George B. McClellan

George B. McClellan was a Union general who organised the Army of the Potomac into a large and effective field army during the American Civil War. He was a skilled administrator but repeatedly overestimated Confederate strength and clashed with President Abraham Lincoln over the pace and purpose of military operations.

McClellan led the unsuccessful Peninsula Campaign in 1862 and commanded Union forces at Antietam before Lincoln removed him from command. In 1864 he became the Democratic presidential nominee and ran against Lincoln on a platform shaped by war weariness and party divisions.

Hourly History’s Battle of Antietam follows Robert E. Lee’s first invasion of the North, George B. McClellan’s response and the combat around the Cornfield, Sunken Road and Burnside Bridge. In Bernard Cornwell’s Copperhead, the fighting at Ball’s Bluff and the Union advance up the Virginia Peninsula place Richmond under threat, while Starbuck’s Northern birth makes every setback an excuse for suspicion. Accused of serving as a Union spy, Starbuck must identify the real source of the intelligence passing through Confederate lines. His investigation is entangled with divided families, political influence and rival officers as George B. McClellan approaches Richmond and Joseph E. Johnston gives way to Robert E. Lee. George B. McClellan is treated fictionally in Stephen W. Sears’ George B. Mcclellan, Jeff Shaara’s The Unfinished Work, John Jakes’ Love and War, John Jakes’ North and South, and John Jakes’ On Secret Service.