Life and Campaigns of George B. McClellan, Major General, U.S. Army E-Book

George Stillman Hillard

• Herausgeber: Charles River Editors
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 523

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

Life and Campaigns of George B. McClellan, Major General, U.S. Army is a thorough biography of the Union general.

Das E-Book Life and Campaigns of George B. McClellan, Major General, U.S. Army wird angeboten von Charles River Editors und wurde mit folgenden Begriffen kategorisiert:
hooker; free; biography; autobiography; mexican war; union; sherman

Leseprobe

Chapter 1:

Birth and parentage

— early education — West Point — enters the army — services in the Mexican War

The name of McClellan, common in many parts of the United States, is borne by the descendants of a Scotch family, the head of which was Lord Kirkcudbright. The last nobleman of this name died April 19, 1832, when the title became extinct. Three brothers of the name emigrated to America about the middle of the last century. One went to Maine, one to Pennsylvania, and one to Connecticut: from the last of these the subject of this memoir is descended.

George Brinton McClellan was born in Philadelphia, December 3, 1826. He was the third child and second son of Dr. George McClellan, a distinguished physician, a graduate of Yale College, and the founder of Jefferson College, who died in May, 1846. His mother, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Brinton, is still living. The eldest son, Dr. J. H. B. McClellan, is a physician in Philadelphia; and the youngest, Arthur, is a captain in the army, attached to the staff of General Wright.

The first school to which George was sent was kept by Mr. Sears Cook Walker, a graduate of Harvard College in 1825, and a man of distinguished scientific merit, who died in January, 1853. He remained four years under Mr. Walker’s charge, and from him was transferred to a German teacher, named Schipper, under whom he began the study of Greek and Latin. He next went to the preparatory school of the University of Pennsylvania, which was kept by Dr. Crawford, and in 1840 entered the University itself, where he remained two years. He was a good scholar, and held a high rank in his class, both at school and in college; but he was not a brilliant or precocious lad. His taste was for solid studies: he made steady but not very rapid progress in every thing he undertook, but he had not the qualities of mind that make the show-boy of a school.

In June, 1842, he entered the Military Academy at West Point, being then fifteen years and six months old. He went there in obedience to his general inclination for a military life. He had no particular fondness for mathematical studies, and was not aware that they formed so large a part of the course of instruction at the Academy. Having a modest estimate of his own powers and attainments, it was a source of surprise as well as pleasure to him to find, at the examination in January, 1843, that he was coming out one of the best scholars in the class.

The Academy was at that time under the charge of Colonel De Russey. Among his classmates were several persons who have served with distinction in the army of the United States, as well as some whose mistaken sense of duty led them at the breaking out of the civil war into the ranks of the Confederates. Among these latter was that remarkable man, Thomas Jonathan Jackson, better known by his far-renowned name of Stonewall Jackson, who in his brief military career seems to have combined all the dash and brilliancy of one of Prince Rupert’s Cavaliers, with the religious enthusiasm of one of Cromwell’s Ironsides.

Young McClellan was a little under the prescribed age when he entered the Academy; but his manly character and sound moral instincts were a sufficient protection against the dangers incident to all places of education away from the pupil’s own home, and from which the vigilant care and absolute power of the Government cannot entirely guard the young men committed to its charge at West Point. He showed at the start a more careful intellectual training than most of the youths admitted to the Academy. His conduct and bearing throughout his whole course were unexceptionable. His deportment then, as always, was singularly free from that self-assertion which is frequently seen, but not always pardoned, in men of superior powers. He showed perseverance, a strong will, and resolute habits of application. His acquisitions were not made without hard work, but, when made, they were securely held. At the close of  the course at West Point, he stood second in general rank in the largest class which had ever left the Academy. In Engineering and Geology he was first. The highest scholar in the class was Charles G. Stewart, now a major of engineers. He came out first because he was more uniformly strict in complying with the rules and regulations of the Academy, as well as more attentive to its regular studies.

McClellan was graduated in the summer of 1846, before he had completed his twentieth year. Few young men have ever left West Point better fitted by mental discipline and solid attainments for the profession of arms than he. He had also a precious gift of nature itself, in that sound health and robust constitution which are large elements of success in every department of life, but without which distinction in a military career is almost hopeless. He was of middle height, and his frame was well proportioned, with broad shoulders and deep chest. His muscular strength and activity were very great, and all manly exercises came easy to him. He was patient of heat and cold, capable of severe and long-continued application, and able to sustain fatigues and exposures under which most men would have broken down. Such he was at the age of twenty, and such he is now. Aided by strictly temperate habits, his body has always been the active and docile servant of his mind. In all the toils and exposures of his military life, in sickly climes and at sickly seasons, he has preserved uninterrupted good health. He  could to-day discharge with ease the duties of a common soldier in any arm of the service; and in the shock of encountering steel, few men would be more formidable, whether on horseback or on foot.

At the close of his student-life, a new impulse had been given to the military spirit of the country, and of the army especially, by the breaking out, a few weeks previously, of the Mexican War. The brilliant victories of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma (May 8 and 9, 1846), gained against immense odds, had shed new lustre upon American arms, and opened to the officers of the army the prospect of a more congenial and animating employment than the dreary monotony of a frontier post or a harbor fort. McClellan went at once into active service as brevet second lieutenant of engineers, and was assigned to duty as junior lieutenant of a company of sappers and miners1  then in the course of organization at West Point, under charge of Captain A. J. Swift. The first lieutenant was G. W. Smith, now a general in the service of the Confederate States. Captain Swift had studied the subject in Europe; and he instructed his lieutenants, and the latter drilled and exercised the men. The summer was spent in training the company, and in preparing their equipments and implements. It was a branch of service till that time unknown in our country, as since the peace of 1815 our army had had no practical taste of war, except in an occasional brush with the Indians, where the resources of scientific warfare were not called into play.

