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George Brinton McClellan (December 3, 1826October 29, 1885) was a major general for the Union during the American Civil War and the Democratic presidential nominee in 1864, who later served as Governor of New Jersey. He organized the famous Army of the Potomac and served briefly (November 1861 to March 1862) as the general-in-chief of the Union Army. Early in the war, McClellan played an important role in raising a well-trained and organized army for the Union. Although McClellan was meticulous in his planning and preparations, these very characteristics hampered his ability to challenge aggressive opponents in a fast-moving battlefield environment. He chronically overestimated the strength of enemy units and was reluctant to apply principles of mass, frequently leaving large portions of his army unengaged at decisive points. McClellan organized and led the Union's Peninsula Campaign (also known as the Peninsular Campaign) in southeastern Virginia from March through July 1862. It was the first large-scale offensive in the Eastern Theater. Making an amphibious clockwise turning movement around the Confederate States Army in northern Virginia, McClellan's forces turned west to move up the Virginia Peninsula, with the Confederate capital, Richmond, as their objective. McClellan was initially successful against the equally cautious General Joseph E. Johnston, but the emergence of the aggressive General Robert E. Lee turned the subsequent Seven Days Battles into a humiliating Union defeat. General McClellan failed to maintain the trust of President Abraham Lincoln, was insubordinate to his commander-in-chief and privately derisive of him. After he was relieved of command, McClellan went on to become the unsuccessful Democratic Party nominee opposed to Lincoln in the 1864 presidential election. The effectiveness of his campaign was damaged when he repudiated his party's anti-war platform, which promised to end the war and negotiate with the Confederacy. He served as the 24th Governor of New Jersey from 1878 to 1881. He eventually became a writer, defending his conduct of the Peninsula Campaign and in other Civil War engagements. Most modern authorities have assessed McClellan as a poor battlefield general. A few historians view him as a highly capable commander whose reputation suffered unfairly at the hands of pro-Lincoln partisans who made him a scapegoat for the Union's military setbacks. After the war, Ulysses S. Grant was asked for his opinion of McClellan as a general. He replied, "McClellan is to me one of the mysteries of the war."〔Rafuse, p. 384〕 ==Early life and career== McClellan was born in Philadelphia, the son of a prominent surgeon, Dr. George McClellan , the founder of Jefferson Medical College. His father's family was of Ulster Scots heritage.〔(Partial Genealogy of the McClellans ), CLP Research〕 His mother was Elizabeth Sophia Steinmetz Brinton McClellan (1800–1889), daughter of a leading Pennsylvania family, a woman noted for her "considerable grace and refinement".〔Rowland, ''Leaders'', p. 259.〕 The couple ultimately had five children: a daughter, Frederica; then three sons, John, George, and Arthur; and finally a second daughter, Mary. McClellan was the great-grandson of Revolutionary War general Samuel McClellan of Woodstock, Connecticut. He first attended the University of Pennsylvania in 1840 at age 13, resigning himself to the study of law. After two years, he changed his goal to military service. With the assistance of his father's letter to President John Tyler, young George was accepted at the United States Military Academy in 1842, the academy having waived its normal minimum age of 16.〔Sears, ''Young Napoleon'', p. 3; Rafuse, pp. 10, 27–28.〕 At West Point, he was an energetic and ambitious cadet, deeply interested in the teachings of Dennis Hart Mahan and the theoretical strategic principles of Antoine-Henri Jomini. His closest friends were aristocratic Southerners such as James Stuart, Dabney Maury, Cadmus Wilcox, and A. P. Hill. These associations gave McClellan what he considered to be an appreciation of the Southern mind and an understanding of the political and military implications of the sectional differences in the United States that led to the Civil War.〔Rowland, ''Leaders'', p. 260; Rafuse, pp. 36. McClellan's friend James Stuart was a South Carolinian killed skirmishing with Indians in 1851.〕 He graduated in 1846, second in his class of 59 cadets, losing the top position (to Charles Seaforth Stewart) only because of poor drawing skills.〔Rowland, ''Leaders'', p. 260.〕 He was commissioned a brevet second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.〔Eicher, p. 371.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「George B. McClellan」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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