Civil War Letter on General McLellan

“General McClellan Has Failed to Satisfy People... That He is Greater Than Napoleon, Or That He Will Ever Rival Alexander”

1861 UNION. A superb letter about McClellan’s refusal to undertake offensive action, and discussing too, how the vast majority of Brigadier Generals opposed Lincoln. Choice Extremely Fine.

Autograph Letter Signed, in the hand of Pension Office Commissioner Joseph H. Barnett, 3 pages, 6.5” x 8”, Pension Office, Washington, December 24, 1861; with autograph envelope. To George K. Bartholomew in Cincinnati. In part: “It will be no news to you, perhaps, that Gen. McClellan has failed to satisfy people here, in general, that he is greater than Napoleon, or that he will ever rival Alexander, He has crossed the Rubicon, however, once - on a scow - and I fear he has overstepped the limits of popular forbearance forever. There is no great propriety in moving straight against the Manassas fortifications, and since the blockade of the Potomac, any ‘flanking movement’ seems impossible, until that blockade is raised. To do nothing, after the fashion of the last few months, at least 100,000 men less are needed here. That number might very advantageously be released to go elsewhere. But our young General is not inclined to allow any diminution of his grand army. He desperately opposed the Port Royal expedition - ridiculed it to the last - and succeeded in delaying it nearly two months beyond the time originally set for its departure. At the same time that Col. Mulligan was begging reinforcements, McClellan was actually importuning the Administration for 25,000 from the West. They compromised by actually consenting to his taking 5,000, as you remember - an order countermanded, after the accident to a portion of that force on the railroad. Aside from incapacity in the new general-in-chief, I think you may find some clue to the existing state of things in the political antecedents of our generals, as stated in the Senate yesterday, viz.: of 100 Brigadier Generals, 80 are opponents of the present Administration - yet appointed by it - and ‘all the officers having separate commands, with one exception, were opponents of the Administration.’ Too much of this, however - a subject on which popular feeling, everywhere, is intense...”

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