The duties in which Lieutenant McClellan now found himself engaged were very congenial to him, and he devoted himself to them with characteristic ardor and perseverance. In a letter written in the course of the summer to his brother, Dr. McClellan, with whom his relations have always been of the most affectionate and confidential nature, he says, “I am kept busy from eight in the morning till dinner-time. After dinner, I have to study sapping and mining until the afternoon drill, after which I go to parade. After tea, we (Captains Swift, Smith, and myself) generally have a consultation. Then I go to tattoo. The amount of it is that we have to organize by the 1st of September the first corps of engineer troops that have ever been in the country. The men are perfectly raw, so that we have to drill them; and we are now (to-day) commencing the practical operations to prepare us for the field. Smith and I have been in the woods nearly all the morning, with the men, cutting wood for fascines, gabions, &c. We have now fifty men, and fine men they are too. I am perfectly delighted with my duties.”

Lieutenant McClellan sailed with his company, seventy-one strong, from New York, early in September, 1846, for Brazos Santiago, and arrived there immediately after the battle of Monterey. They then moved to Camargo, where they remained for some time. Thence they were transferred to Matamoras in November, and from this point started on their march to Victoria, under the orders of General Patterson. Before leaving Matamoras, Captain Swift was taken ill, and the company was left under command of Lieutenant Smith.

At Victoria the company joined the forces under General Taylor, and were assigned to the division of regulars under command of General Twiggs, with whom, in January, 1847, they marched to Tampico. The distance from Matamoras to Tampico is about two hundred miles. The intervening country is unfavorable for the march of an army; and every thing necessary for the support of the troops had to be carried with them. The sappers and miners found frequent occasion for the exercise of their skill in making and repairing roads and bridges. They did excellent service, and were assisted  by men detailed from other corps, for that purpose, from time to time.

The company arrived at Tampico in the latter part of January, and remained there about a month, and then sailed for Vera Cruz. They landed, March 9, with the first troops which were disembarked, and immediately began to take an active part in all the operations of the siege. The officers and men did a large part of the reconnoitring necessary to determine the plan of the siege, the officers reporting immediately to Colonel Totten, the chief of engineers, and executing in detail the works subsequently prescribed by orders from Headquarters. The corps of engineers, including the company of sappers and miners, encountered great difficulties in drawing the lines of investment and in constructing batteries, arising from the nature of the ground, which was broken into innumerable hills of loose sand, with dense forests of chapparal between. In common with all the troops, they suffered from scarcity of water and the excessive heat of the weather. But nothing could exceed the zeal of the officers or the cheerful obedience of the men. Their valuable services were duly recognized by the able and accomplished chief of the department of the service to which they were attached, as appears by a letter addressed to the commander-in-chief, as follows:—

camp Washington, before Vera Cruz, March 28, 1847.

Sir:—Before leaving camp with the despatches in which you inform the President of the United States of  the brilliant success which has attended your attack upon this city and the Castle of San Juan d’ulloa, I seize a moment to solicit your attention to the merits and services of the officers of engineers who have been engaged in that attack.

If there be any thing in the position, form, and arrangement of the trenches and batteries, or in the manner of their execution, worthy of commendation, it is due to the ability, devotion, and unremitting zeal of these officers. By extraordinary and unsparing efforts, they were enabled, few as they were, to accomplish the work of many; and, so far as the success of your operations before this city depended on labors peculiar to their corps, no words of mine can overrate their services.

The officers thus engaged are Major John L. Smith, Captains R. E. Lee and John Sanders, First Lieutenants J. L. Mason, P. G. T. Beauregard, and I. I. Stevens, Second Lieutenants Z. B. Tower and G. W. Smith, Brevet Second Lieutenants G. B. McClellan and J. G. Foster.

The obligation lies upon me also to speak of the highly meritorious deportment and valuable services of the sappers and miners attached to the expedition. Strenuous as were their exertions, their number proved to be too few, in comparison with our need of such aid. Had their number been fourfold greater, there is no doubt the labors of the army would have been materially lessened and the result expedited.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

Jos. G. Totten, Colonel and Chief Engineers. Major-General W. Scott, Commanding the Army of the United States, Mexico,

The city of Vera Cruz and Castle of San Juan d’ulloa were surrendered to the American forces  on the 29th day of March, 1847, the articles of capitulation having been signed two days before. On the 8th of April, the army, with the exception of a regiment of infantry left behind to serve as a garrison, began its march into the interior, numbering in all about eight thousand five hundred men. They were soon made to feel that their path of progress was not without difficulties and dangers. At Cerro Gordo, sixty miles from Vera Cruz, a Mexican army, thirty-five thousand strong, under the command of General Santa Anna, was found posted in a mountain-pass, a position of great natural strength, fortified and defended by powerful batteries, bristling with cannon. But, in spite of superior numbers and of almost impregnable defences, the enemy’s position was assaulted and carried, and his forces utterly routed, on the 18th of April, by the American army, in one of the most brilliant battles on record, in which the skilful plans of the commander-in-chief were carried out and crowned with success by the zeal and energy of all the subordinate officers and the splendid courage of the men. The company of sappers and miners had reached the place on the day before the battle, and shared in the dangers and honors of the field. Lieutenant McClellan, with ten of his men, was with General Pillow’s brigade on the left, with directions to clear away the obstacles in front of the assaulting columns. This was a service of no common danger, as the heavy and well-served Mexican batteries in front swept the space before them with a most destructive  fire, under which Pillow’s command, mostly composed of volunteers, reeled and fell into confusion. General Pillow, in his official report to the commander-in-chief, says, “Lieutenants Tower and McClellan, of the Corps of Engineers, displayed great zeal and activity in the discharge of their duties in connection with my command.”

