The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1885-11-05
GENERAL. MCCLELLAN.

General George B. Mcclellan died on
Friday last of heart disease at the age OF
SO. No one expected such a termination |
of his sickness. He died of exhaustion |
from pain as he suffered the most in
tsnso agony from neuralgia attacks.
General Mcclellan was one of the
brilliant men of his age. When he grad
uated atWest Point his scholarship entitl-
ed him to placein the corps of engineers,
a place assigned to the best material of
West Point. For some time he occupied
very important positions with railroad
companies, his knowledge of civil engi-
neering making his services valuable.
When the war broke out, though quite
young man, his ability pushed him to
the front and the service he did the
country in organizing an army out of
crowd of men who came wholly inexper-
fenced from the peaceful pursuits of life,
has never been sufficiently recognized.
He was patient and systematic when
without these qualities there could be no
success. Later, generals took the army
which Mcclellan. had disciplined and
brought to that degree of efficiency which
gave it force, reliability and destructive
pess. and its power and strength and
resoluteness showed how wisely it had
been moulded. There could be no APP
romatox without McClellan's organiz-
ing hand. The genius which organizes
an army is no less grand than that which
hurls it ready formed against the enemy.
1t may be that Mcclellan had too much
humanity to be great field general. 1t
is possible he might hesitate to annihi-
late armies and that he relied more on
strategic movements than on brute force;
that he did not consider it proper to look
upon it as war of exhaustion. and that
the section which could command the
most resources would eventually be sue
cessful. 1t may be that his humanity
made him shrink from what he thought
an unnecessary sacrifice of human life.
and that he relied more upon the genius
of the general than the ability of the
country to fill up the gaps which slaugh-
ter might make in his ranks; but section
against section, without advantage in
numbers or resources, Mcclellan was
the only man in the north whom the war
developed that it would be at all safe to
pit against the towering genius of Lee.
1t may be possible that Mcclellan suf-
fered nothing while he was in command
from the fact that his politics was not IN
accord with that of the party then in
power. But it is hardly probable. If
now after twenty-four years have inter-
vened and softened the bitterness of
party feeling, it is still looked upon as
smirch upon the loyalty of people to be
| democrats during the war, how intense
must the feeling have been then to trans
nit to new generation an opinion so
unreasonable. Mcclellan was unfortun-
ate in acquiring such early prominence.
| The politicians did not realize the strength
of the south. They did not realize the
resources of the military genius of which
| the south had such an opulence, and they
demanded that mob should do in few
months what it subsequently took a
trained army years to accom- plish. The
| most aarnnst and concentrations wnrn inn
patient and Mcclellan was sacrificed to
| their demand for dispatch. When their
impotence deepened into anxiety and
they saw the country taxed to the utmost,
they realized the nature of the struggle
but refused to do justice to the man who
suffered because he was not a partaker
in their folly.
| Mcclellan might have been slow and
over-cautious. He could not have been
rapid with an army unused to war. And
the very nature of the work he had to
do,-build an army from raw recruits
which might be relied upon when fit for
action, necessitated cautious and DELHI
crate movement. He was never allowed
to show what he might do with trained
army, he certainly did much with an I'M
| trained one. And let one thing more be
| said to his credit,-his soldiers loved
him. Not all the brilliancy of later
campaigns aud the reflected glory of new
| commanders, not even success under new
| leaders with their old commander thrust
into obscurity, could make the soldiers
who had fought under him forget Gilt
( tie Mac"