“I didn’t lose, i merely failed to win.”
by PretendAd1963
“I didn’t lose, i merely failed to win.”
by PretendAd1963
11 Comments
Context: Major General George B. McClellan was a general in the US Civil War (1861-1865) where he was known for his over-cautiousness and indecisiveness which resulted in major defeat for the Union especially in the Peninsula Campaign. He was later dismissed by President Lincoln after the tactically inconclusive Battle Of Antietam where he failed to pursue General Lee Army of Northern Virginia where McClellan had a chance to. He later tried to run for president against Lincoln in the 1864 presidential election where he lost in a landslide. In the end, McClellan did not lose, but merely failed to win.
bro wanted to be the Young Napoleon and proceeded to ignore everything that made Napoleon a military legend
I think a real example of how no matter how we all think we might act no one knows for sure when the pressure is on them.
In ‘Battle Cry for Freedom’ by James McPherson, McClellan is sort of depicted almost as entering into some sort of mental block or collapse.
You get similar accounts in other wars of generals having breakdowns despite being in the military their whole lives and being highly regarded.
As Shakespeare says
‘Heavy lies the head that wears the crown’
McClellan on Lee: “I prefer Lee to Johnston…the former is too cautious & weak under grave responsibility – personally brave & energetic to a fault, he yet is wanting in moral firmness when pressed by heavy responsibility & is likely to be timid & irresolute in action”
Bro was juuuuuuuuuuuuuuust a wee bit off on his assessment….
To be fair. Modern conventional wisdom is you should always outnumber the force you are attacking by 3 or 4 to 1 depending on which doctrine we’re talking about.
“LiNcOLn sOo StoOPid!”
This is a bit of pop-history exaggeration.
Mac rarely did outnumber his opponents 2:1, and at the beginning of the Seven Days Battles, before which he made this comment, he was the only Army of Potomac commander who was outnumbered.
Calls for more troops were not rare for a CW generals, and McClellan shifted from unjustified demands to justified requests.
That should’ve been charged with the logistics planning, not operation planning and execution
He was a born quartermaster at heart; couldn’t bear to spend all the troops and supplies he so carefully amassed.
If you were a soldier, would you prefer McClellan tactics or meat grinder tactics? If I was a soldier, I would vastly prefer McClellan. Who cares if he was taking his time, it was saving lives.
What people often forget when discussing ACW generals is that a lot of them were promoted/Put in positions way past theire ability/experience. Because of the rapid Grothw of the two armys a army of about 18.000 men grew into an Army in the hundreds of thousands and all the officers were split between north and south. As a result a lot of people had to do Jobs they couldnt do/werent realy qualified for.
I dont know If that applied to the General discussed here ,but that was the Main reason for the wars length and casualties.