George B. McClellan

The first campaign of the Civil War was the first win for the Union and was under the command of George B . McClellan . It was a minor battle but with this battle , under McClellan 's leadership successfully drove confederate troops out of the Kanawha Valley of western Virginia in May and June of 1861 . This was described in James McPherson 's book Ordeal by Fire (159 . McClellan 's victory gave the region a firm grip for the Union side and kept it from becoming in control of the confederates and eventually became West

Virginia . But the first major battle was a was a disaster . McClellan though helped this battle and became the savior , if even for the moment . Because McClellan replaced McDowell who was the general at the time and this became the boost he needed to later become general in chief (Rowland , 1998

. 86 . McClellan spent the fall and winter drilling his troops and whipping them into shape . He was known for his slow way of doing things and this made Lincoln very agitated . This was probably why the rumors began to fly about McClellan 's inability to be a general began and it was no secret that McClellan had such contempt for Lincoln . On more than one occasion President Lincoln it was said that he couldn 't understand why McClellan was taking so long and insisted he go into the battle field . Lincoln insisting he was being too slow ed the army into action McClellan 's slowness was mentioned several times in both required readings and was said to be cautious or meticulous

Both books I read , Ordeal by Fire ' and George B . McClellan and Civil War History ' were written on the Civil War . But Thomas Rowland 's book core subject was on George B . McClellan . James McPherson 's book was more of a broader book covering the war with the central theme on the Civil War and only discussed McClellan 's generalship in a small section of the book . The other book dealt more exclusively on the man and his abilities . In Rowland 's book he looked at the mental abilities of McClellan 's and coined him deranged and paranoiac . This too was mentioned in McPherson 's book but only that he had possible mental problems and possibly other problems that affected his abilities of being a general . Some of the problems with McClellan that both books do address are his slowness and problems of exaggeration . This exaggeration usually involved how many were in the opposing troops or in his troop 's inabilities to win a battle because of training time or supplies . It is commonly accepted though that McClellan was considered a failure as a general , but Rowland still defends his generalship to the bitter end

There were several bad decisions made by McClellan during his service in the Civil War . Union forces in the West had won some very important victories before McClellan could make a move to aid the fighting troops and this...