The McClellan Problem

By RICHARD SLOTKIN

Disunion follows the Civil War as it unfolded.

TAGS:

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, GEORGE MCCLELLAN, SLAVERY, THE CIVIL WAR

On Aug. 3, 1862, Gen. George B. McClellan received orders to begin withdrawing the Army of the Potomac from its position in front of Richmond, Va. The new Union general in chief, Henry Halleck, had given McClellan a choice: to renew his offensive against Richmond or ship his army back to Washington. McClellan resented and resisted Halleck’s authority, and stubbornly refused to advance, thinking Halleck would eventually recognize the folly of a withdrawal.

And folly it was, McClellan’s obstinacy and lack of battlefield success notwithstanding. Once McClellan’s troops were in transit, half the Union forces in the Virginia theater were out of action. With the threat to Richmond removed, Gen. Robert E. Lee was free to stage a bold counter-offensive into northern Virginia, which would lead to the near destruction of the Union Army under General John Pope at the Second Battle of Bull Run, the invasion of Maryland, the bloody Battle of Antietam and the Confederacy’s best chance to win the war outright.

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