After the battle of Cerro Gordo, Lieutenant McClellan accompanied the advance corps under General Worth on the march to Puebla, passing through Jalapa and Perote, and arriving at Amozoque, a small town twelve miles from Puebla, on the 13th of May. Our officers did not dream of finding any portion of the enemy here, and the usual precautions adopted to guard against surprise were somewhat relaxed. On the morning of the 14th, the soldiers were busily occupied in cleaning their arms and accoutrements, in order that they might enter Puebla in good trim, when a drummer-boy, who had strayed in advance of the pickets, ran in and gave the alarm that the enemy was approaching in force. The staff-officers mounted and galloped to the front, and discovered the advance of a body of Mexican lancers from twenty-five hundred to three thousand in number. The long roll at once called the troops to arms, and the different regiments were quickly paraded. Lieutenant McClellan, who was in a house on the side of the town nearest the enemy, at once sprang upon his horse and rode out to observe them. After riding a few hundred yards, at the turn of a street he came upon a Mexican captain of cavalry  riding into the town to reconnoitre. Each was alone, and both were armed with sabres and pistols. The Mexican officer turned; but his opponent, being better mounted, pursued, overtook him, and compelled him to surrender. The two went back together, and, while on their way, the Mexican officer suddenly put spurs to his horse and attempted to draw his pistol; but Lieutenant McClellan caught him again, and gave him to understand that if he renewed the attempt to escape, he should be obliged to put a bullet through him. After this the two rode together quietly, and Lieutenant McClellan surrendered his prisoner to his commanding officer. The Mexican cavalry were checked by the well-served guns of our artillery, and retired without doing us any damage.

At Puebla a pause of several weeks was made in the progress of the army, in order that its numbers might be increased by reinforcements and that due preparations might be made for a march upon the city of Mexico. And here seems a fitting place to introduce that portion of the official annual report of Colonel Totten to the Secretary of War in which he speaks of the services of the company of sappers and miners and their officers, though it was not drawn up until a somewhat later period:—

The law adding the company of sappers, miners, and pontonniers (otherwise called engineer soldiers) to the Corps of Engineers, was passed on the 15th of May, 1846. On the 11th of October following, this company, seventy-two strong, landed at Brazos  Santiago; having in the interim been enlisted by great exertions on the part of several engineer officers, and been organized and drilled by Captain A. J. Swift and Lieutenants G. W. Smith and McClellan, of the Corps of Engineers. The captain being disabled by sickness at Matamoras, Lieutenant Smith led the company, as part of Major-General Patterson’s division, in the march from that place to Tampico,—a march in which the services of the company, constantly in advance and engaged in removing impediments and making the road practicable, were of great value. The company landed with the first line on the beach at Vera Cruz, being then again under the command of Captain Swift; who, in his desire to lead in its dangers and toils, strove nobly, but vainly, against an inexorable disease. A too ardent sun prostrated him at once, depriving the country of his services at a moment when his high and peculiar attainments would have been of the greatest value. During the siege of Vera Cruz, I was a witness to the great exertions and services of this company, animated by, and emulating, the zeal and devotion of its excellent officers, Lieutenants Smith, McClellan, and Foster. Since the surrender of that place, we have no official accounts giving the particular employments or engagements of the company. We know only that it has been on the march with General Scott’s army to the city of Mexico. I will venture to say, however, that the opportunities of that service have been profited of, by the sergeants and rank and file, as well as by the  commissioned officers, to display the highest qualities as soldiers, demonstrating, at the same time, the great advantage to armies, however engaged in the field, of possessing troops well grounded in the peculiar exercises of engineer soldiers.

On the 7th of August the American army, numbering not quite eleven thousand men, began their march from Puebla, starting upon an enterprise which would have been pronounced extremely rash had it not been crowned with success, but which, having been successful, ranks among the most daring and brilliant in the annals of war. A mere handful of men, volunteers and regulars, undertook to capture a city of nearly two hundred thousand inhabitants, strong in its natural defences, and protected by numerous works, constructed by able engineers, in conformity with the most approved rules of military science. Around it was distributed an army of thirty-five thousand men, composed of regular troops and volunteers, and comprising artillery, cavalry, and infantry. These were by no means despicable soldiers, and they often fought with a courage which extorted the respect of their enemies. Their artillery in particular was well served and effective, as our troops often learned to their cost. The weak points in the Mexican army were the want of courage and want of capacity in its officers, just as the weak point in the civil history of that unhappy country has been the want of rulers who were at once honest and able. Had the Mexican officers been men and soldiers like our own, history might have  had a different record to make upon the event of the Mexican War.

Lieutenant McClellan’s company of sappers and miners was attached to the second division of regulars, under command of General Twiggs, which formed the advance of the army. Soon after leaving Puebla, they were joined by General Scott, the commander-in-chief. Our troops entered the Valley of Mexico on the 10th, and General Scott fixed his Headquarters for the time at Ayotla, a village on the northeastern edge of the Lake of Chalco, about nine miles east of the fortified position of El Peñon, which was carefully reconnoitred on the 12th and its great strength fully discovered. On the next day, another reconnoissance was pushed upon the route by Mexicalcingo. This was pronounced by General Scott, the most daring reconnoissance of the whole war, as the small corps of observation was obliged to pass close by the strong position of El Peñon and to leave it for a considerable space in the rear. In both of these reconnoissances Lieutenant McClellan took part; and in one of them he was saved from probable death or captivity at the hands of about a dozen Mexican lancers by Lieutenant Beauregard and three dragoons.

