The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-11-10
THE MAKERS OF THE NAT
By Clark Mills Brink. Mcclellan, the Drill Sergeant of the
Union Army.


 ARTICLE. XIV. Mcclellan, the Drill Sergeant or the
 Union Army.
 George Brinton Mcclellan was porn 'n Philadelphia in December, 1926. Ills iatner -u!ls!p seM 'sSsIloo sIsA 10 elunpedS Eushed physician of the Quaker City. ine son. having a taste for. military anairs, entered the West Point Academy at tne age Of 1s and was graduaseo secona m time ever finished the course in that in stitution and the first n the Corps or En- gineers. Leaving the academy just Tn time ed gallent service in the leading battles of that struggle and after the war 5 wss made ma a professor at West Point. while there he wrote a manual on the art or war. During the Crtnlean war he was sent abroad to study the proceedings or the armies there and on his return made an elaborate report, which was recognized as being so able as to merit publication at the governments expense. Mcclellan resigned his commission In the army after his return from Europe and was engaged as technical es director @ or or President of the Ohio and Mississippi. This, in brief, is an. outline of his life to the time of the outbreak of the Civil War. the land Mcclellan. then nearly 35 years old offered his services to Lincoln and was commissioner Major General ana sent into western virginia tO pdChy tNdl section In less than two months he had cleared the region of the Confederate forces and had brought law and order out of the chaos that greeted him at the be- was completed he was called to Wasn- ington by the President and placed in command of the armies of the United States. Then he began the hercuiean task training that magnificent army, which ui- timately conquered Lee. ended the re- bellion and saved the Union. Mcclellan had not been long employed in his new undertaking before he learned that political influences were at work which he must meet and which were not always well disposed toward him. Plots. intrigues conspiracies were rampant in Washington, many of which affected him and stood in the way of the successtul performance or ms migaty uhdSr.a isi,a an,d drove him into retirement. The most dan gerous foes this great general had to contend with or the ones most diincult to struggle against were not always the armed enemies in front From the day when he was placed in supreme command until the day when he was displaced by General Meade he was never altogether free from the trammels of politics. The situation was not. as he desired to con sder 1t, altogether military one. lie wished to crush the rebellion. Many m North were bound at the same time to destroy slavery. In order to accomplish this purpose the war must be allowed to continue long enough for public opinion to ripen and to make possible the abolf- tion of slavery as war measure. Further than this it was not considered good poi itics for Mcclellan to succeed too com pletely at that early stage in the contest for should he do so his inevitable popu- larity would make him too formidable candidate for the Presidency to suit the tastes of the ambitious intriguers in the rear of the battle lines. This was the way in which some of McClellan's admirers looked at the situation, and douDtless some of their contentious had basis In
 On the other hand the mass of the peo- ole of the North, irritated by the disaster Of Bull Run, were clamorlng for lmmeG1- mn tha hvsterical exhortation of the radical newspapers. which were about as good authority on military matters as they were on theology. It was very easy to cry "On to Richmond!' but there were several considerable obstacles to be over come before that consummatlon 50 ue- voutly wished could be attained. For one thing an army must be organized and the defense of Washington provided Ter When Mcclellan was called to the capital in July he found everything in state of chaos and detection. There were In the city between 10000 and 50,0O0 troops, most of whom had been enlisted Tor DrleI term of service that was aiready enoeo or nearly ended. These volunteers were un- trained demoraliZed by defeat and unac- customed to obedience; Drunkenness ana debauchery prevailed to an alarming e1- tent The city was fortified only sllgh and would have fallen an easy prey to a Out of this disordered condition the and strength Rigid discipline was en- forced; notifications were thrown up on all the approaches to the city; guns were mounted. In short time ne hau so tnor- ne IT. Itai that 1t could be defended With com paratively small force and never again was 1t in very serious danger during the progress of the war.
 His next task was to form an army for aggressive warfare. This was indeed a formidable undertaking. He really had 10 create an army. Raw men had 10 De dls- ciplined; regimental officers had to be in- structed; companies. regiments, brigades and divisions had to be organized and pro vided with proper otncers' ahiIuillIiosi ls mnskets artillery had either to be made at home or purchased abroad; wagons ambulances bridge trains tents ana otn CT camp equipage, hospital stores. uni forms and all the vast impenmenta nee essary for the furnishing of an army m the field had not only to be procured, put to be made And all this vast labor had the general in chief. Well might we have exclaimed in view of the task before him: "NYho is sufficient for these things"
 Put Mcclellan had marvellous genus |or orraniZation and he set himself to his work with an energy and intelligence only equaled by the magniture or the un- dertaking itself. And he succeeded in making out of the shapeless and untried material that came to his hand an army of as well trained and as thoroughly equipped men as had ever stepped to the tap of the drum on American soil. And ali this had been accomplished in the face of a storm of criticism and of urgent demands that the army march such as has rarely beat upon the head of any man. The generals in the rear were. of course far more competent to conduct a war than the professional soldier. To them it made no difference whether the