TO SAY THAT GEORGE B. McCLELLAN WAS AN ENIGMA is an understatement. In the century and a half, since he led the Union army, his personality and actions have inspired both contempt and adoration—though mostly the former. Biographies include hagiographies, ad hominem attacks, and everything in between. Many historians focus on McClellan’s lacklustre campaigns on Virginia’s Peninsula in the spring of 1862 and at Antietam a few months later. And certainly, their criticisms are well-founded: He did not take Richmond during his advance up the Peninsula and arguably missed a chance to destroy a Confederate army at Antietam.