When, in consequence of the great strength of the defences at El Peñon, the project of advancing upon Mexico by the great road from Puebla, and assaulting it upon the eastern side, was abandoned, and it was determined to march round the southern shore of Lake Chalco and attack the city on  the south and west, the company of sappers and miners was transferred to General Worth’s division, which now took the lead, and the company moved at its head to San Augustin, occasionally repairing the roads as far as was practicable. As soon as General Santa Anna learned this movement of the American forces, he withdrew the greater portion of his troops, with several pieces of artillery, from El Peñon and Mexicalcingo, where he had been expecting the first shock of battle, and, establishing his Headquarters at the hacienda (hamlet) of San Antonio, began to labor upon the lines of defence in that vicinity.

On the morning of the 18th, General Worth’s division was moved forward a couple of miles on the causeway leading from San Augustin to San Antonio, and took up its position in front of the latter place, the men encamping on both sides of the road. Here a careful reconnoissance was made of the defences of San Antonio, in which Lieutenant McClellan took part. His company was then transferred to General Twiggs’s division, and moved at its head, across the Pedregal, to Contreras. During the first day of the battle of Contreras (August 19), Lieutenant McClellan, while reconnoitring, ran into a Mexican regiment, and had his horse shot under him by a musket-ball. On the same day, while posting Magruder’s battery, he had another horse killed under him by a round shot. Still later, while in temporary command of a section of the same battery whose officer had been mortally wounded, he was knocked down  by a grape-shot which struck plump upon the hilt of his sword. “Stonewall” Jackson, who belonged to Magruder’s battery, relieved Lieutenant McClellan from command of the section, and the latter then took charge for some time of a battery of mountain-howitzers whose officer had been wounded, and, after a day of severe toil and great exposure, rejoined his company, which was at San Geronimo, a small village on the western edge of the Pedregal,2 a little north of Contreras.

At a very early hour the next morning (August 20) the intrenched camp of General Valencia at Padierna was stormed and carried at the point of the bayonet by the left wing of the American army, under the command of General P. F. Smith. This was the battle of Contreras, of which General Scott says, in his official report, “I doubt whether a more brilliant or decisive victory — taking into view ground, artificial defences, batteries, and the extreme disparity of numbers, without cavalry or artillery on our side — is to be found on record.” In this battle Lieutenant McClellan’s company of sappers and miners led General Smith’s brigade of regulars in its attack on the flank of the enemy, and is thus mentioned in the report already quoted from:—“In the mean time, Smith’s own brigade, under the temporary command of Major Dimmick, following the movements of Riley and Cadwallader, discovered opposite to and outside of the works a long line of Mexican cavalry, drawn up as a support. Dimmick, having at the head of the brigade the company of sappers and miners under Lieutenant Smith, engineer, who had conducted the march, was ordered by Brigadier-General Smith to form line faced to the enemy, and, in a charge against a flank, routed the cavalry.”

In the reports of the officers immediately commanding, honorable mention is made of Lieutenant McClellan and his corps. General Twiggs says, “Lieutenant G. B. McClellan, after Lieutenant Callender was wounded, took charge of and managed the howitzer battery (Lieutenant Reno being detached with the rockets) with judgment and success, until it became so disabled as to require shelter. For Lieutenant McClellan’s efficiency and gallantry in this affair, I present his name for the favorable consideration of the general-in-chief.” And again, “To Lieutenant G. W. Smith, of the engineers, who commanded the company of sappers and miners, I am under many obligations for his services on this and many other occasions. Whenever his legitimate duties with the pick and spade were performed, he always solicited permission to join in the advance of the storming-party with his muskets, in which position his gallantry, and that of his officers and men, was conspicuously displayed at Contreras as well as Cerro Gordo.”

General P. F. Smith, in his report, says, “Lieutenant G. W. Smith, in command of the engineer company, and Lieutenant McClellan, his subaltern, distinguished themselves throughout the whole of the three actions. Nothing seemed to them too bold to be undertaken, or too difficult to be executed; and their services as engineers were as valuable as those they rendered in battle at the head of their gallant men.”

General Smith, it will be noticed, speaks of “three actions” in which the officers of the company of sappers and miners distinguished themselves. These include the battle of Churubusco, which was fought on the same day (August 20) with the battle of Contreras, and in which the company took part, both in the preliminary reconnoissances and in the conflict itself.

After the battles of Contreras and Churubusco, hostilities were suspended by an armistice which lasted till September 7. On the 8th the severe and bloody battle of Molino del Rey was fought, at which Lieutenant McClellan was not present. On the 13th the Castle of Chapultepec was taken by assault, in which also he did not take part, but during the night of the 11th, and on the 12th, he built and armed, mostly in open daylight and under a heavy fire, one of the batteries whose well-directed and shattering fire contributed essentially to the success of the day.

Immediately after the fall of Chapultepec, and on the same day, the company of sappers and miners was ordered to the front, and took the lead  of General Worth’s division in one of the most difficult and dangerous movements of the assault upon the city of Mexico,—the attack of the San Cosme garita, or gate. Of the nature of the important services performed by the company and its officers at this point, and also after the capture of the city, a correct notion may be formed from the statement contained in the report of Major J. L. Smith, of the Engineer Corps:—

Lieutenant G. W. Smith, commanding the sappers, arrived on the ground some time after this, while our troops were in front of the battery at the garita,—the other batteries on the road up to that point having been carried. Being the senior engineer present, he was ordered to reconnoitre in front and ascertain the state of the enemy’s forces, and particularly whether it would be necessary to move our heavy artillery forward. lie reported his opinion that the advancing of the heavy pieces should be suspended, and that the sappers should advance under cover of the houses, by openings made in the walls of contiguous houses; and, this being approved, he proceeded, in the manner proposed, until he reached a three-story house about forty yards from the battery, and was enabled from the roof to open a fire upon the battery which drove away the enemy’s troops, who in their retreat succeeded in carrying away one of the guns. Part of his force then descended to the road to secure the battery, but was anticipated by a body of our troops, which entered on the right as the sappers were about entering on the loft. The sappers  were then moved forward until they reached strong positions on both sides of the rear, capable of affording shelter to our troops, although the enemy occupied in force a large convent, one hundred and fifty yards in advance, and had batteries on the next cross-street. These facts being reported, a brigade was sent to occupy the strong positions referred to, and at ten P. M. further operations were suspended for the night.

