[11th_VA]

The thing about McClelland though, his troops loved him. Grant had no regard life and used troops like a meat grinder. McClelland valued his soldier's lives more than Grant. Maybe not a good character trait in this war, but his soldiers respected him more than Grant.

This was all passed on to me by one of McClelland's descendants, that still live in the D.C. Area.

[5th MEB]

Of course his descendants would tell you that, and they might even be right, I don’t know, I wasn’t there.
But what Lincoln needed to win that war was a cold blooded, calculating killer.
A man who was not afraid to use his superior numbers to end that war with an uncontested victory; that man was Ulysses S. Grant.
Lincoln once said when the politicians and a lot of the public wanted Grant’s head, “I can’t spare this man, he fights”.
Between Grant and Sherman, as Sherman said “We will make them howl”.

[Pollster1]

Grant had no regard life and used troops like a meat grinder.

I see Grant differently. He correctly saw life in camp as dangerous to his troops. As I understand his view, it was that getting the battles over quickly would cost fewer lives than more months and years in camp. There is an element of truth in that, whether or not his men appreciated his aggressiveness.