Why did Lee say that McClellan was the best Union general?

shermans_march

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I don't understand this one. McClellan was a excellent organizer, but in battle he was too cautious and was unwilling to engage his whole force. The only battles that Lee and McClellan fought against each other was in the Peninsula Campaign, which was a Confederate victory and the Battle of Antietam, which was a tactically inconclusive, but a strategic Union victory because Lee's army left the field first. Sherman and Grant were far much successful in battle then McClellan and weren't removed from position, due to near incompetence and timidness to pursue the enemy. To come to think of it, McClellan might have been the best general for Lee and the Confederacy because his actions might have allowed the Confederacy to win the war, if he was kept as General in Chief any longer. Finally, was there any bitterness to Grant that might have made Lee give praise to a person like McClellan instead?
 
A couple issues. When exactly did McClellan have the Confederacy on the brink of extinction? Didn't Meade beat Lee? That meat grinder you say Grant fed his men into - in six weeks, Grant maneuvered and bottled Lee's army up in Petersburg trenches never again to be an offensive threat capable of hurting the Union.
I think he is referring to when McClellan was at the gates of Richmond. The Confederacy might have been at the brink of extinction, but it was McClellan, so no.
 
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I agree with Ryan that it's a debatable point, and while I'm inclined to believe that Lee said something similar to that, IIRC it was more along the lines that McClellan was the toughest general he faced, not the the best general the Union had. If he did indeed say that, I think it has a lot to do with Lee's offensive mindset. McClellan parried Lee's blows, and Lee appreciated his ability to do that, even though McClellan always ultimately pulled back. Grant, on the other hand, got manhandled on a couple of occasions by putting himself in positions that McClellan wouldn't have, and perhaps to Lee's thinking didn't have enough sense to pull back when Lee thought he should have. It's also worth noting that McClellan defeated Lee in West Virginia, which might have had something to do with it as well.

I don't think it could be said that he was even the toughest he faced. Grant kept pursuing Lee after battles ended inconclusively, yet McClellan let Lee leave the field and retreat back into Virginia. Not exactly tough.

Edit: Didn't McClellan also have the Special Orders 191. Maybe that is why McClellan was able to parry Lee's blows, at least initially, and was more confident than he usually was in battle.
 
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To be fair, we don't know that Lee said that. It's something that someone said that he said. And that someone made it public after Lee died. Not the best of sources.

Ryan
I'll take this answer. It would make sense if someone else said it about him. Things get distorted this way. All the sources I looked at made it appear that he said it himself, but those could be inaccurate.
 
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I don't think it could be said that he was even the toughest he faced. Grant kept pursuing Lee after battles ended inconclusively, yet McClellan let Lee leave the field and retreat back into Virginia. Not exactly tough.

I agree completely. I myself disagree with Lee's statement, but am just trying to understand it. Like you, I originally questioned its authenticity. But I did some research into it years ago, and although everything Ryan said about it in post #2 is true, I still found it credible. Unfortunately I can't find the original quote in its original context now in the limited time I have available these days.

Edit: Didn't McClellan also have the Special Orders 191. Maybe that is why McClellan was able to parry Lee's blows, at least initially, and was more confident than he usually was in battle.

I was thinking more along the lines of Malvern Hill. McClellan didn't leave Lee any opportunities to exploit. Of course a lot of that was a result of his defensive mindset. A general who boldly takes the offensive is by nature going to have to give his adversary some opportunities, like Lee did himself. But I don't think Lee was thinking along those lines when he made the statement.
 
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McClellan did run for President on the Democratic "let em go" platform. It's possible he or someone close to him was attempting a sort of image repair after the war by saying Lee thought he was his toughest opponent, but I'm just spit balling.
 
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Eureka, I found it!

"It is greatly to be regretted that an accurate and full account of this visit was not preserved, for the conversations during those two or three days were most interesting and would have filled a volume. It was the review of a lifetime by two old men. It is believed that General Lee never talked after the war with as little reserve as on this occasion. Only my father and two of his boys were present. I can remember his telling my father of meeting Mr. Leary, their old teacher at the Alexandria Academy, during his late visit to the South, which recalled many incidents of their school life. They talked of the war, and he told of the delay of Jackson in getting on McClellan's flank, causing the fight at Mechanicsville, which fight he said was unexpected, but was necessary to prevent McClellan from entering Richmond, from the front of which most of the troops had been moved. He thought that if Jackson had been at Gettysburg he would have gained a victory, 'for' said he, 'Jackson would have held the heights which Ewell took on the first day.' He said that Ewell was a fine officer, but would never take the responsibility of exceeding his orders, and having been ordered to Gettysburg, he would not go farther and hold the heights beyond the town. I asked him which of the Federal generals he considered the greatest, and he answered most emphatically 'McClellan by all odds.' He was asked why he did not come to Washington after second Manassas.

'Because,' he replied, 'my men had nothing to eat,' and pointing to Fort Wade, in the rear of our home, he said, 'I could not tell my men to take that fort when they had had nothing to eat for three days. I went to Maryland to feed my army.'

This led to a statement of the mismanagement of the Confederate Commissary Department, of which he gave numerous instances, and mentioned his embarrassments in consequence. He was also very severe in his criticism of the newspapers, and said that patriotism did not seem to influence them in the least, that movements of the army were published which frustrated their plans, and, as an instance, he told of Longstreet's being sent to the Western Army and the efforts that were made to keep the movement secret, but to no purpose, the papers having heralded it at once to friend and foe alike. I also remember his saying that he advocated putting the negroes in the army, and the arguments he advanced in favour of it. My father remarked at table one day that he could not have starved in the Confederate service if he could have gotten bread and milk.

