his own. McClellan fed himself upon the delusion that the enemy had 150,000 men. This estimate would indeed have justified his inaction; but, after an evening's conversation with him "it became painfully evident" to John Hay, "that he had no plan."4 The President's attitude towards his General was sublime. They talked sadly over the disaster at Ball's Bluff. Alluding to the death of Colonel Baker, McClellan said: "There is many a good fellow who wears the shoulderstraps going under the sod before this thing is over. There is no loss too great to be repaired. If I should get knocked on the head, Mr. President, you will put another man immediately in my shoes." "I want you to take care of yourself," was the reply.5 On the evening of October 26, "the Jacobin Club represented by Senators Trumbull, Chandler and Wade came up to worry the administration into a battle. The agitation 1 Oct. 17, J. Hay, I, 45. & N. & H., IV, 444. 2 November. McClellan, 177. |