At three o’clock next morning, a party of the sappers moved to the large convent in advance, and found it unoccupied. Lieutenant McClellan advanced with a party into the Alameda, and reported at daylight that no enemy was to be seen. The sappers then moved forward, and had reached two squares beyond the Alameda, when they were recalled. The company during the day, until three P. M., were engaged in street-fighting, and particularly in breaking into houses with crowbars and axes. In this service they killed a number, and made prisoners of many suspicious persons.

Lieutenant McClellan had command of the company for a time in the afternoon, while Lieutenant Smith was searching for powder to be used in blowing up houses from which our troops had been hired upon, contrary to the usages of war. During this time, while advancing the company, he reached a strong position, but found himself opposed to a <*>arge force of the enemy. He had a conflict with <*>his force, which lasted some time; but the advantage afforded by his position enabled him at  length to drive it off, after having killed more than twenty of its number.

A few words may here be added, to explain a little more in detail the proceedings of the sappers and miners in making their way through the houses to which Major Smith refers. At the gate of the city a powerful and well-served battery swept the street with continued discharges of grape-shot, so that it was impossible to move down directly in front of it. The problem was to take the battery or to drive the Mexicans from their guns. The houses on both sides were built mostly in continuous blocks, with an occasional interval or vacant lot. The walls of the houses were of adobe, or light volcanic stone. The operation of breaking through them was thus conducted. A detachment of the sappers and miners, led by an officer, entered a house at the outer end of the street, with the proper tools and implements, and made a breach in the party or division wall large enough for a man to go through to the next house, and so on successively. Lieutenant McClellan led the party on one side of the street. It was a highly dangerous service, as. every house had Mexican soldiers in it, and there was continuous fighting until the Americans drove out the occupants. It was Lieutenant McClellan’s duty — or at least he considered it to be so — to pass first into the opening. In one instance, where it was necessary to cross a vacant space between two houses which did not join, he nearly lost his life by falling into a ditch of stagnant water. The party at length forced their way through the houses till they  reached those which overlooked the battery, and where they could fire upon the Mexicans who manned the guns. These having been shot or driven away, the Americans descended from the houses, took the guns, and turned them on the gate, which was forced, and the city entered.

On the 14th day of September, 1847, General Scott, with six thousand five hundred men, the whole of his effective army remaining in the field, entered and took possession of the city of Mexico. With the exception of a few slight skirmishes, this was the close of the war in that part of the country.

1 Sappers and miners form a part of the Corps of Engineers. They are employed in building and repairing permanent fortifications, in raising field redoubts and batteries, in making gabions and fascines, in digging trenches and excavating galleries of mines during sieges, and also in forming bridges of rafts, boats, and pontoons. Their duties require higher qualities, mental and physical, than those of the common soldier. A sapper and miner must have a strong frame, a correct eye, steady nerves, and a certain amount of education. It may be well to add, for the benefit of civilians, that gabions are baskets made of twigs, which are filled with earth and used as screens against an enemy’s fire; that fascines are bundles of twigs, fagots, and branches of trees which are used to fill up ditches, form parapets, &c.; and that pontoons are a kind of flat-bottomed boat carried along with an army for the purpose of making temporary bridges.

2 The Pedregal is a field of broken lava, about nine miles south of Mexico, nearly circular in form, and about two miles in diameter, entirely impracticable for cavalry or artillery except by a single mule-path, and only practicable for infantry at a few points.

Chapter 2:

Fort Delaware

— Captain Marcy’s expedition to the Upper Red River — Texas — Pacific Railroad survey — secret expedition to the West Indies

No minute and detailed account has been given of those military operations in Mexico in which Lieutenant McClellan was engaged,—which, indeed, could not have been done without swelling this part of the memoir to a disproportionate bulk. Our aim has been merely to present a continuous and intelligible narrative of what was done by him. The movements of the campaign, its sieges, assaults, and battles, were planned by others; and he can claim no higher merit — though this is not inconsiderable — than that of having faithfully executed the orders received from his superiors in rank. Nor has the moral element involved in the Mexican War — the question how far it was provoked or unprovoked, or how far we were right or wrong — been taken into consideration. Such an inquiry has now become as obsolete as would be a discussion of the moral judgment to be passed upon the conspirators who took the life of Julius Caesar. But no candid person, whatever he may think of the merits of the contest, can deny that the conduct of the war and its results reflected the highest honor upon the courage of the American army, both regulars and volunteers, as well as upon the skill and accomplishments of our officers. Not that there were not grave errors committed, both at Washington and in the field; not that the volunteers did not sometimes show the infirmities of raw troops; but these shadows in the picture were as nothing to its lights. The whole campaign was especially remarkable for the brilliant, dashing, and reckless courage displayed in it,—for that quality which the French call élan, which is so captivating to civilians, and for the want of which so much fault has been found with our officers and soldiers in the present civil war. But the tactics in the Mexican War were founded upon and regulated by an accurate knowledge of the enemy; and the distinguished and veteran soldier who led our armies in that campaign would never have taken the risks he did had the Mexican soldiers been like those in the Southern army, and the Mexican officers men like Lee, Johnston, Jackson, and Beauregard.

