The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1861-12-12
McClelIan-The Coming Man.

The retirement of Winfield Scott from the &C
tive scenes of military and political life, was an
event for which the nation was not entirely I'M
prepared, but the regrets of the people will be
somewhat assuaged by the judicious action which
has brought forward Us his successor in the COM
mand of the armies of the United States, the
young General McClellan-whom Scott himself
but recently designated as the 80 coming man"
who is to be to his country in the future what
Z" Old Chippewa has been to her IN the past.
An experienced soldier like Winfield Scott would
hardly have for a position so i'm
pOrtant, one in whom he had not himself the ut
most confidence, and one of whose military abili-
ties he had not received the most satisfactory
evidence. Mcclellan, it is true, has his bright
est laurels yet to carn-his peculiar genius hav-
ing enjoyed no opportunity for recognition until
the outbreak of the Mexican war, when he dis
played not only the most signal bravery, espe-
cially ut the battles of MolinO del Rey and Cha
pultepec, but also those loftier qualities to which
great minds only can aspire, and which alone fit
the possessor Tor the command OF large bodies of
troops in time of war. Mcclellan is as yet scarce
thirty-five years of age, but he has the advantage
of n West Point education, and starts afresh on
his career, with prospects and opportunities which
many an older General might envy. A cotem-
porary biographer thus describes his history, sub
sequent to the events which first introduced him
TO the notice of his countrymen:
I" At the close of the Mexican war he returned
to West Point, where he remained on duty with
the SHIPPERS ana miners, until 1901. during TINS
time he introduced the bayonet exercise into the
army, and translated and adapted n manual which
has since become n textbook for the service.
During the summer and fall of 1851, he superin-
tended the construction of Fort Delaware, and
in the succeeding spring he was assigned to duty
under Major X. IL. Marcy, in the expedition for
the exploration of the Red river. Thence he was
ordered direct to Texas rs Senior Engineer on the
staff of General Persifcr +. Smith, and was en-
gagged for some months in surveying the rivers
and harbors of that State. In 1853, he was or
dered to the Pacific coast in command of the
western division of the survey of the North Paci-
fc Railroad route. lie returned East in 1854.
on duty connected with the Pacific survey, and
was engaged also in secret service to the West
Indies. The next year he received a commission
in the First Regiment of Cavalry, and was ap-
pointed n member of the commission which went
to the seat of war in the Crimea and Northern
Russia. Col. Richard D~elafeld, one of his col.
leagues, is now an officer in the rebel army, and
Major Alfred Mordecai, the third member of the
commission, a short time ago resigned the Super
intendency of the Troy Arsenal. Major McClel-
lan's report on the Organization of European
Armies and the Operations Of the War, a quarto
volume, embodying the result of his operations
in the Crimea, greatly enhanced his reputation
as a scientific soldier. In January, 1857, weary
of ~inaction, he resigned his position in the army
to become Vice President and Engineer of the
Illinois Central Railroad, which post he held for
three years, when he was offered and accepted the
Presidency of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad,
of which he was also General Superintendent"
The breaking out of the war found him acting
in the capacity of Major General, with command
Of the Department of Ohio, comprising all of the
States of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, and that
part of Virginia in which have occurred the most
events of the campaign. His elevation
10 the post of Commander-in-Chief has been
merely the natural result of his talents and his
abors. May he fulfill in the future the brilliant
lugury of the present.