“Simply because he was never supported by the Administration as he should have been; troops were withheld from him, when he called loudly for them.”
There is no doubt the troops loved “Old Mac,” but that doesn’t change the fact he was without a doubt one of the worst commanding generals who ever commanded an army. He was very good at organizing an army and getting it in shape to march, but when faced with the enemy he had, as Lincoln so aptly put it, “the slows.”
I don’t think you could find but a handful of Civil War historians who would ever argue that McClellan was at best a poor commander, at worst a commander who defied orders to promote his own ambitions.
One of the things that made the soldiers love Grant was that after the Wilderness Campaign they discovered themselves marching south instead of north. No more retreating after a battle to lick wounds and within a year the war was won.
In the end, McClellan’s true colors showed when he ran on a platform of negotiating with the South and was soundly defeated.
Yes, he was an arrogant and disrespectful commanding officer. Lincoln tolerated him far too long in my estimation. I’ve often wondered if Scott McClellan was related to Little Mac. If so, stabbing their boss in the back must be in the genes.