On this day in 1862,

Lincoln Fires McClellan

Lincoln and McClellan at Antietam in 1862

On this day in 1862, President Lincoln removed George McClellan as general-in-chief of the Union Army.  

McClellan and Lincoln did not get along.  One time Lincoln walked from The White House to McClellan’s home to talk to him about war strategy.  When Lincoln arrived, he was told the general was out a social event.  Lincoln waited in McClellan’s parlor.  And waited.  When McClellan arrived home, he walked past Lincoln and went straight to bed.  

Lincoln was critical of McClellan’s unwillingness to fight.  McClellan thought Lincoln was a bit of a know-nothing meddler.  McClellan claimed in part he did not have enough men to win a decisive victory without unreasonable casualties.  The two bickered back and forth, with McClellan generally refusing to engage the Confederate Army.  

Lincoln went through six generals-in-chief, hoping each time for a more aggressive fighter.  He finally got what he wanted in Ulysses S. Grant.  

In 1864 McClellan ran for president against Lincoln as a Democrat opposed to the abolition of slavery.  The Democrat Party platform called for an immediate end to the war.  

By the end of the war, both sides had lost about 620,000 soldiers (even more wounded) – the equivalent of about 6,000,000 people today.