'No,' replied the General, 'but frequently I could not get even that.'

His love of children was most marked, and he never failed to show them patient consideration. On the occasion of this visit, his answers to all our boyish questions were given with as much detail and as readily as if we had been the most important men in the community. Several years before the war I remember that my sister, brother, and myself, all young children, drove over to Arlington Mills, and that while going there Colonel Lee rode up on a beautiful black horse. He impressed my childish fancy then as the handsomest and finest horseman I had ever seen--the beau-ideal of a soldier. Upon seeing us he at once stopped, spoke to each of us, and took my sister, then about ten years of age, upon his horse before him, and rode with us for two miles, telling her, I remember, of his boy Robby, who had a pony, and who should be her sweetheart. Often have I seen him on the road or street or elsewhere, and though I was 'only a boy,' he always stopped and had something pleasant to say to me."


- Cazenove Lee

Source: http://www.historyofwar.org/sources/acw/lee_letters/chapter23d.html
Cazenove Lee was a cousin of R. E. Lee, born in 1850, so he would have been in his late teens at the time this took place.
 
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Was Lee noted for sarcasm? By the way ,no one has given Pinkerton credit for giving Mc. such perfect intelligence on Confederate troops .He was the best intelligent officer who the Confederate army had.

Oddly, until June 1862 Pinkerton's numbers are uncannily accurate. Most criticism of pre-June '62 estimates is made by making wrong comparisons - typically Johnston's force at Manassas against the estimate for the whole Virginia theatre.

By 26th June '62 Pinkerton was overcounting by 36 regiments*, and estimating 150,000 aggregate present (125,000 PFD vs 96,000 PFD actual) at Richmond. Now this is an overestimate, but the methodology is sound given how close it gets if you deduct the 36 erroneous regiments.

In addition the estimates of Jackson's force coming down from the Valley were 30,000 aggregate present (relatively accurate), based on the reports from that region. There was a rumour that Beauregard had brought 20,000 troops from Corinth to Richmond, which McClellan was inclined to disbelieve, but stated he must guard against that possibility.


* The 36 regiments are:

Va - 36th, 43rd, 45th, 51st, 59th, 61st, 65th
Ga - 25th, 33rd, 37th, 40th, 41st, 43rd, 46th, 47th, 51st, 52nd, 55th, 56th, 58th, 59th
NC - 29th, 32nd, 39th
Tn - 26th
La - 3rd, 4th, 13th
Ala - 18th, 19th, 21st
SC - 11th, 19th
Ark - 1st, 2nd
Tx - 2nd
 
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He was also very severe in his criticism of the newspapers, and said that patriotism did not seem to influence them in the least, that movements of the army were published which frustrated their plans, and, as an instance, he told of Longstreet's being sent to the Western Army and the efforts that were made to keep the movement secret, but to no purpose, the papers having heralded it at once to friend and foe alike.

This of course lacks the more colorful and descriptive language, but it reminds me of the complaints that someone else had about the behavior of the newspapers.:smile:
 
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I don't understand this one. McClellan was a excellent organizer, but in battle he was too cautious and was unwilling to engage his whole force. The only battles that Lee and McClellan fought against each other was in the Peninsula Campaign, which was a Confederate victory and the Battle of Antietam, which was a tactically inconclusive, but a strategic Union victory because Lee's army left the field first. Sherman and Grant were far much successful in battle then McClellan and weren't removed from position, due to near incompetence and timidness to pursue the enemy. To come to think of it, McClellan might have been the best general for Lee and the Confederacy because his actions might have allowed the Confederacy to win the war, if he was kept as General in Chief any longer. Finally, was there any bitterness to Grant that might have made Lee give praise to a person like McClellan instead?
Ha! Probably for the same reason Grant said the general he'd feared most was... Joe Johnston!
 
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If Cazenova Lee Is to be believed, then. to me, his most important detail, is that that Lee's reason for invading Maryland, in 1862, was the same for his invasion of Pa., in 1863.
 
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If I recall correctly Lee replied to the question "Which Union general did you most fear?" And his response was, "None of them. But McClellan was the only one I thought I could never destroy" . Now this was some time ago and I have no idea now where I read it but I copied the quote into my notes that I used in teaching and that was many, many years ago. I no longer have those notes and probably would not have written down the source considering what I was using it for. One other source for a quote on this topic may be the Ethan Rafuse work, " McClellan's War: the failure of Moderation in the Struggle for the Union" Indiana Press, 2005 page 384
 
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A couple issues. When exactly did McClellan have the Confederacy on the brink of extinction? Didn't Meade beat Lee? That meat grinder you say Grant fed his men into - in six weeks, Grant maneuvered and bottled Lee's army up in Petersburg trenches never again to be an offensive threat capable of hurting the Union.
That's true if you ignore Early's Valley campaign that sent Washington into a panic.
 
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If I recall correctly Lee replied to the question "Which Union general did you most fear?" And his response was, "None of them. But McClellan was the only one I thought I could never destroy" . Now this was some time ago and I have no idea now where I read it but I copied the quote into my notes that I used in teaching and that was many, many tears ago. I no longer have those notes and probably would not have written down the source considering what I was using it for. One other source for a quote on this topic may be the Ethan Rafuse work, " McClellan's War: the failure of Moderation in the Struggle for the Union" Indians Press, 2005 page 384

That's a post Lee death quote that showed up. it's questionable.
 
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