Ebook McClellan

The purpose of this book is to set forth clearly the services of General mcclellan in the Civil War. Only a brief sketch of his earlier and later life is here given. More has been written about this subject than about any other within the realm of war except the campaigns Of Napoleon; and. A comparison of what has been written with the facts will Show that never before was any subject so little understood by those who undertook to discuss it. From what has been said by the majority of these authors one would conclude that mcclellan was wholly devoid of military capacity. Yet General Lee, the most renowned leader Of the South, em phatically proclaimed mcclellan the ablest Northern General Of the war; and von Moltke, the foremost Chieftain of the nineteenth century, asserted that the war would have ended two years earlier than it did, if mcclellan had been properly supported by the Government. It is a most interesting and potent fact that in a life of fifty-nine years only ten months covers the whole period to which criticism has ever been directed; yet this same ten months has justly received from many unbiased writers greater praise than any other period of his life. Certain facts hitherto ignored or insufficiently appreciated are iterated and reiterated for a purpose; but not often enough, I fear, in many instances, to penetrate the impervious armor of prejudice.