Voice from the Past: “The Best Man and the Best General”


“I am very glad to learn that my order changed Gen. Scott’s feelings entirely, and that he now says I am the best man and the best general that ever existed.”


– George Brinton McClellan to his wife, Mary Ellen Marcy McClellan in November 1861 –

Source: McClellan, George Brinton. “Letter from George Brinton McClellan to Mary Ellen Marcy McClellan, November 7, 1861,” in McClellan’s Own Story: The War for the Union (New York: C.L. Webster, 1887).

Image Credit: Harpers’ Weekly, September 17, 1864

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