The public mind judges of military movements and of battles by the event: the plan that fails is a bad plan, and the successful general is the great  general. Without doubt, this is a correct judgment in the long run; but in particular cases the rule could not always be applied without injustice. Hannibal was defeated by Scipio at Zama, and Napoleon was defeated by the Duke of Wellington at Waterloo; but it does not follow that Scipio was a greater general than Hannibal, or the Duke of Wellington than Napoleon. Mexico was taken by a series of rapid and daring movements, and Richmond has not yet been taken; and thus the inference is drawn that, had the latter city been assailed in the same way as the former was, it too would have fallen, as Mexico did. But those who reason thus forget the sharp lesson we learned at Bull Run,—a disastrous battle forced upon the army by a popular sentiment which ignorantly clamored for the dash and rapidity which accomplished such brilliant results in the Valley of Mexico. Nelson won the battle of Aboukir by a very daring and dangerous plan of attack, which had the good fortune to be successful. Cooper, in his preface to the last edition of “The two Admirals,” says that had he attacked an American fleet in the same way he would have had occasion to repent the boldness of the experiment; but then Nelson, who, like all great commanders, was a man of correct observation and sound judgment, would probably not have tried such an experiment with an American fleet.

To Lieutenant McClellan his year of active service in Mexico was of great value in his professional training; for it was a period crowded with rich opportunities for putting into practice the knowledge  he had gained at West Point, and which was still fresh in his mind. The corps of engineers attached to the army was so small that much work was of necessity exacted from each officer, and higher responsibilities were devolved upon the younger men than would have been the case in any European army. Lieutenant McClellan had an unusually large experience both of field-work and in the investment of fortified places. And it is no more than just to him to add that he proved himself equal to every trust laid upon him. His knowledge of his profession was shown to be thorough, exact, and ready, and his coolness and self-possession on “the perilous edge of battle” was like that of the bronzed veteran of a hundred fights. The number of men in our country-indeed, in any country — competent to pass a correct judgment upon military measures and military men, is not large; but upon this select body Lieutenant McClellan had made his mark during the Mexican War, and he was recognized by them as a soldier upon whose courage, ability, and devotion his country might confidently repose in her hour of need.

Lieutenant McClellan remained with his company in the city of Mexico, in the discharge of garrison-duty, till May 28, 1848, when they were marched down to Vera Cruz and embarked for home, arriving at West Point on the 22d of June. After his return he was brevetted first lieutenant for conduct at Contreras, and afterwards captain for conduct at Molino del Rey, which latter honor he declined, as he had not been present in the battle. He was afterwards brevetted captain for conduct in the capture of Mexico, and his commission was dated back to that period.

Upon his return, his company was stationed at West Point, and he remained there with them till June, 1851, much of the time in command. His leisure hours were spent in studies connected with his profession. Among other things, he prepared an elaborate lecture upon the campaign of Napoleon in 1812, which was read before a literary society. Of this discourse he thus speaks in a letter to his sister-in-law :—“Well, it is over at last; and glad I am of it. I read the last part of my Napoleon paper last night. I have been working hard at it ever since my return, and the ink was hardly dry on the last part when it was read. The affair amounted to one hundred and eleven pages in all; and they compliment me by saying that it gave a clear explanation of the campaign: so I am contented. I hardly know, but I have an indefinite idea that we have had fine weather since I returned. I have some indistinct ideas of sunshine, and some of rain; but I have been so intently occupied with the one subject that I have thought of but little else. Now I must go to work with my company. I’ve enough to do to occupy half a dozen persons for a while; but I rather think I can get through it. I have had no time to read any of Schiller; but now I will go at it. I have some thought of writing a paper on the Thirty Years War for our club.”

His familiar letters breathe a strong desire for a more stirring and active life than that he was now  leading, the monotony of which was the more keenly felt from its contrast with the brilliant excitements of the Mexican campaign. In one of his letters he tells his correspondent that his highest pleasure is to fall in with some comrade of the war, and talk over its hardships, perils, and successes and revive their impressions of the glorious scenery of Mexico. And yet he was never idle. Here is a specimen of his habits of work, taken from a letter to his brother, Dr. McClellan, dated January 10, 1849:—“On Christmas day, orders were received here from the Chief Engineer, requiring plans and estimates for several buildings to be furnished him for the Military Committee of the House, by to-day at latest. Among those required was a barrack for our company; and I had to make all the drawings: the barrack had to be planned and drawn in the short time allotted; and from two weeks from to-day until last Saturday night at twelve o’clock, I drew every day, morning, afternoon, and night, working Sundays, New-Year’s day, and all. I had to make eight different drawings on the same large sheet, fifty-two inches by thirty-two, all drawn accurately to a scale, all the details, &c. painted: so, you may imagine, I had my hands full.”

In the winter of 1849-50, he prepared for tho use of the army a Manual of Bayonet Exercise, mostly taken from the French of Gomard. This was submitted by General Scott, the commander-in-chief, to the Secretary of War, in which he strongly recommended its being printed for distribution to the army, and that it should be made, by regulation, a part of the system of instruction. The recommendation was adopted by the War Department, and the manual was officially printed. It forms a small duodecimo volume of about a hundred pages, with a number of plates in outline.

In June, 1851, Captain McClellan was ordered to Fort Delaware, as assistant to Major John Sanders in the construction of the works there. Here he remained till near the close of the ensuing winter.

Early in March, 1852, Captain Randolph B. Marcy, of the Fifth Infantry, was .directed by the War Department to make an exploration of the country embraced within the basin of the Upper Red River; and Captain McClellan was assigned to duty with the expedition. The other officers accompanying it were Lieutenant Updegraff and Dr. Shumard. Captain J. H. Strain, of Fort Washita, and Mr. J. R. Suydam, were also with it, but not in any official capacity. The private soldiers were fifty-five in number. There were also five Indians, serving as guides and hunters. Up to this time the region round the head-waters of the led River had been unexplored by civilized man; and the only information we had as to the sources of one of the largest rivers in the United States was derived from Indians and semi-civilized Indian hunters.

