George B. McClellan was at that time thirty-four years of age, having been born in Philadelphia, December 3, 1826. The son of a distinguished physician, he received a civil education in the University of Pennsylvania and a military one at West Point, where he graduated in 1846 and was made a second lieutenant of engineers. His services were quickly called for on the field of battle, for the war with Mexico was going on and General Taylor was leading his men to victory.

In 1847 he was in Scott's army in its advance from Vera Cruz to the City of Mexico and served gallantly in the battles fought by it, winning promotion to the rank of captain for his services in the battles around the Mexican capital.

Some years later, while the Crimean War was going on in Europe, the United States sent a military commission to the seat of war, to study the organization of European armies. McClellan was on the commission, and on his return in 1856 made a valuable report on what he had seen and learned. The next year he resigned from the army for engineering work of a different kind, being appointed chief engineer of the Illinois Central Railroad.

Such was the work on which McClellan was engaged when the tocsin of war again sounded and armies began to gather, not for battle in foreign lands, but to fight one another upon our own soil. He was then president of a section of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad, but at once joined the Army of the North as major-general of Ohio volunteers and was quickly at work in Western Virginia, where in July he won victories at Rich Mountain and Cheat River, saving that region from the Confederacy, to become soon a new State of the Union.

In the midst of his victories he was called to a broader field of duty, that of commanding the beaten and fugitive Army of the Potomac. The labor of drilling and organizing the new recruits went on slowly, until the authorities at Washington grew so impatient that in January, 1862, President Lincoln ordered a general advance of all armies, to begin on the 22d of February. Secretary of War Stanton was especially eager and was constantly urging a forward movement. The general's slowness exasperated him. His opinion of him was thus expressed on a later occasion: Give McClellan a million men and he will swear the enemy has two million, and will sit down in the mud and yell for three million."

McClellan was no longer commander-in-chief, but only in command of the Army of the Potomac, when on the 10th of March he began the movement ordered, transporting his army down the Potomac and Chesapeake Bay to the peninsula between the York and James Rivers. Here he spent about a month besieging Yorktown, which was evacuated as soon as a movement on it in force was made. There followed a brief fight at Williamsburg, and soon afterwards the Chickahominy, the stream which flows north of Richmond, was reached and crossed by part of the army, rains swelling it so that the remainder could not cross. General Johnston, then in command of the Confederate forces, took advantage of this separation of the Union forces, and made a sharp attack at Fair Oaks on the 31st of May. A severe battle ensued, but reinforcements saved the day for the Union army and Johnston was repulsed, after receiving a disabling wound. General Robert E. Lee was appointed to replace him.

For several weeks afterwards the army lay inactive in the swamps of the Chickahominy, losing more men by sickness than might have been lost in a battle. McClellan continued to demand more men, and especially asked for McDowell's forces, which covered Washington. As the authorities feared to expose the capital, these were not given him. On the 26th of June the new Confederate commander forced the fighting, making a sharp and sudden attack on the troops at Mechanicsburg and driving them back on the remainder of the army. Thus began the memorable seven days' battle. Lee had adroitly withdrawn Stonewall Jackson's division from the Shenandoah Valley and with its aid made a series of furious attacks, rolling the Union army back until it took a stand on the strong position of Malvern Hill, where it made a gallant defence, defeating Lee with heavy loss.

Many of the officers thought that now was the time to advance, claiming that, by taking advantage of the confusion and disorganization in the Confederate ranks, Richmond could easily be captured. General McClellan did not share in this view. He held that the men were in no condition for an offensive movement, that he must gain a place of safety, and the only use he made of the victory was to continue his retreat to Harrison's Landing on the James River, where the army was intrenched. The campaign against Richmond was for the time abandoned.

McClellan in bitter terms charged the administration with his defeat. He wrote to Secretary Stanton: “If I save the army now, I tell you plainly that I owe no thanks to you nor to any other persons in Washington. You have done your best to sacrifice this army."

It soon became evident that the administration did not agree with him, and that he had lost its confidence. No new reinforcements were sent him, but a strong army was gathered in front of Washington, under command of General Pope, who had been doing some good work in the West, and was thought to have the aggressive qualities that were wanted. Lee was alert. He saw that the Union forces were divided and took advantage of McClellan's inaction to launch Jackson, with a strong force, upon Pope's army. In quick alarm the officials at Washington sent peremptory orders to McClellan to move his forces in all haste to Washington.

A retrograde movement at once began; but as soon as the alert Lee saw what was being done, he marched in haste to Jackson's support. His great lieutenant had already been victorious over Pope and the aid of Lee enabled the Confederates to deal the Western general a crushing blow. It might have been more disastrous still but for the fact that McClellan's advance had already reached Washington and was in position to cover the retreat. General Lee, seeing that Washington was secure against capture, and also that Richmond was for the time safe from attack, now made a new and threatening movement, invading Maryland, with the hope of gaining recruits in that semi-southern State.

In this dilemma the Government turned again to McClellan, as the one general to be trusted in an emergency. He was placed in command of Pope's army in addition to his own and ordered to check the invasion. The soldiers were filled with joy when they heard that "Little Mac," their favorite, was again in command. New hope filled their hearts and they followed their old

commander with confidence as he led the way to Maryland in rapid pursuit of Lee.

The first encounter of the hostile forces took place on the 14th of September, at a pass in South Mountain. McClellan was victorious and continued his hasty pursuit of Lee, who, seeing his foe so sharply on his track, was making a rapid movement of concentration at Antietam, on the western Potomac. Here the two armies came into contact on the 16th and one of the bloodiest battles of the war was fought, continuing for two days. This has often been called a drawn battle, but Lee's retreat across the Potomac stamps it as a victory for McClellan, though, as he maintained, his men were in no condition to pursue.

The army had lost more than 11,000 men in the battle. The soldiers needed supplies of all kinds, mostly clothing. Their shoes were in such a condition that they were quite unfit for marching. Supplies were urgently demanded, but the shoes and clothing, so badly needed, did not come. It is said that, through some mistake, they were given to the troops around Washington and not sent where most needed. That such an error could take place under such circumstances seems incredible, but worse blunders than this are not unknown in war.

There were those at the time, bitter critics of McClellan, who said that Lee's army was more ragged and barefooted than his, and that if they could retreat, he could follow. However that be, he did not, and it is to be presumed that McClellan knew better the state of his army than the paper generals at home. It is now known that he had no authority to make an offensive movement into Virginia. He himself declared that he fought the battle of Antietam " with a rope around