- cross-posted to:
- noncredibledefense@piefed.social
- cross-posted to:
- noncredibledefense@piefed.social
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I will never see a picture of him and not think:
“Hey, I didn’t lose, I just failed to win”
More importantly: “Hey, I didn’t fail to win, I didn’t lose!” His number one mission was to protect DC. The US at the time didn’t have experience with armies of that size, and the kill rate of firearms and artillery had increased dramatically over the past century. I sometimes wonder if he doesn’t get a bad rap.
Explanation: George McClellan was an early commander of the Union’s forces during the US Civil War. Before the war, he was well-regarded, as he excelled academically and had graduated at the top of his class at West Point. “The Young Napoleon”, some called him.
When given command of the Union’s forces against the pro-slavery rebel Confederacy, however, he proved unequal to the task. He had a nasty tendency to overplan and underdeliver, and consistently, grotesquely overestimated the capabilities and numbers of the rebels he faced, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory on several occasions, and blaming his civilian superiors all the while.
Lincoln dismissed him after a time, and cycled through several equally disappointing commanders before stumbling onto General Meade, who made an honest effort at whipping the slaving secesh scum. Meade would gracefully step aside in favor of General Grant after Grant’s successes in the Western theatre of the war, and Grant would successfully prosecute the war to its end.