The expedition started from Fort Belknap, upon the Brazos River, on the 2d of May, and marched to Red River at the mouth of the Little Witchita, and up the right bank of the latter stream to the mouth of the Big Witchita, where they crossed Red River. Proceeding westward, between Red River  and a branch of Cache Creek, they struck the north fork of Red River at the west end of the Witchita Mountains, and followed that stream to its source in the Llano Estacado, or Staked Plain. Here an excursion was made to the valley of the Canadian River, at Sand Creek, in order to verify the position of the party by the survey which had been made along that stream by Captain Marcy in 1849. They then travelled south to the Kech-ah-que-ho, or main Red River, and, leaving their train at the place where the river comes out from the bluff of the Llano Estacado, ascended it to the spring which forms its source. From this they returned down the left bank of the river to the Witchita Mountains, which were examined, and thence they proceeded to Fort Arbuckle, on the Washita River, in the Indian Territory, arriving there July 28. Here the expedition terminated.

Captain Marcy brought back his command without the loss of a man. In his Report he says, “I feel a sincere regret at parting with the company, as the uniform good conduct of the men during the entire march of about a thousand miles merits my most sincere and heart-felt approbation. I have seldom had occasion even to reprimand one of them. All have performed the arduous duties assigned them with the utmost alacrity and good will; and when (as was sometimes the case) we were obliged to make long marches, and drink the most disgusting water for several days together, instead of murmuring and making complaints, they were cheerful and in good spirits. I owe them, as well as the  officers and gentlemen who were with me, my most hearty thanks for their cordial co-operation with me in all the duties assigned to the expedition. It is probably in a great measure owing to this harmonious action on the part of all persons attached to the expedition that it has resulted so fortunately.” Of Captain McClellan the introduction to the Report speaks thus:—“The astronomical observations were made by Captain George B. McClellan, of the Engineer Corps, who, in addition to the duties properly pertaining to his department, performed those of quartermaster and commissary to the command. An interesting collection of reptiles and other specimens, in alcohol, was also made under his superintendence, and put into the hands of Professors Baird and Girard, of the Smithsonian Institution, whose reports will be found in the appendix. For these and many other important services, as well as for his prompt and efficient co-operation in whatever was necessary for the successful accomplishment of the design of the expedition, I take this opportunity of tendering my warmest acknowledgments.”

The party were: received with peculiar warmth of welcome by the, garrison at Fort Arbuckle; for they were supposed to have been, all massacred by the Comanche Indians. The account was brought by a Keechi Indian, and was so circumstantial and minute in every particular, and showed so perfect a knowledge of the movements of the expedition, as well as of its numbers and equipment, that it was believed to be true. The report was carried to the  United States; and for several weeks the relatives of Captain McClellan mourned him as dead.

Captain Marcy’s Report was published by order of Congress, and is one of those books which many receive, but few read. And yet it is well worth reading; for it has that fresh and spontaneous charm of style which we so often observe in the writings of superior men who are not men of letters by training and profession, and who tell us in a plain way of what they have seen and done. Besides a graphic and animated description of the country traversed by the expedition, it contains an excellent account of the Indian tribes that roam over it,—not that impossible creature, “the noble savage” of the poet, the sentimental red man of the novelist, nor yet the degraded outcast that withers in the shadow cast by the white man and grafts upon his own wild stock all the vices of civilization; but the Indian as he really exists,—a mingled web of virtues and vices, and certainly holding no low place upon the scale of savage and nomadic life.

And the remark which has just been made as to Captain Marcy’s Report may be further extended; and it may be said that comparatively few persons know any thing of what may be called the civil victories of the American army. How few there are who are aware of how much has been done for science, and especially for geographical science, during the last thirty or forty years, by the able and accomplished officers of the regular army!—what toils and hardships they have endured, what perils they have met, and what laurels, unstained  by blood and tears, they have won! One might feel indignant at the injustice which deals out what is called fame with so unequal a hand, were it not for the reflection that men who are competent to add to the intellectual wealth of the world, and enlarge the domain of knowledge, have learned to take popular applause at its true value, and to find in the faithful discharge of honorable duty a satisfaction which is its own reward.

After his duties upon Captain Marcy’s expedition had ceased, Captain McClellan was ordered to Texas as chief engineer on the staff of General P. F. Smith. lie sailed from New Orleans, accompanying General Smith, August 29, and arrived at Galveston on the 31st. In a letter to his brother, dated September 3, he says, “Galveston is probably the prettiest and most pleasant town in Texas. It is built on a perfectly level island, which forms a portion of the harbor, and near the point. The houses are all of frame, with piazzas, and very pretty and neat: all are surrounded with shrubbery. They have there the most beautiful oleanders I ever saw: they, with many other flowers, the banana, china-tree, orange, lemon, palm, &c. &c., present, you may imagine, a charming relief to the monotony of the level site. There is almost always a fine breeze and an elegant surf. The roads were excellent when we were there, on account of the frequent rains, which pack them down.”

From Galveston he accompanied General Smith in a tour of military inspection, visiting Indianola, St. Joseph’s, and Corpus Christi. Of this last place he writes, “Corpus is about two miles from the head of Corpus Christi Bay, which is separated from Nueces Bay by a reef of sand. The shore makes a beautiful curve, near one end of which the town is built. The old camp of General Taylor was on the beach where the town stands, and extended some mile and a half or two miles above it. The positions of the tents are still marked by the banks of sand thrown up to protect them against the Northers. It is a classical spot with the army, there are so many old associations, traditions, and souvenirs of many who are now no more. The country round Corpus is very beautiful. Below, towards the bay (gulf, rather), it is a rather flat country, alternately prairie and chapparal, the prairies interspersed with ‘motts’1 of live-oak and mesquite2 covered withal by a luxuriant growth of grass. The chapparal is the prettiest growth of that nature I remember to have seen. It is, of course, tropical,—that is, composed of the cactus and the stiff thorn-covered bushes peculiar to the Southern latitudes; but the ground even now is covered with a great variety of beautiful flowers, and the whole makes up a very pretty country.”

