Once it was started, there was a very high probability the North would win it if the will to win it was retained, and Lincoln very much had the will to win it. As I've said, he was far more willing to tolerate the loss of life than was George III.
Think you are correct. McClellan was a soft war man. Use just enough war to get the Confederates to the conference table. McClellan supported that view as the Democrat Presidential candidate in 1864. He was also one of the few officers that had seen what the killing power modern infantry weapons could do. he had been an observer in the Crimean war.
“he was far more willing to tolerate the loss of life than was George III.”
He was also smarter than King George III in that he believed one war at a time was enough.