Saphroneth
Lt. Colonel
- Joined
- Feb 18, 2017
Yes, he did. To be precise, he asked permission to replace his corps commanders (who'd all disappointed him) and was denied permission to do this or to dissolve the corps structure, but he was granted permission to "modify" it. He then placed the two men who he considered to be his best division commanders (Porter and Franklin) in charge of the two new provisional corps - note provisional, they were not full corps until Lincoln had formally confirmed them.Didn't McClellan request that he be able to create two new Corps V and VI while on the Peninsula?
Didn't he get to name the two Corps commanders Porter and Franklin, who were his "supporters"?
While one may say that's rewarding his supporters, it can equally be stated that of course McClellan would prefer to rely on the advice of the men he considered to be his most capable division commanders. He'd actually wanted them as two of his permanent CCs before the President made a choice of his own.
I'm not aware of McClellan having either motive or trying to do either thing.It seems that McClellan had no use for the I Corps after 2nd Bull Run, feeling they were a mixed bag of troops with a poor track record. They were slow on the march and he almost left them behind as the Army moved towards South Mountain. Did McClellan want Hooker to command this Corps because Hooker, regarding his reputation, would whip the command into shape or by placing him there might Hooker be somewhat out of the picture?
McClellan moved 1st and 9th Corps (Burnside's wing) out to the northern flank to come in on the National Road, but this is part of the army's attempted manoeuvres to come in as a single unit; frankly McClellan needed all the men he could get, and when he marched out of Washington (before he was joined by Morell or French's divisions) he was basically on par for numbers with Lee's marching army at that point.* It's hard to see any version of McClellan trying to leave a corps behind (and indeed 1st Corps got road priority over Sumner's wing on the move through Frederick).
As for whipping the command into shape, it's possible but if that corps needed it it was hardly alone... I think it's just that McClellan did not have many possible choices of who commanded where, and 1st Corps needed someone to command it while Hooker was available to command a corps. The only other realistic commander for 1st Corps would be Reno (overriding his desire to stay with 9th Corps) and if you do that then now you need someone to command 9th Corps!
* based on regiment count, pre-straggle PFD, eyewitness reports and any other type of information McClellan could have known at the time; indeed, based on every source except later claims of weakness by senior generals