From Corpus Christi they proceeded to Fort Merrill, thence to San Antonio, and from there to Camp Johnston, on the Concho River, where they arrived October 24.

Here Captain McClellan found orders relieving him from duty on General Smith’s staff, and assigning him the charge of the surveys for the improvement of the harbors on the coast of Texas from Indianola to Rio Grande, embracing Brazos Santiago, Corpus. Christi, Lavacca, and the San Antonio River. This change of employment, trans. herring him from the land to the sea, was not exactly to his wish; but he set about his new duties with his usual promptness and energy. We find him at Corpus Christi in January, 1853, diligently at work upon estimates and reports; and on the 13th of that month he addressed to the Chief Engineer, General Totten, a letter giving a general description of the bars on the coast. For the rest of the winter and far into the spring he was hard at work. Here is a taste of his experiences, taken from a letter dated Corpus Christi, March 9, 1853:—“I left here on the 22d of February, one of the most beautiful mornings I ever saw, bright, clear, and mild, with a nice breeze just in the right direction. I congratulated myself on the fine start I made, and felt in fine spirits. Things went on finely for an hour or so. Then the breeze became so strong that I had to double-reef all my sails, and on we went, still handsomely. But presently the breeze changed into the most violent gale of the winter. The sea ran in young mountains. Down we brought the mainsail; and if ever a boat did run under a foresail, I rather think mine did that day. How it did blow! The spray dashed in your face like hail. The boat is a magnificent  sailer, and a splendid sea-boat: so we still kept on beautifully, though it was slightly humid. Just as we were about to anchor, before reaching the mud-flats, we lost the way; for the spray flew so that we could not see, and the first thing we knew we were driven about four hundred yards up on one of the aforesaid flats, and rather halted. Nothing could be done: so we turned in as best we could, and waited for morning. When morning came, there was not an inch of water within three hundred yards,—could not even float the skiff. A sand island some six hundred yards off was the nearest dry place, and in walking to it you would sink over the knee in mud. In that delightful place my boat remained about ten days. After the first three, I went on board the Government steamer at Aranzas, some four miles off, and went to work at the bar in her whale-boat. When I got through, I found there was no use in waiting for the water to rise: so I took the steamer’s crew and dug a canal, through which, after two days hard work, we floated the Alice into deep water. I then at once ran down, by the outside passage, the Gulf, to Corpus Christi Pass, satisfied myself very quickly of its utter worthlessness, and came here, with flying colors, yesterday. I have finished this harbor and its two passes: by the end of the month I shall have completed the Brazos survey, and will then run up towards Indianola, finishing the inland channel and the San Antonio and Guadalupe Rivers by the end of April, if I have any thing like ordinary good luck. In May I shall finish Paso Cavallo Harbor, and hope to finish the field-work by the end of that month at furthest. Then I shall sell out my boats, and go to Galveston and make out my reports and maps.”

On the 18th of April, Captain McClellan addressed to General Totten a report of the result of the surveys on the coast of Texas, as far as they had then been completed. It embraces the bars along the coast from Paso Cavallo to the mouth of the Rio Grande, the harbors of Brazos Santiago, Corpus Christi, Aranzas, and Paso Cavallo, and the inland channel from Matagorda Bay to Aranzas Bay. It is printed in the Executive Documents of the first session of the Thirty-Third Congress,—a brief and business-like document, containing plans and suggestions for improving the harbors designated, with estimates of the probable expenses.

But before the date of his Report he had received information of his having been assigned to a more congenial field of duty; for in a letter to his brother, dated Indianola, April 7, 1853, he tells him that he has been offered the charge of a portion of one of the Pacific Railroad surveys recently authorized by Congress, to start from Puget Sound and to go through the Cascade Mountains to St. Paul on the Mississippi, and adds, “As the results of the surveys are to be presented to Congress during the ensuing February, the time will be limited; and I can never have a better opportunity of seeing California and Oregon: so I did not hesitate a moment in determining to accept  the position. I am told that ‘the exploration is arduous, and will bring reputation.’ Hard work and reputation will carry me a long way.”

The expedition to which he was attached was under the general supervision of Governor Isaac I. Stevens, of Washington Territory, formerly of the army, who, to the great loss of his country, met a glorious death in the battle near Chantilly, Fairfax county, Virginia, September 1, 1862. It was charged with the duty of examining the lines of the forty-seventh and forty-ninth parallels of north latitude; and the special object of the exploration was the determination of a railroad-route from the head-waters of the Mississippi to Puget Sound. One party, under the immediate direction of Governor Stevens, was to proceed from the Mississippi westward, survey the intermediate country, and examine the passes of the Rocky Mountains. Captain McClellan, at the head of a separate party, was to explore the Cascade Range of mountains.

Immediately on receiving official news of his ap. pointment, he set out for the Pacific coast, via the Isthmus, arrived at Fort Vancouver on the 27th of June, began to make preparations for the expedition, and started on the 24th of July. His party consisted of Lieutenant Duncan, Third Artillery, astronomer, topographer, and draughtsman; Lieutenant Hodges, Fourth Infantry, quartermaster and commissary; Lieutenant Mowry, Third Artillery, meteorologist; Mr. George Gibbs, ethnologist and geologist; Mr. J. F. Minter, assistant engineer, in charge of courses and distances; five assistants in  observations, carrying instruments, &c.; two sergeants, two corporals, and twenty-four privates of the Fourth Infantry. Two chief packers, three hunters and herders, and twenty packers, completed the party. There were one hundred and seventy-three animals with the command,—seventy-three for the saddle, one hundred for packing.